It was Saturday and Poppy had sat in her room practically all day preparing for her next set of exams. Chris took the some what quiet atmosphere as his opportunity to catch up on housework and had finished shortly after 3, since then he had claimed sole custody of the TV remote.

"Dad?" Poppy called from her room, when she didn't receive an answer she huffed audibly and poked her head out from her bedroom doorway. "Dad?" She tried again.

Chris had heard her that time and found himself lifting his head from the sofa out of habit. "Yes love."

"What's for tea?" She queried, pushing her specs on top of her head and tightening the ponytail.

It was at that point Chris felt his phone buzz, it was Tom, asking if he was going to be joining the male staff for footie training. Deciding that beer and a takeaway was more appealing, he sent off a quick reply to his co worker and close friend.

Not tonight mate, need to crack open a beer. Fancy takeaway? Bring Josh over. Might give em a break.

"Hang on." He replied, waiting for the reply. He knew Tom would be quick to, they complain about teenagers living from their phones but Tom Clarkson was just as bad.

Tom
Sounds good. I'll pick up a pack on the way

"Tom and Josh are coming around. We're grabbing a takeaway. That alright?" He checked, jumping up from the sofa he wandered towards Poppy's bedroom.

She nodded, "yup." Disappearing back into the room, Chris followed.

"Jesus Poppy." He was quick to speak when he noticed the state of the fairly sized room. "What went off in 'ere? Bomb or something?"

Poppy grinned. "No only a grenade." She chuckled, noticing the confused expression on her father's face, she explained. "I'm revising. Everything's got a certain place. It helps."

Chris shook his head and smiled softly. "You're just like your mum. You know that right?"

The Mead smiled too, it was a sad smile though. "Matt keeps reminding me."

"Well he's right."

Matt Wilding had worked on the same department as Charlotte for years and had quickly became a friend to the family, much like Tom, he cared for Poppy and Chris and often found himself appearing at their flat with fresh food and clean clothes when Charlotte died.

"Dad?" Poppy asked after a few moments of silence. "Can we go see her?"

Chris shifted slightly and Poppy knew he was going to make his excuses.

"Not today," she quickly added, "maybe when I don't know, just I want to go before you know, the anniversary." She continued quietly.

As far as she knew, Chris hadn't been to the cemetery since the day they lay Charlotte to rest but that couldn't be further from the truth. Ever since his wife died, Chris found it his duty to visit her and update her on the antics of their daughter. It was where he found solitude, knowing that his wife didn't miss out on any of the gossip, it was also a hope that she'd be able to guide him too. But of course, Poppy hadn't known.

Chris had opened his mouth ready to reply when the doorbell went, with one quick look to the door, he turned back. "We'll talk about this later." He said, leaving Poppy sat amongst all the sheets of paper she had out.

Meanwhile, it had been Tom and Josh at the door, beer in hand and menus in the other.

"You alright mate? Looks like you've seen a ghost." Tom chuckled. "Thought we'd give one of the new places down the road a whirl." Tom suggested, entering into the flat before dumping his and Josh's coats on the hooks beside the door.

"Long week." He offered as an explanation before turning to Josh. "Poppy's in her room if you want to go through, you know where it is."

Josh nodded. He had found himself at the Mead's flat on various occasions since they moved in, so the home was far from strange. "Yeah. I'll go see her now."

"Just watch your step, you might break your neck if you fall in there." Chris called over to the teenager.

"It's not that bad!" Poppy answered back, clearly Chris' comment had been loud enough for her to hear.

Turning back to Tom, he sighed. "Now. That beer?"

"Hiya." Josh beamed as he warily entered Poppy's room, clearly taking Chris' warning seriously. "Still doing the revision then?"

Poppy nodded. "It's history though."

"Makes sense" Josh agreed.

Poppy had been the only one out of the four to chose History as an AS subject so she had been preparing differently from the others for this one in particular.

"Ay watch it." Poppy cried as Josh jumped onto the bed. Leaning against the headboard as Poppy continued to jot down some notes for the exam next Tuesday.

"Seen Finn lately?" Josh asked, having been reminded of the rocky attitude that had been going on between the pair when he caught sight of one of Poppy's photos on her bedside table. It was a photo of Poppy, Finn and Sam.

Poppy snapped her head up, lifting her pen from the A4 notebook. "No. Why should I have?"

Josh shrugged. "He's been worried about you."

The Mead has been about to respond when her bedroom door opened to reveal Tom Clarkson. Seems like no one was getting their answers.

"Still keeping on top of that revision Pop?" Tom smiled as he entered the fairly sized bedroom.

"Always. You alright sir?" She asked, beginning to pack a few of her things away.

"Tom on weekends, you know that Poppy." Tom chuckled, he was sure she did it to wind him up most of the time. "Anyway, we were thinking about grabbing a Chinese? That alright with you two?"

The pair looked to each other and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm okay with that." Josh agreed.

"Sounds good to me." When Tom didn't move, Poppy guessed what was going to come next. "And I suppose it's me and Joshua here that are going to pick this up then?" She rolled her eyes but smiled all the same.

"Thanks for offering." Tom grinned.

"Alright. I'll just get changed." Poppy said, dismissing her friends dad who left to find refuge in front of the TV with a beer no doubt.

Josh laughed, "maybe you should."

Looking down Poppy noticed the incredibly miss matched outfit she had been wearing which had included an oversized rugby shirt and some fluffy pyjama bottoms.

Jumping up, she moved towards her wardrobe and began rooting through her clothes. "I seriously have too many." She muttered. "Josh? Have a look in my bag, see if my hoodie's in there."

Josh quickly did as he was asked. "This animal bag?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's the one." Poppy said, pulling up the jeans she had chosen to wear, not looking at her friend.

Josh did as he was told and lifted the hoodie from the bag, pulling the contents with it. "Crap." He muttered, before handing over the hoodie. "Here you are".

The contents of the bag had been scattered across the floor, it hadn't been until he noticed the shining of packaging on the floor Josh's eyes widened, picking the packet up he instantly recognised the label for it, he himself had been prescribed diazepam on a few occasions as they began his treating him for Schizophrenia. At first he had hoped that they remained untouched but had been forced to scrap that thought when he noticed that at least half of the tray was empty.

"Poppy?" He began, his voice flat.

"Yeah?" She smiled as she turned to face her best friend but that soon dropped when she caught the pill packet out the corner of her eye. "I- Josh- I can- I can explain."

"You better and fast" Josh said, anger and confusion growing anger in his voice. "Is this what you've been hiding?" Unable to get an answer from his friend, Josh continued "Your Dad needs to know."

"No!" Poppy shook her head violently. "Are you stupid or something? My dad will kill me!" She exclaimed, in a harsh whisper. "Don't you think he's got enough going on?"

"You're his daughter Poppy. He's gonna want to know if you're destroying yourself for god knows what reason!"

Poppy scoffed. "I'm hardly destroying myself! They're harmless."

Josh shook his head, "so what? You're just going to wait until it's too late to tell your Dad you need help?"

"I don't need help." Poppy rolled her eyes. "I just need you to keep that mouth of yours shut." She warned, jabbing her finger in Josh's direction.

Josh couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "If you don't tell him, then I will Poppy. I will."

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