‘The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one,’

- John C. Maxwell

Chapter Twenty-Nine

To say it just a tad awkward between Azelie and Cole would have been the biggest understatement of the century. Azelie hadn’t been at school for the first three days after they had come back after the San Francisco trip. Cole suspected that she had taken it off to look after Ted, his theory proving true when Kelly mentioned that Azelie hadn’t wanted to leave his bedside at the hospital. Cole had waited beside her locker every day since the kiss, hoping that she would appear, so they could sort everything out and that he could apologize for his mistake.

But, when she finally showed, he should have expected that she would have chosen to act like the entire thing didn’t happen. It was Thursday when she finally appeared back at school; six days after the kiss. Cole was waiting at her locker when he saw her in the corridor, standing in complete shock as she watched him. Her brown eyes were wide, and full of confusion as she suddenly turning and almost running down the hall, pushing past the crowds of people to get away.

He turned away around from the crowd to face the lockers he had been leaning on, pressing his head in, trying to remember the breathing exercises that he was taught as a child in order to calm down. Why did she have to be so difficult about everything? It wasn’t like he was going to ask her to marry him or something; it was just a simple accidental kiss... well, a freaking amazing kiss that Cole had said meant nothing. Which it didn’t, at least not to Cole, but at the time he figured that it might mean nothing to Azelie. Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say.

“You alright?” a voice questioned, snapping Cole\s attention away from his thoughts. Cole turned around to find Alex standing beside him, a curious look clear on his face. After a brief moment of thought, he decided it might just help to tell someone, hell Alex might even tell him what to do, because right now he sure as hell didn’t know what would make Azelie talk to him again.

“I kissed her,”

“Who?” Alex interrupted, looking slightly confused as to who Cole was talking about.

“Azelie...” He answered, forgetting that Alex wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.

“YOU KISSED AZELIE?” He shouted in shock, not believing Cole.

“Yeah,” Cole replied quietly, hoping that Alex wouldn’t shout their entire conversation out loud for everybody to hear. “And then said that it didn’t mean anything,”

“Shit man, Kelly’s going to have your balls when she finds out!” Alex replied, his voice deadly serious. Cole knew he wasn’t joking. Kelly cutting off his balls wasn’t even half of what Kelly was going to do to him when she found out.

“Yeah,” he said, “Believe me when I say - I know!”

“And then she’s gonna go after me!” Alex added, a look of horror forming on his face.

“What? Why would she go after you?” Cole questioned, looking over at his friend as they began to walk up the corridor from Azelie’s locker.

“Because you’re my friend! And in Kelly’s books, that mean you’re my responsibility! So when you screw up; I’m in the dog house!” Alex explained, trying not to think of what Kelly would have in store for him. Cole just shook his head at the two of them, wondering how one little crazy pink-headed woman could cause both of them so much horror. Cole and Alex were considered two of the best footballers on the school’s team; and just one girl could strike the fear of hell into their hearts.

The bell suddenly rang, causing Alex to quickly mutter a quick goodbye to Cole as he turned around to get to his first class. Cole carried on up the corridor to get to his first class of the day; hoping that he would be more successful at getting Azelie to talk to him then.

Azelie ran up the path to her house, and opened the front door, slamming it hard behind her. She dumped her bag and jacket on the floor, and slipped off her shoes and racing up the stairs, trying to get to Ted as quickly as she could. She stopped outside his room, taking a second to pause and collect her thoughts from her rush home. Azelie had run all the way there, trying to make sure Ted was okay even though she had phoned him between every class.

Taking a deep breath, Azelie grasped onto the door knob, twisting it slightly in her hand as she pushed open the door with a slightly knock of her hand.

“Hey Ted, how ar-” she said in a soft voice as she entered the room, before suddenly stopping, finding the empty bed in front of her. “Ted?” She shouted, looking around the room for her uncle. Rolling her eyes slightly she turned out of the room and marched downstairs, only to find Ted standing in the kitchen mixing something on the cooker.

“What are you doing up? You’re supposed to be in bed damnit!” Azelie shouted as she marched into the kitchen, anger building up inside of her.

“I got bored! I can’t stay in bed all day Azelie!” Ted answered, not paying attention to his worrying niece. “That’s why I checked myself out of that horrid place!”

“You mean the hospital where there are doctors and nurses that could help you if you collapse again?” Azelie replied sarcastically, shaking her head at her immature uncle. A few days after Ted had woken up, he had decided that he felt, ‘totally fine’ and that it was ‘a waste of his time and money sitting in a hospital bed watching the world pass him by’ despite everyone telling him that it was a bad idea to leave so early after a major operation. Azelie suspected that it was the fact that the doctors had told him that he should have died, or at least be mentally injured, because of how bad the bleeding had been which had resulted in his eagerness to get away from the hospital so he could live the remainder of his life.

“Stop with your worrying Azelie! You will grow grey hairs!” Ted smiled, looking away from whatever he was cooking and over to his niece.

“For good reasons! You’re supposed to be on bed rest!” Azelie pointed out, Ted just rolling his eyes in reply. “What are you doing anyway?” she questioned, looking around at the war-zone of a kitchen. It was ten times worse than the mess her and Cole had made when they were making Lily flapjacks.

“I’m baking - duh! I really wanted brownies!” Ted replied, continuing to do whatever he was doing with the cooker. Azelie decided it was best not to question it.

“Just wait until Liam gets here; he will sort you out,” Azelie said, instantly capturing Ted’s attention.

“Liam’s coming round?” He questioned, his eyes growing wide. Azelie just nodded in reply, a smile growing on her lips.

“SHIT! We have to clean up! Why didn’t you tell me earlier Azelie! Arg! I need to clean the house and get showered!” Ted began to panic, looking around at the mess he had created.

“Hey! It’ll all be fine! I’ll clean this up and you just get showered!” Azelie replied, trying to calm him down. She didn’t like the idea of him being out of bed, let alone the idea of him running around trying to get everything ready for his boyfriend. Ted quickly nodded, scanning around the kitchen before finally leaving, muttering random words to himself as he left Azelie to clean up.

Taking a cloth from the sink, she began to wipe the counters, slowly making her way through the mess that seemed to have taken over the kitchen. It took her twenty minutes to successfully clean everything before she finally turned her attention to making dinner. Liam was due to arrive in forty minutes which gave Azelie time to boil enough pasta for the three of them while making the sauce to go with it. She then mixed it all into a casserole dish, adding some meat as she did so and left it to cook in the oven with twenty minutes to spare until Liam arrived.

“So, how did you two meet?” Azelie smiled as she placed her fork and knife down beside her empty plate. The dinner had been a success. Liam and Azelie hadn’t had the best of first introductions with Ted’s accident, but tonight had proved her with the perfect opportunity to get to know her uncle’s boyfriend better.

“Well,” Liam began, turning to Azelie with a grin on his face, “I was a one of my ex’s art exhibition that a gallery up in Vancouver was hosting, and this guy came up to me and said-”

‘DON’T LISTEN TO HIM AZELIE! IT’S ALL LIES!” Ted screamed, but Azelie and Liam paid no attention to him.

“-I know kids who can finger paint better than this,” he finished, Ted shaking his head in disagreement. “So I turned to him, and pretended to be the artist who had painted it, and got all annoyed and offended! You should have seen his face! Just shock horror! He got all flustered and cute, trying to apologize to me. Of course, at that point, I decided to tell him that it was my ex-boyfriend’s art and that for the last ten minutes I had been laughing at his work because it was so pitiful,”

Ted just sat and shook his head, claiming that the entire story was a lie while arguing with Liam about it. Azelie just sat back with a grin forming on her face, watching them bickering about their first meeting.

Six days ago, she had been thinking about how alone her and Ted were, that they had nobody in the world, but looking at Ted now, she could see how wrong she was. Ted was in love with the man who sat next to him, his eyes shining brightly as he joked with Liam. Azelie realised that, in a weird way, she had Cole, like Ted had Liam. He would always be there for her, no matter what. He would be there to pull her off bridges, and away from trains. To save her when she was drowning, even if she didn’t want to be saved. He would be there if they kissed; and then quickly admitted that it was a mistake. He had been at her locker this morning; and she had been the one that had run away. This time, he didn’t follow her.

Azelie suddenly stood up from the table, collecting up the empty plates and made her way though to the kitchen. She placed the plates beside the sink, and shut her eyes and breathing in slightly, a familiar feeling of suffocation taking over her. She tried to clear her mind of all of her thoughts, trying to get back to the happy light feeling from earlier, but she couldn’t. Her lungs felt heavy, as if they were restricted of air.

“Are you okay, Azelie?” a voice asked from behind her. She looked over her shoulder, twisting her body slightly to find Ted standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

“I’m fine,” she lied, sending him a quick smile as she turned back around, turning her attention to the tap for the sink on so she could do the dishes.

“You’ve been quiet all night,” Ted stated, making it sound like a question.

“So?”

“Something’s up,” Ted replied, walking into the kitchen and over to where Azelie stood. “Something’s always up with you when you are too quiet,” Azelie just rolled her eyes at her worrying uncle. She didn’t want him to worry about her, he had to get back to being healthy before he could start worrying about her again.

“Stop your worrying, Ted! I’m fine,” Azelie replied, a fake smile forming on her lips.

“Is it Liam? Is it the fact I never told you about me being gay?” He asked after a long pause, Azelie shaking her head furiously in reply.

“No! Ted, it’s nothing!”

“Because I was going to tell you when you got home! That’s why Liam was at the gallery when I was in the hospital, we were going to meet up and I was going to introduce you two,” Ted explained, babbling on despite Azelie’s protests.

“Ted! Honestly, Liam is wonderful! He’s good for you! And, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest that you didn’t tell me,” Azelie said, hoping that Ted would just drop it.

“So what is it then? Because I can tell it’s bothering you, Azelie!” Ted told her, looking at his niece as she tried to avoid all eye contact with him. She was too much like her mother at times, very hard to read in terms of feelings, but you would always know when she was avoiding you. When Azelie didn’t answer, Ted decided to push further.

“Is it Cole?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Azelie instantly stopped what she was doing, as if she was trying to not let herself feeling all the emotions that even the mention of the name brought up. Bingo! “What has that silly boy done now?”

“It doesn’t matter,”

“It obviously does!”

Taking a deep breath in, she realised that there was no loop hole out of telling him, and so with her voice quiet and low, she told him.

“I told him everything, except about Haley. I didn’t want to tell him that because of his sister’s past, and... well... He kissed me. Then told me that it meant nothing,”

“WHERE’S MY SHOT GUN!” Ted cried playfully, trying to cut some of the tension that had formed in the room

“Ted! Stop being silly,” Azelie cried, rolling her eyes slightly at her uncle.

“Nobody goes around kissing my niece to then proceed to tell her that it meant nothing!”

“Ted, seriously?” Azelie whined, pulling her uncle away from the door and back into the kitchen. Ted smiled over at Azelie.

“So did you want it to mean something?” He asked, trying to figure out how Azelie felt about this. He had always been somebody that Azelie could turn to, without the judgement of a parent.

“I-I don’t know, but... it’s just so complicated,” she said, suddenly feeling rather awkward about the situation.

“Well, just remember what I always say - ignoring things always makes it more complicated!” He smiled, his words causing Azelie to think.

“You’ve never said that!”

“Sure I have; you just don’t listen to me,” He laughed as he disappeared out of the kitchen, returning to the living room where Liam was waiting patiently, leaving Azelie alone with her thoughts.

Azelie looked at the house in front of her, unsure of whether she wanted to do this or not. Letting out a sigh, she dug her phone out of her pockets and quickly found the number she wanted to call. She pressed the call button as she placed the phone up to her ear, her hands shaking slightly from the cold as she stood still.

“Hello?” the person answered, their voice full of question.

“I’m outside, want to talk?” she asked, a puff of steam floating out of her mouth as she spoke. He didn’t even need to answer, he simply hung up the phone, and barely even a minute later, was jogging quickly out from his house to where Azelie stood waiting.

“You know you standing outside my house is slightly stalker-ish!” he joked, a smile forming on his lips. Azelie returned the smile as they began to walk up the road.

“It could be worse, I could just climb up to your window and stare in,” Azelie replied. Cole beginning to shake his head at her, realising just how much he had missed really missed her over the past six days.

“That sounds like something Kelly would do,”

“I would be surprised if she hadn’t already done it!” she smiled, as the conversation fell into a silence.

“I’m sorry,” Cole began, both of them continuing to walk up the road, “I shouldn’t have said it meant nothing - hell, I shouldn’t have kissed you in the first place!” He tried to block out the memories that still lingered on his mind. He wasn’t sorry for kissing her, he was just sorry for when he had kissed her. It would have been better for him to kiss her at a different time, like a time when her uncle wasn’t in life threatening surgery, or just after she told him about her past. Just about any other time would have been great! But no, he had to be the guy who had just about the worst timing in the world; something he had paid for earlier in the day when Kelly had found out what he had done and kicked him hard in the balls.

“It’s alright... it’s partly my fault. I.. I kissed you back, and I ran away instead of sorting everything out there and then,” Azelie replied, a feeling of relief washing over her. “I should have realised that we were going to regret it in the end,”

Cole smiled softly at her, realising how much he wanted to tell her that he didn’t regret it, not truly.

“Well, it’s just too bad that you couldn’t help taking advantage of my awesome kissing skills! I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one of us two!” Cole joked, sticking his tongue out playfully at Azelie.

“Excuse me! I think you will find that it was you who took advantage of me!” Azelie replied with a smirk.

“And why would you think that?”

“Because... because of reasons!”

“Reasons?” he said, confusion taking over as he looked over at her, the smile not disappearing from his lips.

“Yes, because of reasons!” She repeated. Cole just rolled his eyes at her, as they carried on walking, the two of them chattering away as if nothing had been wrong.

Both of their minds were lingering on the kiss they had shared, both thinking about how they didn’t regret the kiss; not even in the slightest.

Enjoy the happy times whie they last my little munkins! The end is nigh! Nigh as in eleven chapter away, about three of which have been written! :D I didn't want to keep Azelie and Cole fighting for long, because in the past i've streached their arguements across chapters and I'm sure you are all bored to death of that :P

Anywho, we are getting closer and closer to end of our little journey, you may think 11 chapter is such a long time away, but I have a month to finish this, so 11 chapters over a month, and the last three you are going to want all together because of cliffhangers so mwahahahaha!!

The wonderful song on the side is Daughter's 'Smother' because I think it actually describes how Azelie feels quite often in a big group of happy people whom feel like family. She get's suffocated with feelings and can't take it; and Cole is that little escape for her... :) It's a beautiful song and you should really check it out!

I am also beginning to get pretty good with updating the fb page with spoilers! Hoping to start spamming anybody who likes it with my awesomeness, so if you want to be awesome, click on the external link and 'like' the page or whatever :)

Also, my list of wonderful people to give decations is now empty, so if you want a dedication just leave a comment about what you thought about the chapter and you will get one! (unless you've already got a dedication for fearless or British guys then sorry but there's other people that I need to give dedications to!)

Anyhoo, next upload should be Sunday, but might be early like this one :)

Until next time!

UNICORN OUT! :D