Night shift - Completed

Chapter 51

Poppy's PoV

The room fell silent for a second, everyone in the room glaring at Calum like he was in the wrong just because he had me and tried to stick up for me. It seemed like I was tearing this band apart and it'd only been a week. I looked back at Luke with a thankful smile before I went to sneak back out of the door.

"Wait...!" He whispered but it was loud enough to attract everyone's attention. Suddenly, I could feel everyone's eyes on the back of me and was almost too scared to turn back around.

"Luke? Where the- Did you go to the hospital by yourself?" It was Luke's turn to get in trouble with security after they'd laid into Calum.

"Yeah. I was going to surprise Calum. Look how that turned out..." His voice was low and agitated.

"Poppy?" Calum's voice made me emotional but I tried my best to hold in my tears as I forced myself to turn round and look at him. His face lit up as he saw me and tried rushing over as best he could. "I missed you so much." He said into my ear as he threw his arms around me and pulled me into the best hug I'd ever received. When you've been trapped in a room for days on end with no contact, the smallest things can seem amazing. I was overcome with happiness as I breathed in his scent, felt his body on mine and his face resting against mine as we hugged. This was everything I'd missed.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered to him, a silent sob falling out as I spoke. He pulled me in even tighter and stroked my hair with his hand.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He whispered back. "They're all just being dicks. How are you?" He pulled me away from him and held me at arms length, taking in every part of my skin to see what damage Kyle had done. His eyes stayed on my neck for a moment before they moved on, once he'd finished scanning me he pulled me back into a hug.

"I don't want everyone to turn on you, Cal. It's not fair. You've got a career to pursue, you don't need me screwing it up. Don't ruin the band because of me." I said, reluctant words flowing from my mouth as the hole in my heart grew wider. This really wasn't what I - or Luke - were expecting when he came to get me to surprise everyone. It was meant to be happy. Everyone was supposed to cheer and we'd all run into a group hug and laugh and have a great time. Instead, we walked in on an argument on how Calum should leave me.

"Don't you dare talk like that. You're not going anywhere." Calum said lowly, a slight anger in his tone. "They just don't understand. They're ignorant to the truth, believing all the shit the paps have spread." I pulled away from him and looked over at Dave and Jack, followed by the rest of the band. I sighed heavily, knowing I would probably regret this but if there was any way for them to know the real me and believe me and Cal over the papers then they needed to know the truth.

"I don't speak to my family." I announced, stepping away to catch everyone's attention. They all looked over to me expectantly, waiting for the story to continue.

"You don't have to do this..." Calum said softly but I shook my head knowing this was the only way.

"I had a best friend who I'd known since I was young, she had her own flat and in a time of desperation when I had nowhere else to go and barely any money to my name, she let me in. Her name was Amelia." They all exchanged looks purely at her name and I knew they must have recognised the name from the stories. "She let me stay in her spare room for free just as long as I kept the place looking good and let her do what she wanted to do, so I agreed. She was in a bad place though, she was into drugs and sold herself to men for the money to pay for these drugs. I wanted to stop her but at the time I was naive and didn't want her to hate me and kick me out so I just stayed out of it, locked myself in my room and let her get on with how she made her money." I could feel the emotions coming back for the millionth time. How I wish I could just escape this past and focus on my future but it always came back to bite me. "I never did drugs and I never sold myself. I stayed as far away from it as possible. Anyway, she introduced me to this guy she really liked, Kyle, who was a regular. She really fancied him and wanted to be his girlfriend but I guess he had other ideas. He came round a lot. One night, they got into a fight. Things were being smashed, voices were strained... I got scared for Amelia. For the first time, I left my room whilst someone was round. He was really laying into her and I panicked. After all she was my best friend. I called the police from my room before running out there and getting involved in the fight, trying to break it up. I threw something at his head and cut it. He got mad. He came at me and fought me instead, ended up strangling me because he found out I'd called the police on him. They got there just on time. It took two of them to peel him off me." My voice wobbled as I bit back the emotions, wishing this didn't affect me as much as it did. "Not long after, Amelia was under the influence and burst into my room claiming I'd ruined her life because I'd taken Kyle away. She overdosed shortly afterwards and I couldn't save her. The paramedics tried when they got there but it was too late." Everyone's eyes were wide and jaws hung open. I hated telling this story but they deserved to know. A single tear fell but I wiped it the moment I felt it, hoping no one would have noticed.

"She became a nurse because she wanted to help people and stop anyone else feeling like she had when she couldn't help Amelia. She felt like a failure. She picked herself back up and studied her ass off, working her way to where she is now." Calum added, his tone laced with annoyance at his friends for needing me to spill my life for them to believe me over some paparazzi stories. "I told you already, she is innocent. Why you can't just fucking believe me over some dumb news articles I will never know." The whole room looked at each other, unsure as to what to say. Dave was the first to sigh and rub his hand over his hair before he said his part.

"I'm sorry." He shrugged. "I know it was a shitty thing for me to do to leave you out there but I had to protect the band. The newspaper stories just clouded our judgment, it's difficult to make the decision when you don't really know the story or the person." I held my hand up to silence him and everyone else in the room.

"Look, I get it, you've got your job to do just like I do mine. If you still think I'm that bad, then I'll go. But that life was long gone. Kyle only just got released and he was seeking revenge. When he goes back into prison, nothing is going to come up from my past. It can't! I never took drugs. I never sold myself. I stayed away from every last crumb of it all. I was just in with the wrong crowd - and I'm not the only person in the history of the world who is going to have done that." I said my part with confidence, knowing they didn't really have a leg to stand on. "But I really like Calum, and all of you, and I think it'd be a shame to ruin the good over something I can't change in the past. But I'll leave it up to you. You guys can tell me what my future is..."