22 Days left till graduation. 22 Days till my life begins.

"You don't know how long you'll be there. I suggest you take two more pairs of jeans." My mum says just as I'm zipping up my overnight bag.
I'm leaving to London in about half an hour.
The nerves are getting to me but the excitement of imagining myself in London in a couple of hours, freaking overwhelms me.

"Mum. I'm sure I'll be back in a day. I'm going to be fiiiiine. You need to sit down. I promise you, I'll. be. fine."

"You better." She mumbles in reply.

"Louisa! Michael is here!" I then hear James shout from downstairs.

My mum and I the make our way downstairs where she then threatens Michael to take good care of me or else she'll definitely have his head or something like that.

"You have my word ma'am." Michael smiles.

"Pshh, please call me Diana."

And with that we were on our way. We decided to take a train to London instead of going on a road trip.
There is no way I'm going to sit on a bike for more than twenty minutes. And considering none of us really know how to drive a car, the trains were our next best option. We call a cab and make our way to the station and then make it just on time to board our train. We find our seats and get comfortable for the one hour journey.

"So. Here's what we'll do, we'll first get on a tube and make our way to our hotel because the cabs in London are bloody expensive. The hotel isn't that far from the address Mrs. Darcy gave us so we'll take a walk there. But before that we could check out a few places, like the London Eye perhaps?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! Let's do that. Oh my gosh. We're going to London!" I half shout, half squeal.

Michael finds my excitement humorous, he just shakes his head and chuckles.

An hour later we find ourselves at the infamous Victoria station.
I try to wipe or at least hide the unflattering grin on my face.
I cannot seem to stop smiling.

"You can kiss the ground if you want. I won't judge you." Michael laughs and says on noticing this.

"Let's just go out of here and explore. Quickly!!" I say and half walk, half run out of the station to get my first proper look of the most fascinating city in the world.

I half notice the fact that Michael is still a bit behind and losing him wouldn't be the best idea.
I continue walking.

Once I finally get out of the station and see the London skyline, I kinda just stop in my tracks.

"Louisa Edwards, I made a promise to your mum and losing you in one of the biggest cities in the world is not- Woah." He starts scolding but stops when he looks at the scene before us.

There's just something aesthetic about the streets and the buildings. Pictures definitely never do it justice. It's just. Beautiful.

After admiring the view for a few more minutes we take a tube to the station closest to our hotel where we find out that our reservations got mixed up or something. After sorting that out we walk to the London Eye.
The London Eye looks scarier and massive up close.

"This pier at the end of the day is no way better than Brighton Pier." Michael comments once we're standing in line.

"Brighton Pier hasn't got a 135 metre tall ferris wheel with 32 massive sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules now does it?" I say in reply.

"Dammit." Is all he says and we laugh.

When it's finally our turn, he grabs my hand and we get onto the biggest ferris wheel in Europe.
The view when we got to the top is just something else altogether.
Just. London is where I want to live in the future.
Just, London it is.

Thirty minutes later we find ourselves back on Earth.

Michael and I then make our way to #8, Lambeth High Street, the address Mrs. Darcy had given us.
Once we find the house I hesitate to knock on the door.
What if Travis opens the door? Am I ready to face him?

Before my mind contemplates this anymore I reach out and knock on the door. My heart seems to beating a million miles an hour.

A minute later a man opens the door.

"Can I help you?" He asks with a look of confusion on is face.

"Um. Hi. I'm Louisa Edwards. I'm looking for Travis."

"I don't know anybody name Travis." The man replies.
Are you kidding me?

"Sir, you have to understand, we're from Brighton and Travis is my boyfriend. We've been looking everywhere for him."

"I'm sorry young lady, but I have no idea about who you're talking about."

"Mrs. Darcy gave us this address."

His eyes widen, giving away the fact that he has possibly been lying to us.

"I'm sorry, just please don't come here again, I don't know what you're talking about."

The next second I'm staring at a door.

"Well, that went well, don't you think?" I turn and look at Michael.

"Exceptionally well." He replies and heads to the door and knocks on it again. And by knock, I mean, nearly break it down.

"Look. You come back here again, I'm going to call the police-"

"Listen Mr. Auréle. We're not some random teenagers looking for trouble. This girl happens to be head over heels in love with your son and the very same guy happens to be my brother, well, kind of, but thats not the point, we really need your help. If you still don't believe us please feel free to ask Mrs. Emilie Auréle. Yes we've met her. She told us the story of 'The Girl You Knew'. "

This time around Mr. Auréle just keeps his mouth shut and stares at Michael for a long time.

"Listen lad, ok he's been here. Came to me a while back, and I did everything I could to help him. I haven't been the best dad now have I? And I thought by doing that I'm in some way making up for all the years of his life I've missed out on. Bear in mind that wasn't entirely my fault. I didn't even know I had a son up until a few months back, when Travis contacted me. He said he only needs a roof over his head and he'll sort out the rest. He's been gone for a couple of days now. Yesterday some goons came in and threatened me. Now I don't know what that boy has been up to, but I can tell you it's no good. And I can also tell you that I want no part of. Travis better go clean up his act. This is all I know. Please don't come here again." he finally replies in hushed tones.

"Thank you sir."  Is all Michael says and we get out of there.

"Well. That was useless." I say when we get out.

"Look on the bright side, we can go explore more of London now before we head back. I saw a bookstore and a tourist shop on our way down here, maybe we could get you something there."

"Michael that wasn't the point of this trip though was it? I just wish there was something we could do. I really wanted to-"

"You really wanted to what?"

"Lou? Louisa??"

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Louisa William Edwards, you're scaring me but I'm also really starting to get anno-" Michael starts off but stops when he looks at what I'm looking at.

In front of a pub, that across the street, I see Travis.
With a girl around him.
Oh and now he's bloody snogging her.

And suddenly all the butterflies just die.
My heart shatters into pieces, but it makes no noise. I almost wish there was a noise that would accompany it to distract me from the pain.

Well, on the bright side, we found him, didn't we?

~

A/N-
Hiii guys!
Late update again. I'm really sorrrryyyy.
But thank you for the continued love and support you guys have been showing me.
Means the world to me.
Hope you like the story so far!

XOXO

Without Wax,
Sanjana Ramesh