“I’m hungry. Are you hungry? Let’s eat.”
Melody laughed. "You're always hungry, Eric."
"Fast metabolism," he explained with a wink. "Doctor's words, not mine."
"Or you're just plain greedy."
Eric smirked. "That too."
"So what are you in the mood for?"
"Food," he replied simply. "I'm not picky. Just put it on my plate and I'll put it in my face."
Melody laughed. "That's what Lauren once told me."
"Well, she is my sister."
"Yes, she is." Melody smiled wickedly. She still hadn't forgotten Eric mentioning she was a cheerleader to his friends, and decided it was time to get even. "Speaking of Lauren, she told me a little story about when you were four and your brothers tricked you into eating a chocolate cake, only the chocolate part was actually dirt."
Eric's face flushed. "She told you about that, did she? Well ..." He cleared his throat, "I have a little story of my own. When we were eight our brothers convinced her that she was actually an alien. Every night they'd say that the sound of the airplanes was actually the sound of her alien parents looking for her in their spaceship. Lauren would run to Janet's room every night crying 'don't let them take me away!'"
Well that explains Eric's nickname for Lauren. Melody shook her head in amazement.
"Your brothers really are something, aren't they?"
"Trust me. You have no idea." He didn't elaborate any further. "Now let's eat."
"Yes, let's," Melody agreed.
Rubbing his hands together in excitement, Eric got up from the booth they were sitting at to order the food. "I'll be back in five."
Melody smirked. "I'll be surprised if it takes you that long."
He came back barely two minutes later, mainly because the owners had his usual memorized.
"How's this for a feast?" He smirked, as the waiters brought over baskets of chillie cheese fries, burgers and two medium pizzas.
"Smells delicious," Melody agreed.
Eric shot her a self-satisfied grin before setting a plate down in front of her and digging into his. Melody was about to start eating before a thought entered her mind which caused her to pause. She surveyed the diner. It had a 60s retro theme and something about it seemed eerily familiar. Sure, Eric had taken her here a few weeks ago, but there was something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
And then it dawned on her.
"Eric," she said quietly. "I think this is the same place where my parents used to eat."
"Really?" he asked, visibly taken aback by the sudden change in topic.
Melody nodded. "I remember my mom used to talk about it all the time, her favorite pizza place in her hometown. She and my dad would meet here all the time in the back It was the one of the only places they could be alone together. They spent so much time here, they had this one special booth in the back, and they carved their initials in it..."
Eric's eyes widened a little at that. "What if this booth is the one?"
"Then their initials will be on the right corner of the table, on the side where you get out. Kind of where you're sitting."
Eric dropped his knife and fork and scanned the corner of the table. Sure enough RG + ED was engraved discreetly on the outer edge of the table.
"There it is, Mel. You were right."
Instead of the amazement or amusement she expected, silence fell over Eric. He was staring at the engraved initials, and Melody realized that he was thinking about his own mother. She wished she could talk to him about it, but that wasn't possible. Not when she wasn't even supposed to know about his mother's death in the first place.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked gently.
Eric looked up and gave a halfhearted smirk. "I'm fine."
"Liar. What's bothering you?"
A hint of annoyance flashed across his face. "It's not important."
"Of course it is. Anything that bothers you is important to me. I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you want or need to talk."
He met her eyes for a long moment and Melody thought for a second he might actually open up to her, until he picked up his knife and fork again. "Noted. Now can we eat? I really am starving."
Melody sighed. He's not ready to talk about it. He won't. "Fine. But if you change your mind, my offer still stands"
He winked his appreciation before tucking into a slice of pizza. Melody rolled her eyes, but tucked into her pizza too.
Once they finished their meal, Melody decided it was time to begin with the lesson.
"Ready, Casanova?"
"I'm never ready for math. Hence the reason why I suck at it so much."
"Well, we'll just have to change that, won't we? What topic do you want to start with?"
Eric rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a thick blue textbook before sliding it across the table towards Mel. "Whatever's in here."
Melody raised an eyebrow, momentarily wondering what exactly she had signed up for. Sighing, she picked up the book and began flipping through it. "How about quadratics?" she suggested.
"Quad-what?"
"Quadratics. You know, an equation that has a variable that's squared?"
Eric rubbed the side of his neck in embarrassment. "I can't remember ..."
Melody nodded in understanding, giving him a patient look he hadn't seen when he was with Kelley. She moved closer to sit next to him, opening the book to the chapter on quadratics. "Well maybe if you see one, you'll remember." She pointed to an example problem. "Does this ring any bells?"
But Eric's eyes weren't on the book; they were on her. His eyes had that glazed look when Mrs. Bing was explaining how to waltz. She waved a hand in front of his face a few times. "Earth to Eric?"
"What perfume are you wearing?" he asked suddenly.
"Excuse me?"
"What perfume are you wearing?" he repeated, as though it were perfectly normal the first time he said it.
Melody stared at him for a second. "Hawaiian Ginger, why?"
He smirked. "I have no idea what that is, but it smells good --"
Melody snapped her fingers. "Focus, Casanova. Now back to the quadratics ..." She pointedly tapped the textbook. "Does this problem look like one you've seen before?"
Eric looked bored already. "Maybe..."
With an unbelievable amount of patience, she began explaining the process to him. "So there are three ways to solve a quadratic. With factoring, the quadratic formula, completing the square."
Eric looked up in confusion. "Completing the square? Wasn't that what Mrs. Bing showed us?"
"No, that was completing the box." Melody paused, trying to devise a tactic to get Eric to focus. How about we start off with factoring. It's the easiest method, but sometimes, when you can't factor using FOIL, you have to use the quadratic formula. That is a little tricky. But we'll start with factoring." Melody flipped the pages until she found a question she was satisfied with. "Here, look at this problem, and see if you can figure out what they have in common."
Eric stared long and hard at the problem. Melody was hopeful he was on the verge to a breakthrough.
"They're all numbers?" he suggested unhelpfully.
"Yes," Melody agreed, "but what about them?"
Eric gave her a blank look.
"Look at the coefficients. There's a way to make the problem easier."
"Whoever invented algebra needs to be sent to jail," he grumbled, clearly struggling.
"He's already dead."
Eric muttered something that sounded like 'justice.'
Melody rolled her eyes. "Come on, focus. You're smart enough to figure this out."
Eric raised a brow at her. "I've been called a lot of things, Mel, but 'smart' was never one of them ..."
"I find that hard to believe. You probably just weren't paying attention."
"Well, maybe I would've paid attention if all my math tutors were as pretty as you," he answered simply.
Melody's heart lurched, realizing it was the first time he'd called her pretty. She covered her shock with a scoff. "Well how many math tutors have you had?"
"Well, there was you and this other girl ... can't really remember her name."
Melody smirked. "Funny, I can think of a few names for her."
Eric chuckled. "I'm not surprised. You can add them to Lauren's growing list."
"Oh, I am sure we could make a whole dictionary and put Webster to shame."
This time Eric laughed, placing a hand over his stomach as he leaned back and relaxed into the booth seat.
"Okay, Casanova. Back to business. Let's work one of these problems together, and then you can try the next on your own."
The smile instantly vanished from Eric's face, only to be replaced by nerves.
Melody analyzed the tight look on Eric's face, recognizing it as the same look he had when Mrs. Bing called them up to the stage. She realized it was a fear of failure or maybe even that she would think he was stupid.
She smiled encouragingly at him. "Here, this looks like a good problem that I could use some help solving. We can figure it out together. Are you up for the challenge?"
Eric sighed, rubbing the side of his neck. He looked anything but confident but still replied, "Always."
"I knew you would be. Okay, so here is how to approach this problem." Leaning closer to him, Melody began explaining the process. Eric listened intently this time, a frown of determined concentration forming on his face as he took in the information.
They finished up and Melody turned to look at Eric to see how he was processing everything. "Do you want to try on your own now?"
Eric nodded, all be it reluctantly, before taking the pen from her and leaning against the table. A few seconds passed with him simply staring at the page and Melody had a sinking feeling that he hadn't got it. Then suddenly, he began scribbling, frantically, biting his bottom lip as he did so. Finally, after another two or three seconds, he dropped the pen and leaned back in his seat again, sliding the book over to Melody.
Melody accepted the book and looked at the partial work on his paper.
"Let's rework this problem and do a few more examples. How does that sound?"
Eric nodded. "Let's do it."
"Okay." Melody began to explain the process to him again, going a little slower this time, and pausing at each step. "Does that help?"
He nodded again before taking the pen once more.
"Ready to try on your own again?"
"Ready as I'll ever be ..." And with that, Eric began scribbling once more, his head down in concentration and the frown back on his face. A few seconds passed, until finally he was done. "Go ahead. Put me outta my misery ..."
"Let's try that one more time. You're getting close."
Eric sighed miserably picking up the pen.
Melody smiled teasingly. "Come on Casanova. You told me you were up for the challenge."
Eric played along, scoffing half halfheartedly. "I'm always up for the challenge. I'm dating you, aren't I?"
Melody's grin widened. "That's true. So what are you waiting for then?"
"For math to actually make sense."
"Well you're just going about it the wrong way."
Eric frowned.
"Just think of algebra as a language you're trying to understand."
"How do I understand it then?"
"Well it's like cracking a code. In a way it's sort of like football."
Eric threw her a dubious stare.
"It's all about strategy," Melody explained.
A thoughtful look emerged on her face as she reached for the textbook. "I think we should save that last problem for later. I found a better one. Let's do a word problem."
Eric stared at her in horror. "How is this going to help?"
Melody smiled. "You'll see. I'm going to show you how algebra can be used in real life, starting with football. So we have this problem where a football is kicked into the air and follows the path defined by h=-2x^2+16x, where x is the time in seconds, and h is the height in metres. What is the maximum height reached by the football?”
Eric suddenly looked up, the confidence returning in his eyes. Melody smiled smugly.
"Okay, see if you can solve that using the steps we went through."
But as she said it, Eric was already scribbling on the paper in a frenzy. A few minutes passed before he slid the sheet to her, leaning back in the booth, arms folded behind his head. He shot her an momentarily cocky grin that gave way to nervousness. From the corner of her eyes, Melody noticed the tenseness in his shoulders as she checked over his work, nodding as each step was correct. As she reached the end of his work, hope was building up in her chest.
She looked up, her expression unreadable for a minute until a smile cracked her lips. "Way to go, Casanova. You got it."
Eric smirked. "I think after all that hard work, I deserve a reward. What do you say, Mel?"
He tried to kiss her but she thwarted his efforts, shoving a Chili fry in his mouth.
Eric frowned at her and she smiled. "Nice job. Now keep up the hard work."
"Now let's look at that first problem again."
"When will this misery end?" he grumbled.
"We'll be done after this one problem. Then you're free."
"Until tomorrow."
"Until tomorrow," Melody agreed. "But nothing I can do about that. Now we're almost done."
She gave the book back to Eric and he reluctantly began working the problem. Occasionally, he faltered, the pen hovering above the paper as it shook inbetween his fingers.
"Keep going. You're doing good."
Eric looked up at her, nodding in appreciation before slowly continuing. After a few minutes, he handed the paper to her. He looked down at the table as she reviewed his work.
"You got it right again, Casanova."
"What can I say?" he drawled, leaning against the back of his chair smugly. "Pretty math tutors get my brain going." He tapped a finger to his temple for extra emphasis.
Melody rolled her eyes. "You probably say that to all your math tutors."
Eric gave her a mock-insulted look. "I would never."
"Prove it."
"My pleasure," Eric smirked as they stood up from the booth. As Melody was turning to gather her things, Eric came up behind her, pulling her close to him. Just as he was about to kiss her, an alarm went off. Eric turned his wildly from side to side
"Do you have a curfew or something?" asked.
"Well I do, technically. It's not like I follow it, though."
He smirked at that, pulling her a little closer. "I think I'm having a bad influence on you, Mel ..."
"Maybe so," she replied pulling away and looking at her phone. "By the way, it's time to take your medicine."
Eric stared at her. "What?"
"Your medicine...you're supposed to take it six times a day and it's time for your fourth dose."
"How do you know that?"
Unrepentantly, Melody answered, "I asked Lauren to get your medicine schedule from your stepmom."
"You're kidding me, right?"
"Nope. Someone has to be responsible for you, and right now, that person is me."
Eric fell into an uncharacteristic silence, simply staring at her for a long moment. Melody could see a question behind the surprise in his eyes, a flicker of emotion that she couldn't name because it disappeared as quickly as it came.
"So I have the alien to thank for this?" He sighed, finally letting go of her completely before reaching into his backpack for the orange tubes. "I feel like I'm in kindergarten ..."
"Don't be mad at Lauren or your stepmom. Be mad at me. I'm the one who made them do it."
Eric said nothing. He unwound the lid to one pill bottle and popped two into his mouth before Melody handed him a drink to wash it down with. He swallowed, winced a little, and then placed the bottles back into his bag.
"Happy?"
"Yes," Melody answered seriously. "I know you're mad at me, Eric, and I understand. But at the end of the day, I just want you to get better. That's the most important thing." As the conversation with her uncle replayed in her head, she realized the hypocrisy of that statement.
"I get it, Mel," Eric's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "And I appreciate it ... even if I don't show it sometimes."
Melody smiled as Eric pulled her close again.
So," he began, cocking an eyebrow, "do I finally get my reward?"
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