24 Days left till graduation. 24 Days till my life begins.

I've been staring at Nancy for about 10 minutes straight now.
Who is Nancy you ask?
Well she's my dad's pastel yellow Vespa that hasn't been used since he died.
My mum hated it when he would take her or me or my brother James out on it. She does not think it ticks any safety specs at all. I always asked my dad if I could use it once I'm older. When I did get older, I had nobody to teach me how to ride, since my mum would probably refuse to let me go anywhere near it, but I didn't really ask her either. It brought back way too many memories. At the time, I didn't think I was strong enough to deal with what would flood into my head. I don't think I'm any stronger now but I think I can deal with it a lot better now.
Now coming to the problem at hand, I've seen people ride scooters and bikes and I don't think it is particularly hard, right? But I don't know, I'm not too sure about this and plus I need a ride ASAP.
I know there's buses or taxis but for once I wanted to control where I go and who takes me and I always enjoyed long rides with my dad, always cleared my head, something I need to do right now.

"You are not going anywhere on that thing."

I'm a bit startled by the voice behind me and it takes me a minute to realise that it's only Michael.

"And why not?"

"Have you seen that thing? And since when do you know how to ride?"

What I really want to know though is why does Michael always know when to show up.
His timing is absolutely impeccable.
It has been messing with me head lately, how he is, how he treats me.
He just, kills me with his kindness.

"Earth to Lou. Earth to Louu." He says suddenly waving his hand in front of my face.

"How am I supposed to get around then?"

"Me. Call me. I'm here now, so let's go."

I grudgingly accept. From what I learnt yesterday, Michael knows that Travis located his biological dad but he doesn't know who he is or where he could be. And I need answers, like now. My whole life and the people around me seem to be just questions after questions after questions. Which is why I'm going to run behind some answers.
I need answers.

We then get onto the bike on which we've had many exciting adventures on. By exciting I hope you know I mean, absolutely terrifying.

I then tell him I want to go to 'Brighton Belles', a high street parlour in our town.

"You want to get a haircut or something? That would be one expensive hair, wouldn't it?" He asks me quizzically.

"Not really. You'll see." Is all I tell him and we make our way there.

Twenty minutes later we're at the salon.

The salon is in a posh part of Brighton and is itself very posh. As we enter, I cannot feel more out of place.
I still haven't told Michael why we're here.
A lean, blonde, green eyed woman comes up to us.

"How may I help you both?" She asks both of us, but she keeps her eyes on Michael.
Michael, oblivious to the attention he's getting, just looks at me and waits for me to answer.

"We'd like to meet with the owner of this place." I say.
Now she's looking at me with a look of confusion as well.

"Um, do you have an appointment? She has a very tight schedule you see, she cannot just entertain everybody who walks in here." She questions and tells me.

"Not really, but I think if you tell her that Louisa Edwards is here to see her, I'm sure she'll make time." I say, giving her a smile.
Of course she'd want to know what the hell I'm doing here.

The lady looks at me like I've lost it, but still turns around and heads to what I'm guessing is the owner's office.

A minute later she's walking out of there and motions us to come over there.

"Mrs. Darcy will see you right away." She says as we near her.
On hearing her say this, it finally hits Michael as to what we're doing here.

We enter her office which turns out to be quite modest for someone who is married to a man like Mr.Darcy.

"Hello Louisa." She says standing up and going as far as to get out and of her place and shake my hand. She greets Michael the same way, which kind of throws us off a bit.
She looks a little bit relieved  to see us. Offers us tea as well. She's being a bit too nice, but the thing is, it doesn't seem fake, it seems pretty genuine to me.
The last time I met her, I kind of ran away from her the first opportunity I got, so seeing this side of her is interesting, to say the least.

"I cannot be more glad to see you both here." She finally says, pretty much speaking my thoughts.

"Um, it's nice to see you too. Mrs. Darcy, I've already spoken to Mr. Darcy and his cooperation was basically non existent when it came to helping me find Travis. We were hoping, or rather I was hoping you'd help us, give us some clue as to where you think he might be? I'd really like to find him Mrs. Darcy. I'm going to do this with or without your help, but your help would definitely be very helpful and I'd be forever grateful." I say in one breath. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to say to her up until a minute ago.

"Louisa, I'd like to help you in any way I can. We got off on the wrong foot, and I extend my deepest apologies for that. My husband, he can be a bit, you know, trying. I can assure you, he has no part in what I say or how I help you. Our situation is difficult to understand, I won't trouble you with that. I haven't been able to locate Travis. I've even gotten in touch with his grandparents, with whom I haven't spoken in years. I was hoping you'd had more luck."

"Well, I was hoping you would tell me who his real father is. Michael here tells me that he knows Travis located his dad. I've hit roadblocks everywhere and maybe this time we'll find something. We just need you to tell us who he is."

On hearing me say this, her eyes widen. Clearly this is news to her.
She then turns to Michael.

"When did he tell you this? If you don't mind me asking, why did he tell you this?"

"Well, I'm not really sure of that either. He told me a while back when I was digging into a couple of things I shouldn't have been digging into. I was also looking into 'The Girl You Knew' at the time and he had a lot of questions regarding that. How I found the original owners and all that."

It takes her a while to take in all that Michael has just told her.
She doesn't say anything but writes down something on a piece of paper and hands it to me.

                                                      Francis Aurélé
                                      #8, Lambeth High Street, London

"By Aurélé, do you mean-?" I start off, but she answers before I complete my question.

"Yes. He's from the very same family, the owners of The Girl You Knew. He was the love of my life, but let's save that story for another day. Just, please find my son and bring him back to me, he's all I have left."

I don't know if I can keep up a promise like that, but I tell her I will do everything I can. She surprises me by hugging me, just as I'm leaving.

Once we're out of the parlour Michael takes a look at the address.

"London huh? Louisa Edwards would you like to accompany me on a little road trip?"

I look at him and smile.

"Michael Hamish, I'd love to."

I've always wanted to go to London.
This should be fun right?
Find Travis, explore London, bring him back home.

Should be easy.
Right?

Who am I kidding?

~
A/N-
Hey guys! Hope everybody is doing well! Sorry for the late update again. I also hope you guys like the story so far and where it's headed! Do let me know! :)
Thank you for reading TGYK.
Also, the picture above was made by CrayyZedd . Do check out her book! Thank you again :)

Without Wax,
Sanjana Ramesh.