TRUE FRIENDS (Oli Sykes Fan Fiction) COMPLETE

How It All Began

We all know who Oli Sykes is; the gorgeous, talented and heavily-tattooed front man of British rock band, Bring Me The Horizon. What you might not know is that when Oli was younger, he lived in Adelaide, Australia from the age of eight to twelve. Oli wasn't the biggest fan of school since he got teased for 'talking funny' due to his British accent, but he found a friend in the little girl next door; an only child named Joy.

Joy was a couple of years younger than Oli, and they first met was when Oli fell off his bike on the front lawn of Joy's house and she asked him if he was OK. When he spoke to her, she giggled but told him that she liked the way he talked, and that was how their friendship began.

It wasn't long before Joy and Oli were best friends; hanging out in Oli's treehouse, playing with Joy's pet cat, walking home from school together, and running around in the sprinkler to cool down during Summer. For four years, Joy and Oli grew closer and shared their secrets and dreams; Oli's of being a singer, and Joy's of being an actress.

In 1998, when Oli was 12, his father decided to move the family back to the UK. Both of the kids were upset, but Joy wrote out Oli's new address in Sheffield, England, and they promised to write to each other. They sent letters and Christmas cards back and forth for a couple of years, but as Oli got older and came into his teenage years, their communication eventually stopped.

Five years later, the internet had taken over, and social media sites began to pop up, with MySpace being where most teenagers landed. In 2004, Oli found Joy on Myspace and they became friends again. By now, he was 17 and had formed a band with his friends in Sheffield, while Joy was 15 and still in school in Adelaide; still living with her family at the same house. They talked for a bit, and Joy couldn't believe it when Oli said his band were releasing an album, even if it was independently. It didn't see much success, but Oli sent a copy in the mail to Joy back in Adelaide, even though she didn't like it very much. The following year, in 2006 Oli's band signed to a major independent label and Bring Me The Horizon released a fully-fledged album called 'Count Your Blessings'. Oli wasn't much into social media now that he was 18 and could go out drinking, and living the party lifestyle. His band started touring with huge rock bands and so their contact was lost again.

Just a few months later, Joy turned 18 and moved to Melbourne. She messaged Oli to tell him the news, and he did reply saying it was 'cool' but not much else. Joy studied at drama college, and did modelling on the side to earn money. She also worked in a restaurant on the weekends and at night to pay for her studies, but was happy.

Oli's band was finding success in the UK and by 2008, with the release of another album; Suicide Season, they started gaining popularity in the US and Australia as well. By 2009, MySpace was gone and Facebook was the most common social media platform, and Oli searched for Joy when he found out he was touring Australia, but was unsuccessful. The band released another album in 2010 that was even more popular than the last, but fame and money led Oli to addiction, and he struggled for the next few years and Joy became a long-lost memory.

While all of this had been happening, Joy had graduated from drama school and was booking small acting gigs, as well as modelling jobs in Melbourne. In 2012, at the age of 23, she uprooted her life and moved to Los Angeles to take a shot at 'making it' in Hollywood. She didn't find a big break, but was getting consistent work and liked her housemate; Behati, so decided to stay.

In 2013, after Oli had been rehabilitated and was finally clean of his drug habit, his band were about to release their most successful album to date; Sempiternal. He'd enlisted a new band member; Jordan, who quickly became his best friend, and when Joy stumbled across an article about Oli in Rolling Stone magazine, she couldn't believe her eyes. The little boy she remembered was now a famous musician, covered in tattoos, and talking about being a reformed drug addict. Joy found him on instagram and twitter, and sent him a private message, but his popularity meant he got hundreds of messages from fans, so he never found it.

In 2014, Oli and his band toured the USA, so when they announced an album signing at a music store in Los Angeles, Joy decided to go along. She waited in line for an hour, and Oli looked up from the table at her curiously as she placed her CD down for him to sign. As soon as she asked him if he remembered her from Adelaide, it clicked and he was gobsmacked, and he paused the signing to say Hello. Joy joked about how different he looked now, but Oli was just as stunned by how gorgeous she'd grown up to be. They organised to catch up that night for drinks, and they talked for hours and hours about what they'd been doing since they last spoke 9 years ago on myspace, when Oli's band was just starting and Joy was still in school. They reminisced about when they were kids and laughed into the early hours of the morning, and in a way, it was like they had never stopped talking.

They exchanged numbers and connected on social media and promised to keep in touch, and this time, they did. Oli invited Joy to his band's show the following night in LA and she went out for drinks with the band after the show. It was crazy, and so much had changed, but after 16 years, they were together again and becoming just as close as they were all those years ago.

Oli and Joy kept in touch after Oli flew back home, talking consistently via text, and Joy even visited him in England when she went on holidays to Europe over Christmas that year. The next time they met was in 2015 when Oli was touring the USA again after releasing yet another new album; 'That's The Spirit', which was again more successful than the last. Joy was still looking out for acting jobs, but had unintentionally fallen more into modelling, finding much more work - and success - in that field. She took a week off and joined Oli and his band on their US tour for 3 shows in LA, Vegas and Phoenix, and it was truly like they had never stopped being friends.