I'm in Hollywood Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 – YOU’RE SO SHAMELESS

“Eric, do you think I should…. lose weight ?” Sitting in the passenger seat, a blushing Aniston casually asked as she faced the window and pretended to look at the coming and going traffic.
Eric bit his lips and 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 (45kg).”
“Humph! You smelly man, you’re finally saying it ! So you think I’m fat !” Aniston snorted, but her tone was full of coquetry.
Eric didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing.
“I’m sorry, let me take you to eat Italian as an apology ?”
Aniston hesitated before whispering: “Or we could go to my home, I know a few dishes, I’d like you to taste them.”
Eric straightforwardly replied: “I would be honored.”
It was the first time he had come to Aniston’s cozy abode. Her room was painted in warm colors, and decorated by a variety of soft animals. The air was filled with a girl’s unique fragrance.
Eric had initially wanted to help, but Aniston had thrown him out of the kitchen, so he could only obediently sit in the living room and go through some fashion magazines.
An hour later, Aniston put the finished dishes on the table, clapped her hands proudly and said: “How is it ?”
Eric sniffed and praised: “It smells great, I can’t wait to dig in.”
“Oh thank you, Eric.”
They didn’t bother being polite to each other as they sat down and enjoyed themselves. Eric had to admit, Annie’s craft was delicious. After eating, Aniston suddenly stood up, and said: “Right, Eric, when I went downstairs to buy spices 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 him.
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 in 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 here, 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 Aniston’s hands before saying: “Alright Annie, you don’t need to read that.”
Aniston unhappily waved her little hands as she tried to snatch the newspaper back: “Hey, let me see ! They were getting to the good part, they were praising you. Ah, 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!” Aniston’s mouth slightly opened, she glanced at the trash can: “So you’ve seen it, you hateful guy! Why didn’t you let me then ?”
“I know what’s in it because I’m the one who wrote that article.”
Aniston was shocked: “What ?!”
Eric somewhat guiltily said: “It’s just something publishing houses do in order to promote their novels, they usually hire someone to write a review that 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 I did, so he let me write a few reviews, and the one that you just read, is one of them.”
“… Wow.”
Eric shrugged, and cheekily said: “Honestly that’s nothing out of the ordinary, these acts of propaganda are fairly common.”
“Eric….”
“Yeah ?”
“….. You’re so shameless.” After saying that, Aniston 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 Annie as she hastily sent him back home after dinner.
Three days later, Aniston 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 Annie 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, these days, Drew looked like a hungry kitten laying in wait for its prey, this made Eric secretly shiver. When Aniston wasn’t paying attention, Drew would scramble towards him and throw him snide remarks about his performances. 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 next day after Aniston had left.
“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 at Eric: “Take it.”
Eric helplessly accepted it, but soon froze as Drew grabbed a chair, sat next to him, and leaned her body against his.
“That… 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, this girl was really…… way too blunt, ah.
“I, but 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. (TL: No, it came from a 13 year-old, you damn lolicon!)
Since she had made things clear, Drew didn’t plan on holding anything back. Aniston had already left the crew anyway, there was no one to stand in her way.
“Eric I’ll be your girlfriend okay ? In fact, in fact I had a boyfriend before but he was just really…. unbearable.”
“Drew don’t do this.” Eric 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 arm and hurriedly walked towards the set.
Watching his disappearing back, Drew’s flirty face was replaced by one of resentment: “Aniston, you just wait, I want you to watch as I take your most precious thing away from you. I wonder, who will be the pathetic one then ?”