Love Me Till The End

First Meeting

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Happy Reading

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It was the beginning of October in California. The early evening was as perfect as it can get in the south where you can go for a relaxing walk around the beautiful nature but that's not the leisure Tulip could afford, atleast not today. Tulip Bennett, 17-year-old teenage, was nothing but an average-looking girl, or that's what she thought. She had blonde hairs that were a little longer than shoulder length, brown eyes, just like any other girl.

She has lived all her life with her grandfather in Canada, but now they were shifting to California. Tulip looked at the boxes piled up in the living room and sighed. She liked her life in Canada, but it was her grandfather's wish that they move here. Two weeks ago he just randomly said "we'll be shifting to California in two weeks, pack the thing you need". At first she thought he was joking, but once she realized he wasn't, she felt a little shocked. She was aware that his grandfather, Alejandro Bennett was in this small town of Del Rey Oaks, that might be the reason for their shift but Tulip wasn't sure.

The house was beautiful. The living room, where Tulip was standing right now, had a L shaped couch with a 64 inch plasma screen in front of it. A rocking chair on the side. There was a modern glass chandelier whose white light was illuminating the living area along with the other sources of light.

On the left was the stairs which lead to another floor where two other rooms were apart from her grandfather, whose was on the ground floor only. On the side of the stairs was the dining table and kitchen was situated five feet away from it. The kitchen shelves were subtle green with other stainless steel equipment necessary in a kitchen. Her dada's office was on the right corner, away from the living area, and so was his room.

She left the boxes where they were- on the side of the living room and went to make some coffee for herself and her grandfather. After a making two cups of black coffee, she went to her grandfather's room. His room contained a four-poster bed with dark maroon walls. There was little sunlight coming from the glass window. Apart from his king-size bed, there were only two chairs, along with a small coffee table, which was now filled with different files.

"I made some coffee," she said offering the coffee to the old man; he was sitting on the chair. He accepted it and took a sip before placing it on the table, away from the files. Tulip also sat on the other vacant chair. They sat there in silence for a while before dada broke it.

"I know it's a big change for you but you will like it here, you know I was born here," he said a small smile on his lips, looking outside the window, Tulip nodded "and I want to die here only,"

"Don't say like that," Tulip interrupted. She knew her grandfather was quite a practical person, but still she felt weird when he said something like that. He is used to plan things ahead of time.

"You know it's the truth I don't have over 3 to 4 years and I want to be here before something happens but also I can't leave you there alone. So here we are. I hope you can forgive me for being selfish, honey." He said and spread his arms wide, a gesture that showed that he wanted her to come and hug him. Tulip stood up, walked to him, and wrapped her arms around her grandfather.

She was not angry with her grandfather, just upset to leave her few friends there. To come to a strange place. But she wanted to give her grandfather what he wished. Although she denied but she knew the truth that he only has a few years ahead of him. Not wanting to let that thought linger in her mind for a second too long, she pulled back from the hug.

"You should take some rest. I will wake you when it's time for dinner," she said.

"Don't tire yourself too much you have school tomorrow. Everything will settle down with time, okay?" He asked and Tulip nodded before retreating to living room. She could not just leave the boxes just there, so she started opening them and arranging whatever they have brought from their life in Canada. One thing you should know about Tulip was that she never like things out of place.

There were only ten boxes, but it took time as with everything that came out of box it brought memories. By the time she completed arranging everything, it was already time for dinner.

She bounced to her room to take a bath, as she was tired and sweaty from all the shifting. Her room had a four-poster queen-size bed in the centre, with a study table and a walk-in closet beside which was a full-length mirror, a bathroom on the right side of the room. The walls were lilac and were now filled with different photo frames she brought from Canada.

After her quick bath, she came down and started making macaroni and cheese for dinner. Her grandfather came down when she was taking out the food from the microwave.

"I told you not to tire yourself," he said to her, before taking his sit on the dining table.

"It was nothing. I didn't like those piles of brown box mocking me," Tulip said as she put the food for both of them.

"Okay, okay," her grandfather laughed.

After that, they both had their dinner in silence. When they finished their dinner, Tulip assisted her grandfather to his room and gave him his medicine. She sat with him for a while before going back to kitchen to finish cleaning up dishes and other things. Tulip went to bed fully exhausted from the day and the moment she got under the covers she fell in deep sleep.

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A loud ringing was disturbing the peaceful sleep of Tulip. She groaned and got up. She off the alarm clock. A curse slip from her lips when she saw the time. Already late for her first day, she quickly got up and went into the bathroom.

She dressed up in her school uniform that had a black skirt that ended at her mid-thigh, a white striped shirt with a school tie. The tie has the logo of her school- two mountains and a sun peaking from between them. She tied her long hairs in a ponytail that restrained her hairs from falling on her face.

When she went down, her grandfather was already there preparing breakfast for both of them. Tulip took her seat across the kitchen station.

"I made grilled sandwiches. I hope that's okay," the old man said, sliding the plate with two sandwiches on it.

"Thank you, dada but should not you be in bed?" Tulip started eating her breakfast.

"It's just for today from tomorrow the cook will be here," her dada informed her, to which she nodded.

She took her school bag after finishing her breakfast and kissed her grandfather on cheeks as she went to the garage to take her bicycle. Tulip enjoyed riding her bicycle. 15 minutes later she entered the campus of Horizon Education Centre. She could feel eyes of others as she parked her bicycle and took out the schedule they gave her when she and her Dada came for admission. It might be weird for others to come to school on a bicycle and she didn't care about what others thought till the time she knew she was doing the right thing.

As she was walking down the hallway, it reminded her of her school in Canada. On the contrary, to her previous school this one has an off-white wall, tiled floor. It was a little busier than she was normally used to, but she didn't care. Tulip was so lost in her past that she collided with someone and due to speed she was walking, to not get late, the person she collided with and she herself fell on the floor.

"What the hell?" She heard a deep voice shout, which she was sure was from the person she collided with.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't seeing," Tulip started apologizing. She looked up and saw that it was the boy she collided with.

"I'm sure you weren't," the boy grumbled before getting up in process he took the one out of few books that has fallen from her bag.

"Hey that's my book," Tulip complained but before she could do anything about it, the boy ripped the book in two pieces and threw it on the floor where Tulip was still kneeling to collect her other books.

"No shit." she saw the book in front of her and said so many obscene words but only in her mind.

"This is what you get for colliding with me, clumsy," the boy said with the rudest voice she ever heard and went away leaving Tulip shocked.

She got up and gathered her all torn and good books before making her way to the locker's room. Tulip was fuming from that boy's rude behavior. She knew it was her mistake, but that doesn't give him the right to do what he did. Her first period was calculus, so she took out the required book and went to her class.

"You've got to be kidding me," Tulip mumbled as she entered the class and saw the boy from earlier. After that incident she never wanted to see him, if not never because that was possibly impossible, at least not this soon, not till the time her anger hadn't vanished.

Worst of all, the only vacant seat was beside him. Tulip was standing at the entrance when Mr. Miller, her calculus teacher came. She moved to give him space to enter the class.

"Miss Bennett?" He asked, looking at Tulip.

"Yes," she said as she moved further into the class.

"Everyone, she is Miss Tulip Bennett, she'll be joining the class of today." Mr. Miller announced. His voice was firm. That gave Tulip an impression that he was a strict teacher. All students nodded but few weird remarks and looks couldn't escape from Tulip eyes and ears.

"Please take your seat, Miss Bennett," Mr. Miller gestured for Tulip to sit before going towards his desk.

Unwillingly Tulip started walking toward that boy, who was sitting on the last second bench of the class. She sat and placed her books on the desk. When she glanced at him, he was busy talking with students in a different row. Tulip now noticed his face: it was slim oval with a pointed chin and a well-defined jawline. It was the definition of a perfect v-shape face.

He was wearing the school uniform, but the first button of his shirt was open and his tie hung loosely on his neck instead of being firmly around his neck. He's definitely one of those rich father's child who does nothing but tore books and wasted their parents' money, Tulip concluded.

"Are you done staring?" His voice brought her back to her senses. He turned to her with an irritated look on his face.

"I'm sorry for what happened in the corridor but what you did was also not right." Tulip said to him in a flat tone before concentrating on what Mr. Miller was teaching.

“I don’t need a f*****g lesson on how to behave, Miss Goody-two-shoes.” By the time he completed the sentence, he was almost breathing in her ear. Tulip shivered, because of their close proximity. She actually wanted to do was laugh on his observation of her but pressed her lips tightly instead. Eventually a smile broke, and she tried to suppress it once again. But he saw it.

“What are you smiling at?” He asked.

“Oh, thank god I’m just smiling because what I really want to have is a laugh, a full belly laugh at your hilarious sense of humor.” Tulip said and smirked when she saw his perfect brow forming a V in confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asked her rudely.

This time Tulip just ignored him and started taking notes. He mumbled something which was she was sure something bad before opening his own notebook. After that conversation neither of them said anything and concentrated on the class.

“In the next class we’ll continue this,” Mr. Bennett announced before allowing them to leave the class.

Tulip got up but instead of leaving she turned toward the boy, whose name she still didn’t know nor was she interested in, took his notebook and tore three pages, the one he wrote just now and placed it on his hand.

“Have a nice day ahead,” she said with a fake smile before walking away. When she reached the door, she turned to see him again and, as she guessed, he was still in his place with a hanging jaw, looking at her. She winked at him and went to her locker, satisfied.

Tulip knew how to get even, and she feared no one. She was rebellious. At her previous school, everyone used to fear her, probably the reason she found the corridors vacant when she walked through them. Here it was her first day so she at least wanted other to get used to her presence before she showed them what she was or what she could do. Otherwise, she would have answered that boy it the corridor only and have not waited for the second encounter which happened today itself in the class. She never wanted to do what she did to him in the first place, but his tone when he talked to her affected her. It made her want to rip his head off and knee him badly where the sun never shines. Nobody talk to her like that or there will be consequences.

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Teaser: It's time to reset priorities for Tulip.

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