ALL ROAD LEADS TO LOVE

“What have I ever done to you to deserve the degree of hatred, disdain and dislike you show me? I only ever try to please you but you're never satisfied! What do you want from me, Hailey? What is your issue with me?” The Bamford sisters, Georgina and Hailey, were having one of their many fights. Georgina, the younger one, had endured the torment from Hailey for years and had just burst open that very morning. They'd been about to go shopping when Hailey started nagging and finding errors in everything Georgina was doing, triggering the spark. Stunned that Georgina had developed the gall to react, Hailey braced herself and fired back: “I'm tired of feeding and providing for your sorry arse! Get up! Go out there and strive! I can't keep giving you almost 80% of whatever I work for, while you sit here, under the pretext of going to college, while I do all the providing around here, Georgina!” “College is not a pretext, Hailey! And, you remember, you were the one who said I had to go to college.. You insisted on it, so why are you complaining now?” Georgina shot back. This wasn't the first time Hailey would start a fight like this just so she could whine and complain about having to provide for and take care of both herself and Georgina, and the latter was tired of it. “Because I expected that you would add hustle to your college education! I wasn't to know that all you wanted to do was stay home, when you didn't have classes, and read your fuckin eyeballs out or watch TV, on electricity which I pay for by the way.” Hailey continued, “Don’t just wait for me to go out there and earn money with my blood so you can eat, feast and get fat! How the f**k was I to know this, Georgina? I expected you to help yourself! You're not a child, so why are you such a dependant?” Hearing her own sister call her a dependant stung Georgina to the bone and she could already feel her eyes itching with onrushing tears. “What do you want from me, Hailey? To go out and sell my body like you do to get money? Would you be happy if I did that? Would our parents-” “Our parents are dead, Georgina! They're somewhere in heaven, eating fried rice and a dip sauce free of charge at the Lord's table.. They no longer pay the bills, I do!” “They no longer stress their heads about the next meal, I do! They no longer have a life to live or dreams to aim towards, but I do!” With every statement, Hailey's face got redder. “And I, who's shouldering this burden that you have made out of yourself, am telling you to get your big, bouncy ass off the freaking couch, get it out there, find those who would spend for it and put it to good use!” “Sit on d**k if you have to! Suck it if you have to! Fuckin choke on the d**k if you have to! Get smashed by the d**k if you have to! Anything that gets you green paper, do it!” Hailey was furious, now. She walked closer towards Georgina. “You think you're better than me, don't you? You think that just because you're in some fancy college, which I pay for by the way, and I'm out in the streets, earning with my body, that you're better than me?” The hate in her voice was evident at this point. “Morals do not, can not and will not pay the bills! Money does! And as long as I'm the one getting the fuckin money and feeding you, you will always be under my fuckin feet!” Georgina was fighting the tears that were trying to pry her eyes wide open, now. Her sister was verbally assaulting her and she felt she had to defend herself. She needed to. And so she did. “When I graduate.. I'll have a shot at a good career in journalism.. And you.. You'll still be in the streets.. Spreading your legs for every Tom, d**k and Harry..” Georgina had decided to say her own mind, damning the consequences. “Hailey, you're not a s*x worker because it's the only option, no, you're doing it because this filthy, dirty and corner cutting lifestyle is what you love.. You don't want to work hard but you want to live the good life, you chose the easy way out by selling your body; you're nothing but a cheapskate..” She hadn't spoken for too long, but the truth didn't always have to come in form of an essay, and hearing her younger sister tell her the truth she'd been denying for years sparked a rage in Hailey, and so, she slapped Georgina hard across the face. The slap caused Georgina to stagger and fall back on a couch, clutching her face. Although Hailey was the thinner of the two, she was taller and more rugged, as opposed to the soft, Quaker Oats Georgina, and so, a smack from her stung. Badly. The tears Georgina had been fighting now began to flow freely. “I wouldn't mind doing it again, Georgina.. So I would advise that you zip it, grab the bags and follow me to the store like the lapdog that you are,” Hailey said, adding insult to injury… *** The going off of Zayn Jones’ alarm clock which was on his bedside table was what dragged him out of the Land Of Dreams and Fluffy Pillows. His eyes lazily opened initially, as he took in his bedroom and his brain processed all the information available. Then, when his eyes strayed to the time displayed on the alarm clock, they popped wide open. 7:36am. Holy Moly! The Board meeting at Papa Jones - his father's multi billion dollar designers company - was by 8:10am in preparation for the upcoming internal elections among all the suitable candidates for who would be voted as the next chairman. His father had retired from active management of the company, and he, being the leading contestant for the chairmanship, had to be there (compulsorily), so, the fact that he hadn't even gotten out of bed by this time was alarming to him. He cast his duvet aside and flew off the bed, wearing loose Dior shorts and wondering why the hell he had overslept, despite having tried his best to sleep early.. Well, 2am wasn't early.. He ran to his balcony and hollered at his driver, Denis, who was lazily strutting in the compound, whistling a tune: “Denis!!” “Oh, good morning, sir!” Denis said back, smiling widely and revealing his gap teeth. On another day, Zayn would have entertained him, but not today. Not today. “Screw the pleasantries, Denis, get the car ready.. I need to be out of here in twenty minutes.. Maximum..” “Okay, sir,” Denis obediently responded, “But.. Which one of them, sir?” And as he heard this question, Zayn's eyes darted to the garage; there was a Lamborghini, a Porsche, a Ferrari, 3 BMWs, 2 McLarens and three Fords. For a brief moment, he cursed wealth and affluence. He was so rich that he even struggled to decide on something as mundane as what car to go out in. Damn! “Pick one of the BMWs, Denis.. And remind me to get all these motherfuckin cars out of here when I get back,” he said eventually. There was a point in a man's life when wealth and money began to sicken him due to nothing but its excessive availability. Zayn Jones had gotten to that point of life. *** All the way to the store, during the time when she followed Hailey around with the shopping basket and even until they began to head back home, Georgina couldn't stop crying. The emotional drainage she had to face everyday from her sister was taking a massive toll on her. And so, while they crossed a street on their way home, she didn't see or even notice an onrushing car that was approaching at frightening speed and almost hit her, were it not for the driver's quick reaction to hitting the brakes. Everyone in the area gasped as the car came to a screeching halt right before her, and Georgina was frozen in time, scared to death and thinking she was going to be hit. Surprisingly, though, Hailey began to berate Georgina. “You inattentive crybaby! How the f**k didn't you see a car coming! What is wrong with you? You want to get yourself killed and pin another burden on me, too, is that it? What do you want from me, you soft, dependent b***h!” It was all too much for Georgina to take and as she tried to defend herself, she burst into fresh tears. Hailey began to hit her repeatedly, and this was when the man in the car rushed out. Hailey was about to land another hit when he gripped her wrist from behind, forcing her to stop. Hailey and Georgina both took him in: A three piece suit, thick, black hair combed expertly, an almost 3D like jawline, a muscular build, a solid 6 feet and firm hands. If Prince Charming existed, this was definitely what he would look like. “That's enough, miss.. It wasn't her fault.. It was mine and my driver's. I was running late for a meeting and I hastened him up, so he didn't pay attention to the red light.. It's not her fault..” He said these words calmly and authoritatively in a baritone voice to Hailey, taking the sting right out of her, before turning to Georgina: “I apologize, miss.. I do hope that you were not hurt, or were you?” Georgina was too awestruck to properly reply: “Ah.. Hurt? Me? Lord forbid.. I didn't even feel anything.. I'm..” She would have continued but for his right hand that rested gently on her shoulder, sending chills all over her entire body. Then, he said: “I'm glad you're fine.. I'd love to stay and chat but I need to leave.. What's your name, though?” Georgina turned to a stutterer: “Geor- Geor- Ge- Georgina..” “Okay, Georgina,” he said with a smile, “It's nice to meet you..” He lingered his stare at her for a while and then he began to walk back to his car. Everyone in the vicinity had stopped to watch the unfolding events; drivers, pedestrians, what have you.. They all stopped. “Wh.. What's your name?” Georgina mustered the courage to ask as he was about to get into his car. “Zayn.. Zayn Jones,” he duly responded before getting into the BMW. As it zoomed off mere seconds later, Georgina and everyone else watched him go and she began to feel a funny feeling in her belly. She knew instantly what had happened: She'd fallen in love. But her moment of reprieve that had been made available by Mr Zayn Jones was cut short by yet another slap on the cheek by Hailey which drove her two paces backwards and sent her crashing to the floor. “You're kidding if you think I'm done with you, Georgina, because I'm not!” Hailey barked in her face, “You have many questions to answer, miss, and God help you if you so much as stutter..”