Poppy's PoV

That was all it took for the next load of shit to come churning out of the paparazzi articles and clickbait stories. I sat on the edge of the bed as I scrolled the many stories that were littering my newsfeed. It had barely been a few hours.

Has Poppy found a Better Man with Ashton?
Ashton gets More from Poppy
Poppy's Moving Along with new relationship
Did Poppy Lie To Me? 5SOS Calum opens up
Ashton's new Valentine

I stopped scrolling as my heart hammered in my chest. How could Bex spout such rubbish in front of some radio DJs and not expect them to talk about it as soon as we had left? Suddenly, everything seemed tense once more as we had yet another hurdle to get over with my parents coming over. I knew they'd eat this up and they'd spit some venomous remark about how I was ruining Will's image with my debauchery despite none of it being accurate.

"Pops? You okay?" Calum walked into our room with a towel wrapped around his waist, stray water dripping from his hair and falling onto his chest, making it gleam in the light. Normally I'd love the sight, I'd want to revel in it and make the most of it but right now I felt like everything was crashing down on me. Sam was right, I needed to stay open and just tell Calum what was wrong every time he asked. I sighed heavily.

"There are articles about it everywhere." I said as I stroked my baby bump to try to soothe myself once again. The little one must have known I needed cheering up as they suddenly danced around and threw out a few kicks and punches. I smiled down at them. He let out a sigh too as he walked over and sat beside me, putting an arm around my shoulders and giving them a squeeze.

"Don't worry yourself with mindless news articles. Let's just try to get this meeting out of the way and we can spend some quality time together and relax. You look like you could use a massage." I let out a breathy laugh as I nodded.

"Seeing as a bottle of vodka is out of the question, a massage sounds lovely." Calum smiled in return. I looked down at my phone once more and suddenly took in the time. I straightened where I sat and threw my phone on the bed . "I need to get ready, I'll start prepping the food." I rushed as I quickly stood up and threw a maternity dress on, putting my slippers on as I shuffled into the kitchen to make some food. I was keeping it simple with a vegetable risotto and some brownies for pudding. I quickly made a salad and cut some fresh bread for starter with different pâtés, spreads and cheeses. As I lay it out on the table, the doorbell went and I froze on the spot, suddenly not sure if I could even face them. Come on Poppy, you've beat cancer, Kyle, Naomi. You can handle your nonexistent parents.
I breathed out heavily as I headed to the door, composing my thoughts before I opened the door and let the two people I barely knew into my home with a fake greeting. They strode in like it was their second home, instantly getting comfortable on the sofa without so much as saying the house or I looked nice, or looked at the spread I'd laid out for them to eat at the table. Calum headed into the front room and shook hands with them both as he greeted them, desperately trying to make a good first impression - again.

"Thank you for coming." He said smoothly. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Black coffee." My dad muttered without manners.

"A water, please." My mum spoke slightly better but still the mere sound of their voices was making my skin crawl. I dragged myself into the front room and sat opposite them, placing my hands in between my knees as I waited for Calum to come back before we started talking to them. They did their best to act like statues, barely looking around, blinking or speaking until he handed them their drinks. They were like wind up toys, or ones you needed to put money into for them to start up.

"So..." I said, hesitant on how I could even start this conversation. It was going downhill no matter what I did.

"I think you should apologise for how you spoke to us in the street yesterday. That was very rude and embarrassing." My dad began, his booming voice always coming across like he was shouting at me. I mean, most of the time he was but that small percentage of time he wasn't, it still seemed like it. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"I don't know why you think you deserve an apology?" I snapped, knowing I really wasn't helping from the start. "I'm fed up of this back and forth and frankly I've got worse things to worry about right now. If you want to try and be in my life that's fine, but you've got to accept it for what it is. I'm not Will and I never will be. We are two different people. I have my own life and my own mind. If you don't want to be in my life, or want to spend every minute picking on me and my flaws then there's the door." I tried to phrase it as nicely as I could. I was fed up of all this tension and awkwardness. If they wanted to try, I was willing to try. But I knew they couldn't help it. They had to bully me.

"Will would never be seen on the front page of a newspaper with doubts as to who their child is with." My mum said, hinting at the articles.

"They're fake." Calum added in, cutting that conversation dead.

"That's what you think. Truth will be told when the kid comes out with dark features or light." My dad laughed mockingly at Calum, causing him to slump in the chair.

"That's not fair." I snapped. "I know I've been faithful. This is just paps clutching at straws." I huffed as I moved the starters onto the table in front of them. They barely looked at it, let alone ate it.

"Or you're giving them the information again. You know Will is doing well and you want to do one better. It was always the way. You always wanted to act better than everyone else." My mum shrugged, my jaw tightening as I bit my lips shut. "First you wanted to imply we weren't fair parents, then that we weren't looking after your brother properly, then you took off and cut us off even when we tried to reach out." That was it. I couldn't handle anything more coming from their mouths.

"Reach out? When? My best friend died, I nearly lost everything whilst I studied, I was going through so much then and you never even tried to talk to me. When I got cancer, you weren't there. When I struggled with Calum, you weren't there. You don't know anything about us and that's probably for the best. You'd probably sell it to the paps just to spite me." I stood up and headed for the door but stopped with my hand around the handle as my parents responded.

"You ungrateful little cow." My dad snarled. "I've had it up to here with you and your rudeness. Your child will grow up terribly with you two as parents, if he even is the dad." He looked over at Calum with disgust etched on his face. My hand dropped to the side as I spun round, fire in my eyes for how they spoke to my husband.

"You know what? At least I can say I tried. I put this together for us to talk as adults but you clearly can't do it. Spend all that effort and energy on my brother, he clearly needs it. I'm good without you. Please leave now."