white boys (river phoenix)

15

However, her attempt to avoid seeing River the whole day had failed when she saw that he seemed to be waiting for her at the vending machine in the lower cafeteria as she tried to get a Coke. Instantly, he smiled at her and put his arm around her. She squirmed, but River hadn't noticed how uneasy she felt with his affectionate, borderline romantic arm around her. He thought for once, Robin was okay with him being close to her.

He was all smiles, not noticing how she grimaced as she slipped the dollar into the vending machine, ignoring the pointing from bypassers as they covered their mouth and giggled in secretive whispers to each other about how River had a girlfriend now. Some were interested and some were angry or sad, because River was very apparently one of the most attractive boys in the school.

She bent down to grab the Coke from the deposit and made the wrong decision to turn around in an attempt to walk the other way. However, River still had his arm around her, so all she'd really done was twirled around and gotten closer to him, her body snuggled into his chest. However, she groaned slightly under her breath and managed to squirm away. River finally noticed her secluded attitude and followed her into the hallways, although she would say nothing to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, shifting his hair that was straightened completely and hung low behind his ear.

Robin beat around the bush and avoided his question,

"Your hair looks different today."

River furrowed his brows confusedly before nodding,

"Yeah, I wanted to just let it relax I guess. Seriously though, why do you look so down? You can talk to me y'know, you can trust me."

Robin guessed her trust issues were showing more than she wanted them to,

"I know that, but everyone thinks we're a couple or something. You see the way they're looking at us!"

"We're not a couple though," River said, his cheeks changing pigment as he blushed because he did wish they were together.

"Yeah, and I don't like people knowing all my business. How'd they even get that idea anyway?" Robin shuddered.

"I didn't tell anyone, honest. But things spread fast at this school- people at the party probably saw me greet you at the door and drive off with you."

"Yeah, and now you're putting your arm around me!" Robin hissed, squirming a little more and causing him to drop his arm.

"Are you having second thoughts about the date and all? Because, it doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to. We were both caught up in the whole ideal of a date and we both got excited, it doesn't have to mean anything though," River rambled on and on until he was just squawking words that Robin wasn't really listening to.

She wasn't upset that they had gone out together, because it was nice and fairly well-timed. She was only upset that she'd broken her own rules- no white boys.

"I just need time to think before we become all buddy buddy and whatnot."

River couldn't help but be his typical goofy self and cracked a smile,

"But we are buds."

Robin glared up at River, who wasn't towering over her in height but wasn't shorter than her either. He laughed and she took in a breath of stuffy air. She deadpanned,

"I'm serious, River."

The bell rang and Robin clutched her Coke close to her chest, walking away swiftly from River as she headed to Italian with Ms. Tigre for her first class.