Fearless?

Fearless? - Chapter Twenty-Three

‘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.