Don't Let Me Drown (Oli Sykes Fan Fic) COMPLETE

NEW YORK

I'm Joy; a 20 year old, living in New York in a one bedroom apartment with two friends. I'm originally from Australia but moved to New York two years ago after an offer from a modelling agency here in the land of opportunities. The move was a huge life adjustment for me, but it was also the opportunity of a lifetime, plus I hated my life in Australia anyway. I lived with my Aunt who was a bit of a hippy and didn't really want me around, though she was the one who got me into modelling at the age of 16, so she wasn't all bad. When I was 17 years old, I was selected by a well-known Australian designer to walk at Australian Fashion Week and following that, my agency suggested I relocate to their branch in New York. Not only was it an incredible offer career wise but I felt like it could be a fresh start for me; a new chapter, and a way to forget about everything in Australia, so I took it.

My two friends were signed on at the New York agency that I was now with too. Behati; or Be as I called her was 22, originally from California and my new best friend, while Hannah was 20 and originally from Canada. We all had big dreams of "making it" and travelling the world like our idols and I constantly dreamed of walking in New York Fashion Week. The first year I was there, that dream came true and I got to walk for some smaller brands, but the following year I wasn't in a good mental place, so I didn't even put myself forward for auditions. Trying to become a somebody and make a living as a model wasn't easy and it definitely wasn't as glamorous as the world would have you believe.

In May of 2013, Hannah, Be and I decided to go and try our luck in London. We were tired of New York and needed a change. It had been two years and while we could find work, it was mediocre – mostly catalogues or one-off projects. None of us could find that "big break" that we dreamed about. We talked about France, London, Milan... though the easiest thing would have been to head to Los Angeles as our modelling agency already had an office there. The thing was, we all wanted an adventure; new scenery, new adventures, new people, a more laid back social scene, and in a way, a chance to get away from the pressure and pain of New York City. I had been through a difficult break up not long before last year's Fashion Week and it tainted the city for me in a way. The guy had told me all the right things and had treated me like a princess – at first, and after 8 months, I really did think that we would be together forever. I thought he was my soulmate. About 6 months into the relationship, not long after I'd moved in, he told me his job was getting crazy and he was always busy with work, but it turns out that he liked his co-worker more than he liked me. I walked in on them in his office and when I found out he was basically living a double life, it destroyed me. He never even apologised or tried to convince me to stay and that crushed me, so I was happy to get out of New York and away from the bad memories.

Behati had moved around her whole life but had never been out of the United States so she was up for an adventure, and Hannah, well, we loved her but she was kind of crazy; wildly spontaneous and would have followed us even if we said we were moving to the moon.

London seemed like the obvious choice for a few reasons; It was still an easy, direct flight back to New York for a start, the weather was similar and language and money weren't going to be a huge issue since the exchange rate was similar. We started researching places to live and agencies to visit, and once we had letters of support from our New York modelling agency, we applied for work visas.

Once everything was in place we booked our flights, packed up our lives and we landed in the United Kingdom 3 weeks later. We rented a terrible studio apartment that was barely big enough for the 3 of us, about 25 minutes North of London in a place called 'Hendon'. Even though we definitely weren't living a lavish lifestyle, we cracked a bottle of wine on our first night in our new home. We were so excited to see what London would bring.