Night shift - Completed

Chapter 53

Poppy's PoV

Some days had passed since I'd come out of the hospital, but I was still distancing myself from everyone. Calum was being an amazing man. He was checking up on me, giving me words of encouragement and trying to build up my confidence as every day went by but still, that fight and the words Kyle had said had stuck to me like a leech, slowly sucking the life out of me just as it had done the first time. That time, though, I had nursing to concentrate on. This time, I had nothing to fully take my mind off of it. That was what I'd thought anyway.

"Poppy?" A knock at my door brought me from my thoughts as Michael's voice called out. I got up and opened the door, revealing him fully dressed and ready to go somewhere.

"What's up Mike?" I tried to smile but with my thoughts weighing me down it didn't come out quite as I intended.

"Management has scheduled a private show for ABC, it's an acoustic. Crystal, Bex and Sierra are going and they were asking if you were coming too?" He smiled excitedly at me, knowing they wanted to see me again. I did miss them, and all the guys, and hadn't yet heard them in action. Maybe this was exactly what I needed to take my mind off things? I smiled a more genuine one this time as I nodded.

"Sure thing. How long do I have to get ready?" He clapped in happiness as he heard my answer.

"About fifteen minutes?" He said as he backed away from my door, knowing I needed every second to get myself looking half decent. Those girls always dressed amazingly, so I could hardly turn up in joggers and an oversized T-shirt. I rummaged through what I had and quickly picked out a pair of blue skinny jeans and a spaghetti strap black silk shirt. I paired those with some small strapped heels and then headed to the bathroom to do my hair and makeup. Luckily, I was ready within the fifteen minutes. We bundled in the minivan that had taken us to the club that day, and headed for the ABC studios where the boys went straight to rehearsals while the girls went to the cafe to catch up.

"It's so nice to see you again!" Crystal pulled me into a hug. "You look amazing!"

"Yeah, especially after what happened!" Bex said, regretting it instantly as Sierra slapped her in the arm. She scolded her quietly in the hope I wouldn't hear it.

"It's fine." I laughed. "It's amazing what makeup can do." I said, doing a pretty pose as I lightened the mood again, making them all laugh.

"So is this your first time out with the band? Like hearing their music?" Bex asked. I nodded quickly.

"Is it yours too?" I responded, and she nodded back straight away too. It was great to know someone else was feeling the same nerves that I was about this day. Not only were they performing songs for a music piece ABC were presenting about them but they also were going to do a small interview afterwards. I was nervous that they'd bring me up, or anything about what had happened in the last few weeks, and it would really dampen the day.

"It'll be fine. They hardly ever ask about the girlfriends." Sierra added, seeing the looks on both mine and Bex's face.

"Well it's never been this dramatic and-" once again, Sierra slapped Bex in the arm to shut her up.

"I'm thinking the same though." I finally voiced my emotions. "Despite all the news articles being proved wrong, they could still bring them up." I shrugged, downing the last of my lukewarm latte. Crystal checked her phone for the time and quickly shot to her feet.

"Quick, they start in five minutes! We've been chatting for ages!" Crystal downed her drink, followed by the others as we all rushed back to the room where the boys were sat down with acoustic instruments, ready to play. There were a few paps, a large group of fans and some tech staff from ABC already in the room, making it feel a little crowded for my liking. Crystal pulled me alongside her as we headed to a few reserved seats at the side, just for us. I breathed a sigh of relief as we sat down, knowing that I wasn't going to have to be shoulder to shoulder with everyone else.

"You'll enjoy it, don't worry!" Crystal smiled at me once more before the audience were hushed and the camera lights went red, signifying they were recording.

They were amazing live. So much energy and passion was put into every song. The fans absolutely adored them and sung every word along with them, even adding parts after certain sentences which made the boys grin. It was honestly one of the most amazing things I'd seen. Never had I seen a bond quite like that between them and their fans. The show whizzed by, playing song after song in quick succession and soon, they were announcing it was the final song of the set. As with all shows that you attend, it finished before you knew it and you don't know how an hour had even passed you by. They thanked all the fans and stepped closer to the edge of the stage to high five and shake hands with some of them. That's when it all happened so quickly.
Someone in the crowd pulled Michael by his hand and he fell off the stage, his guitar still around him. Crystal let out a scream as he landed with a thud on the floor. The wiring still attached to the guitar yanked a huge speaker forwards as it came crashing down towards Ashton.

"ASHTON MOVE!" I shouted and without hesitation he threw himself away from it just as two men ran to try and hold it up. Security began removing all the fans as the four of us girls jumped the rope to help. I ran straight over to Michael with Crystal.

"Mike?" I asked as he sat up, a hand covering one side of his face. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Peachy." He snapped as he pulled his hand away, revealing a large cut on the side of his face. Crystal brought her hands up to her face in shock.

"It's fine, don't worry. I can fix that in a minute." I said like it was no big deal as I began looking round the room for something to hold over the cut. "I'll just need to find a first aid box." I shot to my feet and ran over to one of the security men that worked in the studio, explaining the situation and asking for the nearest first aid box or room. He told me it was backstage down the corridor, the third door on the left. I thanked him as I headed back to Michael, helping him to his feet as we followed the directions and went straight into a first aid room. To my delight, a doctor already sat in the room and quickly jumped to work when he saw Michael's face. I said my goodbyes to the couple and said I wanted to check on the others, so swiftly left the room and headed back to the stage just in time to hear an almighty boom and a roar of someone in pain.

This is not how this was meant to turn out.