They'd been friends since that fateful day first year of college when they'd both shown up at the same dorm and found out they were to be roommates at least until the end of that first year. Steve - as he preferred to introduce himself - had gone most of high school with few enough friends, but college was a different beast. It was nice to have a friend, especially one who was just as happy to keep him a roommate subsequent years in college. For a guy that didn't have a lot of friends coming out of senior year - having dove pretty hard into his classes to place well his junior and senior years - that friend was pretty much a life preserver when he let school swallow him up from every other friend he made at college.

Spending the next few years as roommates after college acted as much the same life preserver. He'd moved away from his own family - only seeing them when he could afford time off to make the trip. Considering how much Ethan had done for him, with or without knowing it, he wanted to help as much as he could when Ethan's life was thrown on its head. All his offers just felt empty compared to the weight he knew was weighing on his friend. He didn't know how to make arrangements for funerals or any of that. The best he could do was offer his condolences, give his friend a shoulder when he wanted it, and at least try to make things easier. He had been saving for a trip to see his own family at the time, but he'd offered to cover the full costs of their apartment while Ethan got his family's affairs in order. Not much, but it was something he knew he could do. 

That left a long month of pulling as much over time as he could to help make the whole transition smooth. They already were renting a three bedroom - it helped them set up a room as an office for them both to use to work from home without crowding their rooms with desks and computers. That wasn't going to be the case anymore. But Steve hadn't even really given it much thought until last weekend when he and Ethan talked about him helping get the place ready for Olivia to move in. It was weird to think that after seven years of it just being him and Ethan sharing a place with their various friends coming and going there'd be someone else there. But he'd made sure to get that third bedroom cleared of their stuff, and properly hook up their computer set ups in their own rooms. Once that last computer was running, it was like some kind of clock started ticking.

When he got home that afternoon, he hadn't even noticed Ethan piling up boxes to carry in. There'd been a brown out on the company's grid the night before and he'd gotten called in early to try to trouble shoot and get them operational before work hours. He and the other two poor souls that received the same call weren't lucky enough to get everything going, and it left pretty much everyone in the building complaining about having issues with everything from computers to phones. All day had been spent getting everything up and running with everyone prioritized from company need. 

Needless to say, his mind was fried and he was looking forward to just going in his room to crash. Steve scrubbed his face with one hand while the other held his work bag over his shoulder. Completing that scrub, he slid the hand back through his short - well it wasn't short now was it? he needed a hair cut like two months ago from how long it had gotten - brown hair to finish with scrubbing the shorter hair on the back of his head. 

His olive green eyes opened to fix on a familiar looking girl sitting on the stairs. Stopping, he blinked. His brain was working a bit slow since it took him another blink before he realized what the teen looked familiar. "Oh, hey, Olivia. I completely forgot you were moving in today. Awesome." He offered her a friendly smile as he dropped his hands to his sides. "Did you have move to unload? I could help finish bringing stuff in," he offered. Yeah, he was tired. That wasn't going to stop him from helping his best friend move his orphaned sister into the apartment.