My Best Friend's Wedding
Disclaimer: This is not mine. It's Victor Hugo's and some hints of a certain Julia Roberts movie – you know which one I mean.
AN: Yes, so, I shouldn't be posting this already, but I wanted to get some opinions on this while I work on the body of the story. For the purpose of the story there is one-sided Éponine/Marius – just to make sure everyone's properly warned.
Prologue
8 years old
Marius is her best friend in the whole wide world. Her parents are mean and her sister cries a lot and all her brother does is poop – because he is a baby and all babies do is cry and poop. It's super boring. At least she still has Marius.
His freckles are funny and he likes to read with her.
He has not told her his favorite book yet, but that is okay because she wants to read her favorite book. Her favorite, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is funny and there is lots of candy, and she likes candy and chocolate. Daddy never lets her eat chocolate because it will make her ugly, he says. Marius' mom gives her cookies. She's nice.
She has asked his mom if she can live with them, and his mom explained that her parents would have to say that it was okay – and she knows that they won't say that because they still get money to raise her. Her parents like money.
There is basically nothing her parents like more than money – not even her or Azelma or little Gavroche. Well, babies are annoying, but her parents should still like him.
She knows that Marius' parents like him. She thinks that they might like her too.
"Do you want to read Charlie again?" Marius asks her.
It is warm outside, so he has even more freckles than he had before. She asked him if she could count them and he said that she could one day when he was bored. He has not been bored yet, but she is still holding out hope.
Counting things is super fun, but reading is still the best thing in the world.
"I always want to read Charlie, duh," she answers, sticking her tongue out at him.
He sticks his tongue out right back and if her daddy were here with them, he would try to steal their tongue – because her daddy can do that and when she is older, he is going to teach her how to steal tongues. He promised!
"I get to read the first part," Marius announces, and she nods.
Marius always reads the first part, because he likes to read that part best and he is her friend so she lets him do what he likes best. That is what being friends means.
Their teacher Miss Gardiner taught them that, and Miss Gardiner might be even smarter than her daddy and her mommy are, so she has to listen to her. It is in her best interest to listen to people who are smarter than her – Daddy told her that.
She always listens to her Daddy, because her Daddy is very smart too.
The couch at Marius' is super nice and they have the best pillows in the whole wide world, because they are the perfect size to lay down on and so fluffy that she has fallen asleep on them several times – they made her miss dinner.
"You're my bestest friend in the whole world," she announces to Marius.
"You're my best friend too," Marius tells her solemnly.
Now they are both happy.
11 years old
Marius' mom is really sick, and it makes him sad. It makes her sad too, because she is the nicest lady she knows and she is a better mother than her own mother. Marius' mom is really patient, even when she says things that she knows are stupid and that her own mother would get really angry over. She hates it when her mother is angry.
Gavroche's cries make both of her parents angry a lot, so she plays with him as much as she can when she is not in school, because he never cries when she is with him.
Her dear boy is not old enough for school yet – he has turned three a few months ago – and so she still has a full year left of hoping Gavroche will stay quiet enough to let their parents run all of their schemes in peace. If there is no peace, there is no food.
They always need more food.
"Eppie," her friend is here again.
"Hey Marius," she smiles at him, because she likes him – likes him likes him.
It is not the right time to tell him, she knows that much, but she thinks that she will tell him when his mother gets better. He will be happy then, and that is a good time to tell him. People always react better to things when they are happy – she learned that from many failed tries of telling her parents about things.
"Do you wanna go to the tree house?" he asks.
It is their absolute favorite place in the whole wide world. Mr. Yates helped them build it, because Marius said his father always asked Mr. Yates to do things for him in the garden, and he knew where all of the stuff was that they needed to build it.
Also, Mr. Yates is the best at building things, because he made them a really nice ladder and their tree house has a porch and is totally water proof so that they can actually keep things in there – they have bean bags and a table, and lots of games to play when the tree house itself is boring. The tree house really never gets boring.
"Sure," she says and takes off running, not waiting for him to follow.
He always wins when they race, so she just never tells him when she starts running – when he finally gets it, she usually wins the race by a nose length. He claims it is cheating, but she knows that this is just the only way that she can win, so she tells him that this is just being smart, just like her parents have taught her.
"Eppie, that is not fair," he is shouting as he lags behind her.
Marius always calls her Eppie – he is the only one who does – and she likes that she is super special to him because they have a special nickname that they share.
She does not have to run very far, so she can leave Marius in her dust.
"I win," she taps the ladder to the tree house first.
"You cheated," Marius complains, and she has to stick out her tongue at him.
Because he is a bit angry, she lets him be the first one to climb up the ladder, to make him feel better about losing the race to a girl. She does not understand why boys are always so angry when a girl does something better than them, and why when girls are angry when a boy beats them, they are told that boys are just stronger and faster than girls. She thinks that is wrong, because she can be just as strong as a boy.
"I played smart," she follows him up the ladder.
"It is not smart to cheat," he recites a lesson he has been taught.
That is why his parents are different from hers – because her parents teach her that it is okay to cheat if you play it smart, and his parents tell him that cheating is not clever and that it is never okay to cheat. She does not know whose parents are right.
They plop down in their beanbags and smile.
15 years old
Marius is the cutest guy in school, and she feels like the luckiest girl in the world just because she gets to walk the halls with him every single day. He is student body president and liked by absolutely everyone, and she is just the poor girl with the weird clothes that everyone only knows as the Shadow.
Boys ask her if she wants to go under the bleachers all of the time, because they think that she has nothing better to do than play with their pencil dicks. It is always more important to help Marius figure out his latest algebra problem – he is surprisingly bad at math, which is why he nominated her as student body treasurer and she actually got accepted because everybody loves Marius Pontmercy at this school. They pretty much do whatever the golden boy says; even let poor Éponine Thenardiér have a position of some power in the school. She expected more comments about her family's problem with kleptomania, but there was nothing because Marius vouched for her.
"Hey Eppie," the guy in question needs her help again.
"Hey Marius," she tries to hide her stupid blush, because he is so cute.
He still has the same freckles that she did eventually get to count when she was ten, and his hair is now the cool kind of messy that only boys can achieve. Her hair is just stupid and dark and tangled – not pretty and straight and blonde like all of the popular girls who always try to talk to Marius in the hallways. They do not like her very much at all, because Marius likes her better than he likes them – that is why she is being pushed into lockers and why her clothes keep getting stolen after gym class and being dumped in a toilet or a dumpster. At least, she has to believe that that is the real reason.
It could also be that she is just ugly and stupid, just like her father says.
"My teacher told me I really need to raise my Algebra grade or I will not be eligible for student council any longer," he rolls his eyes. "So please help me. Please!"
They are only fifteen and still there is already so much pressure on them. Marius' father and grandfather really want him to follow in their footsteps and become a fancy lawyer for the bored and wealthy, so they are pressuring him to participate in activities that will look good on his résumé, such as student council. And he goes along with them, because he believes that they have his best interests at heart.
She has stopped listening to her parents a while back – the only parent she will ever listen to is Marius' mother. The woman is long gone now, but she had so much valuable advice to share that she has tried to remember word for word.
His mother always used to believe that she and Marius would get together one day, and then decide to marry, have children, and live happily ever after.
In her heart, she still believes that this could happen.
18 years old
It is only three months until graduation, and she simply cannot wait to finally get out of this damn town and finally start making a life of her own – at college, because she actually got a scholarship at the very last minute.
She is actually going to get out of this town and leave for the city with Marius. They will be at different colleges, but still in the same city. That is still close enough for her to make sure that they stay friends – she would die without him near. She has not been without him for very long since they met, and that was ten years ago.
"We're getting out of this town," Marius comes up for a high five.
"Damn skippy we are getting out," she feels like dancing. "We are going to move to the city and make the entire world our bitch! I would say that is our plan!"
There are some angry looks from nearby students who are going to be pumping her gas if she ever comes back to this town, but she is not going to give a shit about them and their lack of a future – because she finally has something good right on the horizon, and she is going to focus on that. She can get away from her parents and this miserable place in less than three months, and Marius is going to be right there with her. There is finally a future for her that does not involve a gutter and/or an overdose – because that was the future that people like her parents always told her she would have. They were wrong.
"I dumped Becky," he comes completely out of left field with that revelation.
This makes her a bad friend, because she is super happy that the cheerleader will now be out of their lives – Becky had the nasty tendency to have the team mess with her for being friends with Marius and quote-unquote "interfering in her relationship", even though she has never dared to diss a girlfriend in Marius' face.
"I'm sorry," she tells him, even though she is not sorry in any way.
"I found out that she was going to try to mess with you," his face is tight and his hands tremble in anger. "She asked me to choose, and I chose my best friend. I mean, who else would I choose, right? But I guess that means that I am single once again."
Is she dreaming? No, the pinch that she gives herself does hurt, so that means that she is wide awake and Marius still chose her over the perfect blonde cheerleader. He really values her friendship, and even though she has pretty much been hopelessly in love with him since freshman year, she still appreciates his friendship more than anything in the whole wide world. Basically, it is one of the few good things in her life.
"I am still single too," she tries to give him a subtle clue.
"We cannot seem to find the right people," he pats her shoulder; the picture perfect idea of a platonic friend. "Do you know what we should do? We should make a pact."
She is listening intently, because this could be something really interesting.
"What kind of pact?" she prompts him to keep talking.
"If we are still not engaged or married in ten years," he continues his speech, leaving her on the edge of her metaphorical seat, since she is standing, "we should just get married."
With her track record, her odds of still being single at age twenty-seven or twenty-eight are incredibly high – so that should be good. Still, is he actually saying what she thinks he is saying, or is wishful thinking ruling her brain now? Did he really say that?
"You mean the two of us?" she asks, trying to see if she heard him right.
"Of course," he smiles at her, and she melts a little. "You're my best friend, Eppie."
And this is how her best friend always makes her dreams come true.
22 years old
"We did it," Marius hoists her onto his shoulders and she squeals with glee.
"We graduated," she shouts at the skies. "College graduates, bitches!"
They might be more than a little drunk, and not just with happiness. Most of the Amis were at Marius' graduation party, and R is the best at getting everyone more booze than they could ever need – and he definitely succeeded again this time. Things are not really blurry, but she is not quite steady on her feet, and everything makes her giggle.
Marius is a shouter when he is drunk, and he gets very cuddly, which she likes.
"We are the king and queen of campus," he tries to twirl, and she screams.
"Put me down, Marius," she commands like the queen he made her.
He complies after making her wait for it for a little while, and then he swings her down from his shoulders, making her shriek with the unexpected movement. When she is finally on her feet again and she is sure that she won't hurl, she smacks his arm.
"You're terrible," she giggles.
"You love me," he teases, pursing his lips at her and hugging her from behind.
If only he knew how right he was about that part – but she is determined not to tell him until she is sure that he likes her that way as well. Right now, even though they are both single, she is still waiting for him to finally make a move.
Maybe the time finally is right at this moment.
"Still single, Eppie?" he asks her, as if he does not already know.
"Of course," she rolls her eyes at him, comfortable in his arms. "You know that already."
The thing with Montparnasse that started in sophomore year fizzled out over six months ago, when he started treating her worse and worse until one of Marius' friends caught him calling her names and moving to hit her. She can't remember which friend it was, and she does not know what he said, but whenever she sees Montparnasse now, he looks scared in a way that she has never seen on a man.
She kind of wants to thank the guy, but she can't remember his name. She believes that he is one of the Amis, but she never sees him at any parties, so she does not remember him from anything real. Oh well, maybe someday she will see him again.
Right now Marius is the most important man in her life.
"Six more years," he reminds her. "We could be married in six years."
If he was not being so distant about him, she would marry him right this second if he asks her. Still, all he is asking for is six more years – she can handle that.
It is not as if there is anyone stepping in to take her place.
AN: So that's where we start. The real story starts around Éponine's twenty-eighth birthday. And yes, I promise that Enjolras is in the next chapter.