Stairs
The little blonde boy looks out the window...
He sees a little girl with dark brown hair come out of a Ford Anglia, a moving van right behind the old car.
He runs out of the door and runs down the 2 flights of stairs to get to the lobby of his small apartment building, where he lives with his parents.
He peeks out the open front door and he sees the little girl standing on the front steps of their apartment building, watching the movers bring out their things out of their big truck.
He takes a breath and walks to her and taps her shoulder, she is startled and turns around to see a little blonde boy wearing a red t-shirt.
"Hi." The little boy says and he extends his hand "I am Gabriel."
He smiles at her.
And she smiles back.
"I'm Eponine."
He sees a young girl...
"Ep, why do you follow around Pontmercy?"
The 10 year-olds are sitting on the front steps of their apartment building, eating ice cream.
"I DON'T FOLLOW HIM AROUND." She says indignantly.
"Yes, you do. You follow him ALL the time."
"That's because he is ALWAYS with you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" He inquires.
"Nothing, it means nothing."
He decides to shrug it off.
He thinks to himself "She seems nice…"
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" He yells as he sees her.
He had been waiting for her on the front steps, he was on the verge of filing a Missing Person Report.
"I went somewhere." She tries to shrug him off pushing him away. She tries to climb up the stairs but he grabs her shoulder and makes her turn around.
"Ep, what happened?" He asks calmly looking straight into her eyes.
"I went to Eleanor"
His heart drops.
"Why did you do that?" his voice cracking a little.
"I wanted to punch her in the face, so I did" she says, shrugging.
"Ep…"
"No, Gabe. You and I both know that she deserved that, let's not kid ourselves."
"She did not deserve that and she is my problem not yours."
"Gabe, you're my best friend. Any problem you have is also my problem."
"You didn't need to do that."
"DAMMIT GABE, SHE CHEATED ON YOU."
He is startled that she raised her voice at him.
"Yes, she did but you shouldn't have done that to her." He says as calmly as he can.
She shakes her head and bids him a good night, looking even more furious than he has ever seen her.
He decides to talk to her...
"Ep, why are you so upset?"
He waited for her again, sitting on the front steps. It's been 3 days since they last talked.
"Because, you don't think that I shouldn't have hurt the person that hurt you."
"Of course you shouldn't, she never did anything to you."
She stayed silent. Avoiding his eyes.
"Look, I know that you never liked her but I am, as you call me, a 'big boy'. I can take care of myself. I mean come on, we're about to GRADUATE college."
She looks into his eyes.
"Good night Gabe."
He gets up and he starts to run...
"I love you Gabriel Enjolras."
He stopped walking as he turned around to look at her.
They were on the landing of their apartment's staircase.
And she ran.
He ran after her.
She ran as fast as she could.
With tears blurring her vision.
Up and out, she climbed down the stairs as fast as she could run.
It was when she reached the front steps of their apartment where she thought that she could outrun him.
But he always catches her.
Always.
And he climbed down the concrete steps to reach out to the little girl.
"I love you too."