164 days till graduation. 164 days till my life begins.

So Travis is an underworld fighter. I keep saying it over and over in my head and it still sounds weird. I made Michael swear not to tell anybody. He says his lips will stay sealed only for a limited period of time. I've got to figure
out what to do in that time. It's been 4 days since we went to that place. I have 2 more days left and I haven't made a move. I haven't even thought about what I want to say, what I want to ask. I don't want to be one of those clingy girlfriends who wants to know their boyfriend's every move. But I am entitled to know if my boyfriend is involved in something illegal. Right?

Just then a hand comes in front of me and starts waving. I am suddenly pulled back to reality

"Are you ok? You've been a bit off these past few days." Travis asks me with questioning eyes.

I found out that you're into illegal stuff. All this while I thought I had the perfect boyfriend. Of course, it was too good to be true isn't?
Is what I wanted to say.

"I'm fine. Just worried about the final A-levels, that's all" I say instead and plaster a fake smile on my face.

We're in the cafeteria during lunch, surrounded by our friends so once I've assured him that I'm completely ok, he goes back to whatever conversation he was in.

Anne sits directly opposite me and she glares at me.
What? I mouth to her.
She continues glaring for a minute and goes back to the conversation she was in.
Clearly I'm in trouble. For what exactly you ask? I have no idea.

"Guys, guys, guys, have you been visiting campuses lately, checking out courses and everything?" Vincent stands up and asks our table.

Oh gosh. Not this again.

Everybody starts going on about their decisions. I decide to put my head down, stare at my food and tune them out.

A few minutes later I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Hmm?" I respond without a word to Travis.

"Vincent was calling you and you didn't respond." He simply states.

Clearly my methods of tuning out have been amazingly successful. I apologise and find out that Vincent asked me what my plans were.

"Umm, well, I was thinking about getting into publishing. Like read manuscripts all day, edit and stuff like that so I thought I'd take English as a major in University. Maybe Oxford or Cambridge, not too sure." I just blurt out. Where did that come from?

Travis's eyes go wide. I haven't told him this.
I don't even know if I'm sure about it.
Oxford and Cambridge? You are no Cecilia Ahern Louisa. My conscious reminds me. But this answer beats not having an answer at all.

Everybody thinks it's a good idea and they compliment me and before you know it, lunch is over and we head to our classes. As I'm about to get up Travis pulls me down by arm and gives me a kiss. I think he intends to stay a bit longer with our lips intertwined but I abruptly pull back, give him a peck on the check, pretend like nothing's wrong and walk, no, power walk to my next class.

I had English and take my usually spot next to Mary and Anne. Anne flicks me with her fingers.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"You're fine? Just worried about A-levels? My arse." She replied.

"Huh?"

"Spill the beans Edwards." Mary adds from my right.

"What are you guys talking about?!" I ask even though I know why. I got away with the 'I'm fine.' thing with Travis. These two, it's harder to deceive.

"Do you want us to spell it out for you? Fine. So when we were having lunch I happened to overhear Travis's concerns about you. You got past him, but there's no fooling us. Did the dickhead do something to you?" Anne tells me looking like she's already ready to go out there and kick Travis's arse. Little does she know that that would be a little harder than expected considering he's an underworld fighter.

"If we have to go to whichever class he's in and break every bone of his, you tell us. We're ready. He can go eat poop." Mary adds.

I then tell them everything. The accusations against Travis's dad, mine and Michael's stakeout the other night, just everything.
By the end of it, they are quite intrigued but very angry as well and almost disrupt the class to go and beat up Travis. I somehow manage to convince them otherwise and after they knock some sense into me, I decide that I just have to confront him about it. I mean, his life is potentially at stake. I don't want him to get injured, or worse, die. I've had one person I love ripped away from me, I'm not quite ready for round two.

Once school is done for the day I rush out in order to avoid seeing Travis.

I then take a bus home. The ride home is not a pleasant one. I'm pretty sure the guy who sat next to me at one point, on the seat which I was able to get only in the last five minutes of my journey might I add, probably didn't even know a thing called a 'deodorant' exists.
I'm just happy I then made it home in one piece. Usually Travis would be the one who drops me but I cannot face another awkward encounter with him.

"Hello Lou! How was your day?" I hear my mum ask as I enter.

"Oh hello. Fancy seeing you here. It was good, I guess. Yours?" I reply quite surprised to see her home so early. She spends way to much time in that hospital but at the end of the day, it pays our bills.

"Good good. Managed to get out early today. That large white box came for you in the post today."

"A parcel? For me?" I ask. I never get parcels. As much as it is exciting to receive one, well, the last time I did get one it emotionally broke me so I don't exactly look forward to this one.

"Yup. It says 'To Louisa William Edwards' in capitals on the front. You can't miss it. But it doesn't say who it's from."

"Ah. Ok, thanks."

"Oh and Travis called me a few minutes ago, asking where you were. Got me quite worried because the poor lad sounded so distressed. Give him a call and put him out of his misery."

"Oh. Umm, yeah sure ok." I say, quickly checking my phone which says I have ten missed calls from him. I should probably call him but I want to know what's in the parcel which I then take up to my room.

The parcel is massive. It's rectangular and quite thin. It takes me quite a while to open it. Some serious packaging has gone into this.
What I find inside is not what I expected. It's the most beautiful painting of a girl, somewhere in the mountains. I would guess, somewhere in Europe. I hold up the painting and I'm just speechless. I've never been one to admire art and all that but this is just magnificent. The girl is wearing a gown. Something you'd see in the 20s. Maybe later, I'm not too sure. And she's smiling and has warm eyes. I'm not a fan of portraits, because I feel the eyes follow you and just give you the shivers, but this one is not like that. Her eyes are reassuring. Like reassuring of the good times ahead or something like that. I don't know, theres just something about this piece and I can't seem to put my finger on it. I turn the picture around and on the back is what I think is the title of the picture in a beautiful cursive handwriting.

The Girl You Knew
By, Eugène Auréle

I'm guessing he's French. But I most definit-

"You came to know didn't you?"

My thoughts are interrupted and I turn around to find my beautiful boyfriend standing in front of me. He looks quite stressed out and worried which makes me regret making opening the parcel my first priority in star of calling him back.
Mum must have let him in, she has a sweet spot for him. Damn it.

"Know about?"

"The fighting. You saw me didn't you?"

Oh no. What do I say?

___

A/N-
Hey guys! So the other day this book hit 1000 reads. O M G. What even. Just honestly, thank you for reading this book and I really do hope you guys are enjoying it. Please do not hesitate to give me constructive criticism. :P
Just, thank you again, it means the world. :')

Without Wax,
Sanjana Ramesh