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

@OLOBERSYKES STARTED FOLLOWING YOU

I was headed off to meet with Oli the following afternoon to get the merch for our agreement - or maybe he just wanted to hang out, I wasn't sure. Either way, I got on the tube and headed out to meet him at a little coffee place right next to what I learned was the Drop Dead office. He was already sitting inside when I arrived, wearing an over-sized Metallica shirt and staring at his phone.

"Hi." I said, sitting down opposite him quickly to avoid some weird 'are we supposed to hug' moment. "Hello." he said with a smile in that thick British accent I liked more every time I heard it. "Coffee?" he asked straight away before I nodded. He called over the waitress and we ordered; a skinny latte for me and an almond milk flat white for him. "So I have the stuff..." he said trailing off and reaching down under the table to a backpack. "I checked your size on your audition form." he said as he passed the bag over. I raised my eyebrow and laughed and he stopped the bag mid-pass. "Oh god that sounded super fucking creepy!" he exclaimed.
"Just a little." I laughed as he now passed the bag to me. He apologised and actually went a little red in the face like he was embarrassed. "So what are the rules? What type of photos do you need?" I asked. I'd done a couple of small influencer gigs back in New York and they had supplied me with guidelines on what they wanted. He just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about, like he had clearly never done that type of deal before. "Just take whatever you want. I'm sure they'll be cool." he replied.
"So, I'm guessing you haven't done this before?" I asked trying not to grin. I was being cheeky, but I got the feeling he would be fine with it. "Um, well no." he said looking away. There was an awkward silence, but luckily, our coffees arrived to the table at the right time. He was so weird, lol.

"So..." I said, taking a sip of my coffee. "I would love to know about Drop Dead. How did you start it?" I asked. He'd told me a bit about it over the phone, but it was different when I was sitting face to face with him. He almost seemed a little reluctant to speak about it though. I thought a joke would lighten the mood so I gave it a go, saying that I probably could have just googled all of the information anyway. It made him laugh so that was a good start. "It's much cooler hearing it from you though." I said. "And google sometimes lies." I added with a smile. We were meant to be looking at merch and exchanging conditions of my Instagram posts, but my cheekiness and joking around had seemingly made him chill out and he seemed more interested in chatting now. That was fine with me though since I didn't have anywhere else to be... and the stories of his clothing brand and the band were fascinating – though he only talked about them after I asked. He almost seemed shy in a strange way, or maybe like he didn't really like talking about himself... maybe he just thought he might say something he shouldn't. He seemed surprised but chuffed when I admitted to knowing songs from his band's most recent album called Sempiternal. The truth was, I'd listened to Bring Me The Horizon before, the band had a song called 'Can You Feel My Heart' that was like the song to my life, I just didn't know that he was the lead singer of said band until a couple of days ago.

He asked me about myself too and I briefly talked about why I was in London, how I'd lived in New York and about my friends and my job. He was really interested about my move to the US from Australia as he'd lived in Australia for a while when he was younger too, but I didn't want to bore him with my life story. We reminisced about Reading festival for quite a while and I thanked him again for helping me out with the security guard. His expression angered when I showed him a photo of my bruised arm and told him I had to wear long sleeved shirts for a whole week. We talked about lots of things in general and in a way, talking to him almost felt like talking to an old friend. Time went by so quickly. I asked him about performing and what it was like to sing in front of so many people and he said he gets really nervous, but he loves it once he's on stage. I admitted that I was disappointed I'd missed seeing him play at Reading, but he assured me he'd let me know when they were playing again so that I could go. I was genuinely excited for that.

John called me midway during our chat and Oli definitely saw his name pop up on my screen. I noticed him noticing, especially since it came up with John followed by a red heart emoji. "He can wait." I tried to joke as I swiped away his call. I felt bad for doing it, but he knew I had auditions and stuff, he would understand when I told him I was with a client. Oli took a sip of his coffee that by now must have been stone cold. "Boyfriend?" he asked. I felt a bit awkward.
"Uh, kind of, yeah." I replied, not wanting to say too much. I mean, we hadn't officially done the boyfriend/girlfriend thing. "The girl you were with at Reading festival... she's your girlfriend, right?" I asked kind of awkwardly. He took another sip of his cold coffee.
"She was..." he said emphasising the "was" and trailing off. I didn't want to pry, but I can't deny that I was curious. "Oh. I'm sorry." I said sympathetically, not really knowing what else to say.
"Oh God, don't apologise," he said. "I should have ended it a long time ago." he added with a forced laugh.
"Well..." he said, trailing off and checking the time on his phone. "I had better get back to the office or they'll fire me." he said jokingly before I laughed politely. He pulled a business card from his wallet and almost a little shyly said that we should keep in touch - strictly professional again I'm sure. He also insisted on paying for our drinks and dropped 10 pounds on the table, before we both stood and he semi-awkwardly hugged me goodbye. There was something really lovely about him, something gentle and endearing, but he was also really awkward, lol. He was almost shy in a way, calm, kind and completely unthreatening despite the way he looked. You would never in a million years expect him to be quiet and reserved knowing he was the singer of a screamo band. I found him really interesting and kind of mysterious. I hadn't really ever met someone like him before and he left me very curious, I have to admit.

As I headed back to the station with my backpack of Drop Dead gear, I kind of laughed to myself... he had all of this fame and I could only assume riches that went along with it, but he just seemed so normal, and in a way almost unsure of himself. It was a nice surprise to meet someone like that to be honest. A lot of people I met in the modelling world definitely weren't lacking confidence or arrogance. 

As I sat on the train heading home, a notification popped up on Instagram: "@olobersykes started following you". I smiled and wondered what he would think of my life. I know it was cheeky, but since I could now private message him, I decided to take advantage of it and send one through.
"Shouldn't you be working?" with a tongue-out emoji. Almost instantly, he sent me back a reply; a single emoji - the crying with laughter one.