“Hurry up and eat, then I’ll take you home. You’ve been yawning for a while, I know you’re tired.”

Drew took a sip of juice, and gave Eric a charming glance, “You want to take me home? Sure, I really don’t mind.”

“Cough…” Eric choked and quickly covered his mouth with a napkin as he stared fiercely at the vulgar young girl.

A few minutes passed and Eric gradually found out that Drew was eating slower and slower, before finally, her hands started to tremble slightly as she held her knife and fork.

He was about to ask her if she felt uncomfortable when he suddenly realized that Drew was likely going through withdrawal from her long-term drug addiction.

‘Such bad timing,’ Eric thought and smiled bitterly as he looked at Drew who was doing her best to endure the seizure.

He quickly shouted, “Waiter, the bill!”

He wanted to leave as soon as possible. Although Drew’s drug addiction was not a secret anymore as it had been discussed by many and relayed by even the newspapers, there wasn’t any tangible proof to show for it. In many people’s hearts, Drew was still the cute girl who kissed the alien in E.T. If it was found that she was having a seizure in public, or worse, be photographed, it would be a severe blow to her image.

After settling the bill, Eric looked at the slightly absent-minded girl and said, “Drew, let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

They went out of the restaurant holding each other’s arms. When Eric felt her petite body trembling against his, he couldn’t help but feel pity.

In the car, Drew huddled next to him, shivering, and as soon as Eric started the car, she said, “Eric, can you help me buy… buy…”

“No.” Eric categorically refused.

“Drew, bear with it for a while, alright? I’ll take you home so tell me your address.”

“No!” Drew hastily shook her head as she began shouting hysterically, “I don’t want to go home, if that woman sees me like this, she’ll definitely send me to rehab. I won’t go back, I won’t go back!”

Eric quickly reassured her, “Alright, we won’t go there.”

He then started the car and drove towards his home.

Parking in the garage, Eric brought the light-headed Drew into his bedroom.

“Eric, Eric, I beg you… I beg you please buy me some of ……” Drew was shrinking in his arms as she grabbed his collar and pleaded in tears.

“No, Drew, I can’t do that, it will only make things worse.”

 

Bleeeegh –

 

Even a beautiful girl wouldn’t look good when she vomited. The steak that had just been eaten was regurgitated all over the bed and some of it even splashed on Eric as the room was quickly filled with an unpleasant smell.

Eric frowned slightly, but looking at the half-unconscious girl struggling in her own mess, his expression softened.

He pulled off the dirty sheets, then found a towel as he picked Drew up and carefully wiped the vomit off of her.

Feeling the damp towel on her forehead, Drew slightly came to. She caught Eric again and muttered while shivering, “You… If you don’t help me buy….. I, you….”

Eric hugged her and said, “Drew, you need to endure it, taking those things will just have the opposite effect. You don’t need any, you’re strong, you’re the lucky girl who kissed an alien, remember?”

“I…. am not….a…. lucky girl…”

Eric didn’t know how to help addicts. Although he had encountered several drug addicts during his past life, he had never found himself in a similar situation. At this time, he thought his body’s temperature might be of some help to her, so he hugged Drew in his arms and kept stroking her back in an attempt to make her feel better. 

Drew begged, threatened and cursed Eric for more than an hour, but he simply continued to hold her tightly as he patiently tried to soothe her.Finally, he realized that she had fallen asleep in his arms.

He also realized that his body had become stiff from the waist up due to sitting in one position for a long time.

He tried to lay Drew down on the bed, but just as he let go of her arms, she began struggling like a fish out of water, waving her arms around as if subconsciously looking for something.

Eric sighed. He found a more comfortable position and took the girl in his arms again.

As Drew’s head touched his chest, her rough and uneven breathing turned gentle and stable again.

While holding her, Eric suddenly remembered his wife and son from his past life. His son was five years old and his wife used to be a clerk but quit to become a full-time housewife after their marriage since Eric’s income was enough to support them. He wondered how they were doing after his sudden departure, he hoped they were okay.

Drew dreamed that she was a certain movie’s heroine. She fell and found herself in a dark forest, confused and alone. Then the prince emerged and saved her from her stepmother’s poisoned apple, and Drew, together with him and the dwarfs, fought against the evil queen’s oppression. Finally, the two held a grand wedding in a palace decorated with candies and cakes, then the prince held her in his embrace as he took her to the bridal room. He laid her next to him on the bed that had dozens of cotton-wadded quilts on top of it, and Drew clung to his body as she smiled like the happiest of flowers.

Then she woke up.

She found herself leaning in a man’s warm embrace with her arms tightly holding his waist. After a brief moment of confusion, Drew began to recall last night’s events, albeit just some intermittent fragments.

She looked at Eric’s handsome face in a slightly infatuated manner as the sight of his blond scattered hair and the feeling of his gentle breath against her skin made her heart thump faster. 

Everybody thought of Drew as God’s favorite child; she was young, famous, and had unlimited prospects. But she had never felt happy, her father’s indifference and disregard, and her mother’s mean and greedy ways had made her feel suffocated, like a bird trapped in a cage who desired nothing but freedom. So, she began indulging in reckless and self-destructive behavior as her way of expressing her dissatisfaction towards life.

After realizing her daughter had started using, Drew’s mother wasn’t concerned about her health, but rather worried that she might not be able to make money anymore. It was that cold indifference that had led to Drew’s addiction.

Which young girl didn’t dream of their prince charming? He had to be gentle, tall, handsome, talented, he couldn’t be rude, he had to be patient, give in to her, fan her when she was hot, hug her when she was cold, take care of her when she was sick, comfort her when she was down, and if she were to perish, he would journey even to the depths of hell to get her back…

And now, such a prince had truly appeared. Although there were some deviations from what she had imagined and the one he loved wasn’t even herself, those were just minor details in her opinion.

Drew’s original plan was to snatch away Eric from Jennifer Aniston as retaliation to the latter’s hurtful words, but now that things had developed to this point, she realized that she had instead fallen for him, hard.

Perhaps because he felt some movement, Eric opened his eyes to see Drew staring at him. He gently smiled and said, “Drew you woke up, you must be hungry. I’ll make breakfast, so you go and shower in the meantime, this smell is really unbearable.”

“Eric, why are you so good to me?”

“Um?” Eric was startled, he reached out his hand and rubbed Drew’s little head, “Well, we’re friends.”

He had just sat up when Drew swiftly kissed his face.

“Ah Drew, your mouth stinks!” Eric said with a smile.

She loosened her grasp on his neck, “Eric, I love you.”

“Well I don’t,” He put Drew down and opened up the curtains to let the sun in.

Drew looked at his back and pouted as she said, “You just need to know that I do.”

“I know,” Eric squeezed Drew’s lovely face.

“Hey Eric, I just realized one thing.”

“What?”

“You held me the entire night without even doing anything, I think there might be something wrong with your thing. Want me to help you check? I’ll do it for free!”

“That’s really generous of you Dr. Barrymore, but I’d rather you hurried to take that shower or we’ll be late.”

“Will you join me?”

“No, I’ll take one downstairs.”

“Hey, that’s not right. Eric, we should use water frugally, we can’t be wasteful towards nature’s resources. Think about those people in Africa who lack water so much that some of them even die of thirst.”

“You’re right, I’ll start saving water tomorrow, let today be the last I spend in luxury.”

“You…”

Summer of 1988, a girl shrouded in darkness came across a bright and warm light, and like a child drowning in water, she firmly held onto it, with all the strength she could muster.