Red and White Flags || Oliver Sykes

21

Oli's pov

It was  cold down in Sheffield. The wind was blowing, and snow was reported to fall in two weeks. November 3rd through 6th to be exact. I sat in my empty house drinking a beer. I always end up in this spot some time throughout my day. My days have been pretty boring. Lee is spending time with his wife, Matt is in America with Tillie, his girlfriend, Jordan is spending time with his family, and Mat is with his girl. I'm the only one without someone, so I have no one to hang out with.

I pull out my phone just to feel busy. I check through Instagram, looking through all the tagged photos that fans tagged me in. I scroll past through a lot and then move on to my dm's. I never look through them since I get thousands a day. It's hard to keep up with all and reply, so I just don't. I keep scrolling until I found a name that looked very familiar. Ethen Fort. He's one of Cassie's friends. I open his dm and was greeted to a long paragraph.

Hi Mr. Sykes, or Oli, or whatever you liked to be called. You probably remember me as one of Cassie's friends. Well, Cassie told us about what all happened, and she's really upset. She hasn't been herself at all lately. Neither has Ms. Natalie. Cassie said that her mom turned to alcoholism, and that she always drinks before passing out in her bed. Im really worried about both of them, and I hope you are too. If you could, can you please try to fix things? I'm tired of constantly seeing Cassie upset, and I'm also tired of seeing Ms. Natalie hungover at school. You're probably wondering why the hell I'm texting you and not Cassie, and it's because her mom said for her not to talk to you anymore, and because she personally doesn't want to go through the pain of missing you. Please reply as soon as possible, or not. It's all up to you. But just know that you have a family out here who really need you.

I sighed as I finished reading his dm. I want to fix everything, but how? Natalie and I can't trust each other anymore. Their life would be much better if I stayed out of it. Natalie would be better off with some other man. Even if I wanted to fix things, I wouldn't be able to do it now.  My bandmates are going to start working on our new album next week. I guess all the stuff that I'm going through could be put into a couple of songs.

I take the last gulp of beer in my can. That was my fourth one today. It's now 10:38, and I'm really tired. I quickly take my shower and get in bed. I set my phone on the nightstand, which had a picture of Natalie, Cassie, and me when they came down to visit in the summer. Cassie had a really big and beautiful smile. She looked just like me, minus all the tattoos. Natalie looked very beautiful too. She wore her famous smile that could make anyone, even the saddest person alive, smile. We looked just like the average family, happy to be together. It's upsetting knowing that we will never be that happy average family.

I get in bed and stare at the wall. Everything feels cold and lonely without Cassie playing her music, and Natalie cuddled up with me. I really need to fix this, but how?