A New Life (River Phoenix)

Reunited

The drive to River's house didn't have a dull moment.

If Flea wasn't cracking a joke, Rain was singing and dancing. Piper and I didn't say much, but we laughed to keep the spirits up.

By the time we had finished what seemed like the 20th Beatles song, we pulled up to their house. It was medium sized and looked extremely average.

I'm sure no one would suspect a celebrity like River to spend his time there.

Once we go out of the truck, we headed towards the front door, leaving our luggage behind.

"Welcome to our casa," Rain laughed, unlocking the door.

Nerves shook through me as we entered house. Quickly, a woman with an apron came to greet us.

"Welcome!" She said kindly, the smile on her face growing by the second. "I'm Heart," she introduced.

"Carmen." I said nicely. She nodded and embraced me, her earthly smell radiating off of her.

"Wonderful meeting you. River should be upstairs, if you'd like to see him." She offered to me.

Her statement confused me slightly; I wondered why she had only suggested seeing River to me. Rain had said she'd heard of me, though. I stopped thinking and accepted her offer, thanking her as I began down the hall.

I went up the only staircase I could find and stopped once I'd reached the top.

I could see into River's room through the open door. His back was turned and he was tuning a guitar.

I stood emotionless for a while, unsure of how I felt. But I decided not to waste any more time.

I ran up behind him and wrapped my arms around his stomach. I felt him jolt as he turned around, meeting my eyes and exchanging my embrace.

"Carmen." He stated simply. His lips found their way to my forehead as he pulled back. "How I've missed you. How have you been?" He wondered, genuinely concerned.

"I've been okay," I lied, not wanting to admit how bad I had felt without him.

He smiled at me and embraced me again until Flea made a guest appearance. I felt River's body rip from my arms as Flea tackled him to the bed and began ruffling up River's even longer golden hair.

"Rio! Rio!" Flea yelled happily.

I watched as Piper walked in an laughed, nudging my shoulder. I smiled at her and stayed silent until they stopped.

"I've missed you all," River said, examining us. "And you, Piper, have you been staying out of trouble?" He joked.

"Have you?" Piper asked back, her mischievous glare radiating off of her face. River winked and began tackling Flea again.

Then, they sat up, laughing, and smiled at us.

"I guess it's time to meet the family then, shall we?" River wondered, ignoring our reactions and running out the door.

When we reached downstairs, we headed to the kitchen. There, River plopped down as Flea, Piper and I did the same.

"Mom, this is," River started, but was soon cut off.

"Flea, Carmen, and Piper." Heart finished. "I've met them, they're lovely."

I had noticed how elegantly they talked sometimes. I hadn't heard anyone refer to something as being lovely in a long time, besides River of course.

"Let me help," Flea said, walking over to Heart who had been cooking something I'd never quite smelled before.

I watched her smile as Flea began to help her cook. Then I turned my attention to River.

He was leaning back with his hands behind his head; his fingers locked in his gold hair. His eyes remained closed and a small smile peeked on his face. You could tell he felt extremely at ease.

It made me feel better as well.

~~~
Firstly I'm sorry that these chapters have been short. My computer I usually write this on broke last week so I struggled a lot to get this up. I just want to try to update as much as possible even if it's a little at a time because I don't want it to seem like this story got abandoned.

ALSO my friend brought to my attention that I don't give any details as to what Carmen looks like or any of her backstory. I mainly do this because I figure if you read this, you probably read it in the perspective that you are Carmen. And since everyone looks so different, I don't want to give any specifics that might throw you off if they aren't accurate to your physical description. I am kind of wondering though what you all picture Carmen to look like?
Let me know :-)