Chapter 12. One Month Later.
Eponine taped the last of Azelma's boxes up. She was moving to the campus dorms.
"That is the last of it." Eponine said. Azelma stood and looked around the room, her side was now bare.
"I am going to miss this place." She said turning to her sister. The two girls both started laughing. Azelma picked up a box.
"Come on, let's get all of this stuff to my new dorm." Eponine looked at all the boxes.
"How are we getting all of these to the university?"
"Doesn't your friend have a car?" Azelma asked. Eponine nodded biting her nail. She thought Marius did.
"I could go ask." She said. Azelma smiled at her sister.
"You would like that." Eponine just looked at her sister.
"Come on I know that you like him. Like, like him, like him." Eponine pushed her hair behind her ear.
"No, I don't." she said. It was a complete and total lie. She was in love her handsome and smart neighbor.
"You are such a liar." Azelma said. "You just put your hair behind ear. That's your tell." Azelma said with a smirk
"Fine maybe I like Marius a little." She said defeated.
"Are you going to go ask if we can borrow his car or not?" Azelma said. Eponine sighed and stood up.
"Fine I will go and ask Marius. If he's even here. It's Friday and I think Marius has classes today." Eponine went and knocked on Marius's door. He answered,
"Hey Ponine, what's up?" Eponine preferred her friends to call by that. She didn't have many friends.
"Hey," Eponine said smiling sweetly. "I was wondering if I could possibly borrow your car. Azelma is moving to the university today and we have no way of getting her things there." Marius gave Eponine a guilty look.
"I'm sorry Eponine I sold my car." Eponine started chewing her nail again.
"Damn. Maybe we could take the train."
"You could take a taxi." Eponine gave him an are you serious look. "Sorry, I wish I could help. I got to go I have a huge exam on Monday."
"Good luck with that." Eponine said before walking back to her apartment.
"Azelma we are going to have to find another way to get your stuff to the university."
Azelma groaned and brought her head down on one of the boxes. Six hours and several bus trips later Eponine and Azelma placed the last of the boxes in Azelma's new dorm. Eponine turned to her sister.
"God. This is going to be so good for you." Azelma walked over and hugged her sister tightly.
"I'm going to miss you. Remember I'm always a phone call away." Azelma said. Eponine laughed.
"I'm the one who is supposed to say that." Eponine smiled. "Besides I'm going to try to get my own life."
"I'm glad." Azelma said. Eponine looked down.
"I better get back." Eponine said. She hugged her sister one last time before exiting the dorm. Eponine walked towards the bus stop. She would try so hard to get that life a life of her own. Preferably a life with a very attractive student.
Meanwhile Marius was walking to the Musain to meet with his friends, the sun was just about to set casting long shadows across the street. Suddenly he heard a noise behind him and turned just in time to see the top of a dirty blond head duck behind a dumpster. Marius rolled his eyes, he knew who was hiding behind the dumpster. He opened up his back pack and pulled out a bag of chips.
"Oh what am I going to do with this extra bag of chips? I guess I'll just have to throw them away…" Suddenly a small head poked out from behind the dumpster.
"I'll take them."
"Hey Gavroche." Marius said as the young boy came out from behind the dumpster. "Haven't seen you around lately." Gavroche took the bag of chips from Marius.
"I've been busy." Gavroche said smugly opening the bag and pulling out a chip. About 11 months ago Marius and his friends had started noticing the boy hanging out around the bar. They noticed that he was very skinny and mal-nourished, so they began to leave food for him and pretty soon Gavroche was constantly coming to the bar and the meetings. He was a smart kid who seemed to know almost all you needed to know to live on the streets of DC. Marius continued walking with Gavroche.
"Gavroche why do you stay on the street?" Marius asked the boy, everyone wondered what had caused the boy to take to the streets.
"Because it's fun." Gavroche said nonchalantly, Marius chuckled. "Plus, I don't want to go home." They stopped outside of the bar.
"You know Gavroche, if you ever get tired of the streets any of the guys are willing to let you stay with them."
"Thanks, but I think I'll stick to the street." Gavroche said tipping the end of the chip bag up over his mouth.
"So what's on the docket for tonight's meeting?" Gavroche asked handing the now empty chip bag to Marius. Marius shrugged pushing the door of the bar open.
"We're about to find out little man." Marius followed Gavroche in closing the door behind him. Technically they weren't supposed to have the kid in the bar but the owner didn't really care.
"Gavroche good to see you buddy." Coufeyrac said coming over to the boy.
"Coufeyrac, you still owe me for that little favor." Gavroche said crossing his arms.
"I know and I have your payment right here." Coufeyrac said pulling out a king size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from his back pack and handing it to the boy. Gavroche just looked at him.
"With what I had to go through. You owe me much more." He said flatly. Coufeyrac sighed and pulled out his wallet and handed the boy a ten.
"Now are we even?"
"Yep." The boy said walking away. Combeferre and Marius both witnessing this turned to Coufeyrac.
"What did you have him do?" Combeferre asked. Coufeyrac sighed,
"You remember my ex-girlfriend Wendy." Both of them nodded. "Well long story short. She didn't understand the term, we're over. So she was coming over for a Romantic dinner and to talk about living together."
"Just get to the point." Marius said.
"She hates kids, I convinced Gavroche to play my younger brother who was coming to live with me." Marius and Combeferre both nodded. "It worked and now she is out of my life for good." Coufeyrac said smiling.
"Good for you." Combeferre said before walking away.
"Coufeyrac you are a piece of work." Marius said to his friend. Coufeyrac just shrugged. Both students then turned their attention to the meeting.
Several hours later after the meeting was over Gavroche was walking along the empty streets of DC. People would say that it was dangerous for a eleven year old boy to be walking out and about the nation's capital in the middle of the night. But Gavroche didn't give a damn, he went were he wanted to go and no one ever stopped him. As he was walking he kept fingering the ten dollar bill that Coufeyrac had given him. Suddenly he say one of those 24 hour stores. He walked to it and opened the door. The clerk behind the counter eyed him warily. Gavroche nodded at him and proceeded to get two loafs of bread, a huge bottle of water, and three oranges. As he was paying the clerk looked at him.
"What are you doing out at his time of night kid?" He asked.
"I'm living my life buddy." Gavroche said before grabbing his food and ran out of the store. He had also grabbed the take a penny, leave a penny jar while the clerk wasn't watching. Gavroche stopped running six blocks later and was soon making his way to his humble abode, which happened to be the FDR memorial. It was a really good place to stay, very closed off and since government cut backs and the night guards were laid off, it had become the home of about twelve of the hundreds of homeless children of DC and Gavroche was their leader. He was a spunky, smart kid who was able to adapt very quickly to street life after running away from home. Leaving home was the best thing that he had ever done. Gavroche loved the streets. When he entered the memorial he gave a sheer whistle and twelve other children jumped down from the now dry waterfall.
"Look at what I got men!" he said holding out the food he had purchased. "Tonight we feast!" All the children cheered with joy, soon all of the bread had been distributed and all the children were cheerfully digging in. While they ate Gavroche sat at the top of the wall and looked towards DC. Out there in a bad neighborhood which he had never gone back to his older sister sat in a half empty room, his parents were dealing drugs from the living room, and his other sister was unpacking in her new dorm room. Yes, Gavroche was living the best life he could.
Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated for awhile I've been so busy lately. God so stressful. Upside 11 days till Les Mis is out and I saw the Hobbit last night. So things are getting less crazy now so ya, until next time :)
