Chapter 8
Cosette sat on the floor of the cafe. There were no chairs because all the furniture had been used for the barricade. She sat in a kind of daze. She had never seen anyone die before and the shock of it terrified her. She thought back to how less than an hour ago, how Eponine and raced through Paris with her. It seemed so impossible that she was gone now.
A few minutes later, Enjolras walked into the cafe. He paced around the doorway distractedly, then began to walk out of the building again. Cosette looked up and called out to him. He turned and spotted her.
"Cosette, what are you doing here?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"I-I just came to talk to you," she replied, realizing after the words came out of her mouth how ridiculous they sounded.
"Oh, oh alright." He began to make his way towards the door again, lost in his own thoughts.
Cosette stood and ran towards him. "Enjolras!" she exclaimed, "Don't you want to hear what I came all the way across the city to say?"
"Of course I do," he reassured. But right now, I have to go check on things at the barricade, not enough rebelled today and I need to see to it that we have reinforcements, that the students are rallied. You understand, don't you?"
Cosette shook her head. She was frustrated at his dedication to his rebellion. "Enjolras, by the looks of it, you are defeated," she said bluntly. She was too tired for being anything but blunt and truthful. "Do you know that as a known revolutionary, a leader of a failed rebellion, you will be dragged off to jail or worse? For once, see common sense, give up and save yourself! Life is not all about revolution! Stop dreaming about something that will never, ever become a reality!"
She stopped, taken aback by her own words. Then she realized that they had come from her anger at realizing that France would always come before anyone else for Enjolras. Before himself and before her. She stared back at him, there was no hurt in his eyes, just determination to prove that he hadn't failed yet, as she said. He stormed out of the room and Cosette wished she could call him back, call her words back. But both were obviously beyond her reach.
