"Yes! That thing." She grinned back at him. "Solar panels are so cool. We'd be screwed if we didn't have them ourselves." Olivia was fully behind Erik's self-assuredness when he weas in his element like this, seeing as how she was pretty sure he was a genius. How could she not be? She understood what it was like to find something to focus on and turn it into your life's work. Watching him work on his headphones, solving the problem in what seemed like seconds, was more impressive to her than she would have wanted to admit out loud. "Dude, that is so awesome. Thank you so much."
She followed his gesture, getting up and making her way over to the vending machines as he instructed. "You want anything while I'm over here?" she called back across the garage. She scanned the items and selected a juice pack and a bag of chips for herself. The drinks machine felt cool to the touch, too. Olivia wasn't sure if it was the metal or some sort of cooling mechanism that Erik had managed to get working -- and she wouldn't have put it past him if he had -- but she leaned against it nonetheless.
"Thank you," she said again, wishing she'd only had to say it about her headphones, nothing more. "I know it's probably for the best. And it's not that I want to die. It's just, you know." She waved her hand around at his garage. "It'd be like if you got cut off from all of this and every once in a while you were allowed to tinker on like, one thing." Running was the only thing she could contribute. Her days felt meaningless without it.
"Technically," she added, returning his glance and allowing the subject change to lift her spirits and bring her thoughts away from Andrea. "It wasn't sneaking out. They know I'm out." She ate a potato chip. "Loop holes, you see."