-Eponine-

Papa hit Azelma again. Her cheek is bruised and her back appears to be bleeding. Did he use his belt on her? No, he wouldn't use his belt on her. Right? I mean- Azemla is their favorite child, it's not like they try hard to hide that. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain. I know he would hit her, he would hit his own mother. But using his belt? He used it on me a few times but never Azelma.

"It's fine 'Ponine," she insists. "Just leave it alone," she says. But I can't. What did Azelma do anyway?

"Just tell me what happened Zelma,"I plead

Azelma is only a year younger than me, she's not stupid. She knows I won't drop this.

"Promise you won't do anything? Father will do worse to you and you know it," she asks, her voice has gone high from crying.

"I promise Azelma, but I have to know. And this has to end soon, before he beats us to death."

"Father was angry… when you were at the meeting. He said that he promised you to 'Parnasse and you have to… meet him tomorrow night."

"Why would you keep this from me Zelma?!" I exclaim, a little too loudly.

"What are you talking about?" Papa yells from downstairs. "You back Ninny?" Ninny is his pet name for me. He uses it in front of customers and 'business associates' to make them think that I mean something to him. We're at the inn so there will be a lot of customers -idiots- to fool.

"Yes Papa!" I shout loudly, trying to hide how scared I am.

"I'll talk to you about this later Zelma, it's important," I whisper urgently.

"Come down here Ninny, I need to talk to you," he says, trying to sound innocent. I am about to get the beating of my life. Better me than Azelma, I tell myself.

"Okay Papa!" I reply running down the stairs. What will he use to beat me this time?

"Ninny," Papa says as I come down, he glares at me.

"I need to talk to you, you little-" He's cut off when a rich looking customer comes through the door.

He's come here before, to recover from his hangovers I suppose. Grantaire.

He's one of the members of the friends of the ABC/ a bunch of silly school boys who are apparently fighting for 'slum like me' but don't even talk to most of us.

Grantaire talks to me, so does Marius. The rest occasionally talk to me, but not often. The biggest hypocrite of them all is their leader, Enjolras. He never talks to us. He says hi to me a few times, but he says it coldly and I can tell that he has no interest whatsoever in talking to me. He looks at me constantly at the meetings, I disgust him that much? He always makes me feel so insecure and uncomfortable. Honestly, sometimes I doubt that he's a human. The only feelings that he shows is love for is precious Patria and of course, passion for the stupid little rebellion.

I think Grantaire only goes to the meetings for alcohol and to talk to his friends. He's usually always drunk, but he's actually alright when he's sober. But I've known him for years and I've only seen him sober… I don't know, ten times?

"Hello Monsieur!" my father exclaims, rushing over to Grantaire. He knows how to get money from anyone, Grantaire is very rich.

"Bonjour Mademoiselle," replies Grantaire with a grin. Is he being rude or is he really drunk? People know better than to mess with Papa, he's feared all over Paris. Not by the law obviously, but he owns the streets of Paris.

Papa glares at him. "Do you want a room?"

"Yes, why thank you so very much Mademoiselle." He's just trying to annoy Papa now.

"Ten francs a night," Papa says gruffly.

"That's very expensive, Mademoiselle." He sees me and gives me a wink.

"You don't want a room?" Papa grunts.

"No, I'll pay," he replies with a smirk.

"Half upfront," Papa orders while Grantaire hands him seventy francs.

"I want a week, all paid up front," Grantaire replies. I gasp. Grantaire knows what it's like here, Papa will try to take all of the money from Grantaire that he can, he knows that. He usually only comes to recover from hangovers and he usually just keeps in his room for that. But a week? Grantaire has a house, so why?

Even papa gives a slight gasp. "A week?" he asks.

"Yes. Is there a problem with that, Mademoiselle?"

"No," he says, probably doing everything that he can not to punch Grantaire, I can just imagine the anger boiling up inside him. Being insulted by a drunk in front of customers and more importantly his 'business associates'/ his gang of thieves who rob innocent people, that includes poor people with hardly a penny to their name. Papa takes every little thing they have.

"I'll be going to my room then," he replies calmly with a hint of that smirk that he gets whenever he wins something that he really should have lost, or of course when he makes a highly respectable or feared man look like the complete idiot that he really is.

Grantaire may be a drunk, but he doesn't miss much, he notices the tiny things that drive each person completely mad. With Papa there are a number of things, he gets very angry easily so making him mad isn't a very hard job. Azelma and I seem to make him angry just by breathing.

And of course when this is happening, Mama is flirting with some rich man, taking money from his pockets while they're in what would appear to most people as a kiss full of passion and love, but I know Mama, she's very good at tricking foolish me. I try to sneak upstairs, hoping that Papa will forget about it all.

"'Ponine!" Azelma exclaims. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you? What did he do to you? What happened? I heard shouting- who was it? There was a new customer wasn't there?"

"God Zelma, one question at a time maybe?" I reply with a small smile.

"Fine," she huffs. "First question: are you okay?"

"Yes," I laugh.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No."

"What did he do?"

"Am I under interrogation now?"

"If that's what you want to call it, yes. What did he do?"

"I don't know, he was going to do something when a drunk customer came."

"Okay… and-"

"No more questions Zelma, I can't take much more, I'll just tell you everything that happened. And if you insist on asking more questions when I'm done ask away, but I'll probably only know as much as you." I then tell her everything that happened.

"Why would he buy the whole week?"

"God Zelma." I repeat, "I know as much as you about this."

"Why don't we ask him?"

"He's drunk, Zelma. It's best to stay out of his way."

"In the morning?"

"No. Not that soon, what about the afternoon?"

"Fine 'Ponine," she replies, climbing into bed.

What do you think? :P If you like it please review, i love reading them! xD If you didn't like it please tell me why, but still give it a chance. I promise it gets FAR better.