Night shift - Completed

Chapter 48

Quick authors note! I just wanted to say thank you to my regular readers who inspire me to keep writing this! You know who you are! akabianca Antoinette___B

Calum's PoV

It'd been three days. I'd locked myself in my room and sat with my phone in my hands looking at stupid messages I'd sent her and silly photos I'd taken. There weren't many, but it was enough to keep me going. Why was I acting like this? She wasn't dead. She was just in the hospital. Hopefully, any day now, they'd say it was safe to see her and I could hold her again. That's what I missed the most. Just her presence around me. I'd had it for a while at once; each shift she cared for me was a twelve hour time with her and not long after I'd come out we went for a meal and hung out here. She'd been with me all the time but now she was gone. I was really starting to feel it.

"Cal, you're gonna wanna see this!" Ashton called from the front room as he turned the volume on the tv down, hoping I could hear his voice above the film Michael was enjoying.

"Hey!" Michael whined but stopped instantly. Ashton must have shown him what he wanted to show me. Did I even want to see it? Was it going to be something dumb and stupid?

"Luke!" Michael bellowed and soon his footsteps were rushing down the hall. It went silent again for a second before he swore.

"Shit! I'll call management. Does Cal know yet?" Luke asked. The hesitation proved his point. "You need to tell him."

"I would if he came out of that room!" Ashton sighed, heading over and banging on the door some more. "Cal, you really need to see this." Ashton's voice was sad and instantly I knew whatever it was would be awful. Maybe it was better if I didn't see it? Then I could just pretend it didn't exist?

Suddenly, my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number. I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to check this before I spoke to Ashton, just in case. Maybe it was Poppy trying to contact me?

Calum, I'm so sorry.

I read first and my stomach dropped within a second. This was a message from Poppy and by the sound of it, she was ending things with me.

I'm sorry I got you all involved in this mess and if you don't want to see me any more then I'll understand. Paps were taking pictures. Pictures of Kyle chasing me, choking me. They're going to go out there. I know they're going to cause so much embarrassment for you and the boys. Honestly, I didn't mean for it to come to this. Truly I'm so sorry. They reckon I could be home tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll let you know. Please just tell them if you don't want me to come back to your place when they release me.
I miss everything about you right now. I'm going stir crazy in here. I miss your smile and the way your cheeks push your eyes into kind of squints when you laugh. Mine do that too you said. I miss your tattoos. I miss your scent. I just miss you. And I love you. Mavis is sending this for me so I'd best keep it clean.

I let out a chuckle at the last line and imagined Mavis must have too when she'd written it out. I reread the message over and over. I didn't know what part affected me the most but I was feeling too many emotions right now. Why did she feel the need to apologise? That whole thing was out of her control. Why did she think I wouldn't want to see her again? Cos some pictures of some asshole beating her were going to go out? None of us could help that.

"Cal?" Ash's voice pulled me from my thoughts again and I knew I was going to have to face the music. What he wanted to show me were no doubt these pictures Poppy was talking about. Pictures of her being vulnerable and pictures of her getting beaten... yet not one of those paps thought to help. Just click their cameras. My body tightened as I got angry, wondering what she did to deserve that. Any normal human being would surely help? No?

"Coming." I called flatly as I hopped off the bed and went to the door, unlocking it so I could make my way out to my friends in the living room. I used my crutches this time, aiding myself to get there in a quicker time than I would normally when I was hobbling around. I sat down beside three very sheepish looking faces and already knew this was going to be awful. Ashton hesitated, staring down at his screen before he handed me his phone. Messages from Rebecca littered his chat, pictures after pictures followed by horrified and angry emojis.

"Just click the pictures. I'm sorry Cal." My thumb hovered over the first picture, ready to make it bigger. Did I really want to see this? Was it only going to make me angrier? I took the risk and clicked on it. An article displayed that Rebecca had screenshot and sent to Ashton. There, just underneath the shitty headline was a picture of Kyle choking Poppy.

5SOS gf brings trouble to night out

My jaw tightened as I swiped to the left, moving to the next picture.

Pictures of Poppy's problematic past!
Another article, this one just full of pictures of Kyle chasing Poppy before shoving her against the wall and strangling her.

Calum's gf shows true colours
Third picture Rebecca sent was another article, this one delving into the history between Kyle and Poppy, mentioning Amelia's death. I felt my body tense, it becoming more difficult to swipe the photos as my arms shook furiously.

Does Poppy deserve someone like Calum?
The final picture was another article, this one really ruffling my feathers. This one didn't spread the awful picture of Kyle and her, but it did put up pictures of Poppy and me as the writer discussed why I would be better of without her. How dare they speak badly of someone they barely knew? How dare they try and turn fans against her? These paps were going to get it. My grip tightened around Ashton's phone but he swiped it out of my hand before I lobbed it across the room.

"I'm so sorry Cal." Michael added, trying to put an arm round me. I shook him off quickly and stood up. "Luke's on the phone to management now."

"Well they'd better be a bigger fucking help than Dave was." I spat as I headed back to my room, ready to screw up some paps lives.
They were going to regret messing with me.