𝑻𝐇𝐄 𝑵𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒━━ 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘢𝘱

10

"julian!" i exclaimed happily, hurrying to give him a hug as soon as he rang the doorbell and i opened up the door.

he staggered back, slightly caught off guard, and wrapped his arms around me. "hey, thalia. i missed you." he gently kissed the top of my head and i felt elated.

"i missed you too. so should we stay in or go out?" i asked, pulling back just enough to smile up at him.

"we could stay in for a few hours and go to the drive in tonight," julian suggested.

"perfect. come on in, there's someone i want you to meet," i told him. i grabbed julian's hand and pulled him inside, kicking the door shut behind us. once we made it to the kitchen where karl was laying out a ton of pokémon cards, i said, "karl, i'd like you to meet my boyfriend julian. julian, this is karl jacobs, a friend and another streamer."

"it's good to meet you," julian said kindly.

"you too," karl replied. "now you better treat thalia right or else we'll all team up and force you to walk barefoot on legos."

julian grinned at that. "duly noted. i won't do anything to hurt her."

i rolled my eyes and said, "okay now that julian has heard that talk three times, we're going to go to the roof. see you later, karl."

i led julian upstairs and to the window you had to climb out of to get onto the roof. once we made it to the flat part, i sat with my back against the tall slanted part of the roof. julian laid down and put his head in my lap, giving me a goofy grin. i smiled back at him and ran my fingers through his black hair.

"so what did you do while i was gone?" he asked, closing his eyes and relaxing in my lap.

"well i did a stream with nick, dream and karl. george joined us too. it was my first time ever being on one of their streams and it was interesting. oh and people made edits of me! i feel so famous," i admitted, taking my hands out of his hair and grabbing my phone. "here, these are all the edits of me that i saw."

i handed julian my phone and he scrolled through them, laughing at the most chaotic and out of context ones. at a short one called the many facial expressions of thalia, julian said, "you're so cute. look at all these comments asking if you're single. ha losers, she's taken."

"you are such a dork," i teased. "which only makes me like you more."

"i aim to please," he said as he leaned up to give me a light kiss.

"well, you're definitely succeeding," i said, grabbing his hand and interlacing our fingers. once he had settled again, i said, "alright your turn to tell me what you did while you were out of town."

"really it was just work. we were catering some sort of barbecue event and it was a lot of work. matthew got a little stressed out near the beginning but everything went smoothly. honestly, i love catering with him but sometimes it's not very fun. we talked about merging with another catering company so the two of us don't have to do so much when we realized that neither of us enjoy it much," julian said.

"why don't you quit?" i asked him, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"because matthew needs the money but he's not willing to take my half of our earnings. he's stubborn. and i can't just desert him," julian sighed.

"but you for sure want to quit?" i asked.

"well yeah. why?"

"because i have a plan."

"you always do," he said with a small smile. "so tell me, o brilliant thalia: how are you going to fix this?"

"easy. i hire you guys for some annual fundraiser i have to hold for my company and i pay him enough that he's set for a few weeks," i suggested. "and you get to quit and spend more time doing what you love."

"i can't let you do that,"
julian argued. "it's kind but you don't have to."

"julian, please. i have to hire somebody anyways, why not hire people i know?"

"thalia," julian started to argue but i cut him off.

"don't argue with me, just put me in your schedule for three weeks from tomorrow," i said.

julian looked at me and said, "you're literally so amazing."

"and don't you forget it," i said lightly, leaning down to give him another kiss.

as he deepened the kiss, someone cleared their throat, causing us to break apart quickly.

nick was standing at the edge of the roof, looking uncomfortable for walking in on us kissing.

"yes nick?" i asked casually, not the least bit fazed.

"come downstairs, i want you to meet someone," he said.

"what is with all the people coming over these past few days?" i grumbled. "who is it anyways?"

"you'll see," was all nick said before he disappeared inside.

julian stood up and pulled me to my feet, not letting go of my hand once we were both up. when we got to the stairs, i attempted to be cool and slide down the banister but it wasn't as slippery as i thought and i ended up falling onto the stairs halfway down.

"are you okay?" julian asked quickly.

i climbed to my feet and smiled, saying, "i'm great!" i proceeded to skip down the stairs, skipping every other one.

"how do you have so much energy?" dream asked from the bottom of the stairs, shaking his head at me.

"i kill men and bathe in their blood to preserve my youth," i said without missing a beat.

"it's not working that great," dream said, squinting at me. "you're getting wrinkles."

"i am not! i'm only twenty," i protested.

"anyways," nick interrupted loudly. "thalia, say hi to peyton, one of the other contestants on reality slaps."

the pretty red headed girl next to nick smiled at me. "it's great to meet you, thalia!"

"you too, peyton. i think we'll be the bestest of friends," i said with a big grin.

"that's what scares me," nick muttered.

word count: 1053