‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear,’

- Mark Twain

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I can’t believe you’re leaving me! All grown up and going away with her school! OH GOD!” Ted cried while holding Azelie tightly in a bone-crushing hug, tears welling in his eyes slightly.

“Ted!” Azelie replied, rolling her eyes slightly at her overdramatic uncle, “I’m only going away for three days! I’ll be back before you know it!”

“BUT IT’S SO LONG!” Ted cried, sounding like a whining five year old.

“Three days reallyisn’t that long, Ted!” Azelie reasoned. “Besides, you’ll have that artist you’re secretly dating to keep you company!” She added, wiggling her eyes brows slightly. Almost immediately, Ted released Azelie from the embrace, and looked her straight in the face, his eyes wide with shock.

“How-did-you-know-I-was-seeing-somebody?” He demanded quickly, his words sounding like just one big word.

“Please, it was so obvious! You’ve been out late every night, and I know you haven’t been working!” Azelie replied, rolling her eyes “So, what’s her name?” She asked, a smile forming on her lips. She liked that he was seeing somebody, he deserved to be happy.

“Err... I’ll tell you when you come back... it’s on a need to know basis for now,” He replied quietly, looking awkwardly down at the floor while shifting from one foot to the other. Azelie was about to argue with him, hoping to get a name before she had to go catch her flight, but she was interrupted by somebody else’s shouting.

“AZELIE!” Kelly cried, sprinting across the airport like some kind of manic. Kelly ran over to her, wrapping her arms around her friend’s body as soon as she got close enough. “Come on! We’ve got to go and check in!” She added, jumping up and down while holding onto Azelie. Ted just smiled, watching his niece’s friend as she jumped around.

“You’d better get going, you’ve still got to get through security with Kelly!” Ted joked, smirking slightly. Kelly stopped jumping and looked up at Azelie’s uncle, a slight frown forming on her lips.

“Hey! That’s not nice!” She complained. “True - but still not nice!” Ted just shrugged nonchalantly in reply, the smile still on his lips.

“Play nicely!” Azelie joked as she unwrapping her arms from Kelly and hugging Ted slightly. “See you on Friday, okay? No throwing giant parties and answering the door to strangers!” Azelie joked slightly as she releasing Ted.

“See ya, Azelie,” He replied, a sad smile forming on his lips. For a second, Azelie didn’t want to leave. Ted had taken her in when she had nowhere else to go, without him she would still be in Florida with her aunts (if they had eventually agreed to look after her). Without him, she wouldn’t have the life she had up here. She wouldn’t have to moments of happiness, or the times when she felt like she belonged. She wouldn’t have met Kelly or Alex. She wouldn’t have Cole to save her.

She smiled back at Ted and uttered her goodbyes to him, as she grabbed her suitcase and disappearing into the crowd of tourists and businessmen bustling around, making her way towards the nearest security gate, hoping that they wouldn’t be waiting forever.

Azelie leaned her head against the window of the bus, watching the San Francisco streets pass her by. They had landed over an hour ago, and after spending a life time in security and waiting for the entire group’s bags to appear, they had finally made it to the coach which was now driving them to their hotel. Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she turned around to find Cole sitting next to her.

“You okay?” He asked, with a smile on his face. Cole had sat next to Azelie on the plane and they had basically just messed around the entire time.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Azelie replied, returning the smile. “Are you okay?” She questioned, receiving only a nod from Cole in reply to her question. He looked down to her wrist, where he was expecting to see the white bandage that had covered it yesterday but instead it was bare. He reached down and carefully holding on to her wrist and slowly turning her arm around, making sure not to hurt her. Azelie watched him as he did this, trying to figure out what he was doing. He turned her wrist around to reveal the black tattoo written in black swirling text.

‘Fearless.’

A soft smile formed on his lips as he saw it, and he looked down at her, her golden brown eyes looking into his green.

“What are you going to do when I find your fear?” He questioned playfully. She laughed softly as she shook her head from side to side.

“How long is it going to be until you finally give up on that little dream of yours?” Azelie replied, looking up at him.

“I don’t give up on things, Azelie! Especially not this,” he smiled, sure that he would find something, no matter how desperate he was becoming. There had to be something, he was sure of it.

“How long do you think it’ll be until they get together?” Cole asked, motioning to the left where Kelly and Alex were sat, chatting wildly away with each other, huge smiles playing on their lips. How could they not see that they were in love with each other! It couldn’t be more obvious!

“I’d give them a couple of days,”

“I’d give them 24hours!” Cole replied, looking away from the couple, and over to Azelie.

“You wanna bet?” She smirked, looking into Cole’s green eyes.

“Sure, but what if both of us are wrong?” Cole questioned.

“Then we have to get involved and force them to go on a date! Deal?” Azelie smiled in reply.

“Oh you’re on, Azelie Ryans!” He smirked confident that it would only take them 24 hours to get together.

The hotel they were staying in was okay, although Azelie was sure that after three days with Kelly, it would be burnt to the ground. When they arrived, she went running after hot bartenders and waiters, after spending more of the day flirting with Alex. Azelie really didn’t ever think that she would understand that crazy girl’s mind. The good thing about Kelly chasing every half decent looking guy was that it meant that Azelie could have some peace and quiet as she unpacked her suitcase. Azelie and Kelly were sharing a room, while Alex and Cole were on a lower floor of the hotel where all the other guys had been placed. The school obviously didn’t trust teenagers to be able to stay on the same floor as the opposite sex.

Azelie slid her now empty suitcase under the bed as she put the last items of clothing away in the drawers, and began to look around the room. The room was quite small, all the furniture in the room looking quite cramped together. There were two single beds, the one that Kelly had claimed was beside the window, looking out onto the street, leaving Azelie the bed beside the small bathroom, with only a toilet, a sink and a tiny toilet cubical. The walls had just been painted a neutral shade of brown and the sheets on the bed were just plain white. The hotel was nothing special at all, but Azelie didn’t care. This was her first school trip away from home. Her aunts in Florida never allowed her to go on a school trip, they had never been willing to pay the expense. Of course, had it been free, they would have probably sent her off in a heartbeat and told her never to return. Azelie probably wouldn’t have argued with it. Disappearing off the face of the earth had been the one thing she had wanted to do growing up. Disappearing and getting out of Florida had been all she ever wanted growing up. But as she got older, disappearing turning into something darker.

Suddenly, the door to the room swung open, revealing a slightly hyper Kelly.

“Hey, you finished unpacking?” She questioned, her bright blue eyes scanning across the room.

“Yeah, the first three drawers are mine,” Azelie replied, motioning to the cupboard where Azelie had placed her clothes.

“Yeah, great, whatever! Look me, Alex and Cole have decided to go out and roam the streets, see what we can,” Kelly babbled, still standing in the doorway of the room, leaning against the front door slightly.

“But, I thought we were supposed to stay in the hotel for today...” Azelie trailed off, thinking back to when they arrived at the hotel and the teachers running the trip had gone over the rules. They had specifically stated that going outside the hotel was forbidden.

“Em, no?” Kelly stated, the ‘duh’ very much implied.

“But, it’s a rule... we have to stay in the hotel!”

“Pah! It’s only a rule; I prefer to think of them as guidelines you are allowed to break - well not really break, just ignore,” Kelly babbled on, floating off into a world of her own. “Look, it doesn’t matter - live a little Azelie!” She grinned like a crazy person. Azelie just shrugged slightly as she grabbed her bag, pre-packed with her purse and phone - just in-case anything did go wrong which was a high probability since Kelly was there.

They took the elevator down to the reception, where they found Alex and Cole waiting for them.

“Jesus, how long does it take you to kidnap a girl, Kelly! We’ve been waiting for half an hour!” Cole complained, looking rather bored.

“Hey! I wasn’t gone that long! And I had things to do before I went and kidnapped her,” Kelly replied, sticking her tongue out at Cole, while crossing her arms.

“Like what?” Alex chipped in, suddenly very interested in the conversation. “Sleeping with a waiter? Or are you still chasing them around the hotel?” He added, looking rather put out about Kelly’s activities during the day.

“No! I was setting us up with an alibi for if anybody tries to find us!” Kelly replied, Alex’s accusation pissing her off, “Me and Kelly are ill and we’re napping and you and Cole are visiting a local gay club together!” She added, as she turned around and walking off out of the hotel. Alex suddenly realised that he had dangerously overstepped the mark slight and ran over her, yelling her name as he went, leaving Azelie and Cole standing awkwardly together in the reception area.

“We should probably run after then, make sure they don’t murder each other...” Cole pointed out, smiling slightly over at Azelie. She quickly looked up at him as she nodded. They both began to walk out of the hotel, and after seeing how far away Kelly and Alex were, they broken out into a run as they attempted to stop their two best friends from killing each other.

Eventually, Cole and Azelie caught up with Kelly and Alex, they weren’t completely back to normal, Kelly was still hurt by his comment, but they weren’t at each other’s throats anymore. They all walked down the street, taking in everything there was too see. Kelly would occasionally make an inappropriate comment about some guy in the street, and then Alex would do the same for a girl. Azelie soon figured out that they were trying to make each other jealous, but of course their plan was backfiring since they were in love with each other and all they were doing was hurting the other.

They caught a cable car down to China town, where they basically just wandered around for a couple of hours, looking around at all the little trinket shops that filled the streets and buying noodles from street vendors instead of sitting down for a meal. Azelie loved it, the busy noisy streets along with the sweet smells of Chinese food, seemed perfect to her. She walked around Chinatown with a smile spread across her lips as she took it all in. Everything was fine, it had been for a long time. She didn’t need to watch herself again - life was good.

“Hey, we should probably start heading back to the hotel,” Cole spoke, pulling Azelie’s attention back down to earth.

“Sure,” she replied, her voice quiet. She turned to him, her brown eyes looking into his green ones. For a second, she wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t appeared on the bridge the day they met, when she was about to jump and he pulled her over. She didn’t linger on the idea of her drowning in the river, but instead she thought about how Cole would be? Had she affected his life in anyway, probably not. He would be fine if they had never met, just like Ted would be fine - he wouldn’t have a teenager to look after.

“It’s so pretty - all the lanterns,” Azelie added, turning around and pointing up and motioning to the paper lanterns that replaced the traditional street lamps.

“Yeah... I came here as a kid and loved it,” he replied, a slightly smile forming on his lips as he thought of the memory, everything had been good back then, but that’s the thing about happiness, it never lasts. It’s not supposed to last.

The group turned back, and caught the cable car back up to their hotel, before managing to sneak in into the hotel without being seen. They caught the elevator back up to their rooms, the guys getting off at the third floor while Azelie and Kelly got off at the fifth floor.

“He really likes you, you know,” Kelly commented as they walked down the hallway to get to their room.

“Huh?” Azelie replied, a bit confused as to what Kelly was saying.

“Cole,” she clarified, “I know I say that you should get married or hook-up or whatever, but he does really car for you - like a lot!”

“We’re just friends, Kelly. Seriously, nothing else will come of it!” Azelie replied, rolling her eyes slightly at the notion that Cole cared for her past friendship. “And anyway, speaking of caring for people - Alex?”

“What about him?” Kelly asked, an almost nervous expression on her face.

“Please Kelly! It’s so obvious! He likes you, you like him! It’s crazy how you can be so blind about each other’s feelings!” Azelie rambled on as they reached the door to their room.

“Azelie, let’s not dwell on dreams! Alex doesn’t like me! You saw how he was chatting up every girl with a set of boobs!” Kelly ranted, opening the door and walked into the room, before closing the door behind them.

“Yeah, but he was only doing that because you’ve been running around after every available waiter for the majority of today! You have been just as bad as him!” Azelie explained, not understanding how Kelly couldn’t see how Alex was feeling. Kelly didn’t reply, and instead silence just filled the room. “Look, the two of you are just stuck in this loop. You both have feelings for each other, but refuse to acknowledge that the other returns those feelings! Just take a damn chance!” Azelie added, sitting on her bed opposite from where Kelly was now lying down, staring at the wall.

“What if you’re wrong?” Kelly questioned in a quiet voice, as she turned around. “He’s not just some guy I met on the street and fell in love with or whatever happens in those soppy romance films. He’s my best friend, Azelie. I can’t lose him,” She added, her voice barely above a whisper. Azelie thought for a moment, as Kelly looked at her for answers. She didn’t know what to say, she knew he was in love with her as much as she was in love with him, and yet she couldn’t be this involved.

“I can tell you to run after him all I like, and I can only tell you what everybody else sees - which is two people totally in love with each other - but only you can choose to either believe it, or to live in your bubble of crazy and just ignore all the signs,” Azelie answered, unsure of what else to say. They both left it at that. Azelie went to have a shower, leaving Kelly with her thoughts. When she came out of the shower, Kelly acted like everything was back to normal, and opted to watch “Jersey Shore’ telling Azelie that she was taking names of the people she single-handedly blamed for the breakdown of society.

It was around 11pm when Kelly finally decided to sleep, leaving Azelie lying in the darkness, sleep slowly washing over her, pulling her down.

“DON’T LEAVE ME! DON’T GO!” He yelled, loud and loud, deafening Azelie. The fire roared around the car as tears poured down her face. It was a car crash, Cole’s truck lay upside down on the side of the hill. Azelie was about 100 meters away or so, a safe enough distance, but she could hear him screaming as if he was sat next to her. They had been driving up the road, just like on a usual day when they had suddenly been flipped off the road and down a hill, the car rolling down and down to the bottom.

Azelie stood paralyzed watching the car, listening to Cole screaming for her to come back and save him. She tried to run over, she wanted to save him so desperately, but she couldn’t move. She tried to thrash her limbs around but she couldn’t. She screamed and screamed, trying to save him. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she took shallow breaths, tears rolling down and down her cheeks.

Suddenly, she could move again, almost as if she was freed from chains. She sprinted over to the car, but she got no closer, with every step she took, the wreak would move back two. Then, it was too late. The car exploded, fire roaring around Azelie. She could feel the extruisationg heat, the pain tingling all over her skin. She screamed, and screamed again, wishing that death would just take her already, wishing that it had a long time ago.

Then, almost all at once, she woke up in a soaking bed, with Kelly standing terrified at the end, holding an empty bucket.

“I-I-I didn’t know what to do; you wouldn’t wake up,” Kelly quickly said, explaining why Azelie was covered in water. Suddenly, tears broke out from Azelie as she began to break down, unable to control her self any longer. Kelly ran over to Azelie holding her tightly in her arms, completely confused completely about the entire thing. She had been woken up by Azelie crying out, quietly at first. Then it began to get louder, she began to thrash about, crying out in pain, screaming out loud. Kelly was almost surprised that the entire hotel hadn’t woken up.

Azelie lay in Kelly’s arms, uncontrollable tears rolling down her face as she tried to forget about what she had just seen. She couldn’t even close her eyes without seeing Cole’s face. It haunted her for the rest of the night, during which both Kelly and Azelie lay wide awake, not even moving an inch.

As promised, this is a day early becuase you wonderful people kept this below 150! :D And because you've done this twice (I think) in a row, I'm now going to say that fearless has be be kept below 100 on teen fiction until Wednesday! If you do so, I'll upload wednesdays; if not Thursdays when I'll upload! Do you think you are up to the challange ;)

Anyhoo, I'm sure you think I've got on enough about the special awards and that silly trailer for fearless that has been entered - but I really haven't been! Honestly, if you haven't nominated me, it would mean the world if you would! And if you have already done it, you can do it a second time! Just to be nice! Sorry about all the spam about this but I reaaaaaally want to get it!

The song on ths side is Young the Giant's 'My Body' and the picture is of Azelie's tattoo :) Also in the external link is the trailer for Fearless, just incase you haven't seen it! ;)

Well, I think that's all I've got to say... until next time!

- Unicorn out! :D