‘I was afraid as child. I was afraid of everything. I was scared of water - I couldn’t swim - I was scared of trucks on the turnpike, and mostly I was scared of ghosts. But at some point, I realised something. A ghost is something you create yourself - a man’s mind makes it happen. If there was nobody on Earth, would a ghost still have a chance to spook somebody? No. You manifest ghosts through fear,’

- Unknown

Chapter Thirty-Five

Azelie didn’t feel tired. No, as she walked through the corridors, trying to make her way to the canteen she felt worse that tired. She was dizzy, her head was killing her. It had been a miracle she had made it through maths without killing the gossiping blonde who sat next to her. She had one of those high pitched voices that you couldn’t ignore, no matter how much you tried.

After everything she had figured out last night, it was no surprise that she didn’t sleep! She was in love with Cole, even just thinking it to herself cause Azelie to shiver from the idea of love. Love was nothing to her but darkness. She never had the happiness that followed love, it was just dark and death. That was all that came of Azelie loving.

She had loved Haley, her parents. She had learned to love her aunts, their husband. They had all died. And Ted. He almost died, if she had been a few minutes later, it was unlikely that he would be alive today. Ted was just a lucky miss; Cole... he would be different

The idea of Cole in danger made Azelie want to vomit there and then. She couldn’t handle the idea of him in pain because of her, she already had everybody’s else name on her lift. She couldn’t add an eighth. She couldn’t add Cole.

Azelie stumbled into the canteen, her eyes gazing around the busy room searching for her friends, guilt consuming her as she spotted Cole. God, why did she have to fall for him? He didn’t love her back, that much was clear - hell, to him they were just friends and as much as that killed her to admit, it was the truth. Who would love her? She was messed up; scarred. Cole wasn’t, and he needed someone like that; not somebody broken.

She sat down on one of the chairs, choosing a seat opposite Cole, making sure she left two seats together for Kelly and Alex, who weren’t at the table. It was just Azelie and Cole. Alone. Azelie using all of her energy to fight the growing need to look up at the boy opposite her. She leaned her head on to the table, before slowly closing her eyes. The throbbing pain in her head instantly soothing slightly as she did.

“What’s wrong?” a voice questioned. Azelie’s eyes flickered open as she turned her head slightly to look at Cole, his green eyes full of concern.

“Nothing, just the usual nightmares,” Azelie replied, the memories of her nightmares resurfacing in her mind. She tried to ignored them but she found it almost impossible. She had dreamt so much about Cole dying that it had become a usual thing to pop in her memory. The most recent one had been in the car that her parents had died in. The memory would start and end the same way, with a truck crashing into the car, but with a few differences. Instead of her parents in the car, it was Cole, and she wasn’t a child.

“Azelie,” He replied, raising an eyebrow at her, “I thought we were past this! Haven’t you learned that I know when you’re lying! What’s wrong?” He added. Azelie’s stomach grew heavy at the thought of telling him the truth. It was something she was not prepared to do.

“It doesn’t matter, Cole. Just nightmares, that’s all,” Azelie answered, trying to keep her brown eyes on his green ones. She tried to make her voice light, make it seem as if she was fine. But she knew it wouldn’t work on Cole.

“What about?”

“Just the crash,” She answered. It was the truth, her nightmares were about the crash, she just didn’t specify whom was in the crash with her. Cole nodded slightly in reply, tearing his gaze away from Azelie for a moment to look around him. Trying to think of what he should say next, not that any of it would help.

“You know that if you ever want to talk about... anything, you can talk to me about it,” Cole said, his voice low as he looked back at her. She just nodded slowly in reply, understanding Cole. They stopped talking for a while. Cole continued on to eat his food while Azelie laid her head back on table, repeating to herself a simple phase, one that should have been effective enough to kill any feelings she had for him. She just had to stay friends with him. That’s all they could ever be and Azelie was sure that she just had to move on and accept that fact. It was plain and simple - friends and nothing more, and yet hard for Azelie to accept. She didn’t want to be just friends, she wanted more, but in life you can’t have everything you want, especially when it comes to love.

“Are you busy tonight?” Azelie asked, shifting her head over so that it wasn’t leaning on the table and instead placed her chin on her folded arms, looking across the table at Cole. He thought for a second before answering.

“I don’t think I am,”

“Do you want to come over tonight then? We could watch that film you were going on about at the weekend, Ted has it on DVD,” Azelie replied with a hopeful smile. Friends could watch films together right? That was a friend thing?

“The Green Mile isn’t just any film, Azelie!” Cole replied, looking slightly offended that Azelie hadn’t remembered the name of the film. “Tom Hanks is in it!”

“I worry about you and your man-crush on Tom Hanks,” Azelie replied, rolling her eyes slightly at him, a smirk forming on her lips.

“I don’t have a man-crush on Tom Hanks!” Cole cried, his voice going a little high pitched at the accusation.

“You so do! You have like every film of his on DVD! You cry at his films-”

“-I do not cry at his films! There was dust in my eye!”

“Ah please! There were no dust in your eye! You were crying at the end of ‘Saving Private Ryan’! Don’t lie Cole - Haven’t you learned that I know when you’re lying!” She replied, using his words from earlier on when she refused to tell him what was wrong.

“IT’S AN EMOTIONAL ENDING ALRIGHT!” Cole cried, looking rather upset at the fact that Azelie had taken up the memory of when they watching ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

“I think if it had been any other character who died, you wouldn’t have been half as upset,” Azelie replied, shrugging slightly.

“I so would have been! It’s an upsetting film!” Cole replied, just as Kelly and Alex walked over, instantly knowing what they were talking about.

“Is this about Cole’s man-crush on Tom Hanks?” Kelly questioned, almost giddy with happiness as she sat down, smiling over at Azelie and Cole.

“See! Even she thinks you have a man-crush on him!” Azelie smirked, motioning over to Kelly who was sitting to her left, with Alex sitting between his girlfriend and Cole.

“I do not! He’s just a brilliant actor!” Cole replied, trying to defend himself. “Alex, come on! Help me out here!” He added, turning to his best friend for help. Almost automatically, Alex put his hands in the air.

“You’re on your own, dude!” Alex replied, trying to stay out of the mini argument that was starting up.

“See that’s three to one! We all agree that you have a man-crush on Tom Hanks,” Kelly replied with a large smile growing on her lips.

“And Az-” Alex began to add, but was cut off by Kelly elbowing him in the gut as she turned to her boyfriend with a look of fury forming on her face.

“SSSSSSH!” Kelly said, glaring at Alex, whom didn’t whine at all about the pain that Kelly had inflicted on him. Azelie turned to look at Kelly and Alex. This was strange - they never fought. She looked over to find Cole also looking at Alex, a pissed off expression forming on his face as he did. Azelie tried to think back to what Alex was going to say but couldn’t think of what it was. She had hardly heard him as he hadn’t been speaking particular clear but whatever he was going to say must have been related to what they were hiding from her.

The rest of lunch started off a little awkward, Azelie knew that they didn’t want to speak while she was there. She made an excuse to go see one of her friends from another class for five minutes so they could sort everything out, and just as she had expected, when she returned to the table, everything had gone back to normal, well as normal as things could be with Kelly there.

It was only when the bell signaling the end of lunch, did Azelie get an answer for her original question to Cole about him coming over to watch a film. They managed to arrange a time without Kelly finding out, if she did, Azelie wouldn’t hear the end of her wedding plans for the two of them.

Cole arrived at Azelie’s house at 5. Ted was out on a date with Liam and so he wasn’t expected home until later on in the evening. As soon as Cole arrived, they order a pizza from the local delivery service and Azelie dug out as many Tom Hanks films as she could, just to see Cole’s reaction - which was largely positive to the idea. The night turned into a mini celebration of the fact that the October holidays had now begun and they were now free from school for two weeks. The two of them just hung out on the sofa, Azelie lying partly on Cole was they watched a film Cole had chosen.

‘I love you,’ Azelie thought as she leaned her head on Cole’s shoulder. The thought sent fear down her spine, fear she thought she would never feel, just like the love she felt for Cole. She felt the two emotions she thought were impossible for the boy who had just swooped his way into her life before stealing her heart.

Cole was sitting properly on the sofa, while Azelie sat next to him, her feet sprawled over the rest of the sofa and her head leaning on his shoulder, breathing in the smell of him, her heart skipping beats every so often. A smile was spread across her lips, a smile of content as she realised that she didn’t want to be anywhere else that where she was, but she knew she should want to leave, run away and save Cole from whatever was about to happen. Azelie was happy; she had been happy for too long; her time was running thin.

“Stop with all your thinking,” Cole whispered, turning his head slightly, his bright green eyes gazing into hers eyes, a slight smirk on his lips.

“I’m not over-thinking anything! I’m concentrating on the film!” Azelie smiled, hoping that Cole hadn’t figured out how to tell when she was lying and when she wasn’t.

“Sure you are! Where are the characters now?” he questioned, his voice thick with humor, his green eyes shining with glee. Azelie slowly ripped her gaze away from Cole and over to the T.V., not making sense of the scene, before looking back up at Cole.

“The North Pole?” Cole let out a chuckle at her answer, shaking his head slightly.

“Azelie, do you even know what film we are watching?” He questioned. Azelie shook her head slowly from side to side, deciding to just come clean. “What are you thinking about? I can tell you’ve not slept for days!”.

Panic began to take over as Azelie tried to think of an answer. She couldn’t tell him that for the last week, he had been the subject of her nightmares, dying in different ways. The nightmares began to resurface in her mind, tearing her heart into two as the thought of Cole dying, leaving her, began to run riot round her head, causing chaos with every thought in her mind.

“It’s nothing - just the usual nightmares,” she lied, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Her gaze floated away from Cole, trying to avoid the subject. She didn’t want to talk about it. Cole could see right through her lies. Cole got the idea though, he knew that she would talk to him when she was ready rather than pushing her to admit something she didn’t want to say. He had to trust her to be okay, he was always worrying about her, what he said to her and what she would think of him because of it.

Azelie didn’t stay up after Cole left for the night. He had gone home about 30 minutes after Ted had stumbled home, only slightly drunk from his date with Liam. Azelie had quickly cleaned up the living room before heading to her room, grabbing her pajamas as she headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

She returned to her room, dressed in her pajamas with her hair still wet from her shower. Collapsing on to her bed, Azelie looked up at the ceiling. She realised that there was no way she was going to be getting any sleep that night. Slowly, she reached over to her bedside unit, and picked up the book she had been reading.

As Azelie lay reading, she swore that she could hear a light tapping sound. She dropped the book before looking around her dimly lit bedroom, trying to think of what could be making the noise. It stopped suddenly, and after scanning her eyes around her room, she just decided that the noise had been her mind playing tricks on her and she returned to her reading - that was until the tapping started up again. Letting out a sigh, Azelie pushed herself up on her bed as she placed her book to the side, making sure to save the page. She looked all around her room, trying to figure out what was making the noise when she noticed her window.

Slowly, Azelie pushed herself off her bed and stood up. She made her way to the window before carefully pulling back the curtains of the window. It was then that she found Cole hanging on to the tree outside her window for dear life. A bright smile formed on his lips as he saw Azelie looking back at him. Azelie tried to figure out if Cole was actually really there or if it was all just part of her imagination.

“Well, come on! Let me in!” He cried, holding on to the tree as he saw her just standing there as if she was deciding what she should do. Azelie jumped into action as she stepped forward and opened her window. Cole didn’t waste anytime climbing in from the cold and into Azelie’s room. He shut the window behind him as he began to look round her room, weirdly enough, he had expected it to be like it was. Messy, and unorganized, but with a strange sense of normality. There were books scatter in tall piles all over the room, her wardrobe was overflowing with clothes and there was painting and pictures all over the walls. Azelie’s room described her personality almost perfectly.

“Decided not to use the door, I see?” Azelie smiled, still confused to why he was in her room. She didn’t even question why she had let him in; she knew why she let him in, there was no point in denying it.

“Doors are so overrated! Windows are so much cooler now!” Cole replied sarcastically, a warm smile forming on his lips. “Is Ted asleep?” He questioned, his voice suddenly going quieter as he spoke. Azelie nodded in reply. He had been out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He looked around her room once again, this time spotting the copy of ‘The Beautiful and the Dammed’ lying on her bed, his smile growing slightly more as he spotted in. “Are you tired?” he asked, looking up at her. He didn’t even know why he asked, he could see in her eyes that she was tired. Her eyes were a dull brown colour, like they always were when she was tired, and the dark rings had appeared once again around her eyes. He was sure that she was getting better at going to sleep; something must have set her off again. She nodded in reply to his question.

“Come on then, off to bed,” He order with a slight smile. Azelie looked up at Cole as if he was crazy.

“And do you want to go out the window or face the ever-threatening uncle? He may be drunk and out for the count but I know for a fact that he will catch you and I’ll be force to re-visit the memories of ‘the talk’ and you know how horrific that will be!”

“I didn’t say I was going anywhere?” Cole replied, rolling his eyes as if his plan was obvious

“So what? Are you just going to watch me sleep?” She questioned, not understanding what Cole was trying to get at, “Please tell me you aren’t a sparkly gay vampire or something!”

“You’re more like the vampire with your lack of sleep!”

“Cole! Seriously, what the hell are you doing while I’m sleeping?” Azelie replied, trying to figure out where he was planning on doing? Why was he in her room away? Why had he climbed a freaking tree to get to her room when he could have just gone home.

“I’ll be sleeping too, silly!” He answered with a sigh.

“Where?” She practically laughed, still not catching on to Cole’s plan “In the freaking tree?”

“On your bed,” Cole answered simply with a slight shrug of his shoulders, “With you,”

“You will be?” Azelie replied in a matter-of-fact voice, raising an eyebrow as she did.

“You slept in San Francisco with me and didn’t have any nightmares. We might as well and try to see if you can get sleep with me lying next to you,” He explained, wondering how she had not caught up with him yet. She must really be tired.

“That’s just stupid, Cole! It’s never going to work!” Azelie replied, “Look, it’s probably best if you just go home, Cole. I appreciate the effort but if Ted catches you in here-”

“Which he won’t if we go to see now! I’ll be gone before he even wakes up.” Cole interrupted, his words contradicting with what she was going to say, “Just trust me on this,”

Something inside of her told her to just kick him out; that she was better off alone, that he would be better without her to worry about. And although she knew it was true, she couldn’t. She opened her mouth to tell him to go home, to lie to him and tell him that she was going to be okay. But she couldn’t. So instead she let out a sigh and slowly walked over to her bed, and slowly laid down on to her mattress, moving all the way up she could to make room for Cole. He laid on to down beside her, making sure that he faced her as he did.

“Now just close your eyes, and clear your mind,” he instructed as he reached over to the lamp on her bedside unit and flicked it off. He wrapped his arms around her tiny waist before pulling her body closer to his.

“Don’t leave me, Cole,” She mumbled as she floated off to sleep. Cole looked dow at her, confusion filling him as he did. Despite not being sure as to where her words had come from, he didn’t question them and instead, slowly kissed her on the forehead, his lips lingering there slightly too long to just be a friendly kiss.

“Don’t worry; I don’t plan on it,”

Ta-Da! A new chapter just as promised! I'll be updating every day until it's finished so make sure you stay on top of it all! Pretty please remember to vote and comment and all those awesoeme things you guys love doing! It honestly does mean a lot to me! :D

I'm currently uploading this from the middle of the very cold North Sea (google it, darling) and making funny faces at everybody else in the canteen of the boat I'm on while listening to Katy Perry.. oops :P Is it bad that when I watched Finding Nemo, I knew every damn word? Oh well! Just keep swimming swimming, what do we do? We swim, swim :)

Until next time folks!

UNICORN OUT!