A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚁𝚃𝚈-𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙴

✞ J U L I A N W E S T B R O O K ✞

Unable to get Celai's words out of his head from yesterday, Julian calls Nyomi, desperate for answers. "Hello?" she picks up, her voice sounding through the bluetooth in his car.

"Hey, whatchu up to?" he asks, mainly to warm her up.

Silence fills his car for a moment. "What do you want?" Nyomi asks directly.

"What do you mean?" he laughs.

She joins in his laughter. "I know my brother! You want something!"

"I can't just see what you're doing?"

"No, because the last time we talked, you got upset with me cus I wouldn't talk to Celai, so obviously you need something now."

"Alright, alright," Julian smirks. "I just wanted to ask... whatchu up to?"

He fights back his laughter when she scoffs and gives up. "Cooking," she says without hesitation.

"Oh, what are you cooking?"

"Chicken," she says in the same manner.

"Can I stop by and get some?"

"No."

"Oh... well you mentioned Celai earlier and I was just wondering-"

"I knew it!"

He laughs. "Okay, look, I know that you, her, and Demi were talking yesterday. I just wanted to know what all that was about," he confesses, though he also wants to know more about why Celai said Nyomi is warming up to her.

"Celai didn't tell you?"

"Not everything," he says.

"Mhm. All Demi did was apologize to us."

"Apologize for what?"

"She apologized to Celai for putting lies in her head and she apologized to me for using me to get to you."

"Oh..." Julian says, trying to make a connection with Celai's words about her and Nyomi, but he fails to do so.

"But then Celai jumped in and was saying how she didn't care about Demi trying to sabotage you and hers' relationship, and that she was mad at the fact that Demi used family to cause issues. She was saying how everyone knows not to mess with family and all that stuff. You should've seen it, Jules, Celai was getting Demi together without even raising her voice. I swear she was about to cry."

Julian smiles to himself at the visual. "How'd you feel about that?" he asks.

"I was appreciative of her cus I never thought of it like that. But at the same time, she was sort of acting like I was sooo young. I know she's not that much older than me."

Hope fills Julian's heart to the brim. Nyomi is appreciative of Celai. He clears his throat. "Yeah, but you're still young. She did what she had to do."

"You defending Celai when I'm already on her side is wild. Don't taint what she did, Julian." He tucks his lips in, though Nyomi can't see him. "Anyways, we both forgave her, Celai just had to let her know if she ever tried to pull some mess like that again."