I Hate Oliver Sykes (Oli Sykes Fan Fiction) COMPLETE

53. Is that Flirting In Your Message, Or Are You Just Happy To Hear From Me?

I went in to work the following day as I had always planned to do and I asked for the three days of leave in a few weeks time to go to Mysteryland. Paige already had the whole schedule worked out because she'd done it with Matt while she was still on the tour. We would fly to Amsterdam on Tuesday night after work, chill on Wednesday, then spend Thursday through Sunday at the festival. We'd then fly back on Sunday night so that we could still turn up for work on the Monday, even though we'd probably be absolutely destroyed after four days of partying. I was happy to do it though because you only live once!

Paige was home before I was, sitting on the couch with a margarita waiting for me, ready to celebrate us both getting the time off approved. I quizzed her about the plans, asking who exactly was coming and I gave her a bit of a stare when she said it was only us, Matt and Oli. I know it was only meant to be the four of us going to Tomorrowland too, but that was only for one day and it was during the tour - it was a little different to a five-day stint, especially when it was in their 'time off' when they should be at home relaxing.
"If you're even thinking about making me share a room with Oli again I'm going to cancel." I stated. I was deadly serious. I wanted, no, I needed my own space. Paige just laughed.
"Matt already said they'll book a three-bedroom apartment so you can have your own room." she explained. Thank God. We talked about the festival and googled photos, and it did look very similar to Tomorrowland; crazy sets, lasers, fireworks... The line up looked just as good too. I was really excited that I'd get to go seeing as I'd missed out on the original festival. 

We ate dinner together, then went to our own rooms, still exhausted and trying to get back into the routine of 'normal' life after living in one that felt anything but. I went to Paige's doorway about half an hour later and knocked, and she looked up at me from her phone; messaging with Matt I assumed seeing as she was smiling to herself as she stared at the screen.
"Do you have Oli's number?" I asked. The corners of her lips curled up and she got this ridiculously annoying glint in her eyes.
"Don't get excited, I only want to thank him for the tickets." I stated with an eye roll. She still looked excited.
"I don't, but I can get it." she said with a grin.
"Thanks." I replied, leaving before she could say something stupid and annoying. She sent through his number just a few minutes later.

I wasn't really sure how to initiate a conversation with Oli... I had never messaged him before and I didn't want to come off in a way that made him think I missed him or anything ridiculous like that. It needed to be nothing other than a message to say thank you, because despite my personality and stubbornness, I did have manners. I felt un-naturally awkward about it, not sure how the hell to open a conversation with him, so in the end, I decided to take a photo of the stupid Rotterdam magnet and send it to the number, followed by three simple words: "I hate you." I had no idea what time of day it was wherever he was in the world, but I knew he'd seen my message just a minute after I'd sent it, his reply coming through as a crying with laughter emoji on the picture, then again on my statement of hate.

"How did you get my number?" he then sent through. Seriously? He was going to be an asshole?
"God I need to update my security if you've managed to get your hands on it." he sent, the laughing emoji following his smart arse message.

"You better fire your drummer. He's got a big mouth." I replied, causing Oli to once again send me a bunch of laughing emojis.

"How are you?" he then asked, surprising me with his polite question.

"I'm fine. You?" I asked, feeling awkward as fuck. It was weird to be so... civil.

"Same. So why are you messaging me? Do you miss me?" he asked with a tongue-out emoji. God, he was as much of a narcissistic dick head in a chat as he was in real life...

"If anyone is missing someone, it's you missing me, for sure." I said cheekily.

"No way, it's so nice having my room to myself again." he replied.

"I bet you hate it." I sent back.

"Haha, well I guess I do kind of miss annoying you and hearing you yell at me. At least I can walk around naked again now though." he sent. He was an idiot, and I never yelled at him unless he deserved it.

"Well, I just wanted to say thank you for the Mysteryland tickets. Paige gave them to me when she got home yesterday." I sent through.

"No worries." he sent. "Did you find out if you can come already?" he asked.

"Yeah, got time off approved today. I'm surprised Matt hasn't already informed you... Paige had cocktails waiting when I got home from work because she was so excited." I sent with laughing emojis.

"LOL. Matt doesn't talk to me anymore, his hands are practically fused to his phone these days, messaging your bff." he replied with the eye-roll emoji. LOL. I was glad I wasn't the only one who found their obsession with each other over-bearing. 

"She's the same, believe me. Makes me want to vomit." I replied. "So why did you get the tickets anyway? It was because you were so devastated I wasn't at Tomorrowland with you, wasn't it?" I questioned, taunting him a little.

"As if." he responded.

"Why then? Paige said it was your idea." I asked, pushing for him to give me the real reason. I was also curious to see if he denied that... to see if it actually was his idea or if Paige was bending the truth.

"Because you missed it. And you were having a shit time. I thought it would be a nice thing to do." he sent. "Told you I can be nice sometimes." he added. Hmm...

"Well, Thanks. We googled it and it looks amazing. It will be fun." I replied. He put a thumbs-up. "Thanks for the flowers you sent too... that actually was really nice of you and it meant a lot to my sister." I sent.

"Of course." he replied, not really saying a whole lot.

"OK, well, I guess I'll see you in Amsterdam in a few weeks then... I better not have to share a room with you again though!!!!!!" I sent.

"Hahaha, we'll see..." he replied with a wink. He was such a shit-stirrer.

Over the next few weeks, I worked and recovered from the whirlwind three weeks I'd had. I ignored all requests to go out, other than a few low-key dinner dates with Paige and some friends, and I spent the weekends up in Leeds with my family. My sister became more responsive as time went on, coming to terms with what had happened, but I still didn't really know what to say. All I could do was be there and make her laugh with stories of the crazy tour I'd been on. I actually think she loved it when I dramatically told her the vivid details of my sexual encounters, arguments and everything else. I didn't even tell her off when she suggested anything was going on between Oli and I because it seemed to excite her, and honestly, anything that made her happy and excited was worth enduring. We had a memorial service for baby Madison two weeks after she passed; we planted a rose bush in a memorial park and Holly and her husband  scattered her ashes before talking about the dreams they had for her. It was heart-breaking but it was a nice way to honour her memory. Paige came with me for emotional support and the guys had sent flowers for the service too, addressed from 'BMTH' which was nice. 

I didn't go out drinking or partying, I didn't see any of my fuck buddies, I just hung out with Paige and we stayed at home most of the time. I guess she wasn't really interested in going out  now that she was in a loving relationship, but something had changed with me too. Ever since the morning I found out about Holly, I just felt different. It was like that moment opened my eyes, it made me realise that all of the stupid shit I thought was important, really wasn't. Like being angry and holding onto grudges over pointless things was a complete waste of time. I was still blunt and honest, that would never change, but I felt like a few of the hard, angry layers had fallen off. Like, why was I holding onto hate when people had real fucking problems? I think I even played it up more than I needed to to come off a certain way to other people, and I could be really horrible to people sometimes, like Paige for example, even though she never really deserved it. I was always going to be the way I was, but I think I needed to stop pretending like I didn't care about anything and stop trying to make it look like I had it all together when I didn't. I was starting to realise that I didn't need to be strong and mean all the time, that it was maybe OK to be myself a bit more. Maybe I could be softer and stop hiding behind a mask as much.