A New Life (River Phoenix)

Twenty One

Arriving at Gus's house was nothing short of interesting.

The brown house was crowded with people in every corner. But because of the long trip, Piper and I avoided each and every one of them.

Thankfully, Gus was kind enough to allow Piper and I to share his guest room, insisting that every one who had previously been in it should leave.

The room was small but fine sized for Piper and I to share.

It was mostly empty, with one decent sized bed and a window. A small desk occupied a corner on the far side of the room.

"Why do I feel like we always get thrown around from place to place?" Piper asked as she shoved her sketchbooks into the desk.

"Because we do." I answered, sitting on the bed.

Piper finished unpacking her notebooks and turned to me.

"What do we even do now?" She wondered, crossing her arms. "The boys' are working from this point on. We're basically just on our own."

I laid back and kicked off my shoes to the floor.

"I don't know," I confessed. "But I'm going to bed. That ride was rough, and Frank needed to fuck off."

Piper laughed and sat on the bed next to me.

"I can't believe we saw that jarhead." She stated, laughter seeping from her voice.

I shook my head and closed my eyes.

"What an asshole, trying to act like we're all best friends when he was such a raging douchebag." I recalled.

"Idiot," Piper mumbled under her breath. "He was just trying to look cool and shit. I mean, come on, you know he knew that was River with us. He just wanted to look like the better one."

"That backfired," I laughed, smiling to Piper. "Frank looked like such an idiot compared to River. It was like putting a tricycle next to a Rolls Royce."

Piper laughed and laid back on the bed, holding her stomach.

"Like comparing Tinker bell and Superman." She insisted.

We both burst out into laughter and looked to each other, a sense of calmness coming over the room.

"It just really pissed me off. And then on top of that, it made River all uncomfortable the rest of the time." I remembered.

Piper got up and shook her head, beginning to change into boxers. She shuffled through her clothes and threw an extra pair at me.

"River showed him who was boss," Piper said, shrugging. "I'm sure Frank sat down and questioned his entire life afterwards."

I laughed quietly and got up, putting on the boxers Piper had given me and a white t-shirt.

Then, we both laid down, completely consumed in thought. Half an hour later, we were sleeping.

-

"You'll never catch me!" I hear River yell as I'm still sleeping.

I stretch my eyes open as hard as I can to see the clock that revealed it was four in the morning.

Confused, I remained in bed, listening for any indication as to what was going on the living room.

I was much too lazy to get up.