Night shift - Completed

Chapter 36

Poppy's PoV

I dialled Calum's number instantly, with panic setting in. I really hope I didn't upset them all or scare them. I just wanted to sort this out. Within two rings, it was picked up.

"Poppy?" Calum's voice was music to my ears after the stress I'd just been through. A smile fell onto my face instantly.

"Hey sweetie. I'm sorry I ran out like that." I said in a regrettable tone.

"Is everything okay? Are you okay?" He pressed, still scared I'd disappeared because of the bad news. I sighed as I thought up the best way to respond.

"I'm fine Cal. I just went to sort some stuff out and it's finished now." I said, regretting how I'd worded it instantly. My stomach dropped as the other end of the phone went silent. I could hear his footsteps as he hobbled away from everyone to ask me something privately.

"The last time you said that, it was serious. What did you do?" He responded softly, talking about Amelia.

"I-" I hesitated, stopping myself saying what I was going to. Was he going to be mad? Happy? Disappointed? "I went to see Mr Shine." There was barely a breath before he'd spat his response.

"What?!" He shouted down the phone loud enough that I had to pull it away from my ear. "You went to his house? By yourself?!" I rolled my eyes, the inner teenager coming out as I was scolded for my actions.

"Yes Calum. I went to his house and we had a chat. He wasn't leaking the information." I thought if I brought my findings into it, he'd at least listen more.

"What if paps had seen you and followed you? They could have made so many stories about that!" He continued.

"It turned out Chanel was using him, acting like his girlfriend or friend with benefits or whatever. Whenever he spoke about work, she made a note and not long after it was put on tv. Terry was furious!" I pretended I hadn't heard him say the last part and carried on telling him what was going on. Calum became infuriated and I could hear him huff over the phone.

"Poppy are you listening to me? Did any paps see you?" He repeated, as if I was a child ignoring something important. I looked around the road just in case.

"No, I don't think so. Why?" I responded this time, knowing I was in no place to be winding him up and making him angry.

"Good. Try and come in the back entrance and ignore any that you see. They're out in full force outside the building and they're mentioning some pretty raw stuff." He warned me, his voice growling over-protectively. I hesitated before answering again, knowing he was talking about my past and Amelia. This was going to be tough.

"Okay. Thank you." I said quickly before I asked the driver to try and get me to the back entrance. He nodded as he continued driving. "Look, I'm about a minute away. I'll see you soon." I said as I hung up, getting myself ready for a bombardment of personal questions by strangers.

"Okay ma'am." The driver said as he pulled in. I quickly paid and thanked him, leaping out of the car and into the back entrance, making my way through some corridors before I found my way to the reception desk.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm back again." I smiled as they moved the visitor book over to me for me to sign before handing me my key card. The security guard then excused himself as he headed away from us and towards the main entrance. He pushed the doors open and instructed all the paparazzi to move to the side to let some customers in, which they barely listened to once they'd caught sight of me.

"Poppy how does it feel to know the world now knows about your old drug lifestyle?"
"Are you ever scared Kyle will come back for you?"
"How did it feel to lose your friend?"
"Does Calum know about your life?"
"How do you feel knowing you may lose your license?"
"Do you have any words for Greg's family?"

The questions kept coming and I tried to play it cool but inside, it was tearing me up. I walked straight over to the lift and called it, heading up to the thirteenth floor feeling pretty numb and silent. Why did paparazzi make your life a misery? Why couldn't they just be there to celebrate the good that you've done rather than bring up the bad all the time? Especially when it was like ten years ago before I even got known by them. I made my way to the door and knocked loudly. They didn't want to give me the code for the door which was fair enough, so the plan was that I could get to the door but someone always had to let me in.

"Hello?" Dave asked.

"It's Poppy." I said quickly, the door swinging open as Dave pulled me through the door and into a hug. It was weird to receive a hug from him but I accepted it nonetheless.

"I'm glad you're okay. We were worried." Dave said as we headed in, the boys all waiting for me on the sofas. Their faces lighting up when they saw me was enough to put me back into a good mood despite what I'd just been questioned downstairs. Calum came hobbling into the room on his crutches and I rushed over to him, throwing my arms around him too.

"I have some great news!" I beamed as everyone sat down. "I found the leak and it's been plugged." I smiled proudly, not only because of what I'd achieved but because of my clever analogy. I received some confused looks. "I don't mean I killed them..." I reiterated, which made them relax a little more. "It turned out it was Mr Shine, or Terry as I know him. But the twist was he didn't know he was doing it. His girlfriend, who he discussed his work with, turned out to be Chanel from the gossip channel. She used everything he said against not only him but us. That's where all this press was coming from." I rambled on with a grin on my face. "I explained everything to him and then she had to admit to what she'd done. She's going to apologise on air hopefully!" Everyone let out a celebratory cheer or clap, happy that some good news was finally coming from this awful series of events. Everything seemed happy for a moment, until Calum reminded me of the reality.

"That's great but it doesn't stop them from talking about the stuff they are now." Calum said morbidly. "They're digging up everything they can." I simply shrugged, realising that gossip wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"They can say what they want. When they realise I don't react they'll get bored of me. No way am I missing out on being with you just because of those idiots!" I beamed, Calum's frown turning upside down the minute I'd finished saying it. I rushed over to him and pulled him in for a huge hug that was retaliated instantly. I'd come to terms with the paps already and actually, once this bad spell got out of the way they'd literally have nothing to report on, so I was more than happy to wait it out.