A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙸𝙵𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽

✞ J U L I A N   W E S T B R O O K ✞

Julian rolls the paint on the last wall, like Celai taught him to do the day before, and he backs away once every inch of it is covered in the neutral beige paint. The heavy church doors bang behind him and he turns his head to see Sabrina and Marquis looking around in awe.

"This look alright to y'all?" he asks, pointing the roller brush at the wall.

"This man learned how to paint and practiced on the church's walls," Marquis says. "It looks so different in here."

"Yeah, it looks amazing," Sabrina adds. "I don't believe that this is your doing. Maybe the wall, but that's it. Who did you get to work on the church?"

Julian rolls his eyes. "Brina, don't act clueless. Mama told me you've been stalking Celai, so I know that you know she did this."

Sabrina groans, her facade quickly crumbling at her feet. "I told Mama Ruth not to say anything! The next time she asks when my baby is due, cus I know she'll forget again, I'll tell her to mind her business."

"You've been stalking people?" Marquis asks her.

She folds her arms over her chest. "Well, what do y'all expect? Marq and I move up here, leaving my girlfriends back in Spartanburg, and I've been cooped up in the house doing nothing while you two get to go out and play golf!"

"Golf?" the boys say at the same time.

"Oh, shut up! I'm lonely and I want friends, so yes, I did stalk that girl. I wish I would've done that for Demi. When you're desperate for friends, you do desperate things, not like either of y'all would know."

"Alright, babe, chill out. How come you didn't try and make some friends when we first moved up here?" Marquis asks.

Julian doesn't need to see the anger in Sabrina's eyes to know Marquis just added fuel to the fire. He turns around and pretends to have missed a spot in the paint while Sabrina hits Marquis in his chest and starts yelling at him. Not even a minute passes when she begins to cry.

"Okay, I understand. I'm sorry, babe," Marquis says.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you."

Julian lets out a faint chuckle and looks at them. "That was the quickest argument and make up I've ever seen."

"Take notes," Sabrina says, wiping the fallen tears off her cheeks.

"So, what did you find out about this girl Julian's messing with?" Marquis asks Sabrina.

"Yeah, how did you get her name, because I never told you what it was."

Sabrina waves a hand and sits down. "That was easy: you told Marq her name and her name isn't that common so I just went on Instagram and typed it in. When it took me to her business page, I saw she was an independent interior decorator, but there wasn't much on there besides her having some type of affiliation with Louisiana cus of her last name, so I went through her followers to see if she had a personal page and sure enough, I found it and saw that Julian was following her. From there, even with her page private, I saw she went to Howard and graduated last year so she has to be twenty-two or twenty-three. Am I correct, Julian? I didn't want to go too deep to get all the specifics."