white boys (river phoenix)

54

Chapter Fifty Four

February came and went, and the cold of that awkward phase between winter and spring wasn't as bad as Robin had been anticipating, luckily. This meant she wasn't slowed down when it came to editing her manuscript, which was a long and strenuous work when it came to all the edits her editor had suggested. Robin knew she wasn't obligated to change the writing entirely, but figured if she were going to publish her very first book, it ought to be perfected. Besides, River was there with her the whole entire way, including her family, who managed to leviate the stress a bit. But even as Robin stood there with River and her family at the post office to mail her finished revision, which was now a hundred pages long as opposed to the twenty something pages it had originally been, there was another stress looming over her.

March rolled around quickly and the smell of college admissions were in the air- acceptance or denial, the one thing Robin had struggled with her whole life. Ever since she could remember, everything about life had been stressed on being accepted or being denied, and now that one staple moment in every typical teen's life was based on just that. Her friends and family, but especially River from out of her friend group, could not seem to stress enough that Robin would do perfectly fine. She had a perfect SAT score and was extremely smart, and had participated in activities over the school year. On top of that, she had a book heading to be published just floating around in the air, and who could really beat that when it came to college applications?

Still, Robin was doubtful of herself. Of course ever since she'd moved to Boston, her lack of confidence had diminished noticeably, but she wasn't queen of the world or anything. She would always be stressed about things like this, it was in her nature to be this way. That's why, the day when college letters came around, she was more than eager to be alone (we're just gonna pretend all the letters come on the same day.) Unfortunately she had to wait to get out of school first, and was now sat at a table in the lunch cafeteria with her friends.

Her hair was out in its natural curls, which River so cutely referred to as "lil poofs", and her face was completely bare. She was dressed as if she were going to bed, and her glasses were pushed up her nose. This morning Robin had been too nervous to get primped how she liked, and barely even looked at herself as she walked out of the door. She was sitting in River's lap while Corey read some nonsense from his Senior year advice pamphlet all the teachers were obligated to hand out towards the end of the year.

"Students can choose from a wide variety of colleges in Boston, but faculty at Fenway High very much recommends going out of state to refresh locations and find something new."

Robin looked back at River, who was playing with her hair, twisting the intricate strands around each finger and softly separating the tight coils,

"Think you'll stay in Boston, that is, if you go to college?"

River shrugged,

"I don't know. I'm leaning towards the gap year honestly. But if I do take a gap year I won't just sit around, you know? I'll go places... I'll go to the rainforests of the Amazon and become so wealthy off my homemade riches that I'll buy an acre of bountiful land, so no one can dare cut down the trees. Maybe one day we'll infuse our riches... mine from selling crafts, yours from being a best-selling author... and we'll buy land in the Amazon so no one can bulldoze it and put a Mickey D's there."

Robin sighed and looked down dreamily at her boyfriend, captivated by the way the expansive ocean in his bright blue eyes seemed to swim when he talked about the things he loved- nature, the Amazon, Robin. His hope in restoring the world gave Robin faith. If people could still believe in a new beginning with all that was going on around them, with life slowly passing them by, she could take a breath of fresh air too, and think the same thing. His optimism balanced out her pessimism.