‘We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot,’

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Chapter Twenty-one

A few weeks had passed since Azelie had told Cole about her parents, and nothing had been the same between them since. Her confession should have solidified their friendship, practically setting it in stone, but in fact, it had done the complete opposite.

Cole didn’t know how to act around Azelie anymore. He wanted to ask questions about it, he wanted to know as much as she would allow about her past, but he didn’t know when to ask. He had always known that there was something dark in her past, but he had genuinely never considered the idea of her being an orphan. He had maybe thought that they had gone through a bad divorce, that Azelie might have been pushed out of their lives and therefore moved in with her uncle, but in fact, she had been through the same as him, while he had witnessed his mother taking her own life, she had seen both of her parents die, only to walk away from the entire thing with minor injuries. He had never been around somebody who felt something bigger than his loss, and it confused him. He didn’t know if he should show her pity, or if he should continue as if she had never told him. As a result, the Cole who just said what was on his mind had disappeared, and instead, Cole had begun to analyze every word he said to Azelie before he said it.

Azelie also didn’t know how to act around him anymore. She had never told anybody about her parents in the past that hadn’t known already about them. Not a single soul. And even then, the only person she had actually had to tell was her therapist, and that was after sitting in her office in silence for weeks, not uttering a single word while the doctor pressed her for information. She just didn’t know what to do, she felt paralyzed. They never fought anymore, not even over the chemistry project as Azelie didn’t know what to do around Cole and he didn’t know what to say to her.

The friendship that should have been set in stone was circling the drain, a few more weeks not knowing how to act around one other and they would have been like strangers to each other, but then of course, the pushy, pink-haired, best friend decided to get involved.

“Did you two bump uglies or something?” Kelly questioned, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen on the lunch table, looking between Cole and Azelie.

“What?” Azelie and Cole asked at the same time, Kelly’s euphemism lost completely on the two. Kelly just rolled her eyes at her friends, wondering how they couldn’t understand what she was saying.

"DID YOU PUT YOUR PENIS IN HER VAG-” She began to shout very loudly so that Azelie and Cole would find it impossible not to understand her.

“KELLY!” Azelie screamed, her face turning bright red.

“Shut the hell up!” Cole added, leaning over the table and placing his hand over Kelly’s mouth to stop her finishing her sentence. Alex just sat there, watching the entire scene with a smirk playing on his lips. Suddenly, Cole felt something wet on his hand, and heimmediately removed his hand from Kelly’s lips, to find saliva all across his palm.

"Holy crap! Kelly, did you just lick my hand!” He cried, rubbing his hand on his top, trying to get all the Kelly germs off.

“Did you guys sleep together? Because seriously, I would like to be crazy auntie Kelly who hands out protection to your kids one day but one day isn’t tomorrow!” Kelly babbled, ignoring Cole’s question.

“No! We did not sleep together! Why the hell did you think that!” Azelie replied, speaking quickly, her brown eyes not leaving Kelly.

“Well, you haven’t been speaking to each other!”

“Yes, we have been!” Cole replied, interrupting Kelly slightly.

“Yeah but not like you were talking to each other last week! Alex, back me up here!” Kelly argued, as she looked over at Alex, the smirk sliding rapidly off his face as he was dragged into the argument.

“She’s right... somethings happened between you guys and it’s just not the same. Kelly was obviously jumping to conclusions with you two sleeping together, but something has happened and you need to sort it out,” Alex said, looking between Cole and Azelie. They didn’t argue back this time, instead opting to stay quiet.

“Just fix it before you aren’t friends anymore, because we’ve got to go to San Francisco like next week and you will be spending a lot of time together in that!” Kelly added, reminding Azelie of the trip.

Last Monday, Azelie had found out that all the seniors went on a trip a few weeks before the October holidays and they had chosen San Francisco as the destination for this year. They were leaving in three days time, early on Monday morning.

They stayed in silence trying to figure out what they should they say to each other. Azelie peeked up from studying the table, looking up to her left at Cole who sat next to her. She turned her head directly to the right as he looked back at her, trying to figure out what he should say to the girl who caused him to ask so many questions. Kelly just let out a sigh, rolling her eyes at the two as she decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Azelie, meet Cole Grey - he’s quarterback for the football team and he’s also in your chemistry class!” She cried looking at Azelie while motioning to Cole with her arms before switching. “And Cole, meet Azelie Ryans - she’s quiet sometimes until you get to know her, she’s one of my best friends and I would like you to get to know her! Also, she’s in your chemistry class!”

Cole and Azelie looked at each other as she did this, smiling a bit at each other before looking away, both of them wondering what they did in a past life to end up with a crazy best friend like Kelly.

"Now come on Alex, let’s leave these two to talk!” She added, grabbing onto Alex and dragging him away from the table - not that he complained about it as she did - and left Azelie and Cole to talk.

After a moment of silence, Cole finally decided to speak.

“Hey...” he said, a soft smile playing on his lips as he looked at her.

“Hi,” she replied after a short while, the awkwardness between them slowly melting away. “Do you.. em.. want to watch the football game tomorrow? Ted’s meeting up with an artist that wants to rent out the gallery for an exposure, and I’ll have nobody to explain the rules...” She mumbled slightly, feeling a bit stupid about the entire thing.

“Yeah, sure! Sounds great,” He replied with a smile, “By the way, do you remember the plan you made last time in chemistry for the experiment?”

“Yeah?” she said, a bit confused about why he was bringing up chemistry.

“Well... it’s totally wrong and we can’t do it that way!” he answered in one breath as if it had been something he had been wanting to say for quite a while.

“Excuse me! Just because you want to fail doesn’t mean I can too!” Azelie argued back seeing nothing wrong with what she had planned to do, and just like that, everything was back to how it should have been. Cole quickly realised that and smiled brightly at Azelie, only to see her sending him a smile right back, her golden brown eyes shining brightly.

It was a Friday night, and instead of being out at another party, Cole and Azelie were both sitting in her living room, screaming at the TV.

“RUN YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!” Azelie screamed at the top of her lungs, getting a little bit too wrapped up in the football game, “Go left! LEFT!”

“Azelie, I think you’ve spent too much time at football games with Kelly!” Cole laughed after she was finished screaming at the TV. She just turned around and stuck her tongue out at him.

“What can I say! She’s a bad influence!”

“No doubt about that!” Cole laughed, as he noticed that his team was loosing and began to also scream at the TV. Both Cole and Azelie supported different teams and therefore had spent the night arguing with each other about the other’s team.

“Just give up Cole! Your team has been playing shit all year!” Azelie smiled, sitting back down on the sofa, and took a handful of popcorn out of the bowl that sat in the middle of them. He quickly turned around, and threw a bit of popcorn at Azelie.

“No, they haven’t! They beat the Ravens last week!” He argued as Azelie just caught the piece of popcorn he had thrown in her mouth.

“The Ravens? Really - you’re proud over the fact that they won against the Ravens?” Azelie laughed slightly, shaking her head at Cole.

“Yeah! The Ravens are a good team!”

“Sure!” She replied, dragging it out. “You keep thinking that darling!”

“Hey it’s true! Seriously, out of the two of us, who do you think has more experience with football?” Cole replied, rolling his eyes slightly at Azelie as a smirk began to form on his lips.

“Excuse me!” Azelie cried in fake shock. “Just because you are a quarterback, does not mean you know more about football than I do! Football games were practically the only time I felt anything like a family when I lived with my Aunts! I grew up on football!”

“Well, you obviously never watched it enough to know that the Ravens are a good team!” Cole replied, = thinking into Azelie’s words. The teasing mood that had built up around them soon began to disappear as Cole began to think. A whistle blew on the TV as half time was signaled.

“We’re outta popcorn, do you want me to make some more?” Azelie questioned, pushing herself up from where she was sitting, grabbing the empty bowl of popcorn. Cole just nodded and smiled in reply.

"Suppose...” Azelie walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to make more popcorn, leaving Cole with his thoughts. He suddenly pushed himself up from the sofa, following Azelie into the kitchen. He found her digging through the kitchen cupboards, searching for another packet of microwave popcorn.

“Hey,” he said quietly, leaning against a kitchen counter opposite from where Azelie was, trying to plan out how he was going to ask what he so desperately wanted to know.

“Hey...” she replied, finally finding what she was looking for in the cupboards. She quickly unwrapped the packet, and stuck it in the microwave and timing it for two minutes. “You okay?” She questioned, turning around to look at Cole, sensing something was wrong. He opened his mouth to ask her a question, but nothing came out as he tried to think of how he should say it, trying not to mess it up. He had one shot at his, and if he messed it up, he might ruin everything.

“What’s wrong Cole?” Azelie asked, seeing that Cole was struggling to say something to her.

“You mentioned your aunt... is that who you stayed with after your parents... em....” He said trailing off slightly, feeling very uncomfortable just even saying the word. “...died,” Azelie gulped slightly, she knew when she mentioned the word aunt that Cole would pick up on it, though she had never thought that he might question her on it this soon. Taking a deep breath in, she answered him, trying to look up from to floor and at Cole.

“Yeah... sort of... I lived with my grandparents on my dad’s side first, and then I lived with my aunts down in Florida,” Azelie replied, her voice quiet as she tried to hold back everything. She had been the one to bring it up, it was her fault he was asking.

“Aunts?” he questioned.

“Yeah - multiple aunts... it got a bit like ‘pass the parcel’ down there. Except I was the parcel and it wasn’t really a party...” She explained slightly, but her answer was still vague. Why had she been passed around? Surely, social services would have gotten involved and stopped her aunts moving her around like that. Cole decided not to push his luck and ask any more questions, he had successfully gotten some information out of Azelie about her past, how much longer would it be until he knew the entire picture?

“Sounds like lots of fun!” Cole commented, a warm smile playing on his lips as Azelie looked at him, her brown eyes shining as she did. Suddenly, the timer on the microwave went off, breaking the silence that had fallen on the kitchen

“Come on, let’s go watch my team kick your team’s ass!” She smiled, changing the subject as she opened the microwave and poured the fresh popcorn into the bowl.

A couple of hours later and Ted walked through the front door, walking straight into the living room to find Azelie lying on Cole, asleep. He had to blink twice in order to actually believe what he was seeing. Azelie was asleep. Correction - Azelie was asleep on Cole’s lap!

“Em... hi?” Ted stuttered slightly, catching Cole’s attention. His head turned to the left, a soft smile on his lips.

“Hey, Ted right?” Cole spoke quietly, trying not to disturb Azelie.

“Yeah... how long as she been asleep?” He questioned, unable to take his eyes off of his niece who was peacefully sleeping. Many times he had gone into her room to check on her, and she would be asleep. He would go in, before the nightmares slept in and just make sure she was alright. She would always be sleeping, but she always looked strained, like she was unhappy. She never - not even once - looked as peaceful as she did as she slept there next to him.

“About an hour or so, I would have left her but she’s lying on me, and I’m sort of trapped,” Cole replied, motioning to Azelie slightly. Ted just ignored the part where Cole said he was trapped, and focused on Azelie, still in shock at what he was seeing.

“And she hasn’t woken up or anything? No sign of the nightmares?” He questioned, not thinking about what he was saying.

“No? What do you mean nightmares?” Cole questioned, pulling Ted’s attention away from Azelie. His brown eyes looked directly into Cole’s.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?” He replied. “Is that why she’s always tired - because she has nightmares?” Cole asked, quickly catching on at what Ted was saying. Ted didn’t answer, he just looked down at the floor, not wanting to give the teenager an answer. Ted had thought that she had told Cole everything, but it was obvious now that she had only told him about her parents. “What happened to her?”

“She’s had a lot of bad things in her life, and she’s handled it extremely well... but it still affected her,” Ted replied, trying to be as vague as he possibly could. “Look Cole, she cares about you a lot. She will tell you everything, eventually, you’ve just got to give her time to say it to herself first,” Ted added, sending Cole a sad smile as he watched Azelie stir slightly but it wasn't long before she went back to sleep. Cole just nodded slowly, understanding what he was saying.

“Come on, I’ll help you escape,” Ted smirked, walking closer to them. He gently lifted Azelie off of Cole, allowing him to get up from the sofa, and laying her back down. He quickly grabbed a blanket he had over the back of the sofa and laid it over his niece.

Ted turned around to find Cole standing behind him, his green eyes on Azelie.

“You really like her don’t you?” Ted said. Cole didn’t answer.

He didn’t have to.

How awesome am I that I uploaded a day early?

Not very awesome, aw you're nice ;)

Anyhoo, I should explain the 24hr earlyness... every time Fearless dips below 150 on either Teen Fiction or the Watty Awards (and I see it!) I will upload a day earlier for the awesome support! It's currently sitting at number 106 on Teen Fiction so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! :D

So I'm now 62% finished with 15 chapter to write! 15 chapters in two months, that's do-able right? I'd like to think so! I write two chapters a week on average so that's about 16 chapter in 8 weeks.. might have to up it to three chapters a week (WE SHALL SEE)

Moving on from my useless nattering, the song on the side is Aiden Grimshaw's Curtain Call! Which some of the scenes from the video fetures on the trailer for Fearless (Which is in the external link if you want to see it!) and speaking of which, it's entered in the special awards so it would be very awesome of you if you could vote for that when the time comes ;) xx

Thank you for the awesome response on the last chapter! See you Thursday (Or wednesday if you keep Fearless below 150!) :D

Until next time

Unicorn Out