The takeout arrived quickly, and once the two people finished eating, night had completely fallen. After watching TV on the couch for a while, Eric led Drew upstairs to prepare her bedroom.
"Eric, I want to sleep with you." Drew pouted as she took the quilt that Eric had just fetched from inside a closet.
The man took out a pillow and dusted it off as he casually said: "Stop that, Drew. Do you want me to get in trouble ?"
"But this is your home, seriously, who will know ?"
"You're quick to forget, huh. If it weren't for this warped logic of yours, that incident a few days ago wouldn't have happened. Alright, come with me."
Drew reluctantly followed behind Eric to a spare bedroom.
"The bathroom is right here… Ah right, I forgot, you can't wash because of your knee, well whatever, go to bed early then."
Being the long-winded elder that he was, he spent some time nagging her before getting out of her bedroom and going to his study.
After writing a few pages of Resident Evil, Eric stretched, opened a drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes before going the balcony and gazing over the brightly-lit Los Angeles.
He sat down on a recliner, and lit a cigarette as he leaned back and somehow recalled his conversation with Annie on the phone; did he really give off the feeling of being ethereal ?
He heard a subtle sound behind him and turned around to look. Because he didn't have any pajamas to give her, Drew was wearing a loose T-shirt, and right now the lass was tiptoeing quietly, walking over like a cat. Realizing she had been found out, she cutely stuck her tongue out.
"I can't sleep." The recliner was quite spacious, so Drew gently pushed Eric to one side and laid next to him with her head on his arm.
Snatching the cigarette from Eric's hand, she skillfully took a puff before slightly knitting her eyebrows and handing it back to him.
"Too strong for you, huh ?" Eric knocked the ash off the cigarette and smiled as he asked.
"Yeah." Drew replied.
"In the future, don't touch those things." Eric said as he patted her head.
"Um…."
Nights in L.A were very cold in this season, Eric himself was fine, however Drew was only wearing a T-shirt and her legs were completely bare. He took two more puffs before stubbing out the cigarette and throwing it in the trash. Then he picked up a blanket he had put aside before, and covered both of their bodies up.
"Eric, what are you thinking about ?" Drew tilted her head and curiously asked.
Eric carefully laid the blanket on the girl before whispering: "I was thinking about Annie, I wonder where she is in New York now ?"
"Actually…." Drew hesitated a moment, and said: "I know."
"Huh ?"
"I promised you, remember ? That I would clarify things with Aniston, so I inquired about her whereabouts to some people I know and got her contact information. She lives in Manhattan, I don't remember the specific address, but I'll write it on paper for you and give it to you tomorrow."
Eric smiled: "You're willing to do that ?"
"I want you to be happy."
"What a good girl."
Drew decided to strike while the iron was hot: "That warrants a reward, right ? How about a kiss ??"
Eric softly kissed her on the cheek, and Drew squinted her eyes in satisfaction before licking his cheek in a giggle.
"Eric, sing me a song, yeah ?"
The youth didn't refuse, and patting the girl's head, he opened: "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur…." [1]
"Hey not a kid's song…" Drew smiled as she looked at Eric and suddenly remembered something. She drilled out of the blanket and walked inside the house. After awhile, she came back holding an acoustic guitar.
"This was hanging on my bedroom wall. Eric, do you play the guitar ?"
Eric took the instrument, and fiddled with it for a bit before casually saying: "No, this is something the former owner left behind."
"Try it, I want to hear you play." Drew said as she squeezed back under the blanket.
Eric sat up with the guitar on his thigh, he tweaked it a few times and gazed at the illuminated city in front of him before gently opening:
" I saw your weeping eyes reflected in the window of a Boeing 727
You looked down at the city
Saw it slowly growing tiny
As the sunset turned hell's kitchen into heaven
You turned your face to me and I tucked your hair behind your ears
Said nothing can go wrong
So long as we are together
So long as we are
So long…. " [2]
He had already forgotten his guitar skills from his University days, Eric was just strumming along with the flow as his slightly hoarse voice traveled through the night breeze, packed with emotions.
Drew quietly reveled in the sound of his voice for a while, then said: "Eric, we'll always be together, right ?"
Putting the guitar aside, Eric laid back down again. He recalled what Annie had told him earlier today and how he had landed in this era after a drunken night. "Who knows, one day you might wake up to find me dead."
Drew pulled Eric's arm as a pillow and gently rubbed her head on it: "If you die, I’ll die with you."
Eric laughed: "Well that’s romantic. According to Western conventions, we might just be immortalized in a poignant love story titled "Eric and Drew", then be adapted to a play and performed in theaters years after years. In the Orient, our love might be pictured as a brave and unyielding one between a man and a woman, who ended up as a pair of butterfly, flying together for eternity. Housewives will shed tears at our mention, and old-fashion parents will chide their rebellious children borrowing our momentum: If you keep being naughty, careful you don't turn into a butterfly !"
"Ha ha." Drew chuckled and said: "Eric, now that you've said that, I can't help but feel like killing you and commit suicide like in those tragedies, then we'll be together forever…."
Eric flicked her forehead and said: "What the, that's not romantic at all, that's the kind of story that will end up as a bizarre murder case on some random detective's desk."
Drew pouted as she rubbed her forehead and protested as usual. The two people stayed silent for awhile, before the girl went on again.
"Eric, what's your dream ?"
"Why are you asking ?"
"Just because, I'm curious."
Eric sat up and said: "I don't like using 'dream', I feel there's no end to dreams, so I prefer to use 'ideals', it sounds better."
"And so, what's your ideal ?"
"My ideal, huh…" Eric thought for a moment, before roguishly saying: "To drown in female celebrities, create a group of child stars and become a legend of the movie circle ?"
Drew knocked Eric's arm with the back of her head, smiled and said: "This guy !"
"Alright, it's late, go to sleep."
"Ah, can't I sleep here ?"
"You'll catch a cold."
"Then you bring me back." Drew circled her arms around Eric's neck like a spoiled kid.
Eric reluctantly stood up, reached out and held Drew. He had just straightened up that he instantly sank down and groaned: "Ah, so heavy, I can't do this."
"Hateful guy." Drew was first taken aback but then smiled tenderly at the man, firmly grabbing his neck and refusing to let go. Eric had no choice but to carry the girl back to her bedroom.
_ _ _ _
[1] Originally a children's song called "Warm Kitty", popularized by The Big Bang Theory later on.
[2] So Long (As We Are Together) , by Tim Minchin.
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