Chapter 15: Chapter 15 – Runaway

 

“Eric, this is really cool,” Drew, who was sitting next to him in the car, said as she curiously fiddled with the T-shirt that Eric had converted into a dress.

After last night’s puking episode, Drew’s clothes had become disgusting and the two of them had to report to the crew early in the morning, so Eric thought back to how his wife had once used one of his larger T-shirts to make a dress. Fortunately, the process was not too complicated.

Currently, Drew was wearing a large sky-blue T-shirt with Eric’s wide, brown, leather belt attached to her waist. Such a dress, during the ‘80s, was very avant-garde, so when they arrived on set, many people couldn’t help but stare at her.

Some of their glances turned even more meaningful when they noticed that she had come together with Eric.

“Hey Eric, what’s going on here? When I saw you being so gentle and considerate to Jennifer a few days ago, I thought you were a good guy.”

While organizing the day’s shooting schedule, Penny Marshall said to Eric. Even though her words seemed to be pointing towards Eric’s infidelity, the tone of her voice was casual since infidelity was very common in Hollywood.

“Penny, I still like Annie. As for Drew, it just kind of happened.”

Penny quipped, “And her clothes also ‘kind of happened’? Look Eric, I honestly have no interest in what you youngsters do, but you should still have a sense of propriety. Drew is only thirteen years old, you know? Well, you get what I’m saying.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Penny.” Eric realized that Penny’s opinion had already been made and so he didn’t try to prove his innocence as it was better to end the topic.

***

Soon, a month passed and nothing really special occurred. The shooting for 17 Again was going smoothly, and Drew still continued to try to entice Eric at every occasion she found. Jennifer came to the set from time to time and very quickly noticed her intentions.

As a result, whenever the girls appeared at the same time, infighting surrounded Eric; the crew became nervous during the filming process, while all his male peers envied him. The young man who played the bad boy Stan had even begged him for the secret behind his “chick-magnet technique” to which Eric replied some nonsense that the guy actually believed.

And soon, something happened that left Eric completely dumbfounded; the nonsense he had told the young man spread within the crew and even reached Drew, who confronted him during a break, her voice filled with equal parts mock and true resentment, “Ah! So I was played from the start, you bastard, playing with a girl’s feelings and not taking responsibility, you thief! Give me my heart back!”

Jennifer was still undergoing her harsh, self-created diet, but it wasn’t very effective as she suffered a lot due to not eating, and still had only managed to lose 5 pounds in a month.

Eric was really worried about her, but he decided to wait until the filming was over to talk to her about it again.

However, sometimes life doesn’t follow one’s pre-defined plans, and finally, one day, in the middle of shooting, Jennifer fainted due to her dangerously low blood sugar levels.

Eric dropped everything to stay with her. He didn’t have any scenes to shoot the next day, so he took her to the dietician that Susan Sarandon had told him about.

It was a very high-class fitness club whose clientele was mainly Hollywood actresses. At the club, they saw , the heroic lead actress of the world-famous and acclaimed , on her way out. Jennifer seemed to think that Eric was about to grovel at the woman’s feet and ask for an autograph.

The dietician was a slavic woman whose age could be anywhere from early 20s to late 40s. Her name was very long and tough to pronounce so she simply went with Natasha.

Eric gave her a single glance when he noticed Jennifer eyeing her devilish figure with deep envy, so he gently took her hands and slowly whispered in her ears to comfort her, “Don’t worry baby, one day your body will be better than hers.”

Natasha talked to Jennifer for a while and patiently explained to the stubborn young woman that her crazy diet would only harm her body. She then took her to do some tests and spent the whole morning coming up with a weight-loss plan that was a few dozen pages long.

When the two left, they began deeply contemplating the second word that should have been added alongside “high-class” when it came to describing the club: expensive!

Jennifer was adamant on paying herself, and the result was that her credit card balance went into the negative. Fortunately, she would soon receive her paycheck for 17 Again, which, while small, would at least resolve her sudden financial crisis.

***

By the end of October, the shooting for 17 Again was drawing to a close as the post-production and final promotion began. Eric occasionally saw an article or two about the film in the newspapers.

After Drew had finished all her scenes, to everyone’s surprise, she voluntarily decided to go to rehab. The girl who had lost her footing attempting to turn over a new leaf on her own initiative, such an inspirational story, how could one not make use of it?

As a result, under the Fox’s publicity department’s planning, Drew’s change was completely attributed to the influence of 17 Again. The editor at a small newspaper had a field day as he recounted how the disoriented teenager who had lost herself to substance abuse had finally gotten her head straight during the shooting of a movie that tackled subjects such as love and the true meaning of life, which featured a warm and inspirational story that helped her find the courage to change.

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The article was written so realistically as if the guy had witnessed everything himself. If Eric didn’t know better, he would have taken it at face value.

Another publicity stunt that was put in place was about how Eric, himself, was only eighteen years old, and already a screenwriter and actor. The newspapers wrote about how from the initial script to the final draft of the script used by Fox for the filming, everything single twists and turns had been written by Eric.

Producer James Brooks and director Penny Marshall also emphasized numerous times on how outstanding his performance was, and on how talented he was.

With so many people praising him, controversies were also bound to pop up. Some newspapers began questioning Eric’s screenwriting skills since he was simply too young and stated that Fox had made a huge blunder by rushing into making 17 Again just to follow on the coattails of BIG’s success. Most critics stated that the $ 20 million film would likely end up in the gutter.

Such a prediction was not unfounded; after produced the 1985 sci-fi comedy Back to The Future which grossed over $200 million in North America and almost $400 million worldwide, the aspirations of many filmmakers began to run wild as they attempted to follow in its success. However, all, without exception, failed miserably as no film based around time-travel was among the next year’s top-ten hits.

Fox didn’t do much to curb the negative reviews so long as they didn’t go too far since these reviews could help balance the positive reviews and maximize the audience’s feeling of anticipation.

Meanwhile, Eric’s novel Jurassic Park became an surprise beneficiary of Fox’s publicity for 17 Again.

Originally, thanks to Michael Klaus’s efforts, the novel had sold more than twenty thousand copies in its first week alone, which was very good for a newcomer. After a few weeks of follow-up publicity and a good reputation among the readers, the novel’s sales started to slowly rise. Even though the rise was not to the extent of being startling, it was in line with Eric’s expectations.

However, thanks to 17 Again’s publicity stunt, Jurassic Park benefited immensely. Michael Klaus was ecstatic the whole time; having so many newspapers and magazines mention the novel was more than what he and his small publishing house could have accomplished.

17 Again had aroused the public’s interest towards Eric, the mysterious and miraculous youth who penned it.

Unfortunately, the movie wasn’t out yet and although they could guess bits and pieces about its contents thanks to the title and some gossip from inside the crew, those were just rumors. And so, as the public's curiosity grew, they naturally turned their sights towards Jurassic Park. 

In the first week of October, the sales directly broke 100,000, successfully granting the novel the eighth place on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Although it wasn’t ranked very high, every other novel on the list was written by older, well-known authors. Jurassic Park was the only novel in the list that had been written by a teenaged newcomer.

*** 

Due to some scenes that were shot in the evening, Eric didn’t return home until past ten.

As his car drove past the Runkle’s family house, their courtyard door was pushed open, and a tiny figure walked out. The door was promptly closed as the tiny, imp-like shadow ran away under the dimly lit street, then slowed down and began walking in a circle, apparently bored.

“Hey, Stu, leaving home alone isn’t something a good boy should do.” Eric was curious as to what this young neighbor of his, Stuart Runkle, was doing out so late at night, so he stopped and asked.

“Then, Eric, how do you think good parents should act in front of a seven-year-old child?” Stuart replied as he glanced at his house’s courtyard.

Eric was a little surprised that the little guy could make such a logical argument. He didn’t recall anything about the kid being particularly smart.

Perking his ears up, he could hear the muffled sounds of what seemed to be the Runkles fighting.

“So, what are you doing?” Eric looked back at the boy as he asked.

Stuart leaned against the side of a street lamp as he pretended to be an adult and said, “I pretended to run away from home.”

“You pretended ?”

“Yeah, that way when they realize I’m gone, they’ll stop fighting.”

Eric also thought that the couple arguing in front of the child was a little too much, so he said, “Alright little fellow, it’s dangerous to stay here at night, so come to my house.”

“Thanks Eric.”

Eric parked his car, opened the door to his house and let the little guy in.

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