white boys (river phoenix)

59

Chapter Fifty Nine

So Robin took the offer. It was going to take the summer to set up and advertise everything, but all she had to do was focus on prepping for college (after the tour) and enjoying her summer. Now all she had to do was find a way to break the news to River.

They already knew they would have to face their goodbyes- what with Robin going off to college and River starting his gap year to work and then travel, but now that Robin had this tour offer, for her it seemed more real. It was more sudden. If she were just going to college at Spelman rather than going to tour, although they'd be far apart, at least they'd be able to keep in consistent contact with each other. Robin would be in New Orleans, River would be in Boston.

But now, Robin would be moving around sporadically for three months before getting settled down in one location. Doing her tour, it would be harder to keep in touch, since she would be working on the go, and River would just be working at home. A lot can happen in three months. And after those three months of the tour, she'd be off to college and visiting home only once in a while.

Robin took a deep breath, contemplating things over, drawing a mental map in her mind. It seemed although she had so many opportunities in front of her, in terms of her relationship with River, it was all downhill from here. That wasn't because of anything between them, it was because they were each going on their own separate paths. Shame it was so soon after they finally got together, Robin thought to herself. She was thinking the worst, one of her bad habits. Once a pessimist, always a pessimist. She laughed to herself- only a pessimist would think such a thing.

For now, Robin just tried to think of the present. First things first, she had to tell River. She'd deal with the aftermath later.

It was just a few days until graduation. River, Robin and Heather were all hanging out after practice for graduation when Heather decided to break off from the group. Now, River and Robin were alone, the perfect time for Robin to tell River her news. They cleared their table and rung up the check. Upon leaving, Robin stuck her hand from out of her baggy sweater and River smiled, first at her face and then down at her hand, and laced his inbetween hers. Upon joining their hands, they walked through the sliding doors, a cool breeze rushing from the sunshine came upon them, brushing their faces.

"The wind loves us," River commented with a lazy smile, a corner of his mouth quirking up, like how Robin noticed he did in pictures.

He wasn't really a big fan of taking pictures, especially if he wasn't smiling prior to the photo-taking, so a lot of the photos Robin had of River made him look miserable. He just claimed he liked to keep it real at all times. Robin thought to herself that it was crazy that she should know all these things about him and think up these random facts just by looking at his facial expression. It made her feel like she had known him for much longer than since August.

"The wind forgives me, the pebbles forgive me, the trees forgive me, so why can't, you forgive me?" Robin sang lightly, only for River to join in - little known fact: that was one of their favorite songs to sing together, one of those songs they both knew and thought nobody else knew, so when they found out the other knew, they had happy meltdowns. (Juno fans I hope u caught that referenceee!)

"I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else, but you," River treaded lightly on the notes of the next lyrics, and rather than continue, Robin just squeezed his hand.

"So, I have exciting news," Robin managed to smile, and made an effort to sound excited about what she was going to share. She was excited of course, but there were still other things to be taken into consideration that needed to be addressed even before Robin could really bathe in her excitement.