Chapter 14

This is dedicated to my Granny Gillen, who passed away at home on Monday aged 92. I already miss you so much Granny, I love you, and I always will. You're away from all the sickness and pain now Granny, you can finally find some peace. We love you, and we'll never stop loving you. I'll see you again someday, not for a while, but I promise you, I'll see you smile again.

R.I.P Gráinne Gillen, 27th August 1920 - 1st April 2013.

...

"Nicolette?"

"In the back room!"

Éponine swept through the small shop to the back room, which doubled as an office and a place to sew.

"Well, how was it?" grinned Éponine.

"How was what?" Nicolette asked innocently.

"The Opera! With Monsieur Enjolras!"

"Oh, so you're back to calling him Monsieur? I thought you were over that. Or maybe just when you're drunk," laughed Nicolette.

"Stop avoiding the question!" she demanded, picking up the white dress on the table, and the design sketch beside it.

"It was good," smiled Nicolette shyly.

Éponine put the dress on a hanger, and clipped the design and contact details of the client to the hanger.

"That's great," she smiled back, equally as pleased that Enjolras and Nicolette seemed to be going well. "When is she collecting this?"

Nicolette nodded. "She's collecting it this afternoon."

"It's lovely, hard to make though. Those ruffles were nearly impossible," Éponine shuddered. "Who is this for? You never said," she smiled casually, until she read the contact details for the client and realization dawned on her face, along with a grimace. "The lark, why didn't I see that coming?"

"What do you mean?"

"She always has to have the best of everything! She always has to have better than everyone else! She always get's everything...everyone. And I'm stuck here with nothing and no-one, catering to the woman who ruined my life, and took everything away!" she huffed, burying her head in her hands.

"Éponine, she'll be here for a half hour, at the most. You can stay back here. What did she do that was even so bad?" enquired a confused, and curious, Nicolette.

Éponine sighed; she had told Nicolette nothing about Marius. She decided that this girl was one of her only friends, and that she'd have to own up to her sooner or later.

"When I was very young, my parents ran an inn. I had a loving family, a happy life, and an innocent childhood. A young girl, a Cosette stayed with us. Her mother paid my parents to look after her, and they did. But, she did all the chores, and my parents treated her like dirt. I was only young, I didn't know any better, so I did the same. I know that's no excuse, but still. Then, a rich man came and took her away. My parents turned their hatred to me, and the inn went downhill. As time went on, we were thrust into poverty, by parents' stupidity. My father ordered me to thieve in the day, and then he'd let his disgusting gang have me in the night. I lost my innocence at a very young age, and I had no choice. If I objected to anything, or talked back, I'd be beaten. I was miserable, and seriously considering taking my own life. I had nothing to live for, I had no-one to live for, I had no purpose, and no way out. But then, I met a boy. Marius Pontmercy," she smiled at his name, despited recent events. "He was the only man ever to be nice to me, and he was a light in the dark, a way out of my misery. I quickly fell in love with the only kindness ever shown to me. For years, we were friends. I loved him, but I was sure he wouldn't want a street rat like me. And then Cosette turned up. Cosette, from my childhood. Her leaving had been the turning point in my life, when it had all gone wrong. I was edging further away from my father and his gang each and every day, and things were started to pick up. But Marius fell in love with Cosette at first sight. Who wouldn't, if they associated with an ugly, stupid, thieving street rat like me, constantly? I led him to her, I brought them together, and I carried their love notes back and forth," she shook her head, tears starting to form. "I was deeply in love, I would have done absolutely anything for him! And I did...I fought with him at the barricades, I couldn't face the thought of uncertainty, him getting hurt, a world without him. I stood in his harm's way, and I stopped the bullet from piercing him. He thought I was dead. I thought I was dead. But I got better. He told me he loved me, and I believed him. I'm certain now, that he didn't. Because that very day, he ran off to elope with none other than Cosette. She took away, and continues to take away, every glimmer of light in my life. And now, I'm preparing to give her the dress that I made, so that she can marry the man that I love!"

Nicolette had already pulled Éponine in for a hug before she ended her story.

"I didn't know...You stay here, and I'll deal with her when she comes, is that alright? We'll talk about this after work, yeah?"

Éponine nodded, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, and rubbing them on her dress. Nicolette brought the dress out to the front, so she was ready when Cosette came.

The day came and went, without much fuss. An elderly lady came in looking for a dress for her grand-son's wedding, and a young lady came in to pick a dress to wear to the opera.

Nicolette was on her break, and Éponine was tidying up the rack after the young woman going to the opera, when Cosette came in. Outside the shop, Éponine noticed a carriage, and Cosette was followed by two ladies around her age, one with brunette hair, and one with black. Éponine had no idea where Cosette would have friends from, but she let it pass.

Éponine walked over to her, and went to talk to her as she would a normal customer, but Nicolette quickly cut across in front of her.

"Good afternoon, Madame, how may I help?" Nicolette smiled sweetly.

"You're aware that I'm here to pick up my dress, and I'm here for dresses for my bridesmaids also."

Éponine looked the two girls up and down. She'd assumed she wouldn't have any friends, and was definitely curious. But all her attention was taken by the blonde in the middle of the group, as she tried not to reach out, grab her, and scream at her.

Even listening to Cosette talking about her wedding was making Éponine feel angry, and her fists were clenched.

"I'll sort you out with your dress, and Éponine here will sort out your bridesmaids, is that alright Madame?"

Cosette nodded, even though the look on her face proved she'd rather put Éponine through the saddening ordeal of discussing wedding plans with her.

Cosette and Nicolette went to the left of the shop, where her dress was hanging, while Éponine and the two girls proceeded to the rack on the right side.

"Do you know what the bride wants?" Éponine asked, beginnning to flick through the dresses.

"Red," nodded the black haired girl.

"I didn't quite catch your names," Éponine smiled, picking up a few red dresses, in different measurements, shades, styles and lengths.

"Placidé," smiled the brunette.

"Irénée," replied her friend.

"Well, I'm Éponine. Here, try these two on first," she grinned, when they reached the fitting room.

Ten minutes later, and the girls had decided on their dresses. It seemed that Cosette didn't care about the bridesmaid's dresses being made specially, as long as she, the bride, shone and stood out.

Irénée's dress fit perfectly, but Placidé's needed altered. She was standing on a small platform, while Éponine placed pins in her dress where the adjustments were needed, and Irénée was sitting on a chair beside them.

"So, how are you two friends with the bride?" Éponine enquired casually, pretending to be conversational and just broaching on a topic of conversation, but really, she was aching to know.

Irénée rolled her eyes, and Placidé groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I wouldn't we're friends," compromised Placidé.

"Then why are you her bridesmaids?"

"Well, we knew her from the convent from our teenage years. We hadn't talked for years, when she suddenly contacted us out of the blue. She had no other option, and she bribed us into it. We weren't even that good of friends at the convent, I couldn't tell you the first thing about her, except that she's not the nicest of girls," Irénée answered.

A black-mailing, lonely Cosette sounded more like the Lark she knew, than a social Cosette with friends did.

"Well, I'm not exactly her biggest fan either," Éponine laughed.

"Meaning?"

"Long story short, whenever she turns up in my life, everything seemed to go wrong," Éponine concluded, putting the final pin in place. "There, that should be alright. Get changed out of that, while I show Irénée's dress to Cosette," she picked up the dress and left the fitting room, and went to the back room, where Cosette was paying.

"Is this alright, Madame?" she smiled patiently, even though her fists were curled into balls.

"Yes, they'll be alright," Cosette waved it off, not even looking, too busy admiring her own dress.

"Well, that should be it then. You've paid, for all three dresses, you're free to go when your bridesmaids are changed," Nicolette smiled, and the two bridesmaids came out on cue.

Pleasantries were exchanged, and they left. Éponine exhaled a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding in.

"You can relax now, Éponine. Your fist is white from how long it's been clenched for," Nicolette laughed.

"Well, I'm not a fan of that garce, and neither are her bridesmaids!"

"Forget about her, she won't bother you again," Nicolette smiled.

Little did they know how wrong they were.

...

Sorry this took so long, but I was away for a long while, and then my Granny passed away on Monday. I wasn't planning on writing for a while, but I got a horrible review and I really needed to respond to it, since the charming guest 'Juliette' who wrote it was too lazy or cowardly to use an account.

"You are really a douche with Cosette, I mean, she is with Marius. Get over it. You are not Éponine and you will never be. Éponine doesn't get Marius. I know it was really quick when Marius and Cosette 'fell in love' but they did. That's life, we can not always get what we want. And if Éponine decided to suffer to death that was HER choice, nobody forced her to die for him, I mean, he wasn't even his friend! He barely knew her! She was a 'friend' but for God's sake! That girl lacked of autorespect. She didn't love herself, she suffered because she wanted to! She led Marius to the barricade in her bitterness! She killed herself! She hide a letter from Cosette! She wanted to kill Marius! My God! And you say Cosette's the bad girl? She was only a girl who suffered a lot. She didn't have a mother and Éponine's mother and also Éponine trated her like shit! Oh yeah, but poor Éponine, she was the 'real' victim of the story. Fuck off world. I can't believe people's lack of reflectiveness."

I'm sorry, but that's just downright rude, disrespectful and stupid. Yes, you're entitled to an opinion, we all are, and this world would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things. I like Meponine, you don't, that's fine. You like Cosette and Marius, I don't, that's fine. But when you start to impose on other people's opinions and beliefs, and try to make them feel stupid about themselves, their opinions, and the story which I have put a lot of time into, it becomes the work of a disgusting human being. I have never claimed that I am Éponine, so where the hell did that come from?! You know what, I may not have the nicest portrayal of Cosette, but how I portray Cosette in MY story is MY choice, and most definitely not yours. So what if she's not nice in this story? If you want to read about a nice Cosette, with a happy, lovely Cosette+Marius relationship, you do that. But if you want to read about that type of story, why in the name of God are you reading a story which clearly states "Marius/Éponine"? No-one told you to read this, you didn't have to, and if we don't share an opinion, there is nothing anybody can do about that. But I would appreciate it if you could at least have the morals and dignity to respect my opinion and my rights to believe what I want, and have the interpretations and portrayals that I see fit for my story. Yes, Cosette suffered. The entire cast of Les Mis suffered, it doesn't make her special. Éponine didn't want to suffer, you idiot! No-one deliberately leads a life like hers! Marius and Éponine barely knew each other? I'm sorry, they were best friends. Have you seen Les Miserables recently?! Everybody has a mother, even if they're not with them. Éponine was brought up with no other example, so how could she have known any better? Yes, Éponine was a victim. The entire cast of Les Miserables were victims in some way or another. You "can't believe my lack of reflectiveness"? I can't believe your lack of dignity, respect and morals! You don't know me, so don't pass judgement on me. As to the comment "Fuck off world"? I don't appreciate swearing, and I'm sure a lot of other people on this site are the same. Do not DARE call me a "douche" because we don't share the same opinions. I've had a horrible few days, my granny who was like a second mother to me, passed away, and you made me feel terrible about myself and this story in what was already a terrible and sad time for me. Now go away, and leave me alone before I buy you a dictionary and teach you how to actually spell.

As per usual, names meaning something. Irénée means peaceful, and Placidé means calm and placid, because the two girls are too quiet, calm and shy to stand up to Cosette about the fact that they hardly even know each other.

Thanks for the reviews that were nice to me, please send more!

Le grá,

Ó,

Niamh Ní Luachra.