As I wake up, I feel stuffy and uncomfortable from sleeping in my clothes from yesterday. I peeled of the layers of my dress 'till I was in my undergarments. Searching around for a clean dress when my eyes suddenly fall on a package wrapped in brown paper sitting on my small stool in the corner of my room. How did that get there? I picked up the package gingerly and I felt the paper crinkle with the soft package that feels like clothing. I slowly pulled the strings on the package to reveal a gorgeous ivory green dress with small pink flowers snaking up on the bodice. It was elegant but simple. I walked up to the mirror and I held it up to me to see the dress complimented my chestnut hair. I quickly put it on to thank Enjolras for the lovely gift. I tied the last strings of my dress and quickly braided my hair and tied it with a ribbon.
I rushed downstairs to see Enjolras sitting at the kitchen table with Marius. "Oh, um Marius, what a pleasant surprise," I said through my teeth. Why was Marius here? I mean I love Marius as I brother but he seems to be much more often than usual.
"What are doing here?" I ask.
"You look lovely in that dress I bought you," Marius said getting up from the table and gathering up a few papers on the table and putting them in his simple brief case.
"Oh, Marius, you bought this? You don't need to, you should return it."
He grabbed my hand to stop me from heading back upstairs. " No! It is a gift, I wanted to give it to you because of the… troubling things that have happened in the last days, and I knew you would look beautiful," he explained. It was very sweet of him but I feel this going too far.
"Thank you but-"
"Are you ready to leave?" Marius questioned trying to get me off the topic. "Remember you promised me the day, yesterday at the cafe," He said excitedly like a child waiting to go on an outing.
Oh, right the outing. "Yes of course when will we be leaving?"
"Right now," He said excitedly.
"Oh, now! I promised Gavroche I would cut his hair this morning," I explained.
"Don't worry, he came a little before you came down, we told him to come tonight," Enjolras said smugly, saying the first thing this whole time.
"Marius can you excuse me for a few minutes I must speak with my brother," I said through my teeth eyeing Enjolras.
"Oh, of course, I will wait outside for you," he said.
I waited 'till he had closed the door behind him. "What the hell is going on!" I hissed at Enjolras.
He only rolled his eyes and shaking his head which rustled his blond curls. "I thought you could go on an outing with Marius."
"Why?"
"Chrissy, Marius is a nice boy and I think you know that too. I want you to give it a try. And I have a riot today so you should go do something instead of staying here and worrying about me, "
"Why are you so protective over me with everyone else, except Marius?!" I exclaimed.
"Chrissy, please I'll explain another time. Just please go," he said getting tired of the conversation. "Just for today, ok?"
"Fine," I grumbled.
Enjolras plastered a triumphant smirk on his face I wanted to dearly smack off his face. I grabbed the basket that was on the table that I could tell was intended for me, and stormed "Have fun," I heard Enjolras call from the kitchen. He is lucky I am a lady. If I wasn't, he would be dead right now. I opened the door to see Marius trying to fix his vest quickly. As I entered the hallway, he straightened up and grinned from ear to ear.
"Christine! Are you ready?" He said excitedly. I only nodded my head while plastering a smile on my face. He offered me his arm and we were off. "So I was thinking that we could start at the park. I heard there were some wonderful street performers, and it is a lovely day today, don't you think?" he questioned as we entered the busy streets.
"Of course, it sounds lovely."
"That was wonderful," I exclaimed as we walked away from the performers after they finished their entertaining parlor tricks for the small group surrounding them.
"Yes, it was very nice. Would you like to eat now?" Marius asked as we passed a small restaurant.
"Sure," I say. He leads me to a table where the waitress soon comes with small menus.
"Christine, how are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine, Marius," I say awkwardly.
"T-that's very good. How do you think your brother's revolution is going?"
"Well, as much as I know, I think it's going well. I think the only problem is finding more boys and it would be nice if you had actual weaponry," I joked. Marius chuckled as the waitress came for our orders. "May I have a salad, croissant, and a coffee?" I say.
"The same for me please," Marius said while handing back the pieces of paper. "I have another question. Why do you call us boys? I think we are old enough to be called men," he asked.
"Well, if you want the truth, I see you all as my immature older brothers," I teased. "You all joke around and tease each other, especially Grantaire," mentioning his name made my stomach flutter and I could have sworn I blushed slightly.
Marius must have taken notice and cleared his throat to get my attention. "Yes, Grantaire is one," He muttered. "You know in my opinion, I think your brother is over reacting about Grantaire, he doesn't oppose a threat to you," he said kindly.
"Finally, someone agrees with me!"
"I do have one more question, it may sound odd but where do you see yourself in five years Christine?" He said rather bluntly.
I was taken aback by the question. "What an odd question Marius."
"I know but please answer."
"Well, I assume this revolution will be over and hopefully we have won, and maybe Enjolras will be to busy courting or being married to protect me so much. I hope he would be married by then. I would love to be an aunt," I say.
"But what about you? How do you see yourself then?"
"Um. Well, I desperately want to go out a explore Europe and maybe I know it sounds silly but I would love to maybe go to America, and maybe if I meet a man that I love I might marry but five years is long from now. What about you Marius?" I ask.
He seems to have his answer already prepared and practiced strangely. "Well, really I do want to settle down, and have children," As he spoke his hand came closer and closer to mine. "And maybe we could discover a wonderful life still in Paris or London," By that time, his fingers were touching the tips of my fingers. I wanted to pull away but I was frozen being so nervous. My body became rigged and stone cold as he continued speaking. Was he referring to me when he said we? Does he really want to marry me and by hell, he thinks I want to stay here and not explore but stay home and be his wife?! But I could be reading this wrong. Yes, that must be it. He must know I don't see him as anything else but a friend or even a brother.
Before his hand could go any farther up mine. A chipper voice interrupted him. "Marius, is that you?" Jehan called from across the street. Seeing that we heard him he started to walk over to us dragging someone with him.
"Look, it's Jehan and-"
"Grantaire," Marius muttered.
"Christine, how are you?" Jehan asked.
"I'm wonderful," We kiss each others cheeks and hug. I haven't seen him in awhile seeing that he doesn't go to all the meetings and he is always at the schools library looking at poetry, but out of the all the boys, Jehan and I understand each other the most. He is a hopeless romantic unlike the other boys. I look over at Grantaire who is smirking over at me. All of a sudden, the waitress returns with our orders.
Seeing that we had friends with us, she asked "Would you like me to bring more chairs for your friends?"
Marius and I both said at the same time; my answer being positive and his negative. I looked over at Marius who was pleading with his eyes to me to agree with him.
"Now Marius, we have learned since we were small that we should always share, and today we will be sharing Christine," Grantaire called. He nodded his head toward the waitress to go ahead and get a few more chairs and plates.
"Fine, I guess," Marius grumbled. Two new waiters came out with new chairs and our original waitress came out with new plates and silverware. As they set down the chairs, they put both chairs in between Marius and I on both sides. Jehan sat on my left but the right was free. I sat and I could see Grantaire heading over to the chair but Marius moved his plate to the the empty area just before Garantire sat. They glared at each other with an awkward silence. Grantaire decided not to fight, just rolled his eyes and sat at Marius's old seat. Marius looked extremely smug as the waitress took her new customers orders.
"We have already eaten but I think I have room for a coffee and an strawberry pastry," Jehan said.
"I'll just take the best liquor you have and bring the whole bottle please," Grantaire said to the waitress dead serious. She rolled her eyes and walked off to get their food.
"Liquor already, Grantaire? It's only noon," I exclaimed.
"Why not have fun as early as you can dear," He said as he winked at me.
"Christine, you look beautiful in that dress it reminds me of this poem I had read a few days ago what was it called? Ivory… day, no it was-" Jehan started to mumble going through his list when Marius interrupted him.
"Yes, I gave it to her as a gift," he said emphasizing that he bought it in Grantaire's direction, but Grantaire ignored him because his drink had just come.
"Thank you," He said right before he started to down his drink straight from the bottle ignoring the glass the waitress set in front of him.
"I think that is it for us. Thank you," Jehan said giving her the money for both his and Grantaire's orders. Marius also paid for our meals and we dug in.
"So what are you doing out today?" I asked Jehan.
"Oh, just going to the library so Grantaire could study for a test,"
"Grantaire, I thought you dropped out of school?" Marius said snidely. Why was Marius being so rude?
"Marius, unlike you I have my charm and to help me not grand daddy's money like you," he scoffed. Marius tensed which rattled the table slightly. If looks could kill, both of them would have turned each other to ash.
"Id like for you to know that everything I have I have earned myself," Marius spat.
"Odd you still don't have a job,"Grantaire retorted. Before Marius could do anything I grabbed his hand to distract him. This distracted both boys as they looked at me, Marius with glee and slight smugness, and Grantaire that almost had jealousy radiating off of him. After that we all fell silent and we all quickly ate our food so we could leave before the two could kill each other. As I finished my small meal, I looked over at Marius who was looking down at his meal as he brutally stabbed the last of his meal with his fork. As I finished the last of my coffee, I heard Marius get up loudly and cleared his throat. "It was nice seeing you Jehan…. Grantaire. I think it's time to go, Christine," Marius said while grabbing my hand and pulling me up from my seat.
I could only wave as Marius pulled me away from the table from the confused Jehan and a scowling Grantaire drinking through his bottle.
Chapter! And this one is longer! now that im in summer I will update more frequently! Thank you guys for the support and all of you that offered to beta read! And id like to thank my new beta reader Lesmizmaniac! There the greatest. The next few chapters the story is really going to get going and I just got to tell you guys part two of this story is going to epic! I hope you are enjoying this story and this chapter. Please review I like to know what you guys think of it and I try my hardest to reply back!
