"Zette, it's so early," Eponine moaned as her friend's face appeared on the screen.
"Oh, don't give me that," Cosette rolled her eyes. "It's nine over there. And I can tell you're still in bed."
"Because Saturdays mornings were meant for sleeping," Eponine protested. "I shouldn't be awake."
"Hey, hey, you agreed to be my maid of honor. You accepted, now you get the duties that come with it," Cosette said.
"Ok, ok. What flowery, ribbon-y décor are we looking at this fine morning," Eponine said, drawing her cup of coffee to her. She honestly had only woken up fifteen minutes ago, only taking the effort to brush her teeth and make coffee before crawling back into bed for her video chat with Cosette.
"It's just some details, ok? We've already taken care of nearly everything. I just need some final input on a couple of things and then I'll let you go back to sleep," Cosette said. "Ok, so ready?"
"As I'll ever be," Eponine said, settling back into her pillows. A few details in Cosette's mind could mean hours of complex plans and ideas. However, it was relatively painless and they breezed through the final decisions in only an hour. (Which was still plenty long in Eponine's book.)
"So how've you been?" Cosette asked, when they had finished deciding what flowers the men should wear in their button holes.
"Good," Eponine said. "It's been pretty good."
"I haven't received any long, rant-y texts from you and Taire says he hasn't either so is everything ok between you two?" Cosette asked, getting right down to what she really wanted to know.
"Yeah. It's good," Eponine said, being purposefully vague.
"It's good? Well, that's good," Cosette said, hoping she'd elaborate.
"Yup. It is," Eponine said, nodding and shrugging.
Seeing that her friend wasn't going to elaborate, Cosette began plying her with questions. "So what does good mean? Like are you on speaking terms? Because last time you weren't really. Are you friendly now? You're not mad at him, right?"
"We're good," Eponine cut in. "We've managed to get past various stages of awkward, forced conversation and now we're just comfortable being ourselves. We get on each other's nerves still. We argue a lot. Things aren't exactly smooth sailing. It gets a little tense at times if we happen upon touchy subjects but other than that, I'd say we're making excellent progress."
Cosette grinned, excitedly. "Well, that is definitely a much better update than I was expecting. I was hoping you guys were at least acknowledging each other but this is much, much better," she said.
"Yeah. It's really nice. I mean, I kinda got tired of having to really exert myself to make things work but it's become so much more relaxed and comfortable," Eponine said. Cosette couldn't stop smiling at the good news.
"I'm very glad to hear that. I was a little worried there'd be some slight friction between the maid of honor and one of the groom's men," Cosette said. "I can't wait to see you guys."
"Can't wait to see you too. It'll be so great to see everyone again. It'll be like old times," Eponine said. "And you're taking care of the dress and all that, right?"
"Taken care of your dress. I've got your heels. The make-up and hair stylist is booked. You just have to show up," Cosette said.
"Oh, believe me, I'm showing up. A week in Hawaii is not something I'm going to pass up lightly," Eponine said. In a delightfully cliché move, Marius and Cosette had decided to hold their wedding in Hawaii. Eponine couldn't wait to get out on the beautiful beaches and just spend the day lounging around. Not of course that that was actually going to happen. Cosette would be in a constant state of nervous frenzy and she'd have to be there to make sure everything ran smoothly for her best friends' wedding.
"You better not. I don't care if you have to take a rowboat to get there. Just be there, ok?" Cosette said.
"Yes m'am!" Eponine saluted her. "I'll see you in a few weeks."
"Bye, Ponine. Love ya," Cosette said, blowing her a kiss.
"Good-bye, future Mrs. Pontmercy," Eponine replied. Cosette giggled and blushed before waving again and ending the call. Eponine sank back into her pillows. Her best friends were getting married. Seven years they'd been together. Eponine couldn't help the little pang of jealousy at the fairy-tale perfection of their love life. She was pretty sure in their seven years together they'd never had any major fight. Well, they considered their little tiffs major but they paled in comparison to the turbulent ups and downs of her relationship with Enjolras. She shrugged. Her relationship with him seemed to be on an upward climb and that was a good thing.
As though he'd known she'd been thinking about him, the phone rang and she saw it was Enjolras. "Hello," she answered.
"Oh, whoa! You're awake. It's a miracle," he teased.
"Shut it. I had to talk to Cosette this morning or else I wouldn't be," she explained.
"About the wedding?" he inquired.
"Yup," she said. "She wanted to go over final details."
"Cool, well, speaking of final details, did you book your flight yet?"
"No. I was going to do that today. Why?"
"Do you wanna get the same flight?" he asked. "It'll make it easier for them to pick us up and what not if we get there at the same time." He added it as though trying to justify wanting to be on the same flight.
"Sure," she agreed readily. "We can drive in together too."
"Ok, that sounds good. Do you wanna book it then or do you want me to? When's a good time?"
"Well, we should get there before Monday evening so whatever you can find that fits that agenda," she said.
"Ok, sounds good. I'll send you details when I get them," he said.
"Ok, cool. Thanks," she said. She hung up. A five hour plane flight with Enjolras. Well, this would definitely put their growing friendship to the test. There'd be no distractions other than falling asleep. No reason to break contact with him. Sometimes if she found things to be settling into some sort of awkward silence, she'd find an excuse to leave. She wouldn't be able to do that now. Before, this would have been a dream come true. Five hours of uninterrupted time with her boyfriend. They could talk about what they pleased. They wouldn't have to worry about their friends butting into their conversations. There would be no rally planning or flyer designing to think about. The void of distractions which would have been so appeasing was now slightly intimidating. Oh, well. She could handle it….maybe.
It was later that day and they had gone out with their friends to a movie and were eating at some burger joint. Combeferre had gone outside to take a phone call but now came rushing in looking extraordinarily excited. "Guess what!" he exclaimed, sliding back into his seat.
"You won the lottery?" Eponine guessed, considering that the only reasonable explanation for his uncontained excitement.
"No. Even better," he said, grinning. "I've been asked to speak at a convention."
"That's better than winning the lottery?" Eponine asked, dryly.
"Infinitely. I've been asked to speak about social media and the impact it has on politics," he explained.
"Oh your favorite thing," Bossuet muttered. They'd all been subject, at one point or another, to one of his little speeches about said topic.
"And that's just the beginning," Combeferre continued. "Guess where it's being held."
"Disneyland," Courfeyrac answered, sarcastically.
"Hawaii," Combeferre told them. "And the icing on the cake – it's an all-expense paid trip."
"WAIT!? WHY DIDN'T I GET ASKED TO SPEAK AT THIS THING?" Courfeyrac burst out, indignantly.
"Jealous, Fey?" Combeferre grinned. "Isn't that awesome?"
"Wait! When is this convention?" Enjolras spoke up. "Eponine and I are going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks for a wedding."
"It's in two weeks," Combeferre said. "Are we going to be there at the same time?"
"Yes," Eponine replied. "This will be awesome. We must hang out. We'll introduce you to our friends."
"Hold up!" Musichetta interjected. "You cannot just go on a group vacation without us. That's no fair."
"It's not like we planned it this way," Combeferre reasoned. "It just happened."
"Fine. We're going to go on vacation without you guys then," Courfeyrac said. "Where should we go, guys?" He turned to Jehan, Bossuet and Chetta. "How about Hawaii?"
"You can't just invite yourselves along," Ferre protested.
"We're not inviting ourselves along. We're just going to be going on vacation at the same time as you all and it just so happens to be in the same place. We can go on vacation whenever and wherever we please," Jehan insisted. Combeferre rolled his eyes and let the others continue with their crazy plans. They started a rather heated debate over whether they would spend money on scuba diving or zip-lining.
"So I booked the flight," Enjolras said, drawing her attention away from her scheming friends. "It's early."
Eponine pulled a face. "How early is early?"
Enjolras ginned. "Early enough for you to be a downright terror. 5:30."
"5-freaking-30?" Eponine groaned and buried her head in her arms. "That's way too early. If we were meant to be up that early there'd be sunlight."
"How do you know there's not? You've never been up early enough to know if there is," he teased.
"Escuse moi!" she said, indignantly. "Who used to get up to go running with you when you were training for that charity marathon?" She pointed at herself. "This girl."
"We went running at seven in the morning. That's hardly 5:30," he scoffed. "There's a big difference." She sent him a venomous glare and threw a ketchup packet at him. He chuckled and flicked a crumpled napkin at her. She allowed herself a smile. So maybe five hours with him wouldn't be so bad.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long. I've been pretty busy with school. But hope you enjoyed this little filler chapter. Hopefully the next one will be up soon and I promise I'll make it longer and more interesting. I just really wanted to get something up.