Bite My Tongue (Oli Sykes Fan Fiction)

That's the Spirit

Kitty walked me up to the venue where Josh was leaning against the front wall waiting for me. He looked great, his hair was pushed back and he had on a black jacket and dark jeans. I walked up to him and waved Kitty off to go back to the hotel with the guys.

"Hey Annie, you look great." he said, leaning down to hug me.

"Thanks, so do you and please, don't call me Annie. I don't need a nick name for a nick name." I laughed.

"Okay no problem. What's Anne short for anyway?"

"Annalise."

"That's really cute." He laughed a little, smiling down at me. It was so cute, you could even hear his accent in his laugh.

We kept walking until we got to a small restaurant. It was very cute and the food was good, talking to Josh was great. It was a cute date; nothing to extravagant but I wasn't going to complain because I genuinely had a good time. Although something throughout the whole meal was throwing me off. Something didn't feel right and I couldn't decide what it was and that made me slightly uncomfortable. But I brushed off anyway so that I wouldn't put myself in a bad mood.

Josh walked back to the venue with me after the date. It was quiet until he asked another question, "How are you liking tour life so far?"

"Well, I'm getting used to being the only girl and the only one with an American accent but other than that I like it. I can't really find anything to complain about." I answered, smiling and looking up at him. I was having fun but I couldn't wait to get inside since it was cold. For November, Texas was pretty cold.

"You're doing really well for being the odd one out." he said smiling at me. We came up to the venue and stopped walking, now just standing and facing each other. "So, would it be crazy to ask you on a second date?"

"If that's your way of asking, then yeah. That sounds good. Call me later then." I said and hugged him, kissing him on the cheek and then walking away towards the hotel a few blocks away where my boys should be.

When I got to the hotel none of the guys were there. I called Kitty and he told me that they were at the venue hanging our before they had to set up anything. I got all my stuff and walked to the venue. By the time I got there, Asking Alexandria had started to set up all their equipment. I walked backstage and to go find the guys and see what needed to be done and what I could help with.

"Hey guys, what do you need me to do?" I asked as I walked up to the band.

"You're the manager, shouldn't you be telling other people what to do?" Oliver sneered. I really didn't appreciate his attitude and I couldn't imagine him acting this way toward my brother and getting away with it. I hoped he didn't think that he could treat me like shit because I was younger than him, a girl, and new to being a manager. I knew that there was a lot about me that might make people think they could walk all over me but I wasn't going to let that stop me from doing my job.

"Damn, chill. I would imagine you guys got mostly everything done." I replied and before Oliver could come back with another comment about my absence, Lee jumped in.

"Yeah, we got pretty much everything done. I think Asking is setting up now, I would leave it up to them to fuck shit up." He laughed a bit but right as he said it there was a huge screeching noise from the speakers.

"I'll go see if I can help, behave yourselves." I said as I walked out onto the stage to see a shaggy haired boy messing with a guitar.

"Need help?" I asked him.

"Yeah, something keeps getting fucked up, I've got no idea what's wrong." He said in an accent, reminding me once again that I was the only American on this tour.

"Well, I'll go to the booth, just keep playing until I fix it." He nodded and sucked his lip rings into is mouth as I jumped down from the high stage and walked up to the booth at the back of the venue. I stood in front of it and the guy working it just stepped to the side without asking me any questions. The shaggy haired boy kept playing as I messed with the controls. There were a few screeching noises before things started to sound better. I made a few small adjustments to the gain and gave the boy a thumbs up saying that it was all good. I thanked the man back there and made my way backstage. 

I walked back up to the guys but was tapped on the shoulder before I could tell them I was back. I turned around to see the shaggy haired boy, mindlessly playing with his lip rings again.

"Can I help you?" I asked. It probably sounded a bit more bitchy than I intended it to come out.

"Thanks for helping with the sound, I didn't know you were a tech." he said.

"Yeah, I am. I'm just holding the job of manager for Phil since he had to go back home for something." I answered, hoping the conversation would end soon. I really wanted to get back to the guys and not be bothered by other people at the moment.

"That's pretty cool. You should come party on our bus sometime." He smirked at me. I had no interest in partying, but I didn't want to be mean or get on anyone's bad side.

"Yeah, that sounds great, just let me know when or something." I lied, hoping that would get me away from him so I could go back to the guys. Frustratingly enough, he kept talking.

"I will, here give me your phone, I'll give you my number and you give me yours." he said handing me his phone and holding his hand out for mine. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and handed it to him. I took his phone and put my name and number in it before we traded phones back.

"Okay, I'll see you later then." I said and walked away before he was able to say anything else to me. I walked back to where the guys were and sat down next to Kitty on the small little couch. I listened to them all talk and watched all the sound checks before the show started.

I watched every set from side stage that night, since there wasn't a whole lot for me to do with so few screw ups. Every band was great, and I was really proud to be working with them and proud of them for working so hard. I was proud of my brother for being able to bring all of this together, too. The whole thing was amazing. I started to think that this manager thing wasn't so bad and I might want to continue. But it was also only my first show and I didn't want to get ahead of myself just yet.

Finally, Bring Me the Horizon finished their set and they all came off the stage, sweaty and gross but entirely happy. "Anne!" Lee called as he hugged me, coming off the stage. "Come on, we have a day off tomorrow, we're all going out tonight. There's a club not far from here and we're going."

I wasn't really sure about going to a club. I'm not a really big drinker, it's not something I like doing a lot but I haven't really gone out and partied in a while. I've been so busy taking on this job and trying to get my shit together back home. I might as well go out while I can and have fun for once since I know I'm not gonna get to go out a lot when I have to return to Philly. I decided to give in, "Okay, okay, I'm in." 

I just prayed that nothing would happen tonight that would make me regret it.