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Chapter 10

Eponine avoided Marius for the rest of the week, slipping further into her depression. Montparnasse's words had hurt her deeply. She didn't even bother trying to avoid her father, who continued to sell her out. Nor did she fight him. After the first year, she had basically given up fighting since it never got her anywhere.

Eponine had truly grown to hate her life. The abuse was unending, Azelma had left at last, just a couple days after the meeting at the café, and Marius remained blind to her feelings.

As she stood on the bridge overlooking the Seine, she gripped the railing. She wondered what drowning felt like. Could she do it? Could she end the pain and suffering? Would it be fast, or slow and painful? Either way, death somehow seemed better than the painful, worthless life she was living.

She shivered, and gripped the railing tighter, her knuckles white. She lifted one foot, then the other, beginning to climb up. She hesitated a moment more. She thought of Marius. Maybe there was still a chance…

"Why the hesitation?"

She was so shocked that she let go of the railing and fell backwards onto the bridge, a strong arm catching her before she hit the ground. She blinked and stared into a pair of dark eyes, momentarily thinking it was Marius. But it wasn't. Still, she knew those eyes from the ABC meeting she'd attended with Marius.

"Enjolras?" she asked.

"Yes. You're Marius' girl, aren't you?"

Eponine laughed, a harsh laugh, not a joyous one. A laughter that was tainted with pain and bitterness. "Don't be ridiculous. He's just a friend."

"Eponine, isn't it?" Enjolras asked.

"Yes, monsieur," Eponine replied as she regained her balance.

"Marius has been worried about you. It's been a little over a week since he last heard from you," Enjolras commented.

Eponine looked down. "I've been busy."

"I can see that," Enjolras replied dryly. "Busy contemplating drowning yourself?"

Eponine looked up at him sharply. "You have no clue what my life is like!" she snapped.

"Well, if it's so bad, why just stand there staring at the river for a solid fifteen minutes? Why not just go through with it and end it?" Enjolras challenged. "Go ahead; I won't try to stop you. Just be sure that it's the right choice." He leaned against the railing, gazing at her intently.

She glanced back at the Seine, and realized that what Enjolras had been implying in his words was true. There was no way she could really go through with it. She was too afraid to just end her life. To afraid of the unknown world that existed after death.

She glared at him. "I guess I'll see you some other time, Monsieur Enjolras," she said, coldness in her voice.

"Of course, Mademoiselle Eponine. I have the feeling that you will be accompanying Marius to other meetings at the café in the future.

With a snort of contempt, she turned and stalked off back to the inn that her family had taken over entirely a few years back. Just who did he think he was?

"Goddamned revolutionary interfering with my choices," she hissed as she walked through the streets of Paris. "Lucky that I didn't ring his neck for that!"

She wasn't entirely sure why she suddenly hated him, he had just stopped her from killing herself, after all, but she did anyway. Just because he had been right, and had proven her wrong. And she hated being proven wrong.

It irritated her and infuriated her like nothing else. And the fact that he had just proven her wrong, and about her own life, too… She hated it. She sighed and paused for a moment at the door to the inn. Perhaps there was a bench somewhere that she could sleep that night instead.

She shivered from the cold, and changed her mind. At least in the inn there was a roof over her head.

"Have a nice walk, 'Ponine?" asked an all-too familiar voice as she entered the inn.

"Shut up and go die in a hole, 'Parnasse," she hissed, heading for the stairs.

"My, my, someone needs to calm down and be put in her place," Montparnasse replied with a smirk, walking over to her and grabbing her around the waist.

That was the last straw. She whipped around and punched him, straight in the nose, as hard as she could. He instantly let her go, taking several steps back, clutching his nose as blood began to gush from it.

Montparnasse stared at her in shock for a moment before glaring, sending her a look that clearly said this isn't over.

Eponine simply smiled, tossed her head, and stormed off up the stairs to the room that was now hers and hers alone.

She sighed as she lay back on her bed staring at the ceiling. It then occurred to her that in one month's time, it would be May. Her birthday was in May. She would be seventeen then.

She thought back on the last ten years. Ten years since Cosette had been taken. Only Ten years had been needed for life to be turned upside down. She had been seven when Cosette left the Sergeant of Waterloo.

Oh, how quickly things change. I'll bet she's off wearing beautiful dresses and being as pampered as I once was. And here I am, dressed in rags and living the life that she once lived. What goes around comes around, I suppose. But when will it be my turns to live?

She felt tears slipping down her cheeks as she fought back the urge to cry. How had she come to this? Why had this happened? Why had everything suddenly gone wrong?

Her nails dug into her palms until they bled. Marius. Marius had been worried, according to Enjolras.

Enjolras. Why had he bothered speaking to her? What was she to him? They'd barely even been introduced to each other at the meeting. What had been the point of that? But then again, he was friends with Marius, and if Marius was worried about her, that was probably enough of a reason for Enjolras.

She made up her mind. Tomorrow she would see Marius again, let him know that she was all right. He had been worried about her. Maybe, just maybe, he did love her and there was a chance for them to be together after all.