"Grantaire I swear to God. Shut the fuck up"

"What? I just told you that you should get your own apartment..."

It was true; she did need her own apartment. Living with Grantaire had been great for the past two years, but it was becoming impossible. His paintings filled his room; the living room had three easels, multiple unfinished sculptures and drawings, sketches and paint anywhere you could look. Especially on the floor. They didn't bother on cleaning it anymore. It was useless. Even Éponine's room had some paintings, and a box full of painting supplies. They had talked about this. This year Grantaire would need her room as a studio since he would take more classes and start to sell some of his art. Mostly commissions, but whatever, money to go by. So she needed to move out. She didn't have a problem with that. The problem was that she couldn't find a nice flat for a cheap price and with an acceptable flatmate. She lived close to her university and job there, and everything that looked good for a nice price was outside the 5th District. Yeah, she could move there, but it wouldn't work because of the time it would take her to get to her classes and job. It would be hell. So she was delaying it as much as she could. She'd figure out what to do eventually, she always did.

"Move your ass, we're gonna be late" she grabbed her bag and keys and made sure Grantaire was following her. It was Friday evening, so everyone agreed to go to the Café Musain to get something cool to help survive the hot August weather. They walked all the way to the café; it was merely 15 minutes away. She would usually go on her bike, since Grantaire tended to be there all the time, drinking and drawing, drawing and drinking. He would say it helped his art. She would say he was a drunken man. He would say both statements were true. It was the usual place to meet, since it was relatively close to everyone's houses. It had been Enjolras who had discovered the Café when he was protesting against... who knows what. He went to lots of protests and was actively a speaker on those, earning a reputation. Éponine had gone to a few but she didn't like it much. She wanted to stay as far away as possible from the police. She only went because Grantaire dragged her with him because he had a huge crush on Enjolras even if he would never admit it. Sometimes she wondered if he even knew he had a crush on him. What an idiot.

Éponine walked besides him with her headphones on. He never minded, was used to it. They had been best friends since high school and were used to each other's shit. But some days, like today, he would annoy her to talk.

"He will be coming today, you know?"

"Who?" she sighed, taking off her headphones.

"Marius. Remember him? Tall guy, baby face, wouldn't hurt a fly?"

"Shut up dude. Stop it."

"What? You'll have to talk to him sooner or later. And believe me; we all need it to be fucking soon. You confessed your profound love for him and he rejected you, so what? It happens all the time to me."

"That's because you fall in love with everyone and tell them right away, you moron. And shut the fuck up about it. I don't mind if I see him, I've just been busy this past weeks. So please, stop acting like I still care."

She lied. Of course she still cared. She still felt terrible about it. Turns out Marius had been nice to her because he was nice to everyone. What a cinnamon roll he was. So her misreading the signs were a huge deal to her, even if he brushed it off and they were still friends. It's not like she didn't want to see him. It was that she didn't know how to act around him anymore. Like nothing ever happened? It was awkward...

Soon both were in front of the Café and could see Enjolras and Combeferre openly discussing about... who cared. She sank in the couch while Grantaire got some drinks. It was his turn to pay anyways. She sat next to Jehan, who immediately stated making small braids on her hair. She liked it, it was relaxing. She never took them off while she could. They started talking about the latest book they had read, since they were in class together and it was what they usually did every week. Everybody else started to come a while after that. Bahorel came with his sports bag, right after his gym session. Feuilly came with knitting needles and wool to make a Ravenclaw scarf. A commission he had on his Etsy page. Joly, Bossuet and Musichetta came all laughing like they used to do. And Courfeyrac, well, he came phone in hand texting his current interest, nothing new. Eventually they were all laughing, telling her how much all of them had missed her and talking about everything and nothing, having cold beers and ice teas. It was home to them, the small Café.

It wasn't until about an hour later that Marius finally showed up. He was all smiles as usual and sat next Courfeyrac, also as usual. Seemed like living together was not enough for them. Éponine nodded when he looked at her, and he waved from across the other couch. Still felt weird, but she was getting there. She kept glancing at him, and he kept glancing at the door. She was nervous. It felt weird not to sit next to him or talk to him about their life as they used to do. She could also feel that everyone else was throwing glances at her. Even Enjolras, who never took part on the gossip, was staring at her.

"Brilliant" she thought. She excused herself to the bathroom. Musichetta came right after her and punched her on the arm.

"Fuck! What is wrong with you?"

"You need to talk to Marius, is driving everyone insane and I'm tired of it."

"Why is everyone telling me what to do? It's none of your business."

Musichetta snorted. "Look, we care about you. It's just...it's been two months since you exchanged more than 10 words to each other. We miss you guys. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad alright? But I need to ask. Are you still in love with him?"

"It wasn't love, I just liked him" Éponine rolled her eyes.

"Ok, do you still like him?"

Éponine frowned, crossing her arms. Did she still like him? She didn't know. Sure, she missed him, and she missed going to his place to watch movies and throw popcorn at Courfeyrac too. She also missed how he would randomly text her about a strange dog he'd seen at the park and the 20 pictures that would accompany such text. But she realised she hadn't been yearning for him like she had been for the past year. She had been sad. Replaying the same sentence over and over in her head. "I feel very flattered Éponine, but I only see you as a friend..." She didn't miss him in a spiritual-emotional-whateveryouwanttocallit-way. She missed his friend that was all. She rubbed her eyes, sighing. She didn't like him anymore. At least the feeling was different.

"I don't think so..."

"Then woman up and talk to him. Tell him. It'll stop making things weird you silly peach"

Éponine smirked. "You always give the weirdest compliments 'Chetta"

"That's because I'm weird, girl" she smiled. "Come on; time to talk to baby face"

Éponine groaned but let herself get dragged out the bathroom. She saw that Marius was alone ordering something, and before she could decide if she was going to talk to him now Musichetta had already pushed her in his direction giving her thumbs up and mouthing "bring me a Diet Coke". She snorted. Fucking 'Chetta. How couldn't she love her? She approached Marius carefully, like she would approach a deer in the headlights.

"Hey, Marius?" he turned around and smiled to her shyly. "Can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure... Is it about-"

"Yeah"

"Oh, alright. Go on then..." he scratched his neck.

Éponine took a deep breath. "I've been thinking - just now, really - and I realised that... uhm... that whatever I felt for you, you know, in the past, I'm not sure I feel it anymore. And I was wondering... if we could go back to normal... because I really miss hanging out with you and... Are you listening to me?"

He was, in fact, not listening to her. He was staring at the door as if he had seen an angel. She turned around to face the door too. There, at the door frame, stood a blonde girl in a green dress. She was looking around until her eyes faced her and she waved with the brightest smile Éponine ever saw. She frowned, completely lost, until she noticed that Marius waved back and smiled so happily it hurt her. How many days she had wished to be the reason for that smile? She had lost count.

"Yeah, sorry." He scratched his forehead. "Yeah, I would really like for everything to go back to normal. Friends, right?" he smiled at her, but it wasn't even close to the smile he had gifted that girl.

"Friends." He hugged her briefly before running towards the door to meet the girl. She rolled her eyes, ordered the Diet Coke and threw it at Musichetta before sinking again next to Jehan, glancing towards the pair at the door. Eventually Marius brought the mysterious girl where everyone was seated and offered her his seat. Éponine observed her. She seemed comfortable enough among the gang to hug most of them. Even Enjolras was smiling at the girl. That meant everyone already knew her. That explained why everyone kept telling her to talk to Marius and not make things awkward. Marius had a girlfriend and all of them knew it.

She noticed the girl was staring at her, smiling. Éponine reached out, offering her hand.

"Since nobody cared to tell me about you, I'll introduce myself. I'm Éponine."

The blonde girl smiled and shook her hand. "I know, everyone has told me wonders about you, especially Marius. He told me how such great friends you are. I'm Cosette."

"Did he also tell you that I wasn't coming because I confessed my crush on him and he rejected me over a text message?" she let go of her hand and got comfortable again on the couch.

Cosette gasped loudly. "He did not! Marius!" she looked astonished. "Those things need to be told face to face!" Marius blushed and mouthed "Sorry" to both of them.

Éponine laughed at the sight, laughed for real in a long time. It felt good.

"It's alright. I'm over it, I think. Can we just never again talk about it?"

"Dude, you brought it up this time!" Grantaire said.

"Then now I'm bringing up the time you fell in love with a girl on your class only to find out she was your cousin after you slept with her!"

"You just made that up!" Grantaire yelled.

"I need to raise the level of embarrassment here dude! Bear with me!"

Everyone started laughing like crazy. Bossuet fell of his chair. Combeferre choked on his drink. Feuilly dropped the needles. Even Enjolras snorted. Everything felt like always did. They were the only people at the Café, and thank God, or else they would have been kicked out for being so loud. God, she had missed these guys.

"So tell me, Cosette. How long have you been dating Marius?"

Everyone went silent. Marius stared at her wide eyed. Cosette frowned.

"Marius and I are not dating."

"Oh. Sorry. I thought..." she said, pointing at them both. "Never mind."

"We met at the park." Marius explained. "She dropped her handkerchief and I picked it up for her"

"I had just moved here from England, so I got lost on my way home and ended up in the park. Marius came with my handkerchief and sat with me for a while. We talked and I gave him my number. A few days after, he introduced me to your friends. Didn't they tell you?"

Éponine stared at Grantaire, who looked away. "No, no one told me about you."

"Oh..." Cosette looked down. "Well, I should get going. My Papa is picking me up here." She said, standing up. "It was so nice to finally meet you 'Ponine."

"Yeah, same" Cosette waved goodbye before leaving the Café.

Everyone was silent for a while, not knowing what to say.

"Ép, listen-" Grantaire said, but couldn't say much more, since Éponine was already up and storming out with her headphones on blasting heavy metal.