Joshua Bassett Is Down Bad for Olivia Rodrigo
His weekly single drops are positively pining for her.
CelebritiesMisc. Goss

Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett shocked the world on the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series red carpet this past summer by giggling together after the most dramatic breakup in Gen Z history. The monumental reconciliation was enough for many to put the Olivia-Josh-Sabrina love triangle (no, I will not explain this to you) to bed. I, however, suspected that the teenybopper never-actually-confirmed relationship and breakup that inspired the heart-wrenching, record-breaking ballad “drivers license” (and the entirety of Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR) wouldn’t wrap up so cleanly.
And now, it would appear (according to my close readings) that the 21-year-old Bassett is all but begging for Rodrigo back. Suspicions among fans with laser focused analyses have been percolating for weeks since Bassett first dropped “would you love me now?” (hello!! title!!) on Oct. 6, and after yesterday’s release of “Different,” I have to break my silence and join the chorus of hopefuls. Over the past few weeks, Bassett has also released two other singles titled “SHE SAID HE SAID SHE SAID” and “i’m sorry.” Barring that all-caps song (which I think hints a bit at his lingering spite about how things went down), Bassett is on his musical hands and knees and crawling back as fast as his guitar strings can carry him.
Allow me to walk you through some of the most revealing lines of these songs. On “would you love me now?” he asks: “If I showed up at your doorstep / Would you turn me away? / Would you care to see a stranger whose eyes are still the same? […] And I’ve still got the Converse that I wore the day we met / I’m running out of reasons to do it all again.”