And rain...And rain...Will make the flowers...Will make the flowers... grow...
I felt her body go limp and I didn't dare look down and see the face of my...I can't say that word. It's just not true. Eponine can't be gone. She just can't. There was so much I wanted to, needed to tell her. So I did the only thing a grieving friend could do. I held her in my arms, kissed her, and sobbed. I was sobbing for many reasons. One, Eponine, one of my close friends, had just passed on in my arms. And two, I was never going to see Cosette again. Both of these things put together is like living Hades for the rest of my life. Three minutes into my despair I felt a warm, but also icy cold, hand brush the tears off of my face. This motion shocked me so much. I didn't know who it was soothing me. None of my fellow students were standing near me. There was only one solution...but it couldn't be. She was gone. She had left me. I, Marius Pontmercy, opened my eyes slowly. I had expected to see Cosette standing next to me, I soon dubbed that impossible. I was never going to see my beloved again. But as I looked around for that martyr, I realized everyone looked surprised. And then I looked down.
Oh dear God, I thought as I looked down. All I saw was Eponine's withered blue eyes staring at me. I saw her dirt and blood streaked face, that to any other sane person would seem so dreadful. She smiled her nasty, yellow-tinted smile. To keep myself from passing out I cried much more. As I sobbed my eyes out I heard my dear 'Ponine try to say something. It sounded like, "Pie ruv loo." I told her to not say anything, and that she should rest and a doctor would be here soon. She tried to speak again and this time I could understand every word of it. The words she said were the words that changed my life.
"I love you," Eponine whispered silently and yet audibly. I just stared at her with disbelief. She loved me. She loved me. Eponine Thenardier loved me. As my brain soaked all of this up I felt an emotion stronger than I had ever felt. I felt love. Yes, I had felt love before. But nothing was as drastic as this. Nothing. I stared at her with eyes of disbelief and I think she took it the wrong way. Eponine tried to climb out of my iron-tight embrace and leave. I told her to stay put and that I had to tell her something too. She looked at me with those withered blue eyes that were filled with despair about what I was going to say to her. I took a deep breath and looked her right in the eyes and told her. "Eponine, we've known each other for years upon years and I shamefully admit that I have never realized my true feelings for you. I love you, too, Eponine. But, I'm stuck in a rut. I love you and yet I also hold the same feelings for Cosette." Eponine looked at me and began to speak when a loud thumping sound came from the other side of the room.
I looked up to see Monsieur Lenchare, the local doctor and surgeon running toward us. He saw Eponine on my lap and tried to pry my hands off of her frail and fragile body but it wouldn't work. Finally, he got Enjorlas to get my arms unwrapped around Eponine. "She's going to be fine, Marius," he attempted to comfort me. I didn't hear a word because I was still in shock that I loved her. Eponine. Good God in Heaven, I could say her name 24,601 times and yet it would not any the less beautiful. Then something hit me like a bullet from a gun. Something that I would never have guessed I would realize. I had to choose. Between Cosette and Eponine. Cosette, the beautiful woman I fell in love with not so long ago, who has beautiful, dark, wavy locks. Or Eponine. The scum of the street, who had yellow teeth, brown dirt crusted hair, and the smell of 100 years. The only thing they shared was that they both loved me and that I loved both of them. Good God in Heaven, this was going to harder than imagined.
Disclaimer: I own nothing!! It's all Victor Hugo's fault!! (But it was a pretty decent fault)
AN: Hey everyone!! This is one of the rough drafts of the story. I WILL be changing it and editing it in little ways. That's a fact. And special thanx to Corwin Curtis and Pencildrainsoul for their awesome reviews, opinions, and help. As my first reviewers, I sault you.
