Sophie watched as the movers had unpacked Calum's last box. He had officially downgraded from his amazing bachelor pad into a smaller apartment that he claimed felt more like home.
"Rich, be gentle with that one! That one has all the glass!" One of the men yelled. The man holding the box cringed and slowly bent down to put the box down instead of throwing it like he had been doing before.
"Fine, sorry," The other man apologized, beginning to open the box to reveal a beautiful vinyl plaque for the 5 Seconds of Summer 'Sounds Good Feels Good' album, "Hey, my daughter loves this band. You a fan?"
Sophie didn't respond, "Oh are you- yeah, you could say that!"
The man smiled and continued to rummage through the box to empty it. As he continued, he noticed there were more and more albums and one vinyl plaque dedicated to Calum Hood. Slowly, Sophie watched as the man realized that Sophie may have been way more than just a fan. The two men were able to connect the dots, they were moving all male items into a female's home where there were tons of baby items. What type of grown man with a child would be super into 5 Seconds of Summer unless he was in the band itself?
"Oh WOW!" The man exclaimed after he had realized whose stuff he was moving, "My daughter's gonna get such a kick out of this!" Before Sophie could stop him, he had taken out his phone and took a picture of the vinyl records. Sophie just stood there in silence watching with a small smile. She especially didn't want to yell because Kai was in her arms sleeping peacefully, and she hadn't gotten enough of those moments lately.
"Thank you for helping out," Sophie smiled, insisting that it was time for them to move since the job was now officially finished.
"No problem,"The first man stated.
"I'll pay online?" Sophie asked.
"Yes, you can go on the Online Portal to pay. Thank you Ms. Li," The second man smiled, straightening his back and getting ready to leave.
Sophie saw the two of them out the door and went to go sit on the couch with Kai to do nothing. Recently, it had become a favorite activity of hers. Within a few minutes, Calum burst in with three bags of groceries and a bit of sweat on his forehead.
"These baaaags are heavy," Calum huffed.
"There's no way you're that sweaty from just that," Sophie laughed.
"I haven't had time to work out that much, I'm working on my dad bod instead," Calum replied. Sophie looked him up and down, no matter what Calum said that 'dad bod' wasn't forming. He still managed to keep his chiseled frame.
"Work on unloading the car too," Sophie grinned.
"Fine, fine. Only since I lo-like you so much," Calum replied, correcting himself. He had remembered that the first time he said I love you, it didn't go too well. Sophie had completely shut down over the words but had allowed him to move in with her. He didn't wanna push his luck by shoving his love in her face.
"Thanks, babe," Sophie teased.
"Babe...? Calum challenged.
"Thanks, pookie," Sophie corrected herself.
"What's a pookie?" Calum's eyes furrowed.
"Just go finish putting the groceries and come take Kai from me, I wanna take a shower," Sophie replied.
"Yes m'am," Calum saluted and went back to the car to retrieve more of the groceries.
By the time Calum had finished unloading the car and the groceries, Sophie had been preparing herself for a nice, warm shower. Crazy enough, a shower was a reward and a gift to be away from Kai for a second. As much as she loved Kai, she loved not being responsible for anything for just a few minutes.
After her shower, Sophie had checked her phone. For some reason, there were thousands of Instagram requests and dms. She didn't look at all the dms, but the first one she saw was from a user called 5sosstan4eva.
5sosstan4eva: You're Kai's mom?!? You're kinda ugly, why would Calum pick a girl like you.
Sophie left the message on read and ran out of the shower.
"CAL!" She shouted from inside the bathroom.
"What, what's wrong?" He asked coming running in with Kai.
"How could you? I told you I wanted to be private! First, this I love you crap. Second, you tell the whole world about me!!! Very mature, breaking my trust just because I didn't say I love you back-"
"Soph, I don't know what you're talking about," Calum interrupted, "I didn't tell anyone. I swear. Just the boys and my family know. I didn't tell-"
"Explain this," Sophie interrupted shoving her phone in his face, so he could read all the messages. In that moment, Kai began crying, so Sophie snatched Calum from him and stomped away to try to mend whatever was wrong with Kai.
As Kai wailed, Sophie fidgeted to check his diaper. In her cloud of rage, Sophie accidentally pulled on the wrong tag causing the diaper to collapse in her hands. There was nothing in it, but immediately Kai peed in her face. There was nothing she could do to stop the stream, so she put her hands up in defense of herself.
Sophie then turned around to see Calum standing there.
"You just missed it," She groaned, "I gotta hop back in the shower."
"I'll take care of him, I'm sorry. I swear, I didn't tell anyone anything," Calum spoke.
"It's whatever," Sophie replied putting Kai in Calum's arms and running off back to the shower. This time, when she got out she noticed there were even more hateful messages on even more platforms of the internet.
Sophie burst into audible sobs. In her opinion, Calum's fans were right. She wasn't good enough to be with him, yet alone be raising his child. Deep down she knew she would never be good enough to date a guy like Calum, so why even entertain the idea? Why even play house together like they were going to raise this child together forever?
Thirty minutes passed of Sophie sobbing in the bathroom, and then she heard a gentle knock on the door.
"Soph, can I come in?" Calum requested.
"No, it really won't help, go watch Kai" Sophie replied.
"I put Kai down for a nap, I have his baby monitor in my hands, but he's fine right now. Do you wanna talk? Soph, I promise I didn't leak anything and my friends and family would never either," Calum spoke, his voice a little muffled by the door.
Sophie sighed and wrapped a towel around herself. She opened the door for Calum and slid to the floor. Calum followed and slid to the floor with her.
"Let me hold you," Calum spoke, attempting to gaze into Sophie's eyes to get any type of reaction back. Sophie slightly leaned up against Calum's broad shoulders, and let the tears stream.
Calum wrapped his arms around Sophie, holding the towel up against her body so it wouldn't fall down. He felt like she was already vulnerable enough. Even though he had already seen her body, he didn't think now would be an appropriate time to see it again.
"If it wasn't you, then who was it?" Sophie asked in between sobs.
"I don't know, but it's not a big deal Soph. The fans, they love you," Calum replied, showing him all the comments on his most recent post with Kai. There were tons of comments like, "I'm so jealous", "I wish I could be Sophie", "I bet you're so cute together". However, Sophie could only focus on the negative comments that had been criticizing her personality and looks.
"They don't," Sophie replied, "I don't wanna be seen as Calum Hood's baby momma. I've worked so hard to be my own person, have my own career, and even fix subtle things like my hair and fashion sense. Now, I'm watching as everything is crumbling in front of me and how people are noticing the flaws in everything I've been trying to fix since the beginning of time."
"You're not just that. You're Sophie Li. A strong, independent woman, whose probably heard this phrase a thousand times and thought it was corny. You're selfless, you care a lot about everyone and anyone. You're the most hardworking woman I've ever seen, hell I can't believe you want to go back into work next week. I admire you, I wish I could be more like you. The fans are just jealous, they want to be like you too. They see a beautiful, amazing woman with the intelligence of... of Albert Einstein," Calum spoke, everything rolling off of his tongue so fluently. It was as if he had that speech prepared his entire life.
"It still hurts," Sophie managed to croak out.
"I know. I'm sorry, it'll continue hurting. I'm here for you though. The Sophie I know isn't anything of what the fans are accusing you of, and I didn't even mention the looks thing yet because they have to be blind if they're calling you ugly. You're drop-dead gorgeous," Calum replied with a smile, hoping that Sophie would smile back.
Instead, Sophie's tears kept flowing and she remained silent on Calum's shoulder.
"I'm sorry. You're perfect to me and Kai, especially Kai. That's all that matters," Calum softly caressed Sophie's cheek, staying silent with her on the bathroom floor.