A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙸𝙵𝚃𝚈

✞ J U L I A N W E S T B R O O K ✞

"I've gotten sooo many compliments on my ring," Celai giggles. "But no one loves it more than I do. Can I ask how you were able to pay for this thing?"

Julian can practically hear her grinning from ear to ear through their phone call. He enters his apartment saying, "Don't worry about it," wearing a grin on his face as well.

It's been a week that Celai has been Julian's fiancée and it's been the best week of his life. Celai is still over the moon, as is he; she was soon to be Mrs. Celai Westbrook.

"I'll call you after my shower, alright?" Julian says as he drops his gym bag on the floor, which Blaze instantly starts searching through with his nose.

"Oh, I forgot you just got back from working out. Well, I guess I'll call my mom back and see what she needs while I'm in Walmart. Bye, stinky," she says, before laughing and hanging up.

Julian just shakes his head. Joy filled Celai's voice and it seemed like nothing was going to shake it any time soon.

He tosses his phone onto the couch and goes off to take his shower, making sure he takes the time to thank God. He finds himself doing that a lot lately and he isn't mad at the habit.

Julian steps out, dries off, and he quickly throws on new clothes at the sound of hearing his phone ringing in the living room. He jogs to it, yet he still misses the call. But to his surprise, he has seventeen other missed calls all from Kassima and all displaying a sense of urgency.

Before he can process anything, his phone starts to ring in his hand— the call being from Kassima again— and he picks up without hesitation.

"Hel-"

"Finally! Thank You, Jesus!" Kassima says. She starts rambling to Julian and he furrows his eyebrows, unable to discern her words.

"Kassima," he says over her. "Slow down, take a breath. What's going on?"

Kassima does so and her breath is shaky. "Sorry," she says. Her tone sounds like she's been crying. "I was on the phone with Celai when she started complaining about her chest and the next thing I know, she just stopped talking completely and I heard a loud crash. There was a lady in the background that tried to help Celai but," This time, Julian can hear Kassima breakdown. "Julian, she wasn't responding!"

Julian squeezes his eyes shut at hearing Kassima cry; it's like torture to him. "W-where is she? Walmart, right?"

"Yes, the neighborhood one. But if someone is getting her to the hospital, there's no telling which one they're taking her to. I can't believe we're in this situation again!"

"I know," he almost mutters, but he doesn't want to make Kassima more upset than she already is. Instead, he has to take charge. "You and Brian go to the nearest hospital and I'm going to go to the Walmart to see if I can get any information."

"Okay..." Kassima says shakily.

"Don't worry, God's got her," Julian says.

He ends their call and he drops to his knees immediately. He doesn't know if it's because his body knows to pray, or if it's because his body knows he can't keep acting like he's strong.