Hi! I got a request on Tumblr to make this a full story so here it is! Sorry I hit some major writers block and sort of just wrote what I could. Give me some feed back and maybe I'll revise it :)
Thanks!
Enjolras straightened his tie. His fingers tried to slip through his hair, a nervous habit of his, but he stopped himself, knowing full well his couldn't mess this up. He had to look perfect, walk perfectly, and say all the perfect things. This was make it or break it. He tried to shake the annoyance from his mind. It wasn't even supposed to be that big of a deal. He had appeared before people before, he was a senator. But this made him more nervous then he cared to admit. Grantaire had come up with the theory that, even with his rugged good looks, Enjolras was alienating his younger audience with his complete seriousness and lack of what Grantaire called "the funnies."
So Grantaire had organized for Enjolras to be on this late night show to bring out his sparkling personality.
A techie motioned for Enjolras to walk on stage. He gave the man a curt nod and sauntered out onto the stage, welcomed by a chorus of clapping. Enjolras pulled out his best charismatic smile, wiping away all his nervousness on the surface. He made his way to the couch an sat down, grinning at the host.
"Welcome Senator Enjolras!" There was some small talk before the host dropped some news, "We thought you'd be nervous here on your own, so we brought in a pretty girl to ease your nerves, please welcome Epon," The host started clapping. And out came a girl dressed in a silver, backless dress. Her hair was down and was the shade of brown which might be on the girl in the back of your high school biology class who you never saw. It didn't matter now because Enjolras not only saw her, but also couldn't take his eyes off her. Unknowingly his eyes widened as they trailed from her sparkling eyes down across her slender body. "Now, Epon, I hear you're in a new movie portraying a first lady? What was that like?"
Epon sat down next to Enjolras on the couch and smiled at him, "Yeah, in, um, Realization I play a first lady named Olivia and she's really trying to make the US a better place but doesn't know how to so she falls and stumbles and eventually does find her way," When Epon said um she pushed her hair lightly and pursed her lips a little, like a child.
"Well I bet you would be a wonderful first lady. Enjolras, what's your take on the movie? I heard you got an advanced screening." The Host questioned.
Enjolras was completely entranced by Epon, he hadn't sweat this much since he played baseball in college. His jaw would barely move and he couldn't remember how to use words. Epon glanced around, confused, "Senator?" She asked. He snapped out of it, blushing for the first time in ages, "Right! Well, right. You know it's so hard for me to watch movies these days but I though the movie was wonderful and you, Epon, you were...stunning," Honestly Enjolras couldn't remember a damn thing from the movie. He smiled and the rest of the talk show went though moderately seamlessly.
Enjolras and Epon stood backstage after the show. The host was chatting with some techies and Enjolras was waiting for Grantaire, who was hopefully not passed out drunk in the bathroom. Epon had pulled out her phone as she lingered near the snack table.
"Epon?" Enjolras smiled at her, taking his chance. "Are you going somewhere after this?" It's true that Enjolras had planned on going home and working until he passed out at his desk like he did every night but for some reason he didn't want to do that tonight.
"Enjolras," Epon turned to him, irritated, "you may have cut your hair and rounded out your smile, but I am not going down this road with you"
His chest throbbed, "What do you mean?"
"Oh please, like you don't remember Cafe ABC," Epon scowled. "No of course you don't" Epon rolled her eyes, Enjolras pissed her off more than anyone else ever did and he didn't even remember her? Of course not, after all she was just as shadow in his eyes. "Look I'll be nice and... civil" she hissed, "in public but don't expect me to be nice any other time. Besides after tonight, hopefully we'll never see each other again." She turned and her hips swung and she walked away.
Enjolras stood there stunned, it had been years since Cafe ABC. He remembered Les Amis de la'ABC clearly. In college he, Grantaire and a few friends had started a group called Le Amis to change the government. The group never really amounted to anything, for Joly was busy with his studies, Jehan and Combeffere were busy together, Marius was always distracting Courfreyac, and Graintaire was always drunk. Without many of his friends Enjolras's revolution was never really started. He never knew there was a woman like Epon around.
Wait.
Epon? Eponine? 'Ponine? Could it be? Could they be one and the same? Eponine the young liberal arts major who worked at the Cafe? If it was her, he could understand why she was angry. After what he did to her... unforgivable.
Eponine was broke, she always had been. She just wanted to make her way through college and go on to become an actress, or a writer, or an artist. When she got a job at Cafe ABC she didn't think that she would find a boy, she didn't think she would fall in love. Sure she had followed Marius, her old love, to see where he was going so she could be there too. But Marius was dating Cosette and Eponine stood no chance.
But she loved working at Cafe ABC, the aroma of coffee was cathartic and always made her happy. It wasn't long until Marius was meeting with a group of boys known as Le Amis. It was their leader, Enjolras, student body president, star of the baseball team who had caught Eponine's eye.
Months went by and there was no interaction between them. It was almost like it had been with Marius. But slowly Eponine would write messages on Enjolras's cups of coffee. She would write compliments and once she even left him her number.
That was when it all went wrong. Enjolras had given his coffee to Grantaire that day. In his drunken state Grantaire had started texting Eponine, flirting and pretending he was Enjolras. Eponine never found out until one day, when he was really drunk, Graintaire was reading all her texts out loud and laughing with all his friends. It was one of those unusual days when Enjolras was not there, and Grantaire was taking advantage of it. The whole cafe was laughing about this love sick girl who was so desperately in love with a lie. Eponine hid behind the counter, struggling not to cry. It wasn't until Enjolras had shown up for the last text that Grantaire had jumped down from the table he was standing on and pointed at her. "That's the girl, Enj, she's the one who's been in love with you. Right, Cinderella?" Cinderella was a pet name Grantiare had come up with for her. It was the last straw, she couldn't do it. She ran from the building, only calling in two days later to tell her manager she couldn't work anymore.
She never knew Enjolras wasn't in on it. And she didn't care. She'd be the best damn actress, he could suck on his damn prank. She'd make him eat her dust.
Enjolras on the other hand, never really knew what was going on until Joly filled him in later. He didn't know what to do and since he never say Eponine again, eventually forgot about it.
Eponine sat in her dressing room, fiddling with her phone. In truth, there was nothing on it, she just didn't want to look friendless in front of Enjolras. Seeing him has made all her feelings from college come rushing back. They had told her before hand that she would have to face him so she knew, but there was never really anything that could prepare for Enjolras. It didn't help that he seemed to undress her with his adoring eyes.
No. This is what she ran away from. She even changed her name to dissociate herself from her past life. She could still feel the humiliation on her cheeks as she ran from Cafe ABC. She shook it off, keep it cool.
The was a tap on her door. Leaving her phone at her desk, Eponine warily opened her door to find some techie with a rose. He handed it to her with a note, a letter, the letter P. Behind that techie another one stood, with the letter L attached to his rose. There were six people in total, each one carried a rose and a letter which eventually spelled out the word 'please'. She closed her door. Five minutes later there were seven techies standing at her door, each carrying a rose and a letter which spelled out 'forgive' this time. Another five minutes, two techies, a rose and a letter, 'me'. Five minutes more, seven techies, each with a rose and a letter, 'Eponine'. She closed her door not knowing what to expect. Five minutes latter she heard another tap.
She opened the door.
Enjolras stood there, alone holding a sing flower, several vases of roses were sitting around him. "One hundred and thirteen roses, Eponine. One for every text read out loud." He said, his lips pulling a small smile. "One hundred and thirteen messages I never got to read because the idiot Grantaire ruined what could have been the best relationship of my life." He stepped forward, closing the space between the two. "One hundred and thirteen ways I will try to get you back. One hundred and thirteen reasons I'm asking for you forgiveness. And this one," he held up the singular rose he held in his hand, "is one guarantee that I will never ever let anything like that ever happen to you again."
He was so close, their faces were inches apart, "Please, Eponine, forgive me."
And so she did.
