‘Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence,’

- Aristotle

Chapter Seventeen

“So what’s going on with you and Cole?” Kelly questioned with her usual smirk playing on her lips. Azelie had been expecting the question, but not first thing Monday morning. She figured Kelly would at least leave it till lunch, but boy had she been wrong.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Azelie answered, rolling her brown eyes while pretending to read her history textbook. If there was ever one class that Azelie had never, and would never pay attention in, it would be history. Kelly reached over the desk, slamming the textbook shut, pulling Azelie’s attention from the book and back over to Kelly.

“Please Azelie! I saw you leaving after him at the party! Then Samantha Robertson said that she saw you walking away from the party together! I mean, Samantha Robertson spreads nothing but idle gossip that isn’t to be trusted and STD’s if the rumors of last year are anything to go by, but that’s the point!” Kelly ranted, throwing her hands in the air while loosing Azelie completely.

“Has anybody ever told you that you should maybe try to break the record set for the most words said in 30 seconds? Because you have a good chance of achieving it!” Azelie replied, diverting from the subject of Cole completely.

“Don’t try that trick with me Azelie Ryans! I practically invented it!”

“What trick?” She replied with an innocent smile, glancing back to the front of the class where the teacher was explaining something about the middle ages.

“The changing the subject trick!” Kelly clarified, “Just answer the question! What is going on with you and Cole?” Azelie let out a sigh, wondering how she had thought that Kelly would leave that subject wait any long than necessary. She should have been smarter and realised that Kelly would never leave that till lunch. She was straight to the point.

“He proposed - it was wonderful. Ted gave his blessing and everything. I’m thinking a Christmas wedding, maybe have Santa marry us? Also I’m pregnant with his child - it’s a boy! Oh- and after class I’m auditioning for Sixteen and Pregnant. I’m sure the people at MTV won’t mind that I’m not sixteen,” Azelie answered sarcastically, trying to buy herself time from answering Kelly’s question with the truth. Why is it the teacher would always stop them talking when they actually want to talk, but never when Azelie is looking for some kind of exit strategy?

“Christmas weddings are tacky; you should just go for Autumn,” Kelly replied with a smirk, “Also, I’ll expect to be the god mother of your child. I’ll be the cool aunt Kelly who hands out protection and hair dye,” Azelie just rolled her eyes in reply, before holding her breath for a second, trying to figure out what was going on between Cole and herself. Would Kelly know about his mom? She didn’t get a chance to tell her the truth, though, because Kelly already figured it out.

“He told you, didn’t he?” Kelly said, her voice low. “About what happened with his mom,”

“Yeah... he told me while he was drunk on Friday, and then explained it all on Saturday,” Azelie answered.

“Trust Cole to go around blurting things when he is drunk. He’s one of those funny drunks that never seem to shut their mouth and just babbles everything he says,” Kelly replied, her blue eyes not moving from Azelie. Azelie let out a little laugh, remembering how Cole hadn’t said a word while they were walking to the bridge. Maybe Cole was different around her, or maybe he just had nothing to say.

“We’re friends... I guess - I mean we get on. But we were ‘friends’ before we fought, and it feels different now that I know what happened. Like not bad different, but I don’t know if it’s good different either... He trusts me now now than before we fought, I just don’t understand why,”

“Don’t question it,” Kelly replied, her voice firm and full of authority, “The thing about Cole is, he doesn’t trust people often, it’s kind of like his little protection mechanism. So if he’s told you what happened, then he obviously trusts you. It might be odd, but you might find that you are closer than you think,” Kelly replied, before smiling softly at Azelie. “Besides, you are going to have to trust him if you carrying little Coelie in there,” She winked.

“Coelie?” Azelie questioned with a slight laugh.

“It’s the couple name me and Alex came up with on Friday. We have bets going about how long it takes you two to go out,” Azelie just laughed again, wondering how she ended up with such odd friends. “I’m saying three months tops,”

“Hey! Speaking of Alex, we never got round to speaking about him and you!” Azelie smirked as Kelly let out a groan.

“I knew this wouldn’t stay forgotten for long,” She muttered. “Look, it’s just one of those things that isn’t going to ever happen. Yes, I like-”

“Love him - you love him and don’t you dare deny it!” Azelie interrupted, earning herself a glare from Kelly.

“I like him, but he’s not interested in me! Never has been never will be! And that’s just the way it’s aways been! Poor little old Kelly hopelessly in love with her best friend. I’m quite happy with the position actually” She continued, ignoring what Azelie had said.

“Holy crap Kelly! Open your eyes, that guy is in love with you as much as you are in love with him! Even complete strangers notice it!” Azelie cried, trying to keep her voice quiet. Kelly didn’t say anything, she just looked away from Azelie, pretending to read her textbook, the exact same as what Azelie had done to avoid answering Kelly. Azelie just let her, hoping that maybe one day she might see what everybody else sees.

“You’re going to be late if you don’t leave now!” Ted shouted from the bottom of the stairs. He was answered by the crashing of footsteps, running down the hall and to the top of the stairs. It was now Wednesday, and for the past three days everything had been fine. Azelie and Cole were growing closer and Kelly had refused to talk anymore about her giant crush on Alex. Azelie had decided not to push her on the subject, she would talk about it when she wanted to talk about it.

“I’m fine, Ted! I’m not going to be late!” Azelie cried, storming down the staircase. “I mean really, I still have another five minutes before my appointment begins!” She added, realising that five minutes was not enough time to walk from her house to her therapist’s office, but of course she couldn’t tell Ted that he was right. Ted just rolled his eyes at his niece, her words reminding him so much of her mother. She always stuck to her guns and never admitted that somebody else was right, something Ted had seen much of in Azelie.

“Oh come on Azelie! I’ll give you a lift in! Honestly, just get in the car!” He replied.

“I’ll be fine!” Azelie countered, grabbing her phone before walking over to the door.

“No, you won’t! The only thing you will be is late!” Ted argued, following after Azelie. He quickly grabbed his keys from the coffee table beside the front door, and followed her out of the house. She was at the bottom of the path when he had finally locked the front door of the house. “Come on Azelie! Just let me give you a lift! I need to go check on the gallery anyway!”

“I’m fine!” was all he received in reply as she walked hastily down the street, trying to prove to Ted that she had been right. Hell, even if she was late she would probably just claim that the time on her phone told her that she was on time, and everybody else’s were fast. Ted let out a groan while running over to his car, before starting the engine and driving after his niece. He slowed down as he reached her, Azelie practically running to get to her appointment on time.

“Just get it!” He replied, frantically winding down the front passenger window of his old audi until he opened it enough to be able to talk some sense into his niece.

“I’m not going to be late Ted!” Azelie replied adamantly.

“Okay then! You won’t be late if you walk; but you will be early if you let me drive you there!” Ted counter, a smirk forming on his lips. He had eventually learned how to bypass his sister’s crazy thing about always being right - by admitting that she was right, but his option would give better results. It worked a charm. Azelie immediately stopped before climbing in the car, barely sparing a smile for Ted before he accelerated away, trying to get Azelie to her appointment on time.

“You’re too much like your mom! I hope you know that,” He smiled, glancing over at Azelie for a second before focusing back on the road.

“You’ve said - like 20 million times before,” She replied.

“Yeah, well your mom was a pain in the butt,” Ted joked as he pulled up outside the building her therapist worked in.

“So are you; must be a family trait!” Azelie retorted, before opening the passenger door, “Thanks for the ride by the way,” she added with a smile as she climbed out of the car.

Azelie walked around the front of the car and straight into her therapist office, her light hearted mood from before fading into something else. She knew that she had to talk about everything, about how she felt. Azelie hoped that it would eventually make everything better, and it could even maybe help her night terrors - but that didn’t mean that she enjoyed her sessions with Dr Robertson, far from it actually. It was Ted’s idea for her to go to a therapist. He thought that it might make a difference for Azelie, for her to have somebody to talk to. However, so far Azelie wasn’t seeing any change

She walked up to the reception desk, giving her name and appointment time to the receptionist, before being informed to just go straight into the office. Taking a deep breath in, she thanked the woman sitting at the front desk before walking past her desk and into the room behind.

Dr Robertson’s office hadn’t been at all how Azelie had been expecting it - it didn’t even have that stereotypical therapist chair where you get to sit back and relax in. Azelie would have been lying if she had said that she’d been looking forward to sitting in it and dishing out all her problems to the best therapist in the state.

“Ah, Azelie! Nice to see you again!” The doctor greeted her as Azelie walked up to the desk, sitting on the chair opposite. “I figured we could pick up from where we left off last week, if that’s okay?”

“Yeah that’s fine,” Azelie smiled meekly at the woman across from her.

“So, how have you been Azelie?”

Storming out of the building, Azelie tried her best not to get too angry at Dr Robertson. Everything she had said was for Azelie’s benefit. No matter how much is made Azelie want to push her therapist in front of a bus. Perhaps it made her so angry because Azelie knew that it was the truth; however, she disagreed with that notion and went with the conclusion that Dr Roberson was just a bitch.

Azelie had told her about Cole, and how she had seen herself in Cole when he was telling her about his mother. Dr Roberson sat there and listened to what Azelie was saying before warning her about Cole, telling Azelie that if he was anything like her, that he could mess up her therapy. Azelie was furious. She didn’t understand why the Dr Roberson thought that cutting Cole out of her life would be a good idea! When they were fighting, her nightmares became worse, it had been so bad that last week she hasn’t even been able to shut her eyes without the memories of her terrors swirling in her mind.

Letting out a sigh, she tried to let her anger go. She walked up the quiet street, hoping that she would be in a better mood by the time she reached the house. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, before quickly checking it for any messages from her friends or Ted. Azelie realised that Cole had called her twice when she had been in her appointment. She called him back, wondering what he had to say to her.

“Yo!” He answered the phone, sounding like some kind of idiot.

“Did you seriously just answer the phone with ‘yo’?” She questioned, starting to wonder if she had phone the wrong Cole.

“Yeah... what’s wrong with that?” he defended. Azelie could just tell from his tone that he had a smirk on his lips.

“Everything Cole, everything is wrong with that!”

“You just like to spoil everyone’s fun, don’t you?” he replied, shouting slightly while pretending to be hurt by her words.

“No, Cole - I just like to spoil your fun,” She said in a mocking tone.

“I knew it!” He laughed “Anyway, why are you calling? Could you not get through the night without wanting to hear my voice once again? Just admit it to both me and Kelly - you are obviously in love with me!” Cole babbled, Azelie becoming more confused as the conversation when on.

“What? You called me first!” She pointed out, “And I am not in love with you!”

“Well, from what I heard you were planning our wedding in history on Monday!”

“That was Kelly! I was only joking!” Azelie defended, rolling her eyes slightly at Cole

“Sure you were! That’s what they all say!”

“Arrogant prick,” She muttered, shaking her head slightly

“I’m hurt by that mean and totally untrue name! I’m awesome and you know it!” He replied, “Anyhoo - why did you call?”

“You called me first idiot!” Azelie cried, wondering if she should just hang up on Cole or not! She was rather enjoying the conversation.

“Oh... Oh yeah! I remember now! Are you free this Saturday?” He questioned. Azelie paused for a second before answering him.

“No,” She answered,

“Well, you are now!” He replied happily, “Or not... I’m slightly confused!”

“Sorry! Stuff to do!” She laughed, knowing that Cole wasn’t going to give up.

“Nothing as awesome as what I have planned!”

“Oh, I’m sure it is Cole!”

“What then? What is so much more awesomer than spending time with me?” He questioned, sounding slightly hurt that Azelie had better things to do that hang out with him.

“Sleeping. Sleeping is so much more awesomer than spending time with you Cole,” She replied, somehow managing not to laugh as she imagined Cole’s reaction in her head

“So I’ll pick you up around 12 then?”

“No, I’m slee-” She argued but he cut her off.

“Great see you then, Bye!” He quickly said before hanging up on Azelie. She tried to call him back but he just rejected the call. She quickly texted him, telling him that he would have to drag her out of her bed before continuing the walk home, wondering what Cole was planning for Saturday. Thoughts about what her therapist has said to Azelie plagued her mind as she walked home. Dr Robertson must have been wrong, how could Cole be bad for anybody? If anything, Azelie was the toxic one.

So this isn't my favourite chapter ever, but oh well :P I hope you enjoyed it anyway :)

Next upload should be on Monday, but you might have to wait until early Tuesday as I'm going to Norway on Monday! I will still have internet connection so I should be able to upload a second chapter next week but Monday's just a bit iffy :P

Song on the side is Ellie Goulding's new song 'Anything Could Happen' Really like this song! :D See ya Monday/Tuesday!

- Unicorn Out