Killer One ✓

Chapter 37

Lacey.

"What's your favorite tattoo?" I asked. My eyes traveled along the length of Travis' arm.

We were all in my car heading home. We had turned the rental car in, closed out my lease with my apartment, packed what I wanted and left the rest at Goodwill, and that was that. There was nothing left for me. No apartment, no car, no valuables, no family tying me there. My life was with my friends.

I was sitting in the backseat by myself with a handful of bags stacked up beside me. Ben was driving and Travis was sitting in the passenger seat with his hoodie off, allowing me to see all of his arm that wasn't covered by his t-shirt. He had his camera in his lap that he hadn't used it in awhile but there wasn't much to take pictures of now anyway. Travis had hooked his phone up to my car's Bluetooth system and Elvis Presley blasted through the speakers initially. Now, we were on AC/DC songs.

Travis shrugged and I wanted to push his sleeve up so I could see more. It didn't really matter how often I saw his arm, I still loved looking at it.

"Ben and I were thinking," I began.

Ben cleared his throat loudly. "Whatever you're about to say, don't bring me into it."

"Fine," I huffed. "I was thinking about getting another tattoo without any prompting from Ben."

There was a strap connected to the camera I got Travis. He originally had it detached but Ben and I both agreed if he was going to be taking pictures out of a moving vehicle's window, it would be best to have the strap on and around his neck. Now, he wrapped it around itself, creating a tight coil.

"Of?" Travis asked, not bringing his attention away from the strap and then quickly added, "Where?"

"Well, Ben said," I said but Ben cleared his throat obnoxiously again. I glared at him in the rear view mirror before continuing, "-that you and him have matching tattoos and I was thinking maybe it would be nice to match you guys."

Travis was silent for a while and Ben met my eyes in the rear view mirror, amusement on his face and from the spot I was sitting, I could vaguely see a hint of a smile on his lips. I didn't see what was so funny about this. 

"What would you get?" Travis asked.

I pushed my hair out of my face and tried to be brave for a moment. "I figured we could all decide on something. If you want, that is."

Travis looked at Ben, who shrugged and nodded, and then his gaze went to the window.

"Yeah, okay, I can do that," Travis said casually, letting go of the coil.

"Yeah?" I asked, watching the strap slowly unroll itself.

"Mmm," Travis mumbled, "We can look up where to stop along the way."

When Travis made no attempt to grab his phone out of his pocket, I said, "Do you want me to?"

"Ben will," Travis said, still looking out of the window.

Ben kept his eyes on the road and said, very pointedly, "Ben is driving."

"Oh," Travis looked at Ben from his spot in the passenger seat, seeming lost for a moment. "I blanked. My bad."

He sat up slightly in his seat and grabbed his phone out of his pocket before typing on it. I had never really seen Travis use his phone for anything other than a phone call where he either yelled at someone or was getting yelled at. It was odd.

"Oh," Travis repeated but this time sounding much more enthusiastic. "I know what we should get."

We didn't reach the tattoo parlor Travis picked until roughly an hour later. It was already ten o'clock at night but the shop was open until two in the morning. I double checked the sign on the door, just to make sure we wouldn't be ruining their night if they were about to close.