‘No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear,’

C.S.Lewis

Chapter Seven

Azelie’s day had been completely and utterly boring. She had done nothing but serve coffee and hand out various plates of food all day, but then at twenty past five, he walked in, laughing and joking with his friends as her world stopped.

“Azelie!” a loud voice yelled, echoing around the gallery, customers turning around with angry expression on their face to see who had broken the quiet hush of the café, only for a look of terror to form on their faces as they all suddenly began to down their coffees in order for them get away as quickly as possible. Kelly practically skipped over to the counter that Azelie was leaning against, her pink hair up in a bun and her blue eyes shining brightly, wearing a simple oversized grey hoodie and a pair of black skinny jeans, paired with a pair of high-top converses. “I didn’t know you worked here!”A smile lit up Azelie’s features as she looked back at Kelly.

“My uncle owns the gallery, I just work every so often,” she replied looking at Kelly who was leaning forward on the opposite side counter to where Azelie now stood. Her gaze was suddenly torn away from Kelly as she realised who she was here with, Cole and Alex standing directly behind her - looking almost as cute as the first day she had seen them.

The gaze of her golden brown eyes landed on Cole, his green eyes staring directly back at her. Her heart began to pound slightly in her chest as the adrenaline from her jump began to resurface, questions beginning to pour round her head. Was he going to bring it up in front of them? She knew for a fact that despite only knowing Azelie for little less than a week, Kelly would probably personally see to it that she never crossed another bridge again if she knew what had happened. Suddenly, Cole’s gaze looked away from her, scanning across the room, landing anywhere but on Azelie, not knowing how to act around her after the events of yesterday morning, his mind going into overdrive over the various possibilities. Azelie smiled. He couldn’t even look at her for too long; the events of yesterday were safe.

“Aw, that’s ace! We just came in for coffee; do you want to join us?” Kelly replied, “Or have you got work to do?”

“Em let me just clean up a little and I can come over! We are closing soon anyway,” she smiled, replying quickly, “Just three coffees?”

“Yeah, we will just go find a table,” Kelly smiled, the guys already searching for a table. Azelie quickly started the machine up to make the three coffees while loading up the dishwasher with the dirty plates. It was almost half an hour until the café shut and so it was very unlikely that she would get new customers in. Azelie quickly poured the hot liquid into the coffee mugs before making her way over to the table. It was only now that she noticed that most of the people in the café had left in the last two minute or so, due to Kelly’s presence. Azelie shrugged it off as she walked over to the table they had chosen, pulling out a seat next to Kelly.

“I’m guessing they all avoid you?” Azelie questioned with a smirk, her gaze turning to her colourful friend.

“Who?” she questioned, her blue eyes turning to Azelie as Alex let out a laugh, catching on to what Azelie was saying.

“Everyone in this town! Everyone who was here has left since you’ve arrived!” Azelie said, glancing around to the now empty café, the last few people who were running out of the door.

“Oh yeah... I have a tiny bit of a reputation,” Kelly smiled, grabbing her mug of coffee and taking a sip, avoiding Azelie’s gaze.

“A tiny bit of a reputation? Kelly, I don’t think there has been a bigger understatement in the history of the English language!” Alex laughed, looking at Kelly with his hazel eyes.

“That’s not nice,” Kelly huffed, “Why can’t they just get over it anyway!”

“What happened? Should I be scared?” Azelie questioned, looking around the table, hating the fact that everyone knew something that she didn’t.

“You should be scared,” Cole spoke for the first time, pulling Azelie’s attention over to him, her eyes taking in his messy brown hair, noticing how it was somehow just as messy as the day before. He had been telling himself that he was just going to keep quiet while Azelie was sitting with them, but that quickly flown out the window, “Especially if you’re hanging around with this crazy!”

“You guys are mean!” Kelly cried with a high pitched whine, “Go get lost somewhere and re-create Brokeback Mountain!”

“HEY! That’s a good film!” Alex shouted at Kelly standing up, a smirk inching to break out on his lips. Alex and Kelly just stared at each other, their eyes wide, both not blinking as they entered a staring contest. Cole just rolled his eyes at the people he called his best friends, wondering why he even gave them the title to begin with.

“Will somebody please tell me why the hell Kelly cleared out the café!” Azelie cried, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group, Alex tearing away from Kelly’s gaze as he sat back down, looking over at Azelie.

“It all started when Kelly was eight,” He began, his hazel eyes practically glowing with joy

“Nine - I was nine!” Kelly interrupted, Alex simply looking over at her.

“Do you want to tell the story, or will you let me?” He questioned. Kelly let out a sigh, rolling her eyes at him as she motioned with her hand for him to continue.

“It all started when Kelly was nine, and it was the spring fair, and we were having some kind of weird torch lighting ceremony, and Kelly here was picked out of our whole class, and was entrusted the job of going around the torch to ward off evil. She was just supposed to run up the main street, nothing more. However, what nobody realised at that point, was that she was a self-confessed pyromaniac!” Alex continued, a smirk growing on his lips. “She burnt down the gala tent, most of the gala itself, four houses nearby. All she had to do was run down a street, and she ended up causing the most chaos the town had ever seen. Ever since then, nobody in the town has trusted Kelly with anything - I’m pretty sure the teachers don’t even trust her!”

“How the hell did you manage to burn down so much?” Cole questioned, a smile playing on his lips as he turned to his pink haired friend.

“I don’t know! I was nine! I just threw the blasted torch away and everything just kinda caught fire! Honestly it was an accident, I’d only had matches before so how was I supposed to know how much damage it would do?” She replied, rolling her eyes, a glint of joy evident in the deep pools of her blue eyes.

“It’s called common sense, Kelly,” Alex replied.

“Well, I’m too awesome for common sense!” Kelly smiled, looking over at Alex, “Besides the houses that burnt down were ugly as anything - I practically did the town a favor!” Azelie just rolled her eyes at all three of them, laughing slightly at their bickering. They honestly sounded like siblings the way they argued, but then Azelie noticed how Alex looked at Kelly - she defiantly wasn’t just a sister to him. A smiled crept up on her lips as she watched Alex, how he looked at her, how his face would light up whenever she laughed. He was completely and utterly in love with Kelly, and she didn’t have a clue.

The ringing of Azelie’s phone suddenly pulled her out of her day dream, vibrating in her hand as she pulled it out of her pocket. She quickly realised that it was an alarm to remind her that she had five minutes to get to her appointment.

“Guys, I need to close up, sorry!” She quickly apologized, hoping that they would understand. Instantly, the group smiled understandingly as they stood up and collecting up their coffee cups.

“It’s fine! You said you were near closing time anyway!” Alex smiled, waving away Azelie’s apology.

“Do you need any help clearing up?” Kelly questioned, smiling over at her friend.

“No, no, it’s fine, thank you! It’s all cleared up! I just have somewhere I need to be in like 5 minutes,” Azelie smiled, quickly picking up the pile of cups and walking behind the café counter and placing the mugs in the dishwasher and putting it on so it would be washed for the next morning. Alex, Kelly and Cole all stood up from their seats, tucking them in under the table before walking over to the counter to pay for their coffees.

“How much is it for our coffees?” Kelly questioned, Cole staying quietly behind the group.

“On the house,” Azelie smiled, quickly grabbing her jacket and pulling it over her uniform and zipping it up.

“It’s fine, really, we can pay,” Alex argued, not wanting to get Azelie into trouble for giving out free coffees.

“I know you can pay, but it’s on the house! Honestly, it’s fine,” Azelie smiled, “But I do really need to go,” The group nodded, each thanking Azelie for their coffee as they followed her out of the café, stopping to wait as she set the security alarm and locked up the café.

“Where are you going?” Kelly questioned politely. Thoughts flew Azelie’s brain as she tried to figure out what the tell them. She couldn’t tell them the truth. That she was going to see a therapist because she had night terrors that haunted her sleep. That she was practically clinically insane. Especially since Cole was there, then he would defiantly think that she had tried to kill herself the other day.

“Just home, I told my uncle that I would be home by a certain time,” she lied, Cole catching something in her eyes telling him that she was lying. It was the same thing he saw on the bridge.

“Do you want me to walk with you?” He suddenly offered, the words spewing out of his mouth before he even had a chance to think them through. Kelly and Alex did a complete 360, their mouths hanging open at Cole. To them, he had only met Azelie twice, and even then he hadn’t spoken much to her - to them, they were complete strangers.

“Em,” Azelie replied, caught off guard by Cole’s question. She really just wanted to avoid him as much as possible. He already knew too much about her from yesterday, and even just sitting with his friends. She was terrified that if they were alone, that there would be nothing stopping him from bringing up the events of yesterday. “No, I’m fine thank you,” She smiled, ignoring Kelly in the background who was nodding her head violently, trying to tell Azelie to agree. Cole didn’t say anything in reply, just nodded smiling, partly happy that she had refused because he hadn’t thought the offer through; but at the same time, he wanted to talk to her.

“Well, see you Monday then,” Kelly said, looking less than pleased as she rolled her eyes at Azelie’s answer.

“See ya,” Azelie smiled before waving and walking up the street, Kelly, Alex and Cole in the opposite direction.

Relief filled Azelie as she walked further and further away. He hadn’t brought it up nor had he tried to talk to her about it. She had escaped; or so she thought.

She was halfway up the street when she heard her name behind shouted from behind her.

“AZELIE! AZELIE! Wait up!” She let out a sigh and dropped her head, before turning around to see Cole running closer to her.

“What’s up?” Azelie questioned, as he got closer.

“I can walk you home, honestly, I don’t mind,” He smiled as he stood next to her, trying to catch his breath from running after her.

“I can walk myself there you know! It’s honestly not that far!” Azelie replied, rolling her eyes. She really didn’t want him to walk her to the therapist. He thought she was going to her house, which was in the opposite direction, how was she supposed to explain to him when she stepped inside her therapists clinic instead.

“Look, I really don’t mind - and if Kelly finds out that I ended up just leaving you to make your own way home, well, she threatened to cut off my balls and stuff them down my throat! And quite frankly I plan on keeping my balls attached to where they should be,” Cole smirked, but Azelie could tell that he was serious.

“Just go home, honestly, I’ll just tell Kelly that you walked me home and that’s that,” Azelie answered, turning away to walk off but Cole grabbed her arm to stop her.

“It will honestly be a lot easier if you just let me walk you home,” Azelie just shook her head.

“Honestly, I’ll be fine,”

“Is that what you thought when you let go of the rail yesterday?” He said, not thinking through his words before he spoke. Azelie’s eyes went wide before she let out a little laugh, trying to hide the emotion it brought up inside of her.

“Yes, and it worked out perfectly for me - didn’t it!” Azelie cried, her voice rising slightly.

“Only because I was there to pull you back!” Cole replied quickly,

“I would have been perfectly fine without you!” She responded, trying to turn away from Cole so she could get to her appointment. Any longer arguing with Cole and she would be late.

“Well, I seriously doubt that...” He muttered, only loud enough for Azelie to hear.

“I would have been! Honestly, Cole I would-”

“Would have been perfectly fine being swept down the river in the freezing water, not managing to reach the bottom because it’s so deep? Yes, that’s how I would have described being perfectly fine!” He interrupted, their argument falling to a silence.

“Are you trying to say that I now can’t even walk down the street without needing your help?” Azelie suddenly said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. If there was one thing for sure; it was that Azelie never lost an argument.

“No, I’m saying that if Kelly finds out - which she will - that I let you walk home alone, she will have my bloody balls! Kelly always carried out her threats!”

“Look I have to go! She will not find out - I promise! We can continue this lovely argument another time - goodbye!” Azelie shouted, yanking her arm out of Cole’s grasp as she stormed back up the street. She practically ran up the rest of the street, trying to get away from Cole. She pushing open the glass door to her therapist’s office, hoping that Cole hadn’t followed her, praying over and over in her head that he had just given up and gone home at she had run off - that he didn’t know where she was.

Cole stood in the middle of the street, watching Azelie run up the street away from him, his feet practically glued to the concrete sidewalk. Why did she have to argue with everything he said? He only wanted to walk her home, to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid, and she would have argued about it with him until the end of time! Why did she push him away like that - it wasn’t like he was hitting on her or anything! He suddenly regained control of his feet as he began to run after her.

Cole had to admit, the speed that Azelie had run off it - it was almost as fast as he could run, maybe even faster! He quickly managed to catch up with her, still keeping his distance. He was sure that she was going in the completely opposite way to her house. He watched her stop outside a building, and his run instantly fell to a halt as he hid behind a parked car on the street. Azelie look down the street, her brown eyes scanning the street, making sure that Cole wasn’t following her as she opened the glass door to a building and stepped inside.

Cole knew what the building was, he had visited it when he was younger, but he still needed to check. He waited a few minutes until he knew that he wouldn’t be caught by Azelie. He quickly came out of hiding, as he walked slowly up the street to the building that Azelie had walked up to, reading the metal plaque on the brick wall next to the door.

‘Dr. Elaine Gardener - Therapist,’

He didn’t know why he was shocked to find out that she was visiting a therapist - after yesterday morning he would have recommended her one himself! Maybe it was just because she had lied about it. She could had just said that she had an appointment, he wouldn’t have asked her to go into specifics! Surely the guy who stopped you from jumping into a river barely over 24 hours ago would have understood the most out of anyone why she needed to talk to somebody. Questions flooded Coles mind as he tried to see through the mystery that was surrounding the girl he had caught jumping off a bridge, the mystery growing thicker and thicker by the second.

Why was she on the other side of the bridge yesterday?

Why did she always have argue with him?

Why was she seeing a therapist?

But most of all, the question that was on his mind was - Why did Azelie say she was scared of nothing? That she was fearless?

What the hell was the mystery around this girl? Whatever it was - it couldn’t be simple, and from the events of yesterday, she wasn’t handling it very well and right there and then, Cole swore to himself that he would find out the mystery behind Azelie, and at least show her that she was not fearless by finding her one fear - even if it meant facing his own fear.

Woo! New chapter! Thank you to everyone who has been super awesome and has commented and voted on the past chapter! I have a huge ass list of people I need to dedicate chapter to so if you've commented, or made my day - expect chapter to be deciated to you :)

Anyhoo, The covers on the side was made by v123m17! :D The song on the side is Cold War Kid's 'Something Is Not Right With Me!'

The next upload sound be up around Monday! Comment if you like it, and if you didn't, let me know why! :D