Fearless?

Fearless? - Chapter Twenty-Four

‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear,’ 

- Nelson Mandela

Chapter Twenty-Four

‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ rang the alarm clock, and both Azelie and Kelly leaned towards the bedside unit in between their two beds to turn it off. Neither girls had slept a wink. Azelie couldn’t handle seeing the nightmare about Cole again; Kelly was terrified that there would be a repeat of the first night. It had been like this for two nights in a row and, as a result, they hadn’t slept well - if at all - for the past 42 hours. 

Azelie sent a small smile over to Kelly as she saw her reaching over at the same time as her, Kelly returning the smile. Despite her exhaustion, Azelie couldn’t help but find Kelly’s morning appearance amusing. Her candy floss pink hair stood on end, making her look like some kind of pink haired Einstein, while her make-up would be all messy and half rubbed off because she would be too lazy to take it off before she went to bed.

“Good morning,” Kelly yawned, as she streached her arms in the air.

“God, I need coffee,” Azelie muttered in reply, finding it too hard to even think. This was the second day of their trip and basically all they had done was buy coffee from any available store to make sure they wouldn’t fall asleep during the day. They had been split up from Cole and Alex after a slight change in the way the two groups were split up but today they would be going to Alcatraz Island which was some kind of old famous prison just off the coast of San Francisco. Azelie didn’t know much about it, but from what she had heard it sounded like the best place for Kelly to be institutionalized. Azelie looked back to her best friend who was sat slumped over on her stomach, too tired to move. Azelie stifled a laugh as she took in Kelly’s morning appearance for the second time, still finding it hilarious. 

“I look a mess again, don’t I?” Kelly questioned, reading Azelie’s mind. 

“No, of course not!” Azelie lied, somehow keeping her face straight. “You look just as gorgeous as ever!” Kelly just looked at Azelie in disbelief as she began to shake her head slightly and slowly climbing out of the comfort of her warm bed.

“I’m going for a shower,” She said, walking across the room and picking out everything from her suitcase that she would need. Unlike Azelie, who had folded her clothes neatly and placed them in an orderly fashion in no more that three drawers, Kelly had decided to just keep her clothes in her suitcase and instead of keeping it tidy in drawers, had opted to turn her suitcase into some kind of clothes volcano with discarded jeans and tops lying all over the floor around it. Azelie had tried to tidy some of it up, but Kelly had literally jumped on Azelie as she was doing this, forcing her to promise to never turn her ‘organized mess’ into something that actually resembled any type of organisation system. 

It was a couple of hours until they were finally ready to leave to leave with the group, and after practically drowning themselves in coffee, they finally met up with Alex, Cole, and the rest of the group and make their way through the busy streets of San Francisco.

After a twenty minute trek through the streets, the group made it to the pier from which the ferry left, and soon after, they were on the island. Azelie sat on the ferry, trying to avoid the looks she was getting from Cole. He knew something was up with her, he always knew when something was wrong with her. It was like he had a sixth sense directed totally at her, which wasn’t half annoying at times.