Free Equilibrium (Marauders #4.5) by Lina Andersson

greeted Eliza. They actually seemed pretty normal with her, even if he didn’t know what they usually were like, and he sat down in an armchair close to the door. He sent off a text to Brick to let him know where he was and that he’d give Eliza a lift home when she was done.
    He soon stopped paying attention to them, and he was almost surprised when Eliza came over.
    “What’s up?”
    “We’re done,” she answered. “When do you have to be at work?”
    “No work today,” he said and stood up. “Wanna hang out some more?”
    “Unless you have other plans.”
    “Nope, but I need to eat.”
    He took her to a burger place, and she kept talking all the way through the meal. It took him about two minutes to realize why. She thought that if she kept talking, he wouldn’t notice she wasn’t eating. Once he was finished eating, and she was done hiding that she wasn’t eating, he got them a coffee each.
    “If you’re not hungry, just tell me,” he said when he handed it to her.
    “What?” she asked with frightened eyes, and then she blushed. “I’ll pay you back.”
    “It’s not about the money, Princess,” he said when he sat down opposite her. “Just tell me you don’t want to eat. I know you don’t eat much anyway, and I’m not gonna argue about it.”
    “How did you know?”
    “Besides the fact that you’ve lost like twenty pounds since the first time I saw you? The throwing away perfectly good birthday cake was a hint.”
    “It’s just like… I can’t swallow it down,” she whispered with her eyes on the coffee cup she was clutching between her hands. “I ate some.”
    “I know.”
    They sat in silence, and finally she looked at him. “You’re not gonna tell me I have to eat?”
    “You know that, so what’s the point? I’ll keep buying you food if you want me to, but I’m not gonna argue with you about it. I’m not your dad. You eat what you eat.”
    “Okay,” she nodded and her shoulders relaxed. “Did you watch us at all today?”
    “The rehearsals?” He’d done his very best to avoid watching. The Theater —always pronounced with a British accent in his head—wasn’t really his thing. “Um, not really. Should I have?”
    “No need. Just wondered what you thought if you had. We’re doing A Streetcar Named Desire . I like it.”
    Roach had seen it as a movie once, late at night when he couldn’t sleep, so he knew it. “Who are you?”
    “I’m just doing two of the smaller parts. I didn’t want a big one this time. I’m mostly working with the set.”
    “Who’s directing?”
    “All of us,” Eliza laughed. “Works sometimes, other times not at all. It’s mostly about having fun, but we’ve had a few performances, too. I was Medea. It was the first one we did, and I really liked that part.”
    Roach’d had a very rudimentary schooling, to put it mildly. He could read, but not very fast or well, which was why he preferred graphic novels to actual books. So he didn’t know exactly who Medea was, but he knew it was one of those things people should know about. Roach wasn’t very bothered about what he should know, though, so he asked.
    “Who was she?”
    Eliza looked at him with big eyes. “You really wanna know?”
    “Sure.”
    “Because if I start talking, I’ll keep going. I love her.”
    “Hit me,” he said and leaned back to get more comfortable.
    She hadn’t been kidding. She kept talking for about an hour and didn’t stop until he pulled up outside her house.

CHAPTER FIVE
    You’ll Find Out
     
    ~oOo~
     
    IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR Eliza to remember the first time she was on a bike. It had been something she’d been doing for as long as she could remember. She did, however, remember the first time she was allowed to ride bitch—sitting behind her dad instead of in front of him—and it had made her feel all grown up. It took another few rides before she dared to stretch her arms up in the air, and Brick never liked it when she did. Mitch got it,