So apparently the tumblr account madameaarontveit (me and my friend) is now in a fic war using our original fictions and changing them into fanfics. This one is based on ConcreteAngelRoxHerHalo's story 'Look Past the Surface' on fictionpress.
Tall, dark and superman…
He's got his father's eyes, his mother's ambition…
I wonder if he knows how much that I miss him…
Éponine is barely fourteen when Charles Courfeyrac moves in next door. At the time, all she knows about him was what her parents say in the kitchen in their run-down ranch house in the suburbs.
"Hear they're loaded."
"Why the fuck are they here then?"
Mrs. Courfeyrac comes over one day at Mrs. Thernardier's invitation to chat. Éponine watches in amusement as the pretty woman's nose curls daintily upon entering their dingy home. A pang of guilt rings through Éponine's heart for a brief moment. Her mother had worked so hard to clean up their living room (or excuse thereof). The boys were all shoved upstairs and Mrs. Thernardier has even sent Azelma, the angel of the family, to her room. Éponine is only viewing things because she snuck from her room to watch from the hallway.
"My son is going into his freshman year," Mrs. Courfeyrac is saying. "I'm worried about him. What if he falls in with the wrong sort? He has a tendency to do that, it's quite perturbing."
Éponine knows her mother doesn't understand half those words. Instead, Mrs. Thernardier tries (very, very bumbling in that clumsy way her mother does things) to revive their conversation.
"Well, where is your son now?"
"He's at home. I should probably be getting back," Mrs. Courfeyrac looks over her shoulder, her salt-and-pepper hair flowing over her shoulder. She tries to hide the last glance of disgust around the room.
"Do you need help unpacking boxes?" Mrs. Thernardier asks. Mrs. Courfeyrac's disdainful face softens and she nods, grateful.
Éponine knows her mother won't hold up on it. Her father is planning a major job for that evening, one that will require all the little ones, but probably not-
"ÉPONINE!" Her mother yells. Éponine winces at the sharp tone.
"Here," She responds meekly, cursing herself for even sounding meek in the first place.
"Why don't you go and help Mrs. Courfeyrac and her son to unload boxes?"
"Why can't 'Zelma or 'Vroche do it?" Éponine asks.
"You know why," Mrs. Thernardier glares at Éponine before changing her face quickly to shoot an apologetic glance to Mrs. Courfeyrac. "They're otherwise occupied."
"Hey, Mom, Dad's got a question." It is then that the boy comes bounding into her life.
For really. He doesn't walk (he's far past walking) and he doesn't crash (because Courfeyrac is never known for being ungraceful). He comes with springing steps and waltz-like moves and oh god that flirtatious smile.
"Oh, Charles!" His mother exclaims, leaping up to wipe something from his face.
"Mom, mom!" He protests, pushing her off. Éponine becomes aware of her hanging mouth and very quickly snaps it shut, drawing that boy's attention to her.
"Hi, I'm Courfeyrac," He says, leaning down to kiss her hand. Éponine draws it back as if burnt, cradling her arm against her chest and sending this annoying (but attractive) boy a withering look.
"Charles," his mother corrects. "His name is Charles. Charles, this is Éponine. She's going to help us unload boxes."
"She doesn't need to," To her relief, this Charles Courfeyrac turns his attention away from her. "I got this." And he's looking at her again and winking oh my God he actually winked. "I'm strong."
"I bet I'm stronger." Éponine counters.
"Not a chance."
"Wanna go?"
"Right here, right now!"
They both start laughing and, without much warning, Éponine's life becomes entangled with Courfeyrac's.
He puts papers in his briefcase and drives away
To save the world or go….
it's the same thing to me.
She sits in the bleachers with all the other freshmen, listening to the band play some fight song and watching the cheerleaders jump up and down and wave their stupid little pom poms.
After a lot of speeches (that Éponine could care less about), a 'special' song from the band, and a little cheer (Red, blue and a little bit of white, come on Rebels let's fight fight fight!), the freshmen are released to wander the hallways and find their classes.
It's been a little over a week since Charles Courfeyrac had moved in next door. Éponine hasn't spoken to him since their long afternoon of unloading boxes in the blistering Georgia sun. It's not that she doesn't like him, it's that socialization isn't her strong suit. She looks around herself at the anarchy that's erupted.
Freshman orientation looks like a fail on Rougenoir High's part. Four hundred freshmen let loose on a campus the size of a small college? Now who could have come up with that wonderful idea?
Éponine separates from her friend Cosette and heads off to find her homeroom. The halls swarm with loud, smelly teenagers and she suddenly feels very small and self conscious in the fact that she is alone in a crowded hallway.
Lovely.
Éponine has the daunting feeling that her High School years aren't going to be much better than her Middle School ones. That thought scares her to no end.
Suddenly someone taps her shoulder, rudely jarring her from her thoughts.
"Hey, Éponine, right?" The person asks. She turns and sees Courfeyrac's smiling face. Yeah, not today, buddy. She nods and keeps walking in the direction of the science building. He catches up to her.
"I'm sorry, are you looking for something over here?" She asks. Courfeyrac, as if he thinks he is some wonderful joker, starts looking around with a hand over his eyes.
"Nope. Just a certain beautiful mademoiselle." He smiles, and it is one of those perfect 'elementary school braces and crest strips all during middle school' smiles.
"Whatever the fuck a mademoiselle is, I am not one."
And she walks away.
I hang on every word you say, hey…
Somehow, she and Courfeyrac grow close in the last few weeks of summer. They play basketball in his driveway (although he constantly reminds her how bad she is although she doesn't need reminding, thank you very much). And, one Saturday, they take Courfeyrac's Dad's car and credit card and buy out the local grocery store's supply of candy. They invite the boys and Azelma over and it's the best night of her life.
They trudge the few miles to the local community pool (both agreeing that it was most certainly not worth the walk) and spend most of their time submerged in the dirty chlorine-infused water. For once, Éponine doesn't feel self conscious about the fact that she is the only one there in a worn-through one-piece. With Courfeyrac, she doesn't have to worry about anything.
Their days are numbered too soon, and the first day of the rest of their lives arrives.
Tall, dark and beautiful,
He's complicated, he's irrational…
Courfeyrac's mom drives them to school that first day, and when the two of them receive their schedules, they are blessed to have every class together. Éponine momentarily wonders if it's a mistake. She sneaks a look over to Courfeyrac and knows that she most certainly does not want it to be a mistake.
In their Pre-AP history class, Éponine gleefully discovers how soft Courfeyrac's inky curls are and, when their hawk-eyed teacher isn't looking, she takes the opportunity to braid his silky hair. He groans and grumbles. From behind him, Éponine can't tell how the usually smooth flirt is blushing uncontrollably whenever her thin fingers take ahold of his hair.
I watch Superman fly away,
you've got a busy day today
to save the world, I'll be around
when you come back down.
It's the end of September when Courfeyrac leaves school early. Éponine watches him step out of their last class, Honors literature, with a wary expression on his face. She worries for him.
Although, her worry is short-circuited by annoyance because he's left her alone on the bus (that motherfucker). She gets off and walks the annoyingly long walk to get to their block (a good half mile from the bus stop). She sees Courfeyrac's Mom's car in the driveway as well as a certain boy stepping out of the passenger seat.
Éponine stopped, feeling her heart drop a few inches in her chest.
Courfeyrac's hair was gone.
His beautiful hair.
Noooooooo!
"What have you done?" She shrieks, running over lawns to get to him. He laughs half-heartedly and runs his hand over his freshly buzzed head.
"Got a haircut, what does it look like?"
"But… Why? I mean, your hair was… Your hair." Éponine says incredulously.
"It's not like I wanted to." He murmurs something under his breath that Éponine fails to hear. It sounds suspiciously like, 'doctor's orders'.
"Doctor's orders? There's a disease for having too many girls obsessed with you?" She teases. Éponine always grasps the joking way out. She would rather leave the earth with a smile on her face because of a thousand lies in opposition with a frown because of the truth.
"Something like that," Courfeyrac smiles, but once she turns away he rubs his head once again and closes his eyes for a long time.
Something in his deep brown eyes has me singing,
he's not all bad like his reputation
and I can't hear one single word they say
It's their sophomore year.
Éponine sits on her porch with her book propped open on her knee. The air is growing cool, so she has to take advantage of the last bit of Indian Summer that Georgia has to offer. She is halfway through 'The Book Thief' when she hears a loud engine from up the block.
The sun blinds her for a moment and she manages to catch the glint of a truck's tailgate in the sun just as Courfeyrac messily pulls his dad's car into the drive. Éponine knows that his parents aren't home because of some meeting they had, but she didn't expect this to happen.
This being a girl with a pointy nose and slanted blue eyes. Her blond hair shows black roots that seem to grope her head. But Courfeyrac is touching her tenderly and she is smiling coyly.
Éponine can't tear her eyes away.
She sees how, once inside, they go directly to his bedroom. His window faces Éponine's house, so she sees him press the girl against the wall. She sees the two of them fall back on the bed.
And she hears her house phone ring.
She finally moves away from the disgusting display (that breaks her heart). She opens the old door to her house and calls, "I got it!" Just in case there's anyone there to hear her.
She reaches the ringing phone and answers with a curt, "Hello?"
"Hey." Someone says. Her heart softens the smallest bit. She can't exactly blame Courfeyrac for having one-night stands when she has a boyfriend of her own. The son of one of her father's associates, Gueulemer, is much nicer than any of the other men in her family's night life.
"Hey, Gue. What's up?" She asks pleasantly. There's a long pause on his line. "Shit." She groans. "What did you do?"
"Nothing!" He responds indignantly. "But my dad… Needless to say, we've just crossed the border. I thought you would know…"
"Don't have caller ID." She says, finding it hard to breathe. Since she's grown older, her father's men have been eyeing her differently than just 'Thernardier's kid daughter'. With Gueulemer there, she'd felt comfortable knowing that nothing would happen to her unless initiated by him.
"I'm sorry we have to end things this way, 'Ponine…" He says. She nods, forgetting for a moment that he can't see her.
"I love you." She finally says. (Something in her heart tells her that it's not necessarily true. Not when she has Courfeyrac anywhere near her)
"No you don't. You never did." Gueulemer says. She can hear the sad resignation in his voice and she feels immensely guilty.
"Gue…"
"It's fine. Have a nice life, Éponine." He says it without a hint of bitterness.
I hope someday he'll take me away and save the day.
It's later that night and with Brujon and Gueulemer running from the police, her father is on his edge. He smacks her when she drops her backpack too close to him.
"Daddy, I'm sorry," She gasps. He's actually wearing his wedding ring, and the little piece of gold stings her.
"Don't tell me you're sorry," He barks. She thinks she catches a glimpse of remorse in his eyes before he grabs her wrist with enough force to bruise and shoves her down the hallway.
She comes into her room with tears in her eyes and reaches for her best friend; the one that's there when Courfeyrac isn't.
The blade glints in her lamp light.
She barely draws any blood, but it's enough to ground her, to give her life. The pain is like a drug to her, it gives her relief, knowing that not all the pain she endures is induced by outside forces.
She forgets that her window is open. She also forgets that she and Courfeyrac made plans to sneak out that night. When she hears the whisper at her window she should have been less surprised.
"Éponine," Courfeyrac says, softly. She winces. Although his tone is quiet, it's deathly cold. Slowly she turns, guiltily caught in the act.
The stream of red is small but not stopping anytime soon.
"Courfeyrac, I can ex-"
"Don't." He says. She closes her eyes, expecting him to leave. However, she feels his warm hands on her arm, inspecting the cut. One of his fingers carefully presses down, cutting off the stream.
They avoid each other's eyes.
Even then, they end up asleep in a tangle of gangly, teenage limbs.
I watch Superman fly away,
come back, I'll be with you someday,
I'll be right here on the ground…
It's a Friday night football game that Friday. Éponine looses Courfeyrac the minute music starts playing. Some junior girl grabs his hand and pulls him into the growing crowd of grinding teenagers.
She ditches before the third quarter.
Since Courfeyrac was going to be her ride home, Éponine decides to brave her laziness and walk home. It's less than five miles and a fairly direct route if she cuts through the community baseball park.
Éponine likes to pretend that she's bullet proof, so she fails to see how the sketchy cut-through will be a bad idea.
She slides under the broken chain-link fence and promptly trips over a discarded baseball. Éponine curses and moves to stand up. She freezes when she hears the fence clang and a voice speak up from behind her.
"Smooth move."
"Montparnasse." She says, icily. Éponine struggles to her feet to see the senior leaning against the air, smiling lazily at her. "What do you want?"
"Just wanted to say 'hi' to a friendly acquaintance." He says, stepping closer. Her muscles tense, ready to force her into action at the first indication of his bad intentions.
"Well, 'hi'. If you'll excuse me, I have to be somewhere." Éponine snaps. She turns away only to feel his hand grab her shoulder and force her around. She jerks away, glaring at him."Don't touch me."
"Heard you and Gueulemer broke up."
Suddenly it all makes sense. Gueulemer had always been there to protect her when she needed it against the other members of the gang. Well, he was no longer in the equation. Éponine decides too late that it's time to run.
Her legs move too slowly, and she hasn't even made it to the pitcher's mound when Montparnasse tackles her to the ground and covers her mouth with his smooth, cold hand. "Oh, no you don't."
She cries the entire time, and when he's finished with her, he leaves her bruised and violated body there on the pitcher's mound. With shaking hands, she pulls her denim cut-offs up her legs (wet with her blood and his semen) and wraps her ripped shirt around her bare breasts. Éponine can't stand anymore and her legs crumble beneath her.
In the near distance, she hears the roar that signals the end of the football game. Not long after, she hears a familiar, deep laugh as well as a nasally feminine one approaching. Éponine tries to sit up but to no avail. Her arms shake beneath her and she falls back.
"Éponine?" She hears Courfeyrac ask. She refuses to acknowledge him, but she hears the distinct silence that lets her know that yes, he has seen the blood on her legs.
She is so ashamed.
He dismisses the girl (and he gives her shit about losing a potential notch on his belt) to take her home. He tells her that she has no reason to feel ashamed of herself. He will always be there for her.
She feels loads better by the time her head finally hits her sorry excuse for a pillow.
And you'll leave, got places to be
And I'll be okay…
She and Cosette remain distant friends throughout high school. Their junior year they have one class together (coincidentally, it's one of two classes that she doesn't have with Courfeyrac), and that class is more than enough to reignite their Middle-School-Best-Friendship.
They spend more Friday nights together (but Éponine's Saturdays are firmly reserved for time with Courfeyrac and Gavroche who has come to appreciate Courfeyrac as a proper father figure. Éponine doesn't have the heart to tell her little brother that Courfeyrac is not an angel) and laugh. They do girly things that Éponine would never vocally admit missing.
"We should go next door!" Says Cosette one day. Éponine's parents aren't home, and she and Cosette are lounging in her relatively neat bedroom. "Aren't you pretty good friends with Courfeyrac?"
Éponine winces at the thought of Cosette falling under Courfeyrac's man-whorish ways. "I'm not so sure about that." She looks back over to Cosette. "Why do you want to go so badly? Do you like him or something?"
"He's hot, I'm not going to lie," Cosette giggles. "I'm more into Marius Pontmercy."
"But he's…" Éponine shivers. "Freckly."
"Oh, shut up." Cosette flushes and hits Éponine's head lightly. "And anyway," Cosette leans close, a mischievous flicker in her usually innocent blue eyes. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Éponine asks, uncomfortable.
"Oh, come on, Mrs. Courferyac. The whole school thinks you're a couple!" Cosette sits back on her heels, still fixing Éponine with a waiting glare.
"We're just friends." Éponine insists. Her heart aches at that truth and she can't help her eyes from travelling to the window where his face had appeared the year prior. Cosette catches this and smiles.
"Sure you are." She sings.
I always forget to tell you…
They're arguing in the middle of the hallway over something trivial. Courfeyrac hasn't looked well in some time. He's grown pale and thin. His once bright eyes have dulled and he is much more reserved. Éponine worries deeply, even more so when she finally takes notice of his constantly-buzzed hair that hasn't grown an inch.
"God damn it, Charles!" Éponine finally screams, drawing unwanted attention from those too close to them. Courfeyrac frowns when she says his birthname. "Why won't you tell me what-"
And he kisses her.
It's a sudden clash of tongue and teeth, but they melt into each other. The two children who are as different as night and day. The cheerful flirt and the pessimistic criminal. There, in the school hallway, they become one.
He breaks them apart. His eyes are no longer dull, but Éponine doesn't like the new look that's there. It looks like something she's all too acquainted with. Pain.
"I'm sorry," his voice cracks. "I'm so sorry."
He runs.
I hope you don't save some other girl
Don't forget, don't forget about me,
I'm far away but I'll never let you go.
She doesn't hear from him until that weekend. He skipped school as if just to avoid her, and she thinks that it's definitely not like him to avoid a problem so trivial. Once again, Éponine lies to herself. She lets herself believe that she can shake it off with a casual dismissal.
But she never sees him to test it out.
She is sitting in her room on a Sunday night, trying to finish her AP American History assignment when her father busts into her room without a warning.
He grabs at her hair and pulls her into the main room. She screams and begs him to let go, but he does nothing of the sort. He throws her to the ground and her eyes catch sight of a pair of fancy, shiny shoes.
Éponine's heart stops as her eyes follow the shoes to legs and the legs to hips and the hips to a torso and a torso to a neck and a neck to a face… The face of someone she thought was gone from her life.
Montparnasse.
"Your little boyfriend pressed charges against me," He spits. A drop of saliva lands on her cheek and drips down. She stays there, afraid to move with both her exits blocked.
Oh, Courfeyrac. She thinks.
The first blow catches her in the jaw. And there are many, many more. When she gets a reprise of a few seconds, she takes a rattling breath and yells, "COURFEYRAC! CHARLES! HELP ME!"
The two men lunge at her again, and this time someone catches her around her throat with thick fingers and holds her squirming body to the ground. She grows limp. The corners of her vision turn black. Before she succumbs to the darkness, she hears Courfeyrac screaming her name.
I always forget to tell you,
I love you,
I love you forever.
She wakes up to the steady tone of a heart monitor. Azelma is sleeping in a chair beside her bed, and she can't help but feel slightly put off that Courfeyrac is nowhere to be seen. She struggles to sit up, causing a nurse to come into her room.
"Oh, honey! You're awake!" The kind woman says.
"… Courfeyac?" She croaks.
There's a flash of a discernible emotion across the lady's face before she asks, cautiously, "Is that the boy you were brought in with?"
"He's… Here?" Éponine doesn't want him to be here. Her Courfeyrac doesn't belong in this blank, white place. "Hurt?"
"No, sweetie-"
It's then that a red-eyed Cosette appears in the doorway. She runs to Éponine and wraps her arms around the girl's neck, sobbing into her shoulder. Éponine weakly pats Cosette's back.
"Oh, Éponine! You're going to be okay!" Cosette gasps. Their loudness awakes Azelma, who blinks sleepily and smiles at the now-awake Éponine. Then her smile falters and she glances at Cosette.
"Have you told her?" Asks Azelma.
Éponine frowns. "Told me what?"
Cosette shakes her head sadly and then turns to Éponine. She takes a tight grip on the brunette's hand. "He's gone."
"No." Éponine breathes. Cosette nods.
"Was it… dad?" She asks Azelma, who makes a face.
"No. You mean he didn't tell you?" Azelma asks. Éponine just shakes her head while her heart aches so desperately for Courfeyrac.
"Éponine… Courfeyrac has- er, had- leukemia. He died while you were asleep."
Go save the world, I'll be around,
forever and ever here,
I swear I'll be with you someday…
I'll be right here on the ground
when you come back down…
She sees Mrs. Courfeyrac at the funeral. Éponine can't bring herself to cry. It's not Courfeyrac in that hole, it's not.
The woman finds Éponine and hugs her tightly. "Thank you." She says into the girl's hair.
"For what?" Éponine asks. Mrs. Coufeyrac breaks their embrace and runs a gentle hand down Éponine's numb cheek (everything is numb when he's not there).
"When we moved here, he was only given a few months to live. He got through his junior year of High School." Mrs. Courfeyrac is crying as she says, "Éponine, you gave him a reason to live."
I always forget to tell you I love you…
I've loved you from the very first day.
I hope this makes ConcreteAngel aware of how depressing her original fictions are.