Chapter 014: It Couldn’t Be That Coincidental, Right?
Chapter 014: It Couldn’t Be That Coincidental, Right?
“Hurry up and eat. Once you’re done, I’ll take you home. I’ve already seen you yawn several times. You must be tired too.”
Drew took a sip of juice and gave Eric a coquettish look. “You can also take me home with you. Do whatever you want.”
“Cough...” Eric choked and quickly covered his mouth with a napkin, glaring fiercely at Drew. This little girl really was utterly unrestrained.
Gradually, Eric noticed that Drew was eating more and more slowly. She also spoke less and less, and even the hand holding her knife and fork began trembling slightly.
Just as he was about to ask whether Drew was feeling unwell, Eric suddenly thought of certain people he had seen in his previous-life circle, then looked at Drew’s current state. He quickly confirmed one thing: Drew’s drug addiction was probably acting up.
It couldn’t be that coincidental, right? Eric gave a bitter laugh inwardly. Looking at Drew, who was desperately enduring it across from him, he quickly called to the waiter, “Waiter, the bill.”
Right now, Eric only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. Although many people knew about Drew’s drug addiction, and it had even appeared in the newspapers, after all, without pictures there was no proof. In most people’s impression, Drew was still that adorable little girl kissed by an alien in E.T. If people discovered what Drew looked like when her addiction acted up in a public place like this, or even took photos of it, the blow to Drew’s image would be devastating.
After quickly paying the bill, Eric said to Drew, who was already sitting there somewhat dazed, “Drew, let’s go. I’ll take you home.”
As they walked out of the restaurant with Drew holding Eric’s arm, Eric felt the small body leaning against him trembling all over. He could not help feeling pity.
After they got into the car, Drew quickly curled up into a ball in the passenger seat, shivering. Then she said to Eric, who was starting the car, “Eric, can you help me buy some... buy some...”
“No.” Eric refused firmly. “Drew, endure it for a while. I’ll take you home. Tell me your home address, alright?”
“No.” Drew swiftly shook her head and suddenly screamed hysterically, “I don’t want to go home! I don’t want to go home! If that woman sees me like this, she’ll only send me to rehab. I’m not going back. I’m not going back!”
Eric quickly soothed her. “Alright, alright. We won’t go back.”
After thinking for a moment, Eric still started the car and drove toward his own home.
He parked the car in the garage and carried Drew, who had completely fallen into a delirious state, into his bedroom.
“Eric, Eric, please, please... give me some. Do you want me? As long as you give me some, you can play with me however you want. Please!” Drew curled up in Eric’s arms, grabbing Eric’s collar as she sobbed and pleaded.
“No, Drew. I can’t do that. It’ll only make things worse.” Eric placed Drew on his bed and was just about to get a wet towel to cool Drew’s burning forehead when Drew’s body suddenly convulsed rapidly several times.
“Ugh—”
No matter how pretty a little girl was, she would not look good while vomiting. The steak she had just eaten was all vomited onto Eric’s bed, and some of it splashed onto Eric. A foul smell quickly spread through the room.
Eric frowned slightly, but when he saw the girl struggling unconsciously in the filth, he felt more pity than anything else.
He quickly pulled off the dirty bedsheet and cleaned it up. Then he found a towel, lifted Drew slightly, and carefully wiped the vomit from her body.
Feeling the coolness on her forehead, Drew came back to herself slightly and grabbed Eric again, trembling as she muttered without any real threat, “If you... if you don’t help me buy some... I’ll... I’ll sue you for sexual assault. You... I... I’m only thirteen. You know... you know the consequences... you...”
Eric hugged the girl and said, “Drew, endure it. Those things will only have the opposite effect. They won’t help you at all. You have to be stronger. You’re the lucky girl who was kissed by an alien.”
“I... don’t want... to be... a lucky girl. I want...” Drew’s cold body felt Eric’s hot chest and instinctively leaned against him. She hugged Eric tightly, still mumbling indistinctly.
Eric did not know how to help someone whose addiction was acting up. In his previous life, although he had encountered many addicts in that circle, he had never directly faced a situation like Drew’s. At this moment, realizing that his body temperature might help Drew somewhat, he pulled Drew into his arms and gently stroked her back, hoping she would feel a little better.
More than an hour passed like this. No matter how Drew struggled, begged, threatened, or cursed, Eric kept holding her tightly in his arms and patiently comforted her.
Finally, Eric discovered that at some point, Drew had fallen asleep in his arms. He moved slightly. Since he had maintained the same posture for a long time, Eric felt that his waist had become stiff.
He wanted to let Drew lie properly on the bed, but the moment he let go of the girl in his arms, Drew became like a fish out of water. She twisted uneasily and waved both hands around as if subconsciously searching for something.
Eric sighed softly, changed into a more comfortable posture, and once again pulled the girl tightly into his arms. Drew leaned her head against Eric’s chest, and soon her breathing became steady again.
Holding the girl in his arms, Eric suddenly thought of his wife and son in the parallel world. His son was only five years old. His wife was a low-level office worker, and after they married, she peacefully became a full-time housewife. The family’s finances had relied entirely on Eric alone. He did not know how they were doing after his sudden departure. He could only hope everything was fine.
Drew dreamed that she had taken on another film. In the film, Drew played a fallen elf in a dark forest, wanton and lost. Then the prince appeared. He saved Drew from the poisonous-apple stepmother, resisted the oppression of the Snow Queen together with Drew, and for Drew’s sake, rejected Snow White in the dwarves’ forest. The two held a grand wedding in a fragrant palace built from candy and cream cakes. The prince carried Drew into the wedding chamber and placed her on a large bed covered with dozens of layers of quilts. Drew smiled and leaned against the prince’s chest, as happy as a flower.
Then she woke up.
She discovered that she was leaning in a man’s warm embrace, using his arm as a pillow, her hands tightly wrapped around the man’s waist. After a brief confusion, Drew remembered what had happened last night, although only in scattered fragments.
She stared somewhat dazedly at Eric’s handsome face, his messy blond hair, and even the masculine scent that drifted from Eric as he breathed lightly. All of it made Drew’s heart stir.
Everyone thought Drew was God’s darling, famous at a young age and endlessly glorious. But Drew had never felt happy. Her father’s indifference and disregard, her mother’s harshness and greed, made Drew feel suffocated at every moment, like a bird trapped in a cage longing for freedom. So Drew gradually lost herself and used her own way to express her dissatisfaction with her mother and with life. After she became addicted to alcohol and drugs, her mother felt no heartbreak at all. Instead, she only worried that Drew would no longer be able to get films and earn money for her, so she roughly sent her into a cold rehab center.
Among young girls, which one did not look forward to her prince appearing?
Mm, he had to be gentle and considerate, tall and handsome, talented, not harsh or domineering. He would tolerate her little temper, indulge her little *, fan her when she was hot, hold her in his arms when she was cold, take careful care of her when she was sick, patiently comfort her when she felt awful, and even if she sank into hell, he would ride a giant dragon and snatch her back from the hands of the god of the underworld...
Such a person had really appeared.
Although reality was a little different, he did not like her.
Mm, that was not important.
Drew’s original plan had been to snatch Eric away from Jennifer Aniston as revenge for the verbal harm Aniston had caused her that day. But now that things had developed to this point, she suddenly discovered that she really, truly had fallen in love with Eric.
Perhaps sensing a certain burning gaze, Eric opened his eyes. Seeing Drew looking at him, he smiled lightly and said, “Drew, you’re awake. Are you hungry? I’ll make breakfast. You can go take a shower. You look really terrible right now.”
“Hey, Eric, why are you so good to me?”
“Mm?” Eric froze for a moment, then reached out and rubbed Drew’s little head. “Because we’re friends.”
He had just sat up when Drew suddenly grabbed him and kissed Eric hard on the lips like a little wildcat suddenly in heat.
“Hey, hey, Drew, your mouth stinks,” Eric protested with a laugh.
Drew let go of Eric’s neck, as if she had not heard his protest, and declared to Eric as though asserting ownership, “Eric, I love you.”
“But I don’t love you.” Eric freed himself from Drew’s entanglement, got up, and pulled open the curtains to let the sunlight in.
Drew looked at Eric’s back and stubbornly pouted. “You only need to know that I love you.”
“Alright, I know.” Eric pinched Drew’s cute face.
“Hey, Eric, I discovered something.”
“Mm?”
“You held a little beauty like me all night, but down there, you didn’t react at all. Isn’t that too abnormal? I can help you check. Free of charge!”
“You’re very generous, Doctor Barrymore, but hurry up and shower. We’re going to be late.”
“Do you want to shower with me? I can scrub your back.”
“No need. I’ll shower downstairs.”
“That’s not right, Eric. We should treasure water resources. Waste is shameful. Think about those refugees in Africa who died of thirst because of water shortages.”
“You’re right. I’ll start saving water tomorrow. Today, I’ll be extravagant one more time.”
“Hey, hey...”
In the summer of 1988, the little girl who was walking lost and alone through chaotic darkness happened upon a warm light in her life. So she pressed herself against it without hesitation, like a drowning child tightly clutching every straw within reach.