A New Life (River Phoenix)

The Legend Of Dirk

River found his family the first flight to Hollywood and flew them out. They arrived 2 days later.

Piper and I spent the day cleaning out River and Flea's apartment for their stay. I wasn't sure how the small room would house 8 people, but decided not to question it.

Once the apartment had been cleaned to it's full potential, we headed out.

River and Flea were currently on their way to the airport to meet his family, which meant Piper and I had about an hour to buy groceries.

"I'm driving." Piper yelled, grabbing River's keys off of the counter. River had offered us his car to take to the store, thankfully.

"You can't even drive," I told her. "I'm driving."

"You'll crash!" Piper defended.

"You failed your drivers test 4 times!"

That shut her up, as usual. I sent her a smirk as I took the keys and headed downstairs to the parking lot.

We cruised down the streets in River's white Cadillac and bought every vegan item we could find. Being that neither of us were vegan, we found ourself hopelessly confused but soon finished and headed back home.

We grabbed our bags, refusing to take more than one trip inside, and headed upstairs.

I could hear the Phoenix's loud laughter as we headed down the hallway and entered the room.

All attention turned to us.

"If it isn't my favorite sister!" Rain yelled, running to me and helping to set down the groceries. "River told us the news."

"What news?" I joked.

"Hey!" River yelled back.

We all laughed as Piper and I joined them in the living room. They all sat talking about River's new role.

Heart extended her arms to me and pecked my cheek. I quickly embraced her back.

"You have the longest hair." She said, running her fingers through it. "So soft too." She told me.

I was about to thank her until River spoke up.

"Isn't she just the most beautiful human you've ever laid your eyes on?" He wondered.

I jokingly glared at him, hoping to hold back the blush that was coming out on my cheeks.

-

We all sat in the living room and discussed My Own Private Idaho as Heart began cooking dinner.

"So, you're for sure taking the role?" Heart asked from the kitchen.

"The script has a lot of potential. It's about a lot more than snorting coke and selling yourself on the streets." He answered. "It's about the coming of the white man. And I want to do something different. Something more challenging."

"When do you start filming?" Rain asked.

"Soon. A month or two, I'm sure." He stated.

Rain and I shared a quick glance as she spoke up.

"Can I talk to you, Carmen?" She asked. "Alone."

"Yeah." I answered, following her out of the room.

We headed into Flea's room and closed the door, taking a seat on the bed.

"Can you do me a favor, please?" She wondered.

"Yeah, anything." I told her.

She sent me a light smile and then her face dropped in seriousness.

"Keep an eye on my big brother, would you? I know how heavy he gets into preparing for his roles. And with this being so drug affiliated, I'd just hate for him to get too experimental." She confessed, fiddling with her fingers.

I could tell how anxious she was as she spoke to me. She must have been thinking about this for some time.

"I'll keep an eye on him." I promised her.

She thanked me, her green eyes glistening with hope. A hope I hadn't seen for a long time.

"You know, when he was about 16, he had this friend named Dirk. He taught River how to play guitar and stuff, so he came to the house a lot. And one night he took River to meet some of his friends; they were a lot older than him, of course. They were all into drugs too, you know, drinking and all that. So on this particular night, they all decided to snort lines of coke with River around. And River was so interested by it that he wanted to try it himself. Plus, they told him he was too young; that he couldn't handle it. So, that made him want to do it even more." Rain told me, recalling a past experience. "He spent the rest of the night with Dirk on the beach, feeling sick and nauseous."

I wasn't sure what to respond back to her story. I couldn't even recall any nights I'd spent with River where he was under an influence besides pot or alcohol.

"I don't think he does that anymore," I told her truthfully. "I haven't seen any around."

I could tell she was getting more comfortable with me as we spoke.

"Yeah, probably not. I just get so worried about him." She admitted. "When he starts preparing for this role, will you try your best to guide him?" She questioned one last time.

"Of course." I answered.

-

Sorry for the short last two chapters! I've been doing a lot more research on this story, trying to make it more factual (The story of Dirk and River is true). I also love the comments and feedback so much, you're all amazing and I love being able to connect with everyone :) More to come, I promise!