Chapter 12: “You’re so shameless”
"Eric, do you think I should. lose weight?"
Sitting next to Eric, a blushing Jennifer casually asked as she faced the window and pretended to look at the traffic on the road.
Eric organized his thoughts as he stated, "Annie, in my eyes, no matter how you look like, you'll always be the most beautiful, but I think that if you want to really make it in Hollywood, then you should probably lose about a 100 lbs."
"Humph! You dog, you're finally saying it! So you think I'm fat!" Jennifer snorted, but her tone was seemingly full of coquetry.
Eric didn't couldn't figure out if she was joking or being serious.
"I'm sorry, let me take you to eat Italian as an apology?"
Jennifer hesitated before she whispered, "Or we could go to my house. I know a few dishes, I'd like you to taste them."
Eric straightforwardly replied, "I would be honored."
***
Soon, the car arrived at Jennifer's apartment.
It was the first time he had been to her cozy abode. Her room was painted in warm colors, and decorated with a variety of animal soft toys. The air was filled with a girl's unique fragrance.
Eric had initially wanted to help, but Jennifer had pushed him out of the kitchen, so he could only obediently sit in the living room and go through some fashion magazines.
An hour later, Jennifer finally put the finished dishes on the table, clapped her hands and asked, "How is it?"
Eric sniffed and praised, "It smells great! I can't wait to dig in."
They didn't bother being polite to each other as they sat down and enjoyed themselves. Eric had to admit, Jennifer's cooking was delicious.
After eating, she suddenly stood up and said, "Right, Eric, when I went to the store to buy some condiments earlier, I saw something about you, nevermind, I'll just show you."
Aniston excitedly took out a newspaper from her handbag and spread it out on the table in front of them.
Eric looked at her curiously as she proceeded to read with undisguised pride, "Eric Williams' creative genius delivers in Jurassic Park, a splendid science-based theory on embryo engineering that could lead to the resurrection of dinosaurs. This theory is put to the test by Dr.
Hammond, who transforms Nublar Island into a shocking jurassic dinosaur park. However, all this is just the beginning. Chaos theorist Malcolm's appearance will bring about another possibility among the..."
Aniston read until there then skipped to the end of the large book review, "Even more surprising is that the author of the novel, Mr. Eric Williams, is only eighteen years old this year and according to our sources, this genius boy has lived a relatively rough life..."
Eric had a strong urge to facepalm, ah, there it was. Of course he knew what was next, it was something written to appeal to the reader's sympathy by emphasizing his miserable past. He quickly took back the newspaper from Jennifer's hands as he said, "Alright Annie, you don't need to read that."
Aniston unhappily waved her hands as she tried to snatch the newspaper back, "Hey, let me see! They were getting to the good part, they were praising you. Huh, what's wrong, why is your expression so weird?"
"About that," Eric crumpled the newspaper and threw it directly into the trash can next to the dining table, then said, "If you want to know what it says, I can tell you."
"Ah!" Jennifer's mouth slightly opened as she glanced at the trash can, "So, you've seen it, you hateful guy! Why didn't you let me read it then?"
"I know what's in it because I'm the one who wrote that article."
Jennifer was shocked, "What?!"
Eric replied with embarrassment, "It's just something publishing houses do in order to promote their novels. They usually hire someone to write a review which is then published in the newspaper.
I went to find Michael a few days ago and told him that no one understood the book better than me, so he let me write a few reviews. The one that you just read is one of them."
" Wow."
Eric shrugged, and cheekily said, "Honestly, that's nothing out of the ordinary. This method of publicity is fairly common."
"Eric."
"Yeah ?"
".. You're so shameless."
After saying that, Jennifer couldn't hold herself back anymore as she laid on the table and laughed until her tears started to fall out.
Eric's shameless actions had obviously started to rub off on her as she hastily sent him back home after dinner. But he was adamant to stay and kept pestering her. Finally, she gave him a kiss on the lips before quickly closing her door.
Three days later, Jennifer had finished filming all her school scenes, and the rest would have to wait, so she temporarily went back to work at the convenience store.
Eric had recently found that she looked paler than before and when he inquired about it, she told him that she had started dieting. He advised her not to be so anxious about it as it could damage her body, but to no avail.
In addition, during the past few days, Drew looked like a hungry kitten laying in wait for its prey which made Eric secretly shiver.
When Jennifer wasn't paying attention, Drew would scramble towards him and throw him snide remarks about his performance. Eric just smiled and let it pass, even when she kept berating him, he still didn't care.
But seeing her like that, he really wondered: what on earth had he done to make this goddess of calamity so unhappy?
The day after Jennifer left the crew.
"Eric, want some water? I'll get you a bottle." During a break, Drew sweetly asked.
Eric subconsciously refused, "No, thank you Drew, I'm not thirsty."
Drew didn't insist, but soon came back carrying two bottles of water and threw one to him, "Take it."
Eric helplessly accepted it, but soon froze as Drew grabbed a chair, sat next to him, and leaned her body against his.
"Hey Drew... what are you doing, I have a girlfriend, you know."
Those words were merely an excuse; the truth was that Eric didn't want anything to do with Drew and her chaotic life.
"I like you." Drew's expression didn't change as she bluntly stated.
Pfffft
Eric sprayed out a mouthful of water as he thought this girl is really... way too blunt.
"I, uhh I" This confession came from a beautiful girl, and Eric would be lying if he said he wasn't moved, so he found himself at a loss for words.
Since she had made things clear, Drew didn't plan on holding anything back. Jennifer had already left the crew anyway, so there was no one to stand in her way.
She leaned a little bit more on him as her developing breasts started to rub up and down on his arms, and softly said, "Eric I'll be your girlfriend, okay? In fact, I had a boyfriend before but he was just really. unbearable."
"Drew don't do this."
Eric started sweating, he was trying to find the words when the blissful voice of Penny Marshall sounded, "Hey, you two, stop fooling around and get ready to shoot the next one!"
Eric quickly broke away from Drew's embrace and hurriedly walked towards the set.
Watching his disappearing back, Drew's flirtatious face was replaced with one filled with resentment as she said to herself, "Jennifer Aniston, you just wait, I'll make you watch as I take your most precious thing away from you. I wonder, who will be the pathetic one then?"