Where I'd Gone ⌲ River Phoenix ((COMPLETED))

Mr. Stardust

November 1, 1992

"Hey, dudes, where ya been all night!" Keanu's voice felt like an alarm clock - so loud and annoying in the morning. I grunted and turned over to see River fast asleep. It made me laugh to myself, realizing how completely exhausted he looked.

"Wasn't up for much of a party this year," I said as I stood myself up from River's chest. Keanu kneaded his eyebrows, watching as the trees sway in the early-morning breeze.

"Rio, my man. Are you doing okay?" Keanu asked, but got no response. I cupped my hand on River's cheek, gliding my thumb. He instantly smiled and his sleepy eyes fluttered open.

"I'm just alright," he spoke with a tiny chuckle. I combed his long auburn hair back with my shaky hand. Keanu glanced at me and we both smiled.

"I think I gotta head back, I got classes I need to get to," I said and I noticed the mood became sad. Maybe they expected the party to not be over yet.

"I'll drive you back, I got to talk to Sam anyway and break things off fully," River said in a frustrated tone as if he's done it before. Good thing I have class so I don't have to worry about overhearing their conversation - mostly because I'm right in the middle of it.

December 20, 1992

Throughout the last month and a half, things had been good between us. There was no label, no press, we barely even went out in public together, which made me worried if maybe he didn't want to be seen with me. I called him multiple times, hoping to tell him I missed him, and that I had the next 2 weeks off for winter break tomorrow, but he never answered.

As I went to my last class of the day - Music Composition, I sat at the top of the lecture hall. It was pretty packed today, probably because it was finals day. 

Drew had sat next to me. His curly chestnut-colored hair barely hung over his eyes. He had dark-colored eyes as well, the type that seemed to yearn for attention - to explore his depths of despair.

"Hey Chris, on your way to the lecture hall, I think you dropped this," he said as he handed me a crumpled up single sheet of notebook paper. I eyed it, automatically knowing it was just another one of his paper-airplane schemes to try and get a new song recommendation from me, so I pushed it back into my backpack. "Are you not even going to read it?"

"No, you can just tell me what it says," I spoke curtly. His eyes averted away from me.

"It says that I'm gonna marry you in 5 years," He laughed. I raised my eyebrows.

"You really think so, huh?" I asked. "How is that going to happen if I don't like you?" Drew and I had always had this playful banter between us, but it had stopped for a bit since I've been spending most of my time with River, so I didn't think too much about it.

"I wanted to first apologize about your piano song. I didn't realize that it meant that much to you," he spoke quickly as we noticed that the professor make his way up to the stage. 

"Drew-"

"No, see. I promise you that. Just show me the worst part of yourself, the one you hate the most, and I'll show you that I still love you the same."

"You may begin your final," the professor announced. I glanced over at Drew, smiling to himself. He always ran for things; never holds back - it was something I admired about him, but at the same time he was most definitely reaching for a lost cause.