Chapter Eleven
(Sunday) Robin woke up the next morning, though she felt no enthusiasm to do so.
"Ugh," she groaned, wishing she could bend over and vomit away the night before. She turned around to fall onto the floor on purpose- it wasn't like she was in any shape to be walking anyway.
She fell over to find a note standing next to her. On it was scrambled words in River's neat, small handwriting.
The note read:
Dear Robin, you got sick at the club last night. I brought you home along with both Coreys. They wanted to apologize for dragging you off somewhere that you definitely didn't want to go. However. I have to ask you if I can come over today and if you would talk with me about something. It's real important.
Sincerely, River.
Robin furrowed her brows as she read the letter over and over, sort of like how River had last night with Robin's poems that he discovered the day before.
She reread the letter one more time, hoping that whatever the news was, it wasn't that she threw up in his car or something.
She thought to herself, trying to remember anything that may have happened the night before past the creepy bartender and ordering those drinks. She remembered snippets of driving in River's car with the radio playing. Besides that, nearly everything else was an ominous blur.
Her parents- what did her parents have to say about this? She wondered if they even knew anything about it. And were they home by the time she'd gotten home? She didn't know, but there was only one way to find out.
She got ready as if she'd just woken up from a normal night rather than waking up with what felt like a major hangover. She knew she hadn't been drinking, but there was only one way to describe how sick she felt, and that was "hungover." She brushed her hair out, then brushed her teeth and washed her face in an attempt to make it look like she was freshened up. She couldn't find eyedrops, but her eyes were extremely bloodshot.
She'd have to find a way to cover her eyes, so she decided that covering her forehead with her hair so that her eyes were hidden was the best idea. She sighed, taking in a deep breath and trying to find answers to the questions she knew she'd be bombarded with as soon as she got into the kitchen. Her parents were home this morning since last night had marked the last of their meetings they had to go to before school started.
Hesitantly, she walked down the stairs to see her parents drinking coffee at the table.
"Robin, you're up late today," Robin's father spoke first.
In an attempt to seem like the normal Robin, she chuckled weakly.
"So, are you excited to start school tomorrow?" Robin's mom asked.
It hit Robin then that the next day marked the first day of school.
"Uh... yeah," she smiled, trying to hide her loathing for the fact that school was tomorrow and she felt like a broken record making scratchy noises and distorting the words to her favorite song.
"Robin, are you feeling alright? You look a little dull, and your hair's a mess," her mother commented.
Robin hastened her process of making a bowl of cereal so she could hurry back upstairs and eat some.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just have a bit of a headache is all," she lied, nodding her head slowly in order to seem convincing.
"Oh sweetie, do you need some Advil? Tylenol?" Her mother nagged.
"That would be great, mom. I can get it myself though, don't worry," Robin assured her ever perceptive mother and filled up a glass of water to swallow her medicine with.
"Alright. Don't forget we're going out to the farmer's market later today- we talked about that a couple days ago. If you're not feeling better by then, let us know."
I'll probably be fast asleep, Robin thought, but she just nodded, running up the stairs with her bowl of cereal and glass of water. When she got upstairs, she set the glass of water on her dresser and pulled the covers over her, the bowl of cereal in one hand. She scooped some up with her spoon and shoved it into her mouth, trying to eat as much as she could in hopes of ridding of a headache, but without reviving her nausea.
When she was done, she took her medicine and laid down in the hopes that she would fall asleep and wake up to a new day, even though she knew that River wanted her to come over. Sadly, she was unable to sleep into tomorrow, because her dad was yelling up the stairs that he and Robin's mom were going to the farmer's market and would be back in about an hour.
Robin wished she could find the words to respond, but instead she stayed silent, opening her eyes only once she'd heard the close of the doors. She got up again, feeling a little bit better than before. Her headache had disappeared but she still felt groggy, just without the raging headache and the stomach ache. So she made the quick decision to get dressed as if it were a normal day and she were going out, but instead of walking out the door, she traveled down the stairs, scooping up her cat named Periwinkle who was relaxing on one of the steps and walking into the living room with Periwinkle under her arms.
When she got to the couch, Periwinkle let out a most cat-like roar and scurried away from Robin. Robin chuckled, knowing that she hated being taken out of her relaxation. Her more friendlier dogs however, were happy to accompany her as she turned on the television in attempt to clear her mind and watch movies for the rest of the day.
She made a mental note to stay away from River today until she saw him at school- he was the main root of the problem she faced today. If she had just been smart and declined River's invitation to go to a club that she wasn't even familiar with, she wouldn't be feeling so sick. She wasn't mad at him, but she didn't think hanging out with him or the Coreys would be a good idea.
But of course, staying away from River was inevitable - even if she chose not to be around him, he always came around somehow. So when her doorbell rang and she opened it to see that it was River, she was less than welcoming. In fact, she didn't say anything, and River just sort of stood there looking at her.
"Can I come in?" He asked in that gentle voice of his, his eyebrows raised in concern.
Robin looked around the house and squinted her eyes at him when she returned to facing him,
"I guess. But you know, you shouldn't come over at any random moment. My parents could be home at anytime and they wouldn't really appreciate you coming over."
"Why's that?" River asked, still oblivious to the fact that Robin's parents didn't allow her to hang out with white boys.
"Uh, they don't like me hanging around boys," Robin half lied. She wasn't exactly lying because her parents didn't necessarily like her being around boys of any color in the first place unless they really trusted those boys.
"Well you hang around the Coreys and me," River pointed out, hanging his jacket on the coat rack by the door while Robin closed the door.
"Yes, but they don't know about that," Robin shrugged, walking back to the living room couch and trying to ignore River.
"Well, alright," River said, following her to the couch and sitting unusually far away from her.
"Is there any specific reason you wanted to come over?" Robin asked, raising a brow as she faced River.
He took a while to answer. Again, he was entranced by her natural beauty, even with marks of makeup that she hadn't removed from the night before smeared against her skin.
"Yeah, just to talk."
"About what?" Robin asked, the apprehension from that morning recurring.
"About us, and our friendship. And about whatever happened at the club last night."
"What about our friendship?" Robin repositioned herself on the couch, sitting criss cross apple sauce rather than stretching her legs out across the couch.
"You know... us," River said, as if he was making anything clear. Robin sighed, shaking her head. River could be so blurry sometimes. River corrected himself, wondering Robin was still even listening. "Okay, well what I mean is, the status of our relationship."
"Well, we're friends, River."
"I know, I know. But I just... what do you think of me? And be honest," River asked, bracing himself for the worst.
Robin spent a while wondering how to answer that question. It had been at least a minute before she answered- maybe not that long - but it had been a while before she faced River and gave him her honest answer on what she thought of him,
"I think you're brilliant. You're not like most boys I've met. You're not even like most people I've met, regardless of their gender. There's something kinda cool about you, like how weird you are and how nice you are to me, and how you're so... uh, you know, peaceful... or something, I dunno. You're a real good friend."
River stayed silent for a while. He was a real good friend, according to Robin, but she had to have feelings for him that she just wasn't admitting.
"Do you like me?" He asked.
"Do I like you? Of course I do," Robin answered.
"I mean, do you like me as more than a friend?"
Robin shrugged,
"I don't know, River, you ask questions sort of like these a lot."
"Well I would only ask you them because I just liked to check in. I was curious. But now I have a reason to ask you."
"And why would that be?" Robin deadpanned.
River bit his lip,
"Well, you were asleep when we brought you back to your house, and I put you in your room. I don't know, I was just sitting on your bed, and there was a piece of paper by the trashcan. Now you know me, I don't like to see a waste of things. So I unfoiled the paper to make sure it wasn't blank or anything. And you wrote something on it, which reminded me of myself."
"What did I write?" Robin asked, forgetting all about the poetry she had written that ended up accidentally being all about River.
Quickly, River rummaged around in his pants pocket and handed her the sort of crumpled up and ripped piece of paper, but the words written on it were still clear. Robin read the front and the back twice, her eyes widening. If River had found this and figured that he was the little white boy, there was nothing else she could do to clear her name. But, mustering up her best lying skills, which she had yet to perfect (she'd do so soon enough), she fake laughed, waving a dismissive hand in the air,
"Oh, River. This is nothing, it's poetry that I wrote long before I met you. Back in Georgia, I was surrounded by boys who were obsessed with me. They were all white, of course. I liked only one of them and I thought about him more than the others. I wrote this a while back and found it deep in my luggage, that's why it was all crumpled."
"So this has nothing to do with me?" River bowed his head in disappointment, but he was unable to fully believe Robin. That pang of guilt from lying to him beat in her chest, but she carried on with her act anyway. His assumptions had been correct, but the last thing she wanted to do was pursue her budding feelings for River.
"Well it could have been about you if I wrote it when we met," Robin said.
River piped up again, his ears perking up and his head popping up like a dog at the mention of a trip to the park,
"Really?"
Robin chuckled at River's enthusiasm,
"Sure. You're a little white boy, and you are pretty spontaneous."
River smiled, in a daze for a moment before the smile slowly inched off of his face,
"But it's not about me."
Robin sighed,
"River, my parents could be home any time now. You should go home."
"But wait," River interrupted, "we still haven't talked about what the hell happened last night."
"I don't know," Robin said, "The guy at the bar was sort of weird, but I doubt he spiked my drink. Seriously, I doubt it. He put powder into this one drink, but then he gave me a different drink that didn't have powder in it. I don't know, maybe I just wasn't feeling that well in the first place."
"So you're saying that you think that he spiked your drink?" worriedness began to seep through the cracks in River's voice, but he swallowed his spit and continued on, with the same confidence he had in his voice at most times. "Okay, uh, did you get his name?"
"Uh, no. If I did, I don't remember. Anyway, it's not a big deal, I'm sure it was just a mistake."
"It is a big deal! Robin, somebody spiked your drink. This is a pretty big deal to me," River argued, and he raised his voice at her.
Robin didn't know if she was more concerned with the fact that River was going through so much trouble to act like he cared that much about her, or more with the fact that River had yelled at her. He had never raised his voice at her, in fact, he'd never yelled at anyone but Feldman in the few days that Robin and him had known each other. So, she remained speechless as his hollow eyes stared into hers.
"River, I honestly don't think this calls for a full on investigation," Robin sighed, her
voice softening like butter left on a heated plate- River sure was very scary when he got loud.
"Jesus Christ, Robin, what did the guy look like?" River asked her, and he groaned as he fell forward, burrowing his head in the pretzel shape of her crossed legs.
Robin looked down at him, his nose all smushed up in her skinny jeans where her calf was. He looked small, and vulnerable with his head down on her,
"I don't know. He was pudgy, and really gross looking. No offense to him, but he was. He had a mustache but it wasn't really a mustache. It was like whiskers, like actual rat whiskers."
"Red face? Really saggy cheekbones?" River asked, his mouth still sunk on her jeans. When he spoke, his words caused a vibration to surge through the front of her legs.
"Yeah... yeah, and he looked pretty odd. You know him?" Robin looked down at River's tufts of blond hair.
"Yeah, I know him. He works at the bar and at the corner store we went to the other day. That's Nicolas. Goes by Nick," River replied.
"River, you can move your head now," Robin forbore a smile at the site of River, who seemed content with the prospect of falling asleep on her legs.
"Yeah, I could," River responded, and from the way his lips tickled her leg, Robin could tell he was smiling.
"You're really out to lunch, you know that?" Robin let out one of those breathy chuckles.
River did the same, laughing as he came up for fresh air,
"You smell really good. And your legs are like pillows."
"Right..."
Rattling and anticipatory silence wafted through the room,
"Okay, well, I know Nick. He takes these pills, sometimes crushes 'em up and stuff. He doesn't make that much, I mean, how much can you make when you work at a corner store and at a teen bar? But anyway, it must have been a mixup. You were right."
"But he didn't say anything. He must have known," Robin rolled her eyes.
"I'll ask him if we ever do go back, or if I see him at the corner store. Okay?" River reassured her, and he reached out for her hand, enclosing it in both of his hands and beginning to massage the web between her thumb and pointer finger with his thumb. He seemed quite intrigued and alright with doing just that.
Robin let out a little chuckle,
"Okay."
"Soft hands, soft legs, you smell good. It's a triple threat," River said, his lips turning up in satisfaction as he twiddled with her thumbs.
"Ha ha," Robin laughed sardonically. "Yo, but really Riv, my parents will be home anytime now. You gotta go."
"Alright, I'll leave if you answer me this one question," River said, dropping her hand.
Robin scoffed but then complied,
"What is it."
"Wanna hang out this week? Me and you?" River asked.
River's family tree was hefty and his parents were laidback, supportive of almost everything River did, because nothing was bad about what he did in their eyes, and not in most people's eyes. Robin's parents were the same- supportive and laidback, but definitely not supportive of Robin's interests, so long as they included white boys, and definitely not having feelings for them. To them, people like River Phoenix, were a dangerous kind that were not to be taken lightly.
"River, why would you-" Robin began to raise her voice.
He giggled,
"It's not a date."
"You're saying it's not a date, so that means it is a date," Robin looked at him like he'd sprouted three heads- the last time anyone she had turned down made the bold decision to ask her out was never, and she was too shaken at River's confidence.
"It's not a date."
"Mm- I think it's a date," Robin looked at him skeptically.
"It's just the two of us, hanging out. As friends, like you said. One night only."
"You know what, fine," Robin gave up. If the only way to get River off of her back was to let him piggy back for one night, then so be it.
Of course, the last time she got involved with a white boy... well, anyway.
"That's a yes?" River raised a brow.
"It's a yes."
"Okay," a boyish smirk tugged at the corner of River's soft pink lips, one that he was unable to hide.
"Okay," Robin squinted her eyes at him, still surveying him like he was an alien. "Are you sure you're feeling well? Like are you sick?"
"I'll pick you up at eight," he disregarded her absurd questions.
"Not tonight, I can't tonight," Robin shook her head.
"I didn't mean tonight," River snorted as if that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.
"Then when?" She asked.
"Any night," he shrugged, Robin's estranged look not bothering him in the least as he offered her a smile and walked out the door.