*PLEASE READ THE BIT AT THE BOTTOM*

‘There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world,’

- Thomas Jefferson

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cole found it extremely hard to stay driving straight as Azelie who was sat next to him, sang out loud to AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ in a squeaky high pitched voice as the song boomed out of his speakers. It was the Sunday before they were due to leave for San Francisco and he had decided that they should fit in one more fear-proving activity before they left.

Today’s subject: Needles.

‘Yes, I'm back in black,’ Azelie sang while pretending to play the guitar with her hands, not really caring if she looked like a total idiot. She found the notion that people could listen to AC/DC without playing the air guitar totally unbelievable and was convinced that people who didn’t do it in public, redeemed themselves by doing it in private with their cat’s watching their every move.

“Did you seriously just do that?” Cole questioned as the music began to fade out, still partly speechless from what he had just witnessed.

“Yes, I really did just do that!” Azelie smirked slightly, turning to face Cole as the next track came on, turning the music down slightly so that it wasn’t deafening them any longer.

“You really have been spending too much time with Kelly!” He commented, his green eyes filling with laughter as he shook his head slightly.

“You always say that, but you’ve spent most of your life-”

“-being tortured by her? Why yes I have, and it’s quite scarring to be honest!” Cole added quickly interrupted, earning himself a glare of disapproval from Azelie.

“You’ve spend most of your life being friends with her and it hasn’t effected you in the slightest!” She finished, opting to just ignore what he had said.

“That’s what you think!” Cole replied with a laugh. “I’m mentally scarred for life after spending time with Kelly! For ten years, I’ve been terrorized by that girl and her forever changing hair colour! At one point, I needed a therapist and everything to help subside the emotional trauma inflicted on my poor mind!” He babbled on, a huge smile playing on his lips. Azelie just rolled her eyes at Cole, wondering how somebody could be so silly at times.

“Alex seems to put up with it - and he seems... alright,” She replied, trying to find the right adjective to describe the rather odd boy she’d come to know

“Ah, but Alex is in love with her! He’s blinded by the power of love! And, let’s be fair, we are all pretty surethat when brains were being handed, Alex thought they said ‘trains’ and didn't want to take a trip,” Cole replied, pointing out the obvious. Azelie laughed in reply. As much as she liked Alex, there was nothing she could say that would prove Cole wrong.

“Power of love? What are you, some kind of cheesy 90’s song?”

“It’s an 80’s song actually!” Cole corrected, a smirk forming on his lips as he turned to look at Azelie for a moment. Cole quickly realised that the turning he was supposed to be making was coming up and a few seconds later he was pulled up outside the building, parking the car and turning the engine off.

“Okay - seriously what are we doing here?” Azelie questioned unsure of what the hell was happening. The building next to the car showed no indication of what Cole had planned, and she couldn’t think of anything in particular that they would be doing. Unless... “Oh my god, Cole! Are we doing what I think we are doing?” She added quickly, turning to face Cole with a smile on her face. He narrowed his eyes at her, unsure of what to reply.

“Maybe...” He trailed off, a slightly look of confusion forming on his features. “Come on,” he added with a motion. Azelie followed him as he climbed out of the car, and walking a short distance into one of the buildings, excitement building up inside of her as Cole pushed open the glass door and walked towards the counter.

The interior of the tattoo parlor was dark and gothic. This was definitely not a place you went to get a ‘I love my mom’ tattoo, or one of a pretty little butterfly. The walls were painted a deep shade of red, while boards of different photos filled the walls. Azelie stood in astonishment as her gaze floated over the pictures. All the tattoos looked amazing.

“Er... appointment for Cole Grey?” Cole spoke, pulling Azelie’s attention away from the pictures and over to where Cole was standing at the counter. On the other side, there was the receptionist who looked just a tad less than welcoming. She had half of her hair shaved off in some kind of ‘edgy’ hair style while the remaining hair was dyed a dingy green colour. She stood slumped behind the counter, her dark eye make up a mess as she looked up with an unimpressed and bored expression.

“You’re early. Fred’s just finishing off with a customer,” She spoke with a high pitched shrill, her voice totally not suiting the scene look she had. “Is your girlfriend getting one too?” She asked, sending Azelie a dirty look. Azelie opened her mouth to tell her that she wasn’t his girlfriend and that they were just friends, but Cole spoke for her.

“No, just me. But, she’s coming in with me,” He replied, ignoring the girlfriend comment. Azelie stood there in a slight state of shock, trying to figure out why he hadn’t corrected her like he usually did. Was he just tired of having to correct everybody, that was probably it, Azelie had to admit, she was getting rather annoyed with everybody calling her Cole’s girlfriend! Couldn’t a girl and a guy be friends without people assuming they were in a relationship together?

“You alright?” Cole spoke quietly, pulling Azelie out of her dream.

“Yeah,” She automatically replied, turning her head to send him a smile. “Are you actually doing this?” Azelie questioned, the smile still on her lips

“Yeah... been, em thinking about it for a while,” He lied. The truth was, Cole was terrified of needles. He couldn’t stand the things. Every time he had to get a vaccination or a shot, he just about passed out at the sound of the word ‘needle’. He just needed to get into that room and see Azelie’s reaction to the needle. He was almost sure that this would be it - this would be her fear! What else could it be! He had tried the most common fears! He had taken her skydiving and white water rafting! He also knew that spiders and rats wouldn’t work. It had to be needles!

“Do you know what you’re going to get?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow at Cole. She could see the fear in his eyes, he was terrified of this.

“No... it’s an... em..,” He stuttered, “It’s a surprise!” He suddenly cried quickly. Azelie just smiled politely at him, trying to keep her laughter down. She couldn’t believe how silly Cole was being! He was facing his own fear; just to see if she might be scared of it too.

“Cole, are you alright?” Azelie questioned, deciding to cut the crap. “You look sort of, what’s the word? Terrified?”

“Terrified? Me? Never! I’m fine Azelie! I’m just super excited about getting this permanent mark on my skin that’s going to be with me for the rest of my life!” Cole cried acting excited, hoping that Azelie wouldn’t catch on to the heavy sarcasm in his voice, but of course, she did.

“You know you don’t have to do this?”

“Do what? Be so excited for something so awesome! This tattoo will make me look so badass!” Cole replied, a fake smile painted upon his lips. Azelie was sure that he was physically shaking by this point. Thank god this guy didn’t want to become an actor.

“Cole, come on! You’re terrified you don’t have to do this!” She said, rolling her eyes at Cole and his ridiculous acting.

“Azelie, I have no idea what you are on about! Honestly, you’re acting as if you’re the one that’s scared! It’s alright if you are, I mean, I have been trying to find you fear for the past two months!” Cole replied, trying to move the subject off of him and onto Azelie. She just shook her head, sighing and opened her mouth to in reply, but just in that moment, Cole’s name was called out, and the pair turned around to find a big, muscly, bald man standing in the doorway leading to another room behind the counter.

“You ready?” He asked, his voice deep. Cole didn’t reply, instead opting to just nod his head slowly while shuffling towards the room, Azelie following behind him.

The room they walked into had the same deco as the reception area, but this time, there was a chair in the middle surrounded by metal tables around it with all different types of needles and inks lying on top of them.

“So Cole? What are we doing for you today?” The man asked, “Oh and by the way, the name’s Fred!”

“Hi Fred,” Cole spoke in a meek voice, as he slide into the chair in the middle of the room, shaking violently as he did. “I want a tattoo,” He added, his voice barely louder than a whisper. Fred just looked from Cole to Azelie, trying to figure out if this guy was actually serious about getting a tattoo. Suddenly, Azelie thought of an idea that would push Cole over the edge.

“Hey Fred! Can we see the needle that you use to make the tattoo?” Azelie questioned with an evil smirk. Fred shrugged slightly before nodding and walking over to one of the tables, and picking up one of the needles and turning it on. That’s all Cole could take, and suddenly everything turned black for him.

“Did he just faint?” Fred questioned, turning around to look at Cole.

“Yes, he did,” Azelie replied, barely able to contain her laughter at Cole as he lay on the chair. “Hey do you have a marker?”

“Cooooole? Time to wake up, Cole!” Azelie spoke, her voice soft while a giant smile was stretched across her lips.

“What?” He mumbled as he came back around. Fred was used to the fainting in front of the needles so he knew the normal procedure for when somebody fainted - get them flat on the floor and raise their legs.

“You fainted at the sight of the needle,” Azelie explained, “But don’t worry, we did your tattoo while you were unconscious,” Cole immediately bolted upright at her words, fear beginning to course through his veins.

“WHAT!” He screamed, his green eyes wide in shock. Was that even legal?

“Yeah, I knew how excited you were about getting your tattoo so I convinced Fred to do it quickly while you were unconscious!” Azelie replied, trying to swallow her laugher.

“What? Let me see? What did you do!” Cole questioned, totally freaking about what his tattoo was like. He quickly began to search his arms for a mark, but when he found them bare, he began to question where it might be. “Azelie - where is my tattoo?” he questioned, his voice low and full of fear.

“Well... Fred said that this was what you wanted...” She said as she slowly lifted up a mirror so Cole could look into it and inspect his tattoo.

‘OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!” He screamed, his voice going high pitched and squeaky.

“That’s what Fred said you wanted!” Azelie explained, chuckling slightly.

“HE SAID I WANTED YOLO WRITTEN IN BLOCK CAPITALS ON MY FOREHEAD?”

“Yes!”

“Oh my god! I’m dead! My dad’s going to kill me! Shit! I’m never going to be employed! My life is passing before my eyes!” Cole cried loudly as Azelie began to burst out laughing. “Why are you laughing! This is not funny! This is anything but funny!”

“It’s in ink, Cole,” Azelie laughed loudly, unable to control her giggles any longer. “I wrote it in marker while you were unconscious,” Cole immediately grabbed the mirror from Azelie hands, and began to rub the ink on his forehead. He let out a sigh in relief at the slight of the smudged ink.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Cole questioned angrily, turning to face Azelie as her laugher began to slowly die.

“You wouldn’t admit that you were terrified, so I decided to teach you a lesson!” Azelie explained, smiling slightly at Cole.

“Well, I hope you know that it wasn’t nice!”

“I know it wasn’t nice; that’s why I did it!” She smiled in reply. Cole just smiled back, finding it hard to stay angry at her. Fred walked over, checking on Cole and passed him a glass of water to drink, trying to make sure he was okay before he left.

A few minutes later and Cole was ready to leave, however Azelie had other ideas.

“You ready to go?” He asked, looking at Azelie as she scanned the pictures of all the tattoos on the wall.

“Er... I actually think I might get one...” She trailed off, unable to take her eyes off of the pictures even though she had a clear idea of what she wanted. She had always been interested in getting a tattoo, but never found the right time.

“You actually want one!” Cole questioned, completely shocked. Azelie just nodded in reply, smiling over at Cole. “What are you thinking of getting?” He asked.

“It’s a secret,” She said with a knowing smile, as she turned to Fred who quickly agreed to do the tattoo.

Forty minutes later and they were finally leaving, Cole feeling well enough to drive them both home. He looked over at her, sending her a smile as he looked down at her bandaged wrist, shivering slightly at the thought of the needle. Cole had opted to wait in the car while Azelie got her tattoo, unable to bare the idea of the needles. He watched as she just sat in the front seat, not even choosing to put her seat belt on. It was times like that when he didn’t understand how they were friends. They could be total opposites, while Azelie never once wore a seatbelt, while putting on his seatbelt was the first thing Cole would do. At times they were total opposites, but they understood each other like nobody else could, and maybe that’s all it took.

So yes, Fearless did not go above the 150 mark on Teen Fiction so I uploaded a day early like I promised! It will be the same for the next upload, if you can keep it higher than 150 then I'll be uploading on Sunday, if not the next upload will be Monday!

Now onto more pressing matters - THE SPECIAL WATTY AWARDS! So you may or may not know how this words (the process of it all still confuses me) but i've entered for the special award for Best Trailer and it would mean a lot to me if you could watch the trailer on the right -> and then maybe perhaps (if you think it's good enough!) noiminate me for the award? The link to entering me is in the external link (so you just open that up and it will take you to where you need to go) and then you scroll down on the info bar bit, click on the part that says about nominations for the special awards, and you just take the link for the first bit of fearless, and the award is best trailer :)It would seriously mean a lot to me if you could nominate me! But if you've seen better, don't feel you need to!

Until next time!

Unicorn Out!