Virtues

Oli had matured so much in the past fifteen years. His once long hair was now short and even though he still had a fringe, it was pushed to the side and a lot less discreet. His tattoos had started to fade and he had to have had some re-inked. On the opposite hand to his ‘Tom’ tattoo, he had a tattoo that said ‘Elissa’ in the same font and position, and on each of his wrists were ‘Lacey’ and ‘Joshua’, once again in the same font.

Elissa and Josh had both changed a whole lot also – Elissa was obviously no longer a baby and Josh wasn’t a toddler either. Elissa was now a five foot ten, stick-thin teenage girl with chestnut brown hair which was layered and parted to the side with a big (but not scene-like) fringe and chocolate brown eyes. Josh had dark brown hair which was also parted to the side and cut just like his ‘Uncle’ Jona Weinhofen had had it when he had first met Josh, when Bring Me The Horizon were entering the height of their career.

Bring Me The Horizon were still around – they were just currently on a hiatus due to each of the members starting their own family. Matt Nicholls had the youngest of all of the member’s children, with twin daughters of just sixth months old. It wouldn’t have been fair for Matt and the rest of the members to be touring, recording and promoting whilst the kids were growing up – it would almost have been as if the kids were growing up without their dads around.

Drop Dead Clothing was also still around, with over 300 stores open around the world, including the original stores in London which had now been turned into Drop Dead superstores, which sold everything from the Drop Dead clothes, to jewellery and accessories, and had even started to sell home wares, including bed spreads, cushions and rugs. Oli was probably one of the most successful people to leave Sheffield in the past 20 years.

“El, Josh?” Oli shouted up the stairs to both 15 year-old Elissa and 17-year-old Josh. Both of them ran out of their rooms and waited at the top of the stairs to be summoned down or to be told what Oli wanted them to do.
“Yeah?” They both replied.
“Go down to Label HQ... You’ll find Pickles there; he’s producing a bands work and apparently their right up your street. He wants you to meet them, have a chat, get to know them. Matt thinks they’re really going to be big.” Oli stated. Both teens nodded before grabbing their jackets and a pair of shoes each. It wasn’t exactly freezing outside – after all, Huntington Beach wasn’t known for its harsh winters, but there was still a slightly chill in the air that the teens weren’t yet used to. The walk from the Sykes’ home to ‘SYKO Records’ HQ wasn’t too far – it was a short walk along the beach front outside of their house, then into the main part of the town where all the offices were, along the corner and there it stood – SYKO Record’s almost surreal office building.

SYKO Record’s building was tailor made for Oli and his colleagues. On the first level was the reception. On the second, third and fourth floor were built in studios, writing rooms and meeting halls. On the fifth floor was Matt Nicholls’, the president of SYKO records, office. On the basement floor, however, wasn’t what you’d usually find in a record label. There was not numerous stacks of demo CDs waiting to be sent to promotion companies. There weren’t gold records that hadn’t made it on show yet. Heck - there wasn’t even anything related to music down there. On the basement level was a mix of both a skate park and a adult-sized kids adventure playground. It was kind of like Rob Dydrek’s Fantasy Factory, but 100 times better. Oli originally had it built down there so that Elissa and Josh had a place to hang out when Oli had to take them to work, but then it transformed into a whole lot more. Now, it was a place for anyone to go when they needed a break and a place where the label directors, writers and management could get to know new bands that they’d just signed.

“Mr Nicholls is waiting for you two on the third floor, studio 2D.” Said the receptionist as the pair walked in.
“Thank you.” Elissa replied and flashed a smile in her direction. The receptionist smiled back, before going back to her work.

The pair made their way towards the elevator door before pressing the ‘up’ button. It wasn’t long before it came down and the pair made their way inside the mirror elevator. The elevator music wasn’t that generic ‘we don’t care about any in this elevator so we’re going to play annoying as fuck’ music, it was actually decent songs from bands that are or were once signed to SYKO records. When they got to the third floor, studio 2D was just along the corridor. The pair quietly entered.

“Alright?” Matt asked as the pair entered the room. Elissa went to give her ‘uncle’ a hug, whereas Josh just went to sit down on one of the office chairs in front of the huge mixing deck. Stood around the deck were three boys, all ranging from Elissa’s age to Josh’s age.

“Lads, this is Elissa and Josh.” Matt introduced. All took a step back from listening to a fourth boy play bass and turned around to say hi to the siblings. Elissa gave a small smile and a wave back, and Josh did the same.
“We all know who you two are... Your dad pays our bills.” One of the boys, with blonde hair and a lip piercing. On his arms was an array of tattoos, so Elissa assumed he was closer to Josh’s age of 18 than her age of 15.
“That’s true.” Elissa replied. Matt rolled himself over on his office chair to the mixing deck, where he mic-ed in to the fourth member of the band that ‘his tracking was sick’ and that they were taking a quick break so that Elissa and Josh could listen to the songs they’d been working on before.