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

DROP DEAD

I'd been with John for two weeks and while we were only together physically for four days, he was counting down the days until he came back to London and I was too. He'd been talking about me going and staying with him while he was in town too, even though I didn't know how long that was going to be. I didn't want to get too excited about the future, and the possibilities of everything that could happen between us, but I really did start to like him. He kept referring to me as 'his girl' and it was as if the distance had made me like him more. He sang to me through the phone one night and he sent me photos of things he was doing during the day sometimes too. He seemed too good to be true, but I was alarmingly smitten. John was completely breaking down my walls and that made me happy.

As Monday rolled around, I got ready to head off to an audition for an alternative clothing brand. My agency said I probably wasn't what they were looking for but to go anyway, so I did. When I arrived at the audition, I felt really out of place. Most of the models waiting in the foyer for their names to be called had tattoos, piercings, shaved heads, coloured hair... not what I usually saw at casting calls. The agency did say that I probably wouldn't be the right fit, but I felt entirely like the odd one out. For lack of better words, I felt too 'normal'. Nobody said anything to me and I got a few strange looks, but I found a couple of other other girls who looked kind of plain like me, so I just took a seat and waited. I needed any work I could get.

As I sat there waiting, I felt as though a lot of the girls who exited the room after their audition were acting strange. Most seemed excited and giddy but a couple actually came out of the room fanning themselves. I was totally perplexed. Maybe there was a half-naked male model in there to see what we do under pressure? Puppies? Maybe they'd been told they'd been selected already? Who knew. When my name was called, I felt nervous because I was so different to everyone else, but I just told myself "be yourself". Who knew what would go on in there, and who knows what they're looking for. I had nothing to lose so I pulled open the door and I walked into the audition room.

The room was small, but there was a camera set up on a tripod in front of a table of 3 people. It was almost like a small-budget version of 'American Idol' or something! The first person was a woman in a simple black dress with lots of tattoos on her arms. She had a severe fringe sitting just above a pair of bright red retro glasses and bright red lipstick to match. She was clearly the person running the interview with a pile of portfolios in front of her. Next to her was a guy in his  early 20's wearing a plain black shirt with the brands logo, who immediately said 'Hello' as I entered the room, and finally next to him, another guy slumped back in his chair, staring at his phone in a flannelette shirt and beanie who's body language truly indicated that he didn't want to be there. "Hello." I said in reply to the second guy as I approached the table and handed my portfolio to the woman. As the third guy glanced up, my eyes widened as they met his and we both froze.

For a second, I think we just stared at each other in complete dismay, until I cracked a smile. It was Oli – Oli from Reading festival. He sat up in his chair, put his phone face down on the table and flashed me a small smile. I was a little taken back. "Hi, my name is Joy." I said, introducing myself as I stepped back from the table. It was an audition after all. "What a nice name!" The second guy responded. I smiled and thanked him. The woman abruptly asked me if I had heard of 'Drop Dead'; the brand I was auditioning for. I actually did know of the brand – I had a couple of pieces, but I didn't know much about it. I certainly didn't know who owned it or that Oli was associated with it. Oli seemed interested in what I was saying, though I tried not to look at him too much during the whole process. I answered a couple of questions and struck some poses as the woman took some test shots of me in the clothing. I noticed Oli whispering to his friend a lot and I felt his eyes burning into me, even though I tried to ignore it. To be completely honest, I felt a little awkward modelling in front of him, but I pushed it aside and did my thing.
"Thank you for coming, I'll be in touch." the woman said slightly robotically at the end of the audition. I said Thank you and looked at Oli, shooting him a tiny smile as I left. I didn't feel like it was the place for me to say anything to him and I guess he didn't either, but I felt his eyes follow me to the door. After Reading, I had obviously thought about Oli and what had happened, but I just kind of archived it in my mind as a really cool thing that happened. I had never tried to figure out who he was or what band he was from or get in contact with him or anything. As I left the room, I suddenly realised why girls were leaving the room the way they were, and here I was now walking out with a stupid smile across my face too. If Oli was a famous musician, obviously girls would fall over themselves being in front of him and besides, he was cute in a weird sort of way.

As I sat on the tube heading back home, I gave into curiosity. I googled Drop Dead and Oli and found out that he was the front man of the band 'Bring Me The Horizon'. I felt kind of stupid for not realising considering how insanely famous and popular they were. Funnily enough, I knew some of their music and I actually heard them play at Reading festival, though we weren't in view of the stage since Hannah had me stuck at the bar. I quickly worked out that the clothing brand I'd just auditioned for was started by Oli and the guy next to him was his brother; Tom. I chuckled to myself and felt embarrassed that I'd not known any of this before. I stalked his Instagram account for a while and laughed at the hideous selfies he'd posted, wondering why on earth anyone would want them out in the public realm. I guess it was also cool that he obviously didn't give a shit though. He had photos of his dogs too, the band, live photos and even a few from Reading festival. I figured he wouldn't notice if I followed him, so I did.

When my phone rang the next day, I expected it to be the lady from the audition, but to my surprise, the voice on the other end was definitely not female. "I'm calling about your audition for Drop Dead yesterday" he said. I could tell it was Oli by his voice and unmistakeable accent.
"Oli?" I said questioningly with a small laugh.
"Long time no see." he said. He called me personally to let me know that I didn't get the job, that they picked 'some girl with purple hair', but that straight after my audition he'd stalked me on Instagram and that he would love me to do some influencer-style posts if I was interested. "You stalked me?" I asked with a laugh, knowing that I'd stalked him too.
"Uhhhh yeah..." he responded hesitantly which made me laugh. Apparently my profile was 'really cool'.

My following was around 24,000 at the time - apparently that was why he was offering me the influencer deal. He seemed a little unsure though, saying I could keep the merch in return and then quickly backtracking and offering to figure out a payment option. "I would love to keep the merch." I said reassuringly, wondering if he'd ever actually engaged people for advertising before. I guess deep down I knew that he probably hadn't.... just like he probably hadn't called anyone else personally to tell them they weren't successful. I guess maybe he just wanted to ask me what happened at Reading festival since I'd just vanished.

We ended up chatting for almost 2 hours and I was really interested in how he started Drop Dead, although he seemed a little shy to talk about himself and jokingly said that he didn't want to talk it up too much since I didn't get hired. He was funny in a self-depricating kind of way. He was, as I had guessed, interested to know what had happened to me at Reading festival, and after I explained that we'd been thrown out, he was shocked. I found out he had come down right after we got kicked out to try and see if everything was OK, so it probably was him that I saw on the stairs, not that he heard me yell out 'thank you'. He sounded angry as we talked about it and he dropped the F bomb a few times in once sentence before apologising for his language. I just found it kind of funny. He told me that he complained to the organizers about security because of the way they treated me too... What a sweetheart, right? We spoke for ages about the festival and concerts in general until eventually he said that he had better get back to work.

At the end of the conversation he asked if I would meet him for coffee at a cafe next to where I'd been for the audition, and that he'd bring a stack of Drop Dead merch with him for the influencer agreement - strictly professional apparently. I had nothing on, so I agreed.