Friends First, Lovers Always | ✔

TWO | FIVE

     Levi grows restless and starts tapping his fingers on his knees, watching the shadows of the trees and the skyline whirl past through the window. They're driving fast now, but everything else feels slow.

     They're maybe on the road an hour when Gideon gets off at a rest stop. "Go on," he says after he parks and they've sat for a moment. "I know you have to piss."

     Levi makes an aggravated sound. He wants to tell him to not notice these things about him. Just stop it, because it doesn't make it easier. Levi doesn't say it though because it'll only open the floor to a conversation he'd prefer to avoid. Instead, he grabs the door handle and shoves his shoulder into it. It sticks sometimes and needs an extra push to get it open.

     Hopping down from the cab, Levi walks off without a word to Gideon.

     The rest stop doesn't appear in use when he first gets up to it. They're pretty much in the middle of nowhere off the highway, so it's not one of the big stops with a food court and stuff. Just a small, rundown building he's not even sure is going to be open.

     It looks like someone has busted the lock on the door. Levi walks in and has to turn on the flashlight on his phone to see. He's taken aback immediately by the sight. Almost turns on his heel and leaves. Graffiti covers nearly the entire space. Names written boldly across the stall doors and tiled walls. The bathroom is completely rundown, sinks gutted from the wall revealing the holes in the floor. There are lewd drawings obscuring the only urinal that hasn't been shattered.

     A rat skitters across the floor, sinking into a hole in the wall by the door and Levi jumps. "Jesus," he mutters quietly before he uses the urinal so he can get the hell out of there.

     As he's leaving, he notices a pile of spray cans on the floor of the last stall. Curious, he checks them to see if any are full. There's one, a bright pink that reminds him of Barbies. It's like fairy pink. Fitting, his subconscious muses.

     Finding an empty space to tag is a harder endeavor. The wall juts by the door and there's enough space on it to fit his name and Gideon's. He thinks if everything else crashes and burns tonight, at least they'll be together somewhere, even if it is a dirty wall in a rundown rest stop. Gideon would love it. He lives for this kind of shitty art. Every chance he gets, he takes them into the city just to look at street art.

      "Levi?"

       "I'm coming," Levi calls quickly stepping into the doorway. He'd only cracked the door when he entered so he pretty much obscures the bathroom's view. If things were different, he'd have run to get Gideon to show him. He really would love something like this. But now? No, what Levi just did would hurt Gideon more than anything.

     And he hates hurting him more than anything. It sucks but he can't stop being him anymore than earth can stop moving in its orbital. And just by being him, he hurts Gideon. It's sad because he loved him as a friend, first.

     "What're you doing?" Gideon asks, trying to peek behind Levi.

     Levi shrugs, shaking his head. "Nothing. Nothing."

     He eyes him and as hard as Levi tries to keep his face passive, he reads something there in his expression that has him forcing his way in and yanking Levi's phone out of his hand to use his flashlight. Levi reaches up, rubbing his head in anticipation for the fight that will naturally ensue.

     "So you just weren't going to show me this?" Gideon says his tone bitter but quiet. He flashes the light on the wall with the sinks and Levi leans back into the shadows, watching him take it all in. He appreciates it more than Levi did. Levi knew he would. His only hope is that he won't notice his addition. But that's going to be hard since it's in bright fucking fairy pink.