A New Life (River Phoenix)

A Friendly Reunion (pt 2)

River and I made our way back into the living room, joining the rest of the crowd in conversation.

"The craziest thing I ever did?" One of the man asked another. "I couldn't even tell you."

Keanu laughed and plopped down besides River and I.

"Come on, man. You never did anything fucking stupid?" Keanu questioned.

"Nothing that really stands out." The man answered back, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one.

Flea looked to me and smiled.

"Carmen, what's the craziest thing you've ever done?" He asked me.

All eyes, especially River's, turned right to me.

"I don't know." I said honestly.

Piper flailed her arms and laughed, looking to me.

"I know the craziest thing you've ever done!" She yelled.

I tried to send her a pleading look, hoping she would realize not to embarrass me. To my luck, she continued on.

"When our high school football team went to the state championship," she started, and I immediately recalled the story.

"Shut up!" I yelled jokingly to her.

"No!" River insisted. "Tell it!"

I shook my head and buried my face as Piper continued.

"It was a tradition for all of the seniors to get drunk at the state game. So, all of our friends went all out. You know, chugging whatever we could find. And we got Carmen so fucked up that when we scored the winning touch down, we snuck upstairs above the other schools' students and got her and a bunch of our friends to throw up on them." She laughed.

Simultaneously, the whole room howled.

I shook my head, laughing slightly at my own stupidity as everyone else seemed amused.

"We ran out of there so fast we almost broke our legs." Piper concluded, picking up a beer bottle and taking a drink.

"Yeah, well I was young and dumb." I defended, slouching into River's arm.

"Speaking of young and dumb," Flea started. "How about some good, old fashioned racing?"

All eyes narrowed around the room.

"Alright, who against who?" Keanu asked.

One of the men stood up, pulling a blonde haired girl along next to him.

"Jackie and I will take one car." The man said.

River soon stood up, looking confident and sly.

"Then, Carmen and I will take the other." He challenged.

Internally, I was shaking my head.

"I'm going with Rio!" Flea yelled, running over to us and grabbing our arms.

Piper and Keanu joined us as well, and we started for the car.

-

I sat alongside River as the sound of revving engines filled the empty streets.

Surrounding us was everyone who had once occupied Keanu's house, as well as our opponents in the car next to us.

"Okay!" A girl yelled, standing in between the cars. "On your mark."