It was later that day and Eponine was in the middle of a conversation with Cosette. She had been telling her all about the newest additions to her small circle of friends here. "Courfeyrac is super flirty and borderline annoying but he's also sweet so you get this weird mixture of charmingly pesky. Combeferre is the responsible one. He'd probably be the designated driver if we all went drinking. But he's so sweet, always checking to make sure everything's alright. Then Bossuet is the nicest guy ever, a total klutz but he's a good sport about all his accidents."

"Wow, they sound like so much fun, Ponine. I'm so happy for you. Maybe some good friends are just the thing to help you get over Enjolras." Eponine stiffened. She debated telling Cosette what had happened yesterday.

"How's he doing anyways?" she asked, hesitantly.

Cosette sighed loudly. "He's uhh…not himself. He stays at home and Grantaire is there with him most of the time. We've all come by to try and get him to come out but he just ignores us. He…he's taking it badly." Eponine got the idea that her friend was trying to make sure Eponine didn't know how bad it was.

"He, uh, called me yesterday," she said, quickly deciding to tell her.

"What?" Cosette sounded, surprised. "What'd he say? What'd you say?"

"I may or may not have pretended to be my answering machine," Eponine confessed.

"Ponine!" Cosette groaned. "Why? You should've talked to him!"

"I couldn't, Zette. You don't understand. What would I have said to him anyways?"

"I don't know. But what'd he say?" Cosette asked. Eponine gave her a skeleton sketch of what he'd said. "Well, he apologized. That's good."

"Yeah, so?" it came out brusquely. "He feels guilty."

"What else did you expect from him?" Cosette demanded. "What was he supposed to say?"

"Zette, do you know why I left him?"

"Yes. Because he was a douche and ignored you," her friend replied, promptly.

"Well, yes. Because if he ignored me it meant he didn't really care that much about me, right?"

"Oh," Cosette said, slowly. "I see. He didn't say he loved you, did he?"

"No, he didn't," Eponine said, trying not to sound lonely and desolate.

"You know how he is with those things. He's not good with emotions and stuff," Cosette said.

"Are you defending him?" Eponine accused.

"NO! I'm just saying maybe he would've said more if you talked to him."

Eponine sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Maybe. But I don't know. I just couldn't."

"Ponine, I think…I'm completely on your side…just…he's really cut up about this. It's tearing him apart. We can all see it. He doesn't know what to do. He's absolutely completely lost. Lost Enjy is not an ok Enjy," Cosette said, carefully. "We're all really worried for him."

"Cosette. I'm sorry. I don't know how I can help. I mean, I just…you know I can't help, right?" Eponine said, bleakly.

"I know. I don't expect you to. You know me though, I have to tell you everything and well, yeah," Cosette said, lamely. She didn't know what she hoped to accomplish telling Eponine about Enjolras' downward spiral. She just felt her friend should know. "I don't know why I mentioned it."

"It's fine, Zette. I'm not mad. I just don't know what to tell you. He'll have to get over it," Eponine said, lightly.

"Ok, well, I better let you go then. You're doing alright, though?" Cosette asked.

"It's a little hard sometimes but no, I'm fine. And with all these new distractions I'll be right as rain."

"Ok, good. Take care of yourself. Talk to you later, Ponine."

"Ok, tell everyone I say hi. Love ya," Eponine said. She hung up and lay back on the bed. Cosette sounded really worried about him. But Cosette worried about everyone. She was like their mother, always looking out for them. And Enjolras was like her baby, always paying special attention to him. The only person who could really tell her how bad it was would be Taire. If he was worried then it was actually serious.

She called him up and made small talk with him for several minutes. They briefly mentioned Enjolras and she tried to sound flippant and unconcerned. "I know you still love him," he said. Eponine frowned.

"It'll take time, Taire," she sighed and quickly moved on to a new subject. She told Grantaire all about work, about her co-workers. "Yeah and Courfeyrac asked me out to coffee today. But then everyone else came, too. It was fun."
"Wow, getting asked out already, Miss Popular?" Grantaire teased.

"No, it's not as weird as it sounds. If you know Courfeyrac, you'd see he's just one of those guys who you instantly click with," she tried to explain.

"Hey now! No going and replacing me as best friend, ok? I won't hear of it. I'll come and punch the living daylights out of this Coorafac or whatever the hell his name is." She laughed lightly.

"I'd never dream of replacing you, Taire. Sheesh, so much for trust. They're all really great guys but you'll always be my bestie," she said.

"Well, I'm quite touched. Got tears in my eye and everything," he said it sarcastically but he really did feel that way.

"Oh, shut up. I was actually being serious," she said.

"Same here," he sighed. "Things are dull as tombs around here without you. Joly and Feuilly are busy with work. Marius and Cosette are icky and gooey as ever and Bahorel's out of town. And then of course Enjolras is wallowing in the depths of despair." Eponine cringed. The conversation had made its way back to him.

"He called me yesterday," she said, casually.

"Come again?"

"He called me. Yesterday."

"Son of a – And you didn't tell me?! This is vital information, Ep-o-nine." He emphasized each syllable of her name. "This means the little hermit is not in fact hermiting so much as I thought. So what happened? Did you let loose hell's fury upon him?"

"No, I made him leave a message. He said he was sorry and all that good shit," she said, bitterly.

"That's it."

"Yeah."

"I was expecting something a little more dramatic."

"I know, right?" Eponine tried to joke.

"Eponine," Grantaire's voice was suddenly serious. "If he asked you to come back would you?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Uh, because he treated me like shit and I'm not going to stand for it."

"Ok, good."

"Good?"

"Yeah, good. Don't give into him until he's proven he's got his shit together and can be the man you deserve. Right now, he's being a dumbass. He's staying in his room, refusing to come out. That's not the kind of man you need."

"Um, ok," Eponine said, a little confused by the sudden passion in his voice.

"Well, anyways, Ponine. I gotta go. Talk to you later. Mwah!"

"Ok, bye Taire. Love ya," she said.

On the other side of the country, Grantaire put his phone down and folded his arms, glaring at Enjolras who had once again come out his room. "Yeah, that's right. I told her not to get back together with you. I swear, Enjolras if you break her heart again I will break your face. Why the hell would you call her? Do you have any idea what that would do to her? Don't mess with her like that."

"I wasn't trying to mess with her. I just needed her to know I'm sorry," Enjolras said, defensively.

"So you apologized. What now? Like I said, I'm not going to let you two get back together until you man up."

"Shut up, Taire. Everything's under control."

"No it's not. You haven't done anything at all. Like I said, you want her, you gotta man up. Now what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go buy groceries."

"Groceries? What the – "

"Groceries! And get out of my house. I don't need a babysitter."

Grantaire watched his friend stalk out of the house, slamming the door. Oh, good. He'd pissed Enjy off again. Pissing off Enjy seemed get better results than any of the little pep talks from their other friends. Grantaire hoped he got his shit together and soon. He may have said he wouldn't let them back together but that didn't mean he didn't want them back together.

A/N: This chapter's short but *shrug.* Again a little filler chapter but Enjy's making progress. Yay! Next chapter's probably going to be another flashback. Sorry to halt the storyline but yeah...thanks everyone who left reviews, followed and favorited. Y'all are the greatest.