Marius was a tenor and Eponine was an alto which meant that during the mixed madrigals, they had to stand next to one another. All during rehearsal Cosette was passing Eponine notes to give to Marius, of which she sometimes confiscated depending on their contents. Her left boob was bulging with the paper she'd kept from him. Marius never passed anything back, instead preferring to give infuriatingly adorable chuckles to the inside jokes his sweetheart had encoded in an otherwise dull message.

The only part of the day that she looked forward to was the end of the concert when everyone was supposed to hold hands and sing 'The Lord Bless you and Keep you'. When Mr. Valjean made the announcement that alumni were invited to sing along, Eponine was surprised to see half of the Amis stand and join her choir on stage. Before yesterday, they hadn't even been aware the choir was in town. Enjolras must have spilled the beans. She couldn't imagine why he'd want to see his old choir again, since it was only Marius and Jehan remained. Back in high school he never took either very seriously from what she'd gathered. The former didn't care enough about the causes and the latter wrote sappy poems in the margins of the pamphlets during meetings.

Enjolras was the last on stage, completing the circle. He was directly across Eponine and staring straight at her even though it was tradition to close ones eyes while singing the song. She looked to Marius to see if she could read his thoughts on the matter, but his head was already bowed. She slipped her sweaty hand in his, and he intertwined his fingers in hers, which was definitely not the way you'd hold the hand of a platonic friend. Her stomach jumped into her throat that the contact. If only she could figure out what it meant! She no longer cared that Enjolras and his pals were being total creeps by crashing the concert. She forgot her part and switched to soprano when Marius squeezed her hand, hitting notes in the stratosphere that she didn't know were within her range. Eventually song ended though, and he was the first to let go. Before she could even open her eyes, he was across the room giving Courfeyrac the secret Amis handshake.

"You really need to meet Cosette," he was saying, looking around for her, but she must have gone off to the bathroom or something. "She's just so cute and smart and pretty, and she passed me this note today," he turned to hand Enjolras a stack of torn notebook paper, "she was the one in the white sundress, she looks like-" he glanced at Eponine, just noticing that she was standing next to him. "How would you describe her, Pony?"

"She looks like you," Eponine said. Perfect. His face, his smell, his voice, everything about him, she loved in the same way he loved everything about Cosette. Her meaning wasn't lost on Enjolras who cocked an eyebrow at her. He probably couldn't imagine how someone might still be in love with someone who's snuffed them time and time again. But if that wasn't true devotion, what was?

Marius shook his head. "She looks nothing like me. She's got this long blonde rabbit-soft hair and she's positively gorgeous no matter what, even when she's sick. When she comes back-"

Enjolras put his hand on Marius' shoulder and shoved the notes back in his arms. "Pontemercy. I don't care."

Courfeyrac punched Enjolras in the arm playfully. "Come on, Enjy, it's not like he talks about girls that often. Be nice." Enjolras rolled his eyes and Courfeyrac lead Marius away so that they could go find the elusive Cosette together.

Eponine stood dumbly with Enjolras, unsure of what to say. After a moment he held out his hand. "You should give the rest of the notes to me. Lord knows that fire doesn't need anymore fuel."

She blushed, "You saw me stealing them?"

Enjolras stuffed them into his coat pocket. "Not at first. It wasn't until the last few that Courf pointed it out. You're good. Where'd you learn to do that? Marius was looking right at you and he didn't see."

She shook her head. He always asked the worst questions. What if he knew what she was and he just wanted her to say it? "You pick things up when you've got a family like mine."

"Oh," he didn't seem prepared for the family comment. Marius didn't like to be reminded of where she came from either, but it was probably just because he didn't like to hear her complain. "I'm going to talk to the board tomorrow and see about that scholarship. If they won't give it to you, I can see if our resident nerd hacker can change a few numbers around for you."

"What are you going to say to them? My grades and attendance are pretty unimpressive."

"Combeferre can fix that. I came here to find Jehan. See if I can get him to write some flowery words about you. Catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and all that. I'll call you when we get it all sorted out."

Eponine wrapped her arms around herself. It was really uncomfortable how nice he was being. She wasn't used to kind words in general, but the entire time she'd known him, he'd been distant, his friendship exclusive. She wasn't sure if they were friends as Marius was the only friend she'd ever had, and he hadn't been much of an example lately. The day before Enjolras had flat out told her that she would help his plan. That had to be it. She was just part of his agenda. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, so he was being kind. The five-year-old in her wanted to ask if they could be friends, just so that she knew there was someone else to count on besides herself. She wouldn't though. That would come off as needy. Besides, the only person she could really trust was herself. And Marius. Sometimes.

"I haven't got a phone. I'll call you in a few days to check up, okay?"

Enjolras nodded and held out his hand for her to shake. She put her fist in it and he naturally did the secret Les Amis handshake he did with the rest of his friends. After the shoulder bump, he gave her a weird look. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Marius."

Enjolras rubbed his temples. "That boy. I need to have a serious talk with him. Did you see which way he and Courf went?"

Eponine nodded over to the bathroom where he was holding hands with Cosette the way he hand been with her during last song. She would bet her life savings though that Cosette's hand wasn't sweaty or trembling with nerves.

As soon as Enjolras left her, Musichetta was at Eponine's arm. "So. Chief Blondie, huh?"

"Did Cosette tell you?" Eponine faked a shy smile. Seeing Marius with that thing on his arm had been a punch to the stomach, but she couldn't allow Musichetta see how much she felt for him, or else she might rip right through Eponine's web of lies and ruin everything.

"I didn't know you guys were even friends! Joly never mentioned you. What do I know though? This morning when I saw all the missing bobby pins and the smeared lipstick, I had my suspicions about last night, but until Cosette told me the truth. I thought you had snuck out with Marius, but ENJOLRAS, of all people! Wow. You just took the cake 'Ponine. He's a catch. What'd you guys do last night?"

Eponine had been nodding along absently to all that Musichetta was saying and missed the question. "What?"

"I'm not one to kiss and tell," she patted her hair down. Obviously, she'd already had that meeting with Joly, "but, I mean, it's Enjolras. What's he like? How far did you guys go? You can't keep this to yourself! For the sake of girls everywhere, please at least tell me what he tastes like!"

"Oh, uh," Eponine looked over at Enjolras. He had his arms folded across his chest and looked ready to punch someone. Sure, he was handsome, but he was also intimidating, and definitely not Eponine's type. She'd spent all of two seconds convincing Cosette that he was her's and hadn't thought any deeper into the lie so as to convince Musichetta. "Don't tell anyone, but, uh, I've been walking funny all day, if you know what I mean," she whispered.

Musichetta slapped Eponine's arm. "Shut. Up. You did not! Ohmygoodness! Wow. Wow. Wowowowow! I promise I will never tell anyone as long as I live."

"Not even Joly."

"Especially not Joly! Eponine, do you know how big this is? You slept with Enjol-freak-ras. Was he any good? Obviously he was. Oh geez. Do you love him?"

"No," Eponine didn't think she could pretend to love anyone other than Marius.

"That's fair. You like him though, right? He didn't take advantage of you or anything?"

"No, it was uh-really nice. He was a total gentleman. Dinner, candles, everything.

"Joly makes me dinner too, but mostly because he doesn't like other people preparing his food. So, that's it then? You and Marius don't have a thing? We've all just been imagining it?"

"Yeah. We're just friends," it hurt Eponine to say it when she knew it might be true.

"Good! I'll go let Cosette know. She's head over heels for him, but she didn't want to be a homewrecker or anything."

Of course she didn't, Eponine thought. Then why was she out with him last night?

"I've gotta go say bye to Joly," Musichetta said, winking and practically skipping away.

Eponine sat alone in the audience and waited for Mr. Valjean to give the order to load back on the bus. Two more months, and then I'm out. I can leave all of this behind. She was still apprehensive about leaving Gavroche and Azelma, but looking around the room, she wasn't sure if she would even be able to handle another two months with the way her life was, much less several years. No one besides herself knew who she really was and what she really thought. She was tired of lying to cover up her tracks. Leaving home didn't mean coming clean about her past, but if she could get out of her situation, maybe Marius would see some worth in her and she could make more friendships that weren't solely based on lies. For the next two months though, she was going to have to suffer alone. As usual.