A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚈-𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

✞ C E L A I L a C R O I X ✞

"Hey, girl," Celai says as she pulls off her shoes and leaves them at Jayelle's front door.

"Um, hello?" Jayelle responds, coming around the corner. She raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you. What'd you cook? It smells good in here," Celai says as she goes into the kitchen, quickly making herself comfortable at the bar.

"I made pork chops and mashed potatoes," Jayelle says warily as she snaps the living room blinds closed. She follows Celai into the kitchen. "Is that your car outside? How did you get here?"

"I drove. Duh. You feelin okay?"

"Are you feeling okay? You just had a crippling fear of the road."

"And now I don't."

"What happened?"

"God happened," Celai widely smiles. Though Jayelle waits for her to elaborate, Celai changes the subject. "Where's Tyler?"

Jayelle shrugs off Celai's antics and answers. "He's having a guy's night at Joyner's. I swear whenever he goes over there, he comes back and walks around without a shirt for a week. But he's nothing but skin and bones so he just looks like a right Twix."

Celai laughs. "That's cute. But you better make sure Tyler doesn't grow up to be like your brother. Otherwise..."

"Right. Cus ain't no way I'm tussling with teen girls when he gets older. I told him that was his uncle and not his father, so there won't be no like father, like son."

"I'm glad he has some type of father figure in his life though. Even if he's not the best."

"Yeah. It's crazy that I'm co-parenting with my brother and Tyler's not mine or his," she says, shaking her head. "Aaliyah makes me sick."

"And that's why we're trying to get you a good lawyer. Speaking of that..." Celai digs in her purse and pulls out $2,500 in cash and hands it to Jayelle. "Most of this is from the church job, but my client on Wednesday tipped me good, so that's in there, too."

"Girl, this is a lot for a lawyer," she says, looking at the banded cash.

"Then let it pay for some of your bills. I'm helping you out because you need it, right?"

Jayelle gives her a reluctant look. Ever since they were kids, she never liked taking handouts, even if it was a piece of candy. "Thank you, Lai," she says lowly.

"Of course. And don't start worrying about owing me anything either. You're getting closer to your lawyer and I'm getting closer to my apartment."

"Have you started looking yet?"

"I did, but every time I see those prices, I close my laptop," she says, which makes Jayelle laugh. "But Julian said he was gonna recommend me to his old complex."

"Julian? I haven't heard that name in a while. Are y'all good after what happened Sunday?"

"Yeah, we made up. But I haven't been able to see him since then because he's been so busy. That's partly the reason I'm over here; you're my grape juice when I really wanted wine."