A New Life (River Phoenix)

Something Else

After River's mom had finished dinner and we had officially met the whole, big family, Piper, Flea, River and I headed out. I was unsure of what Gainesville's source of entertainment was, but trusted River and Flea to keep us on our feet.

We had been walking around town for about half an hour when River slowed down and joined me in the back; Piper and Flea continuing to walk aimlessly.

"What did you think?" River asked me, pushing his hair behind his ears.

"Of what?" I wondered aloud.

"My family, of course." He answered.

"Oh, I love them. They're super nice, really funny and smart too. I see where you get it from." I told him. He laughed and shook his head.

"I ain't none of that," he started. "I mean, I'm not anything special."

I rolled my eyes at him and continued walking, folding my arms.

"River Jude Phoenix, if you're not special than what am I?" I asked jokingly. He smiled lightly at me and chuckled.

"You're the special one here, Carmen." He told me. I felt my face flush pink and looked the other way, hoping he wouldn't notice. Thankfully, he didn't.

"You're all types of special, River," I began, unaware of where I was going with it. "You bought all those rainforests, you don't eat any meat, you do all kinds of things other people aren't smart enough to do." I informed him. He shrugged.

"It doesn't mean I'm special. Not in an advantageous way, at least. We are all special. I'm no more important than anyone else, I'm just aware." He said humbly.

His humbleness always made me frustrated; he never saw how important he was, and never rewarded himself for his good deeds.

"All I'm saying is, you're something else." I told him, and his grateful nod marked the end of our talk.

-

"Let's go, guys!" Piper yelled as she ran towards River's house. We all sprinted towards the house and stopped to catch our breath on the porch. Joaquin walked out right as we arrived. He laughed when he saw us.

"Too much cardio for you?" He joked. I sent him a joking glare that he returned with a wink and faint chuckle.

"Don't you have something better to be doing, hm?" River wondered, a sense of humor in his voice.

Joaquin crossed his arms and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Don't you have a movie to be shooting?" He replied sarcastically.

I watched as Flea joking dropped his jaw at Joaquin's comment.

"Oh, ha-ha, very funny." River laughed. He messed up Joaquin's hair and soon returned inside, which we all followed.

-

We followed River downstairs to his basement where we each claimed our own individual couch.

"Isn't this the best?" Flea asked, kicking up his feet and resting his hands behind his head.

"The most." Piper said. Her eyes flashed on me, probably to see whether or not I agreed. I sent her a light smile to let her know I approved; we always spoke in little gestures like that. It was sort of a secret language, and some how nobody ever caught on.

I got up from the couch and walked over to a pile of movies I'd noticed. I could almost feel River's eyes burning into me as I did so.

I noticed River's face plastered on the front of a movie cover. I laughed and picked it up, holding it up so that I could have a side-by-side view of River now and then.

I laughed as I realized how similar he looks, besides his longer hair and thinned out face. I focused my eyes on River, who looked up at me in confusion.

"What are you doing, miss?" He asked, getting up and hustling over to me. I laughed and hid the movie from him until he had finally grabbed it from my hands. His expression blanked when he saw it was him, but he eventually laughed and set it down.

"Super cute picture." I mocked. He shook his head and headed back to his seat, smiling.

"Gee, thanks." He replied, and I could tell he picked up on my sarcasm.

I sat back down as Flea got up and grabbed a guitar I hadn't noticed was there; leave it up to Flea to sniff out his guitars.

I watched as River and Flea gave each other a light smile, and Flea handed to him another guitar. I knew exactly where they were going.

Jam session.

Simply, they began strumming, and Piper and I adjusted ourselves on the couches. For what seemed like forever, I listened to them hit every note, each strum a little more powerful than the last, until my stomach turned and my head felt numb.

It wasn't long until I had fallen asleep to the sound.