Drown (Doomed sequel) - Oli Sykes fanfiction

8. The loneliness is haunting me

CW: Alcohol use, heavy drinking, but mostly a lot of fun and fluff. Drunk!Oli might now be my favourite thing to write! 

For the next couple of weeks, everything was as hectic as it had been. Sam was due back from his tour at the weekend and Mia was relieved. He'd been checking in a lot more recently since he'd written his article and was just enjoying the last few days with the Bad Omens guys. Mia thought she picked up something more cheerful in his voice on the few occasions she spoke to him, but she figured she'd speak to him about it more on Monday.

Oli had been acting strangely too and it frustrated Mia a little, but she was too stressed from work to worry about it too much. But as she packed up for the week on Friday, she felt the tension start to dissipate. Sam had messaged to say he'd landed back in the UK and was going to catch up on his sleep, then he had plans to visit Lisa at the weekend too. He was sad that he'd missed the first few weeks of James' life, but wanted to make the most of it while he was able to and was really excited to see them all.

Mia was thankful Sam was back. Of course, now she was leaving too, the pressure would be on Sam instead, but she knew he could handle it. He'd had much more travelling experience before he'd got the position at Metal Focus, and he was doing the PA work on top of his regular stuff too. Plus with Mia being away, there wouldn't be too much work to do anyway, just covering for the few local gigs she had booked in and Sam was more than capable of handling that stuff.

When Mia arrived home on Friday, Oli wasn't in the house. He'd left her a note in the kitchen that he'd prepared her food, she just had to heat it up, but he'd gone to Josh's and said he would be back late. She took the container of chilli from the fridge, resting the glass dish on the counter while she waited for the oven to heat up, yawning as she opened her phone. She flicked aimlessly through it for a while, but not much was happening, so she opened Instagram and Oli's face popped up, but it was Josh who had posted it. Oli was leaning forwards on the sofa, his elbows on his knees and a PlayStation controller gripped in his beautifully inked fingers, while his tongue poked out between his perfectly pink lips, a scowl of concentration nestled between his eyebrows.

Mia chuckled to herself as she shared the post to her own story, tagging Oli in the story with a series of heart eyes emojis.

Her heart ached when she saw he wasn't home tonight. She was torn between missing him terribly and being able to relax a little without the stresses of work. She was glad he was able to get out of the house and spend time with Josh. Ultimately, she knew she needed some time to herself to unwind, but guilt had wracked her chest thinking about it, especially now she'd be heading off on tour again so soon. She paused just before she hit post, focussing on how at ease he looked and sighing deeply before adding the post and putting her phone on the counter to pop the chilli dish in the oven to heat through.

Her phone buzzed again and she picked it up to find that Josh had liked her story share, and also sent another message to their group chat.

The group chat had evolved from being a chat for all the guys back when You Me At Six and Bring Me The Horizon toured together, but slowly all their partners got added to it too and they all used it to keep up with one another's personal lives too.

Lisa would often share memes in it. She had the most amazing sense of humour - dry and sarcastic mostly. Mia remembered when she and Lisa had been on tour with Josh a while ago, long before James was born. Mia had been casually interviewing Josh for an article and Lisa had gone out for some food and sent a meme to the group chat. Josh's reaction to it was utterly priceless - Mia had never heard him laugh like that! Tears streamed down his face and he only just managed to calm himself before she arrived back with the food. Funnily enough, the interview was cut short after that. As soon as Lisa walked back in, Josh swept her out of the room, tossing a squealing Lisa over his shoulder and leaving Mia to pack away the food.