white boys (river phoenix)

2 - Party

    "Dad sent us over here, said that he couldn't come so he wanted us to be the bearers of the news," River pointed behind him to a boy with a curly mess of brownish hair, "this is Corey Haim."

    "I'm Corey Feldman," another kid said, with quite a square shaped face and flat brown hair.

    "Uh, hi," Robin muttered.

    "She's a little shy," River spoke to them, turning around to face the two. They nodded.

    "I'm not shy, I just don't think my mom would appreciate you guys being out here... alone... with me," Robin reminisced all the warnings her mother had given her.

    "Oh, I get it," Corey Feldman piped up.

    "You do?" Robin raised a brow at his unexpected statement, and he nodded fiercely.   

    "Couple of uninvited boys in your backyard, I mean what could be more sus?"

Robin sighed - that was only part of the problem with them being here. But then again, why did her mom decide to invite all the neighbors- surely they must have a white little son in one of the houses, and Robin's mom didn't want one of those to be around her.

    "I guess..." Robin shrugged.

    "Come on guys, we're not wanted," Corey Haim teased.

The two Coreys- that was strange. The Coreys walked off together back towards River's house. River looked behind himself to make sure they were gone and then spoke to Robin,

    "Nice seeing you again, today. If you want, you can skip the house party and come to my house. We're not doing much of nothing except watching some TV. Matter of fact, you can come now... if you'd like," River toned his confident voice down just a bit.

    "I don't know, my mom would be upset with me for being around boys she doesn't know, you know?"

River nodded slowly, trying his best not to appear upset, but it was clear to Robin that he wasn't exactly a happy camper.

    "No, I get it. I guess we can't hang out this week then?"   

Now Robin was feeling a twinge, a sad sort of twinge with a bittersweet taste. She didn't care for River, but she wasn't spiteful towards him. She just couldn't fall into a possible trap he was creating- she didn't and wouldn't trust him. She was sure she'd find some friends that her mom would approve of. Her father was okay with her hanging around white people as long as they weren't discriminatory and as long as they weren't boys, like River. Her dad didn't really appreciate her being around boys in general. Robin figured that being around three white boys at the same time on the day where they were supposed to have a housewarming party in the house they bought to get away from racial tension would not settle well with either of her parents.

    "No, I mean I don't think so," she answered him. River nodded again, head facing down. He began to walk back toward his house, the disappointment clear in the way he slumped his back and hung his shoulders. "Unless... unless they go out- you know, for meetings and things."

River suddenly twirled around, almost tripping over himself.

    "Meetings? Like, when?"

    "Well, my mom will be gone in the morning, but my dad won't be gone until an hour after. Tomorrow, that is. And the rest of the week they'll both be gone for hours at a time, since they're still trying to settle their jobs and whatnot. Then I can hang out with you."

    "Great. Just come whenever, I can assure you I'll be home. If I'm not home, then it's one of my sisters or my brother. Then it's either the Haimster or Corey."

    "The Haimster?" Robin repeated, jutting her head back in confusion.

    "Oh, that's our nickname for  'Corey Haim', the kid you just met. It sounds like hamster and we don't wanna mix him up with Feldman."

    "Does he let just anyone call him that... you know, 'The Haimster'?" she asked, mentally praying he'd say no.

    "Well yeah sure, Corey's an open book. Why do you ask?"

    "I ask because I have a nickname that I never use. Only my family and my friends on my life use it with me. It's a personal thing, you know? Like- like a trademark of a name, since I never really trademarked everything I should have."

    "That's cute. Reminds me of you," River said partially to himself.

He widened his eyes slightly, realizing he'd said that out loud, but waited for Robin's reaction as he cleared his throat.

Robin smiled to herself, then putting her hand on his chest and pushing him away gently,

    "Go on now, before my dad catches you."

River smiled as well and then turned around, running back to his house.

Robin ran her fingers through her hair and watched him open the door to his house across the street, and turned around to face her dad directly. She began chewing relentlessly on her bottom lip, a nervous habit of her's. She feared that her dad had watched that whole situation go down from nearby and he was going to ban her from seeing River outside of school... not that she had any urge to see River, but she'd told him she'd see him anyway, so it wouldn't be fair if she didn't.

    "Sorry I didn't tell you about the party, I completely forgot," her dad apologized, to Robin's surprise.

Robin raised her brows, thinking he was going to reprimand her for sneaking around with River. He must not have seen her with the boys.

    "It's fine, but really, a house party? There's a white boy living across the street, with his two friends too."

    "Well, his parents are coming and not him, so there's nothing to worry about."

Robin guessed he was right, River had just come to tell her that his parents weren't coming, he said nothing about coming himself. She just didn't want to have to expose the whole situation to her dad and tell him that River's parents weren't coming anyway.

    "Just be careful alright, I don't want to get involved with anymore boys like the others again," Robin said, patting her dad's shoulder and then walking back inside the kitchen.