Notes: Okay, this one is really, really, really, really short, and I apologize in advance. I'll try to update more quickly for the next chapter because of how short this one is! Also, thank you to the reviewers who reviewed the last chapter: frustratedstudent, Phoenixflames12, Deadtom77, and guest Jeanvalswan (by the way, if you read this, do you have a Tumblr because I've seen Jean Valswan on Tumblr? Either way I love your guest name:D) Anyway! Here is the next chapter!
BARRICADE
CHAPTER X
Enjolras has always loved libraries. Even now, after three years of cramming and feeling like his head is going to burst at two am before an exam in various campus libraries, he still enjoys the feel of silence and the smell of books. He especially loves the Sorbonne library, with its majestic Baroque edifice and perhaps a little bit because of its inaccessibility. The Sorbonne is off-limits to first- and second-years (unless you are majoring in Semitic studies, which Enjolras most certainly was not) so it hadn't been until this year that he had been allowed entrance to La Sorbonne. Mainly it's the books though, shelves of them—they remind him of Shakespeare and Company, the bookshop Éponine used to work at, but with one key difference—the shelves at the Sorbonne were much more organized. Part of Shakespeare and Co.'s appeal had been the sheer amount of books—but only part of it. Éponine had been the other part.
But now she is gone. No, not completely gone. Just last week they had talked—at the Cafe de la Paix. Yeah, that had been a bitter disappointment. Enjolras shakes his head. Why had he gone to all that trouble, hunting down her clues and playing her stupid little game? She wasn't worth it, as she'd proved when she effectively ripped apart every dream he'd ever had.
"Excuse me, monsieur," a girl asks him, and Enjolras immediately bends his head a little farther, hiding his face in his book and avoiding eye contact. He has no wish to talk to anyone of the female race at the moment. Especially not when he had just been remembering Éponine and her tendency to break things. The girl doesn't seem to take his not-so-subtle hint of I don't want to talk to you right now, because she pokes him annoyingly in the shoulder. "Monsieur," she repeats, a smile evident in her face, which irritates Enjolras greatly. The last thing he wants to do right now is interact with a smiling well-intentioned member of the fairer sex. Mostly he just wants to read and wallow.
However, Enjolras was unfortunately raised a gentleman by his mother (who had been the only good person in his entire household), so he looks up. "What do you want, mademois—" He breaks off, speechless. It isn't just any smiling member of the female race standing before him. It is Éponine, and she isn't just smiling, she is beaming—as though everything is all right and she hadn't just blown up everything he fights for a week ago.
"Bonjour, Monsieur," she grins. "I was wondering if you could direct me to the Jean-Paul Sartre? I'm very interested in his work. Especially his viewpoints on Maoism." Enjolras stares at her, unable to say anything—and she slaps him lightly in the head. (Well, she thinks it's lightly. He winces.) Éponine rolls her eyes, clears her throat. "His viewpoints on Maoism, please, Apollo," she repeats with a small smile, using Grantaire's nickname for him, and he finds for the first time he doesn't mind it.
Enjolras returns her smile, as he realizes that that's probably the best apology he will get out of Éponine.
Notes: I'm sorry, I told you it was short! I hope you review and I'll update very soon:)