A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚂𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙽

✞ C E L A I   L a C R O I X ✞

"Thank you," Celai says as Julian walks her to her door. "You really didn't have to go all out just to go to some diner."

Julian shrugs. "I didn't have to, but I wanted to." Celai feels her cheeks burning. "I wanted to make sure you got a good start for your first day of things going back to normal," he says.

"You could have at least let me pay."

"Nah, I asked you, remember?"

"Well, thank you for thinking of me."

"No problem. See you Sunday?"

Celai nods and watches Julian leave in his car. After he takes off down the neighborhood road, she goes into her warm home. Kassima had long been gone, and Celai would be next; she has less than five minutes to be back out the door and on her way to her clients' house or she'd be late. And she does not want to be late when she's been ready for hours.

She goes up to her bedroom to grab her rental car key and after grabbing the papers that went over the consultation her and her clients had, she's out the door.

She desperately wanted to call Jayelle and tell her about her morning with Julian, but she decided against it since it will be her first time driving since her accident, and she wants to be sure she will be safe along the way.

Celai gets in the car and when she turns it on, the engine roaring to life makes her heart beat a little harder in her chest. However, instead of cowering away, she prays.

"Heavenly Father, I pray that You remove the fear that has found its way into my heart. I trust that You will keep me safe as I drive to the Reynolds' home and I pray that You help me remember who You are. Amen."

She lets out a deep breath and puts her client's address in her phone's GPS. Looking at the estimated time of arrival, it isn't that long of a drive, which is a relief to her.

She leaves her home and goes slowly down the road. Her nerves begin to calm as she familiarizes herself with driving. But she doesn't try to pick up speed; she sticks to taking it nice and slow.

Focusing on nothing but the road and the GPS, Celai manages to get a good distance into her drive before her eyes flit to her phone and she sees the road's name she crashed on: Prospect Avenue.

She clears her throat as an attempt to do something— anything— to slow her rising heart rate but to no avail. Her eyes scan her surroundings and slowly, the road where she nearly lost her life reveals itself. She identifies her tire skid marks still prominent in the dirt and she spots raised dead grass near the ditch where the front of her car crushed in and flipped over.

Her breath catches in her throat and her foot presses on the brakes. Though she is on the other side of the road, she still sees her last waking moments of that night resurfacing and replaying in her mind.

Tears brim in her eyes. "Oh, God," she shudders out.

She didn't even get to leave the neighborhood.

Before a panic attack could firmly set in, Celai swipes away a tear that fell on her cheek and turns the car around. She silently goes back home and sighs in defeat when she puts the car in park in her driveway.

She gives herself a second to pull herself together before grabbing her phone. Though she's coming down from a small panic attack, she still needs to get to her destination, and as soon as possible.

Since Celai doesn't trust Uber to get her to her client's house in a reasonable amount of time, she starts scrolling through her contacts to see who could possibly give her a ride. She scrolls down to the names listed under 'J' to find her best friend's name. She knows Jayelle can possibly pick her up and since she has a need for speed, Jayelle can get her there before she can be declared late.