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 la.s.s 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 s.p.a.cious, so Drew gently pushed Eric to one side and laid next to him with her head on his arm.
s.n.a.t.c.hing 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 ?"
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 t.i.tled "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 b.u.t.terfly, 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 b.u.t.terfly !"
"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.