Night shift - Completed

Chapter 52

Calum's PoV

I could see them all deliberating, working it all out inside their heads, processing all the information she had told them. It annoyed me that it even had to get that far. Why should she have to tell people that aren't close to her what happened in her life? Why did Dave and Jack deserve to know? She was honest with me, told me straight away and gave me the chance to tell her if it would be too much for me to handle - which was more than I did for her! I never told her who I was or what I did and she had to find out from some dumb tv show. Everything about our meeting, friendship and short lived relationship could have gone a lot better, but we dealt with the hands we were given and had to just get through it. My eyes shot over to Luke, who was whispering some stuff to Ashton and Michael, before moving to the two security guards who were the people I really had to convince. The reason we'd had that argument was because they'd spoken to management, who were having a hard time stopping the news articles from badmouthing me and the band for letting someone in that was 'as bad' as Poppy who according to these reports was a drug addicted prostitute. Anyone who knew her knew that wasn't true but of course, paps don't care.

"I don't want to speak out of turn here." Ashton was the first to speak up, his cheeks blushing red as all eyes suddenly fell on him. "But I really like Poppy. She's been honest and genuine with us from the beginning. Calum has been a different person since she met her, and that's a good thing. Hell, the whole reason we met her was because he was trying to drink away his sorrows." I shot an embarrassed look over to Poppy who merely smiled back. "She was willing to tell us stuff she didn't need to just so we knew the story." I nodded in agreement, my glare remaining on Dave and Jack to prove a point. Surely I'm not the only person who can see the good in Poppy?

"Alright." Dave said, hand up to silence us all. "At the end of the day it isn't our decision. Calum can date who he wants. It's management that have the power to persuade him otherwise. Let me feed this information back to them, they may be able to do something to clear up this mess."

"I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to come up. They didn't tell me he was being released. I moved three towns over just to start again, to get away from it all. I really didn't want anyone to get involved in this mess." Poppy spoke with regret and depression in her voice. I could tell she was hating every moment of this, knowing her life could be ruining ours. She wanted nothing but good for me, for any of us, but somehow these guys weren't as willing to return the favour.

"It's not your fault. We've all got history." Luke added, shrugging his shoulders. I could feel she was nervous and I remained tense, wondering what else could possibly come up from this. There were things I hadn't had a chance to tell her yet and the last thing I needed was that lot spurting it out to her in such a fragile state.

"Just tell Calum to stop being a dick when he gets emotional." Michael reiterated, glaring at me for what I'd said to him earlier on. He was only trying to help me but I shot him down.

"Alright!" I replied, "I'm sorry. I just got carried away..." I held back from rolling my eyes. This wasn't even about us at the moment. We should all be focusing on Poppy. "Now, if you don't mind, can I have some time with Poppy?" My eyebrows were raised in seriousness, waiting for someone to answer. When silence greeted me, I put my arm around Poppy and led her to my room, away from their judging eyes. As soon as the door was shut, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Wow. That was intense." She managed to say, running her fingers through her hair.

"I'm sorry about them. Management control them and they weren't happy with the stories. They obviously don't know you and it all got a bit heated. We all like you Poppy, I wouldn't worry about that. Management can fire me for all I care, I wouldn't give you up." I stroked my fingers against her cheek before cupping her face in my hand. The sparks flew through my fingertips and into my veins. The mere touch of her made me go crazy, especially when we'd been apart for some time.

"I love you Calum." She said quickly but a feeling of regret seemed to hit her straight afterwards. I wasn't sure if it was regret of saying the words or the speed in which she had said it but she didn't seem best pleased with herself. With my hand still cupped round her face, I pulled her closer as I readied myself to kiss her. Normally she would fall straight into me, our lips meeting in a passionate affair. Only this time that didn't happen. She hesitated, froze and then pulled herself away from me. I could feel my chest tightening as she did so, making me feel hurt for the first time. She could tell the hurt in my eyes, so she spoke almost instantly. "Cal I'm sorry. I need to tell you something." She took another step away from me as she gained the courage to speak. From the way she was acting, I knew it had to be something about that fight but what would she tell me that would upset me? Don't get me wrong, I was fucking livid at Kyle for leaving bruises and cuts on such a beautiful girl, but I could never be mad at her. Why was she acting so scared of me? My silence told her to continue. "God, I really don't know how to say this Calum. I'm so sorry..." I could already see the tears filling her eyes. "When Kyle was fighting me, he was over me and there was no way I could get out. He was going to kill me..." the tears began to fall already. I desperately wanted to comfort her but she'd spaced herself far enough away that I couldn't. "He was punching me so badly and I knew there was no escape so I had to..." Her sentence dulled as she began to break down in front of me. "I kissed him." I looked away for a second, biting my lips together to try and hide my feelings as she carried on the story. Let her tell it Cal, or you'll regret it. "He relaxed into it and I kicked him in the balls, which gave me enough time to run to the paps. Cal, I hated every second of it and I'm really really sorry but I just couldn't think of any other way to get out of it. He was going to kill me!" She brought her hands to her face as she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't quite know how to feel. I was mad, hurt, angry, sad, frustrated... but that was all aimed at Kyle. Poppy had only done that to save herself. When a monster like that is over you, you do what you can to save yourself. I walked over to her and pulled her into me, letting her cry on my shoulder.

"I'm not angry at you, Poppy. You did what you had to. I'm just grateful that you're okay and got out of it relatively unharmed. Sure it's not nice to hear, but that doesn't change how I feel about you." I soothed as i stroked her hair with my hand.

"I don't know what I did to deserve you." She cried into me. "Thank you so much."

"Don't worry Poppy." I whispered. "I love you."