‘If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?’

- Confucius

Chapter Eight

While Azelie had slept, it wasn’t perfect - she still woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, but at least it wasn’t from her own cries. She got up around five, lying wide awake in her warm bed while waiting for a decent hour to crawl out of her room to face the world. She quickly got changed into her joggers before going for her run, pushing herself harder and harder as she went, her stomach churning on air as she ran down the roads outside her house.

She stopped at the start of the bridge, looking across it as she strinted straight over it - Cole’s terrified face filling her mind, their fight replaying over in her head. Maybe she should have checked twice to make sure that he wasn’t following her, that he didn’t see her visiting her therapists. There had been nobody around at the time, something that Azelie was thankful for. In a small town, news travelled fast, especially when you worked in the local café. She continued to run home, trying to push herself to her limit. She ran down her street, hastily running as she ran inside to her house and shooting up the stairs, quickly jumping in showering and getting ready for school. She threw on a pair of dark skinny jeans, along with a random top that she pulled out of her wardrobe before grabbing a matching hoodie and slipping on a pair of trainers. She then made her way downstairs to have breakfast with Ted before making her way to school.

Azelie’s day passed quickly. Her classes in the morning where all one’s that she enjoyed - art, English and physics and so it didn’t take long before Azelie was getting ready for her last class before lunch - History. Azelie was making her way to class when she heard her name being shouted from behind her. She turned around to see a cluster of pink running towards her, making it’s way towards her through the busy corridors. She smiled as she recognized the person as Kelly.

“Azelie! Wait up!” Kelly cried, battling her way through the crowds to she could meet Azelie and flashing her the usual happy smile that was forever formed on her lips.

“Hey,” Azelie replied, smiling over at her friend.

“Did you get home in time on Sunday or where you late?” Kelly questioned, referring to the fact that she thought that Azelie had to leave the café early to get home, instead of the truth that she had an appointment with her therapist.

“Yeah, it was all fine,” she smiled, trying to figure out some way to change the subject. “You ready to be bored to death in history?” she questioned, as she began walking down the corridor, Kelly by her side as they made their way to their class.

“Oh god no! Don’t remind me!” Kelly replied, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation, accidentally hitting the person who was walking behind her. The smile instantly slipped off Kelly’s face as she realised that she had hit somebody as she turned around to apologize, but it was too late.

“HEY! Watch it!” a shrill voice shrieked, pushing Kelly straight forward from behind. Kelly stumbled forward, Azelie managing to grab on to her arm before she fell, however this cause Kelly to slam into the person in front of her, making them fall slightly. Kelly apologized to the person she had crashed into as she turned around to face the person she had accidentally smacked, her face falling as she realised who she had hit. Kelly’s favorite person of all - Leigh.

“Sorry,” Kelly apologized, just wanting to get away from Leigh as quickly as possible. Azelie looked from Kelly to Leigh before looking away. Azelie knew for a fact that Kelly and Leigh did not get on.

“Sorry is all you’ve got? You could have seriously hurt me! I could sue!” Leigh whined in a high-pitched voice, Azelie hoping that Kelly would just ignore her and carry on down the hall. Azelie looked down, noticing that Kelly’s hands had curled up into fight fists, her knuckles turning white. Kelly quietly muttered something about punching a ‘fake plastic Barbie doll’, not turning around to face Leigh and continuing to walk down the hall! “HEY! Don’t ignore me! Just because your moms a who-” Leigh shouted, not even getting to finish her sentence before Kelly cut her off. That was all it took for her to lose it, Kelly reacting so quickly that Azelie could stop her.

“Are you sure you want to finish that sentence you spoilt brat? Or do you want another reason to get an appointment with your plastic surgeon other than your fake nose?” Kelly yelled, the entire corridor falling silent as they turned around to look at Kelly and Leigh. Azelie just stood next to Kelly, trying to figure out what to do next. This was the first time she had seen Kelly properly angry - and to be honest, she’d never thought she’d see her like this. The usual smile had slipped off her face, the happiness usually held in her blue eyes replaced with a fiery rage. Leigh didn’t reply, at first she was angry at Kelly’s comment about her fake nose, and opened her mouth to shout back at her. But then she figured out just how much she had gotten to Kelly and instead just stood in her spot, smirking at Kelly while tapping her heels on the floor.

Kelly let out a breath, relaxing slightly as she turned away from Leigh to walk down the corridor again. And just like that, everything returned to normal, the crowd began to move again, chatter filling the air as Azelie followed Kelly down the corridor, questions she knew she wouldn’t get the answer for filling her head. Kelly was silent all the way to the history class. They both entered the class room and made their way to their seats without a word, Azelie trying to figure out what she should say.

“Are you okay?” Azelie asked as the classroom started to fill, people watching Kelly as they walked around the room as if they were expecting her to suddenly burst into a fit of rage at any moment.

“Yeah, it’s just...” Kelly trailed off, looking down at her desk, not making any eye contact with anybody. “Never mind,” She finished, looking up to Azelie with a smile on her lips. Azelie noticed how the smile didn’t reach her eyes, the deep pools of blue still holding the opposite emotion. Azelie opened her mouth to question it, to tell her that it was alright if she wasn’t okay, but she was cut off by the teacher, who had decided to start the class. Azelie’s words disappeared in her throat as she began to prepare herself to be bored to death by the history teacher.

An hour later and Kelly and Azelie were free from the teacher. They had spent the hour drawing doodles of the teacher dying in various and rather creative ways and throwing pieces of paper in his hair without him noticing. They had pratically run out of the class as the bell rung, trying to get out quickly as possible.

They walked through to the canteen, still laughing from throwing pieces of paper at the teacher. They got their food from the canteen, before sitting down at their usual table, digging into their food.

“Hey, do you want to come to the cinema on Wednesday after school?” Kelly asked, looking over at Azelie. “We were just going to decided on a film when we got there,”

“Okay, sure,” Azelie replied, forgetting to think over who ‘we’ were.

The rest of lunch passed quickly, Cole and Alex has been at football again, something that Azelie was thankful for. Cole was not something she wanted to deal with at this very moment. He had seen too much, even if he knew nothing it would only take a slight slip up from Azelie for him to figure out a bit about her.

Azelie’s first class after lunch was chemistry, a subject that she enjoyed quite a bit. However Azelie then remembered that she had seen Cole in her class last week and even though he had sat at the opposite side of the room from her, she had a sickening feeling growing in her stomach as she walked into the lab and sat down at her desk at the back of the classroom. She quickly dug her textbooks out of her bag as she looked around the classroom, realizing that he wasn’t already there. A few minutes later when the final bell rang, Azelie relaxed slightly. Cole hadn’t appeared for the class, maybe he had skipped or went home sick. She didn’t care about the reason, just the fact that he wasn’t there.

But just as the teacher began to go over their project for the lesson, the wooden door of the class room slowly opened, revealing Cole. He was wearing a light green hoodie which seemed to make the colour in his eyes stand out a bit more, making him seem even cuter than previously.

“Sorry, coach kept us back after practice at lunch,” he apologized, looking at the teacher. Azelie began to pray over and over in her head that he sat somewhere else - anywhere else - other than the empty chair next to her.

“It’s quite alright, Cole. Big game on Friday! Just find a seat somewhere,” the teacher replied, understanding why Cole had been late. The teacher turned back to his board to explain their project as Cole began to look for a seat. Azelie didn’t hear what the teacher was saying, everything was just a blur to her.

Cole’s green eyes scanned across the room. Azelie held her breath, trying to concentrate on what the teacher was saying, her hands curling into tiny tight fists. Cole began to move as Azelie began screaming inside her head.

‘DO NOT SIT WHERE I THINK YOU ARE GOING TO SIT,’ She thought angrily as he began to move closer, his eyes on the chair next to her. ‘DON’T YOU DARE!’ She thought to herself, imagining herself slamming her head into her heavy wooden desk. ‘DON’T YOU SIT THERE! DON’T YOU DA-’

But it was too late.

The screeching noise of the legs of the chair being dragged along the floor broke her internal screaming fit. He quickly dropped his bag under the desk as he sat down and moving closer to the table.

“Hey,” he whispered softly to Azelie, but she just ignored him, and instead concentrating on the many ways she could murder him and dispose of the body without being caught. Why? Why did he have to sit there - next to her! There was a dozen other chairs in the class room! All next to people who wouldn’t mind sitting next to Cole. Why did he have to choose that seat? She just kept staring ahead at the board still not hearing a word the teacher was saying. Hopefully he would just leave her alone and concentrate on the work the teacher was setting, whatever it was.

“You know you’re a pretty quick runner,” Cole whispered again, slightly louder than previously, Azelie fighting the urge to turn round and slam his head into the desk. He had seen too much, why couldn’t he just leave her alone? If anything had made it clear that she didn’t want to be friends it would have been the day before, when she ran away from him. “I mean, you could pretty much out run me, hell you could probably out run Alex, and he’s the fastest guy on the team!” He continued. Her gaze flickered over to him for a second - a second too long. That’s all it took for Cole to know that Azelie was acknowledging his existence. Cole opened his mouth to say something else again, a light smirk appearing on his lips, but then he was cut off by the loud voice of the teacher, which seemed to rise above the whispers of noise that had filled the classroom.

“Now I want you to look to the person your side, and say hello to your new partner for the rest of the semester,” He shouted happily, looking around the class as a chorus of groans filled the classroom. Azelie just let her head fall to the table with a loud audible thump before raising it slightly off the table and letting it hit the table for a second time, hoping for a brain hemorrhag or something. Why? Why? Why!

She slowly raised her head off the hard wooden table, before looking over at Cole, watching the slight smirk grow on his lips. She let out a loud sigh while shaking her head lightly. Of course this had to happen to her! Why did Cole have to be so damn friendly? Couldn’t he just have left her alone like any other normal person! Couldn’t he see that she was happy as she was? The answer to her last question was of course, no. Cole could see right through her smiles. She wasn’t happy, of course she wasn’t - happy people don’t let go of bridge rails.

“I’ll just do all the work, you can just take the credit for it! You don’t have to lift a finger! ” she spoke for the first time, watching as a look of confusion washed over his face for a second as he tried to figure out exactly what she had meant.

“You want to do all the work - alone?” He questioned, trying to make sense of the situation. Why did she think that he was just going to let her do all of the work?

“Yeah...” Azelie trailed off. Every time she was partnered with somebody on a project, she would always end up saying that she would do all the work, and all they had to do was show up on the day of the presentation with a happy smile on their face and a simple knowledge of what the project was about. “Look - all you have to do is show up on the day and with a stupid smirk on your face and just try to act like you know half the stuff,”

“Well sorry to break it to you; but I’m actually here to learn stuff so I can get a scholarship!” He explained, still in shock that she was actually offering to do it herself. Did she really want to avoid him that much that she would do a paired project all by herself?

“Honestly, Cole - I can just do it myself,” she explained, letting out a little huff wishing that he would just let it go so she could decided what their project would be on

“What just like you can pull yourself back from the bridge rail all by yourself?” Cole said. The words slipped out without Colr even thinking over them first - something that seemed to happen often around Azelie. Azelie’s heart stopped in her chest. Her lungs refused to exhale. She blinked twice in shock, did he always have to bring that up?

“I told you,” she said, gritting her teeth, “I was fine - I didn’t need your help!”

“Well it looked like you bloody well did!” Cole laughed slightly, rolling his eyes at Azelie. He couldn’t believe that he was fighting with her again! Barely even over 24hrs since their last fight! “Do you even know what subject the project is on?” He questioned, not fully believing that she had been listening while the teacher had been talking.

“Em...” she spoke, caught off guard by his question. “Chemistry?” Cole let out a laugh at her answer, rolling his eyes at her slightly.

“And you really expect me to leave you to do the project yourself when you don’t even know what subject it’s on?” Cole replied blatantly, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Are you calling me stupid?”

“What? No! This is an AP class - I seriously doubt that you aren’t smart! But I need a good grade in this class and if you think that I’m leaving it up to somebody who doesn’t even know what subject we are supposed to be covering, then you are sorely mistaken!” Cole explained. The pair fell to a silence as their argument drew to a close, both of them realising that they weren’t going to admit that they were in the wrong.

“Well I don’t work well in a pair so it’s just better if you leave the work for me to do! Besides you are busy with football practise aren’t you?” Azelie cried, her voice getting slightly angry as Cole began to irritate her even more. Fury for the fact that he wouldn’t just let her work alone beginning to burn inside of her

“How do you know that I am busy with football? I might be completely free after school for homework! And we will just have to try to get on in a pair - won’t we!” Cole replied, facing Azelie getting more annoyed at the fact that she refused to work with him.

“Cole we can’t even have a decent conversation without trying to kill each other! How the hell do you expect us to work together for this project?” she pointed out, her voice rising slightly louder than previously.

“We just have to learn to tolerate each other - won’t we!” He shrugged angrily, not daring to tear his gaze away from Azelie. She didn’t say anything and instead continued to stare at him, her brown eyes burning into Cole.

“So, what are you two focusing on for your project?” a voice spoke from in front of the pair. They both immediately looked away from each other and over to the source of the voice. Their teacher stood in front of their desk, looking expectantly between Azelie and Cole.

“We decided to look at Bromination Reactions in Phenol, Aniline and cinnamic Acid Contributing Author,” Cole replied, looking up at the teacher. Azelie’s head snapped over to Cole in disagreement. If they were going to work together, didn’t they have to talk and agree on the project. And although what Cole had said did sound like a pretty good project, Azelie would have liked to have some choice over what they researched.

“Good choice,” the teacher smiled, looking between them and sensing the tension between the two. “You’re not going to have a problem working together - are you?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow as his gaze flickered over from Cole to Azelie. Azelie opened her mouth to speak and ask if she could work alone on the project, but instead she was stopped by Cole.

‘No, no - we will be fine! We just have some disagreements on how we should work together,” Cole replied, Azelie letting out a little laugh at his words. A little disagreement to how they should work together? Azelie wanted to work alone! “But we will figure it out, no need to worry!” Cole added, looking over Azelie.

“Okay that’s good! Well it’s due in four weeks time! Good luck!” the teacher said as he walked away, leaving them to work. Azelie looked over at Cole, wondering why he just wouldn’t let her do it alone. Letting out a sigh, she realising that there was no point in arguing about it anymore.

“I swear to god, if we fail because we can’t work together and you refuse to let me do it myself - I will kill you!” Azelie threatened, turning to face Cole so he could see how serious she was.

“I know,” He smirked, “But we won’t fail!”

“Promise?”

“Promise,”

Hey there! Thank you so much for reading! Really means a lot to be! Pretty please comment and vote! :) But only if you liked it! If you don't like it, feel free to tell me how and where I can improve! :D

The song on the side is Ben Howard's 'Old Pine'. In the words of a random youtuber - if this song was a tomato, it would be a very tasty tomato! His entire album is amazing and I seriously suggest checking it out!

The picture on the side is also of Kelly! :D She's seriously so much fun to write! All of the characters on this story are really!

Anyhoo, I've got to go and eat the entire of my kitchen! I'm honestly starving to death! Poor unicorn! :( Hope you enjoyed reading this! :D

Also dedication goes to IsaSecret who made the very awesome cover which is now being used! :D

Thanks again! :D xxx