50 days till graduation. 50 days till my life begins.

Paintings stolen from war. 

That is the ONLY thought that has been running through my mind, over and over again, for the past ten days.

I've been reading up a lot on it as well. 

So get this, every year thousands of paintings are stolen and billions are made off of it. Families lose such an integral part of their households. 
From what I've read, World War II was a time when a lot of art, among other things were plundered by the Nazis. That is also the time 'The Girl You Knew' was stolen. 
The thing is  returning plunder to its rightful owner may sound straightforward, but in practice it is extremely difficult. Who the 'rightful' owner is seems to depend largely on your point of view. Anybody can claim them and with the right connections and money, anything you say will do and the real owners, families of the art are left helpless. There's literally nothing they can do.
Imagine that. Something that means a lot to you is just snatched and ripped away from you and there's a massive chance that you'll never see it again.

Thinking about it shakes me up.

I feel Travis's arm around my waist suddenly become tighter. I look at him and he gives me his signature smile. 

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asks me.

"Oh, it's nothing." 

"I should be the one distracted and hoping I'm somewhere else." he smiles and replies. 

We are currently with Anne, Natalie, Mary, Samantha, Jordan, Finn and the others celebrating Vincent's birthday at That Little Tea Shop In The Lanes, where I work and which happens to be Travis' least favorite place in Brighton. I chuckle and decide not to look distracted here.

 Not the place, not the time, I tell myself.

As I finally snap out of my thoughts and look up, I see Michael make his way to our table with a girl around clinging to his waist.

It makes me cringe and kind of makes me angry. I look over at Travis who has an amused look on his face looking at Michael. 

I've never seen Michael with a girl before. This is not Michael. Michael doesn't do things like this.
Michael. Why?

But more importantly, why is it bothering me?!

He then makes his way over to me and sits next to me with the bimbo.

I then put on my best fake smile and move closer to Travis.

I don't know what's making me act like a jealous b*tch.

The rest of the evening goes pretty well. 
Pretty normal and fun too, considering how events usually play out in my life.

I decide to stay back at the cafe once the party is over to help Mr. Hamish, Michael's step-dad, with the cleaning up because he seems to be the only one working there today.
Travis offers to stay back as well, to take me home once I'm done.

Everything seemed to be going completely normal until Mr. Hamish dropped a cup and ended up breaking it. 

I rush to clean it up before somebody gets hurt.

"Louisa it's alright, leave it alone, I'll clean it up." he tells me.

I give him a confused look and insist I clean it up. 

"Louisa! I said leave it alone! I can do it myself!" he then shouts at me.
This is when I realize that I should back off because Mr. Hamish has never  yelled at me. I'm not the easiest employee and I have made many mistakes whilst working here but Mr. Hamish is always so patient and just not who I'm seeing right now.

"Kyle. What the hell?! I understand that you don't like my presence here but it gives you no right to vent it out on Louisa!" Travis suddenly says, speaking up for the first time.

Mr. Hamish then glares at Travis but apologizes to me.

"Travis, you know you are never welcome here. It's only for Louisa's sake I've kept my mouth shut, but now I'd like you to leave, I don't think I can keep my mouth shut for long." Mr. Hamish then says, suddenly giving him all his attention.

"Was that your feeble attempt at a threat Kyle? I'll have you know that in no way am I afraid of you. I know whose side I'm on." Travis replies. His jaw clenching.

"Whose side are you on mate?! I'd love to hear you tell that to Louisa's dad, if he were with us today."  Mr. Hamish replies. 

This conversation now took a sudden turn. 

Sides?
Travis knows or has something to do with my dad's death??

Just as I try to take everything in, I'm being pulled out of the cafe by Travis.

I struggle to keep up with his long strides.

He opens the door to his Jaguar and motions me to get in.

"If you think I'm going anywhere with you after what I just heard, you must be insane Trav." I say.

This gets him frustrated and closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Just get in the car Lou. Please. I'll explain everything." 

I glare at him for a minute longer before getting into the car.

I don't know where he's heading but it looks like we're headed north.

The drive takes us half an hour and I see that he's brought us to Withdean Woods.

It's a very pretty place but starts looking creepy once the sun goes down.

Once I get out of his car, Travis takes my hand and we head into the woods. 

Neither of us say anything for a while.

We find a bench on the trail and take a seat and Travis finally breaks the silence.

"I know about the paintings." he says.

He doesn't say anything else for a while so I decide to say something as well.

"I know there's a lot of things you know but aren't telling me. You know how that feels?"

"Oh you mean things like the fact that you and Michael kissed when we started dating? You know how that made me feel Lou?" he rebuts.

"I can't- . Just-. I'm sorry. You know I love you. He was just there for me and in a moment of weakness, what happened, happened. Travis we are talking about you possibly knowing what happened to my dad. Why he's dead. What do you mean when you say you know about the paintings?" I ask, even though I know what he's talking about.

Travis looks quite flustered. He has his head in his hands and he keeps running his hands through his hair. 

"Louisa, I know you met up with that French lady. I just know about the things my dad is into alright? I have no role in what he does, neither do I ever want to get involved in them. His business, is his business and for the sake of the one I love, I don't put my nose into it." 

If he knows these things, why isn't he doing anything about it?! 

"He killed your dad Lou. Your dad didn't kill himself. My dad did it. I'm sorry." he says and puts in head back into his hands.

What are you saying Trav?!

~

Hiiiii everybody!

I'm so sorry for the late post.
I do hope you're enjoying the story so far!
Thank You once again, for all the love and support.
We're now at 6k. 

Oh.

My.

God.

Thanks again and let me know in the comments how y'all are doing and what you think of the story so far. :)

Without Wax,
Sanjana Ramesh

Ps-

I couldn't upload this picture into the media tab, so here it is! This gorgeous human being is Presley Gerber. I picture him as Michael. Who do you guys picture the other characters as? :)