“Will do.”
I trekked out of the clearing, the soft sounds of my sister following me until the path of the RV park came back into view and we parted ways as I took a path out of view of the bonfire so that I didn’t have to face them. I could feel my sister’s gaze on me as I wandered off, but I kept my intentions as I made my way back to the RV.
It wasn’t until l was under the safe spray of the shower that I let myself feel what could have been a much different night. Allowing myself five minutes to grieve the instance, I climbed into bed after the cold shower and hoped for a dreamless, comfortable slumber.
Chapter 13
What happenedwith Lincoln didn't disrupt my dreams, but the events flashed through my mind the second I woke up the next morning. I kept replaying everything in my head over and over, wondering if there was something that I could have done differently before he'd kissed me that could have given him the wrong idea. Just because I couldn't conjure something didn't mean it didn't exist, but I couldn't pinpoint anything I'd done that would have garnered the impression he clearly carried.
His behavior really freaked me out. I'd thought Lincoln was a go with the flow type of guy, and that clearly couldn't be further from the truth.
True to form, I'd told Myers the truth after I'd had my morning coffee. She was absolutely livid and wanted me to talk to someone at the RV park to have Lincoln removed for my safety, but I kept insisting that it was an isolated incident. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, that maybe it had been the alcohol that had steered his actions down the seedy alley he'd chosen to travel down the night he'd insisted we hookup again in that clearing. I also didn't want to cause trouble among the group. I liked these people, and they loved Lincoln. I hesitated to give them a reason not to.
Luckily, I had work to distract me. My latest distractions were a trilogy of welcomed thoughts: work, writing, and Arze.
Writing was coming along well. I had plans to write more in my first day off from the haunts, especially as things for the festival were getting closer. Jane was going to have a couple of us start coming in earlier than usual so that we could help prep for the festival on top of working the haunts in the evenings. I was super excited to see everything come together.
Arze was a different story, obviously. After what occurred with Lincoln, I found myself really wanting to see him today. Replacing thoughts of Lincoln's propositions with ideas of Arze's advances were helping soften the blow to my psyche. I hadn't been paired with him during the work day, but just seeing him helped qualm my woes from the previous day and I was back to crushing on him full-time.
Work went by in a blur. I was paired with Chase and Khalice in the haunted house, once again donning my Freddy attire. Once we were done with entertaining customers for the night, we met up at the entryways between the house and the maze, and the three of us stopped and resigned to waiting until the other three were walking toward us. Abigail and Ripp gave us grins as they approached, and my heart quickened when I saw Arze. Just setting my sights on him was enough to erase the unpleasantness with Lincoln, and I was eternally grateful. Now I was equally plagued by thoughts of kissing every inch of his gorgeous purple skin.
“Man, it was busy tonight for a Sunday.” Chase commented, his delightful southern accent enabling a drawl to mince around his words.
“Tell me about it.” Abigail huffed. “Someone threw up in the maze after, like, an hour of being open.”
“It was quite troublesome.” Arze agreed.
“Why don't we grab some drinks?” Chase suggested, a heavy smirk slanting his lips. “We've all had a long night so let's blow off some steam. I know a bar a short walk from here that's Orb-run and open to all species.”
“Absolutely.” Khalice nodded, which shocked the hell out of me. Just last night she'd refused to come out and join us at the RV park. But I supposed she was a hell of a lot more comfortable with her co-workers here than the strangers occupying the majority of the park.
Images of last night returned to me, the feeling of Lincoln's grip on my hips making my mind stir and my stomach churn. I closed my eyes and wished I could banish last night from ever appearing in my mind's eye.
“I could use a drink.” I agreed, opening my eyes again and trying to blink away the bad memory.
Everyone agreed to go to the bar, Abigail suggesting that we extend the invite to Jane. Once we sauntered up to the Victorian and invited her, she agreed on the spot, claiming that running the haunts lately had her stressed and she could use a shot or two. Ripp bounced up and down with excitement the entire time we walked as a group to the bar, following Chase's directions. After no less than ten minutes, we made our way into a bar by the name of Batwings.
Batwings was just as horror-inclined as the rest of Phoebe, all kinds of horror movie posters and associated memorabilia all over the walls. The booths were draped in black spiderweb decor and the tables looked like a web was underneath the see-through pane of the table. For a place called Batwings, it was very heavy on the spider decorations, but hey, I wasn’t complaining.
Even the barstools were a mix of black and grey mock marble. The owner of the bar was a handsome petrylle with flowing black hair, which paired really well with his piercing blue eyes. Batwings was fairly busy, filled with patrons already toeingthe line of intoxication as we were escorted to a large enough table to accommodate the seven of us graciously. A low hum of conversation was audible throughout the entire establishment, everyone having to elevate their voices in order to be heard consistently.
Chase ordered a round of tequila shots for the table, cheers and subtle nods of delight flung in his direction.
“To the best team we've had in years.” Chase said once the shots had arrived, holding up his shot glass.
We all held up our shot glasses and clinked them together in cheers. After knocking the bottom of my shot glass on the table, per tradition, I made sure to down the shot and grab a lime from the available plate in front of Khalice.
The liquor's burn made a soothing path down my throat, biting into the lime so that the juice could ease the blaze. Directly across from me, Arze's smile came into view as he laughed at Ripp's reaction to slamming the shot. He was flailing his neck back and forth like he was head-banging, making us all chuckle.
I sighed inwardly. The problem with my crush on Arze was the fact that I couldn't voice it or see it play out. I had no way of knowing whether or not Arze was queer or if he even welcomed the notion of hooking up with humans. It wasn't a super common thing for Orbs and humans to involve themselves romantically. God forbid, sexually. It definitely happened, but it wasn't something you would see represented in the media anytime soon.
So that left me with my woeful whims of wishing, which at least my writing was getting the benefit from. I was nearing the halfway mark of having it complete, so if anything, I should be thanking Arze.
Except the way that I wanted to thank him wasn't appropriate. Least of all for co-workers.
“What was up with all the weirdos today?” Chase broke the silence, everyone recovered from their individual shots. He turned toward where Khalice and I sat side by side. “Remember that guy with the handlebar mustache?"
“Ugh.” Khalice groaned, making a face that told everyone she wished she didn't recollect the guy in question.
