“This is Byll.” It sounded eerily like the human name, surprising me. Usually I'd heard that Orbs had more unique names than humans. Then again, some human names were beautifully unique as well. It wasn't until this moment I realized that I'd seen plenty of Orbs in my life but I hadn't really been around them long enough to learn about them.
“Hi there,” Byll smiled, holding a southern accent, much like Darlene and Gerald's. “Nice to have you at the park.”
We nodded but didn't interject with our names as Darlene gestured to the next person. “And this is Colette.”
Colette was human, a gorgeous woman with dark skin and darker hair. She gave us a confident smile and a nod, taking a sip of the beer she was nursing. The man rummaging around the cooler started to make his way over to the empty chair to my right, three beers twisted around his fingers as he offered us the beverages. As we took them, I caught Darlene's grin out of the corner of my eye. “And that tall drink of water is Lincoln.”
Lincoln did a little half-bow in her direction. “You flatter me, Darlene. Keep it coming.”
Everyone laughed at his reaction, making both Myers and I smile.
She was right about one thing, Lincoln was attractive as fuck. Being blissfully bisexual, I was able to truly take in his fair skin and blond hair. His blue eyes didn't hurt either, catching the reflection of the bonfire beautifully. His body looked well crafted too, not that I cared much about that sort of thing. BetweenLincoln and Colette, I was spoiled for choice on who would be awarded the Krueger Lin award for most captivating.
“Thanks for the beer." I said, Myers mimicking my thanks as Lincoln took his seat next to me. The beer itself was a run of the mill IPA and I wasn’t complaining. Free beer was free beer. “I’m Krueger, and this is my sister, Myers.”
“Wait, like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers?" Collette questioned with a bit of a laugh, revealing her British accent, further adding to her already established mystique. “That can't be your real names.”
“Oh, they are.” Myers laughed with a nod. We’d been getting this our entire lives, so at any given moment we had appropriate explanations at the ready. “Our parents arereally bighorror fans, so they named us after two of the greatest horror villains of all time.”
“Their idea of a comfort movie involves murder and mayhem,” I tacked on, smirking wildly. “They're a bit eccentric, as you can imagine.”
Discussion amongst the group veered away from Myers and I, awarding us with a plethora of information regarding our current company as well as some insight about the others occupying the RV park. Byll wasn't the only Orb staying in the park, but he was by far the most sociable. There was apparently a family of stellymn that kept to themselves and rarely left their RV who were a couple spots down from Byll. And there was apparently a few more scattered Orbs throughout the park, but like the stellymn, they didn’t make it a habit to be out and about. As for Byll himself, he’d been traveling for months up and down the east coast before settling in Phoebe about a month ago.
Colette was here with her parents, but they weren't much for socializing. They'd been at the park for almost two months, enjoying being away from society after moving out of Georgiawhile they sorted out where they wanted to permanently move to on the east coast.
Darlene and Gerald came to Phoebe to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary by taking a sabbatical from real life, spanning multiple months. More of a celebration year, they’d said. They'd been here the longest, finishing out the rest of October in North Carolina after arriving in July before they would inevitably return back to Alabama.
Lincoln had been at the park for the shortest amount of time. He was coming up on three weeks at the park after some drama went down with his family and he’d finally decided that he needed to get away from Massachusetts.
It was nice learning about everyone's stories, barely finishing my second beer when Lincoln finished telling us his vague tale and gave us all of his attention.
“So, what brings you two to Phoebe?”
Everyone's eyes shifted to our direction, our time to regale them with our history finally upon us. I was struggling with how exactly to explain without being overtly personal, but luckily for me, Myers beat me to the punch.
“I just graduated college, and I wanted to take some time off to travel across the country.”
“And I decided to quit my dead-end job to join her to finally pursue my passion.” I interjected so she wouldn't have to bear my reasons on her shoulders.
“What's your passion?” Lincoln asked, a tilt to his eyebrows that told me he was interested for a different reason other than learning about my past.
It was cute to see someone, from where I was sitting, inclining that they might be interested in me. After my breakup with Jenna, I hadn't pursued anyone in a long time. I'd hooked up here and there, which was what my current state of mindcalled for, but Lincoln was a good looking guy. If he was potentially throwing me a bone, I'd happily receive it.
“Writing.” I said simply, avoiding anyone's gaze for fear of seeing judgment reflected back in them. I was particularly sensitive when it came to justifying what I wanted to do with my life. “I’ve been slowly but surely working on my first novel since we've been on the road.”
“That's amazing.” Colette beamed, raising her beer in the air before her. “Cheers to that, babes.”
“Thanks.” I could feel my cheeks heating, thankful that the bonfire flickering its orange-red light could swallow the embarrassed hue that adorned my face.
“He's really good, but he doesn't believe me.”
“You're my sister,” I told Myers. “You have to believe in me for the well being of our sibling relationship.”
“The hell I do. Plenty of siblings don't get along. I just happen to consider you my best friend and prefer to tell you the truth.”
All of them cooed with a wave of awe at her words, the heat rushing back to my cheeks as we gained a shift in attention. I smiled through it though. Honestly, Myerswasmy best friend. The only other friends I had besides my sister were the friends I had made online through the Goodreads community I’d become a part of and the co-workers I used to have at the insurance company. I hadn’t spoken to either group since we’d left Louisiana a few months ago, so I was due for some type of check in. We’d hit several states since then and I’d been enjoying the peace and quiet.
Thankfully, the spotlight of conversation left us as Lincoln got up to help Darlene and Gerald prepare hot dogs and burgers on the bonfire. Darlene had whipped out a flat griddle from absolutely nowhere and the three of them worked together to make it sit on top of the logs of the fire without fear of falling into it.
