Chapter 6:
They sat in the car and Eponine watched him sit there. He was practically bouncing in his seat, his eyes fixed to the door in front of them.
"Well go on then!" She said to him. The house was so familiar to her. She couldn't quite believe they still lived there. It seemed like a lifetime ago she sat on that roof. The window that the two girls used to creep out of was cracked open possibly letting in a cool breeze. Eponine wondered if the room was still painted in that ghastly pink colour that used to make Eponine turn up her nose. The rest of the house was undisturbed. The white paint was slightly yellowing now but other than that it looked exactly the same. It was funny, when she was younger this place had seemed like a mansion. Now she saw it for what it was. Painfully ordinary. A standard detached two bedroom townhouse that matched the copies that surrounded it. The hedges had been recently cut and Eponine remembered how the two girls would try and distract the gardener most weekends. She sighed.
"What are you doing?" She asked. "I thought you wanted to see her?"
"I do! Of course I do!" He said turning to her. "But I have no clue what I'm going to say!" His eyes were wide with excitement. He ran a hand through his hair and the sight of it made her stomach lurch. This was torture. It was bad enough she had to track down her address, now she was having to coax him into seeing her. Maybe she should let him psych himself out? Would that be selfish of her? To keep him all to herself?
"Start with hello maybe?" She suggested and he shook his head.
"How will I explain how I found her address?" He muttered. "I'll look like a stalker."
"Yes you will." She told him and he shot her a dirty look. "But some girls like the stalker-type." He laughed a little and she smiled. "If she has even a tiny amount of brain power still she'll be head over heels in a minute." This was probably for the best. She had known that nothing would ever be able to happen between them. Better that she realised that now rather than a year down the line. "Go get her tiger." She said and he nodded.
Before he stepped out of the car he took a deep breath and checked his reflection in the mirror. "Right," He turned to her. "Are you sure you're okay to walk home? I feel bad dragging you out here."
She shook her head. "I'm a big girl Marius I can manage a couple of miles." He beamed at her before they both stepped out of the car. He dashed up the driveway and just remembered to give her a small wave before he knocked on the door.
Eponine knew she should probably leave but she couldn't quite bring herself to do it. So she ducked behind a bush and watched as Cosette opened the door. At first, the girl looked surprised but she quickly smiled and blushed as Marius said something to her. After laughing at something he said she moved out of the way and let him in. And then the door closed and Eponine was shut out. She stayed there for a little while, half hoping that he would run out at any second stating that he had made a huge mistake and he really actually only wanted to be with her.
She started to walk away after a few minutes had passed. It was mid-afternoon and for once she wasn't scheduled on to work that Sunday. She had nowhere to go. Grantaire would probably be happy to see her but she didn't want to be on the receiving end of any pitying looks today. She wandered around for a little bit and scoffed at herself as she felt tears welling up in her eyes.
She was being stupid, she knew it. She shouldn't be so upset about a boy who she had known for a couple of months. It was childish and she felt ridiculous. But Marius had been the first person who had taken any notice of her in such a long time. He radiated happiness and it had been nice to soak it up even for a little while. Already she felt a little colder.
Without realising it she had stepped into familiar territory. She hadn't been there in years and wasn't sure why her body had taken her there. All she knew is that she needed a distraction. The familiar musty scent made its way to her nose as she took a seat at the bar. This place was a far cry from the Musain. The sticky table tops and burnt out cigarettes replaced the coasters and light atmosphere of the Musain. Dark wood surrounded her and even darker characters stared at her. Even in this place, a place which she had once called home, she stood out. The funny thing was her parents had once been the owners of this bar. There was a backroom which Eponine had used to sleep in. It was adjacent to the room in which her father and his friends planned their next job. Occasionally she would hear her name through the walls and cry for what she would be made to do.
The memory clouded her thoughts as a drink was placed in front of her. "I'm presuming you still drink gin my dear?" Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice. There he was. His dark eyes burned into his. "'Ponine," Montparnasse said. "It's been too long." He grinned at her, his eyes crinkled and she noticed that his hair had grown long. The dark mess now reached his shoulders and strands of hair fell into his eyes.
"Hello again." She replied trying to keep her voice even. She shouldn't be here, she suddenly realised. She shouldn't be talking to him again. But here she was, and here he was. They were together again.
"Why have you come back?" He asked simply as he sat next to her.
She sighed. "Who says I have come back?" His eyebrows raised.
He laughed, scoffed really. "Well you're here aren't you? You haven't stepped foot in here since the bust! So I'll ask again, what are you doing here?"
She raised her eyes to his and smiled. "I need a distraction." He chuckled and raised his glass to hers. She met it with a clink.
Grantaire hadn't seen Eponine in a few days. No one had. "Are you sure she hasn't been in at all?" Miller said after Grantaire had come to him in the hopes he might have some insider information.
"Nope." Grant said sighing. "Haven't seen hide nor hair of her. We're worried."
Miller nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, me too." They sat in silence for a bit. "I'll put the word around to the staff and see if someone knows something. It's possible she's got some kind of work experience or something."
Grant scoffed. "Yeah because she wouldn't tell us about that would she?" He dragged his hands over his face.
"I'm just trying to keep positive." Miller stated.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry, I just…" Miller nodded as if to say, I know. Grantaire wandered out of the classroom. School was over and the corridors were empty. It always creeped Grantaire out being in school after hours. It just felt too quiet. He met the boys out the front.
"Anything?" Joly asked and Grantaire just shook his head. "Shit."
"She's probably fine you know." Combeferre added. "She can take care of herself."
"Cosette says that she used to do this all the time." Marius piped up.
"Oh so you're telling Cosette everything already, great." Grantaire snapped.
"Hey, she's friends with Eponine too, she deserved to know. She could've helped!" Marius argued still at the point where he couldn't abide anyone saying anything against his new girlfriend. Well, they hadn't exactly said they were dating but they were meeting up tomorrow so he guessed he could get away with calling her that. "Besides she knows Eponine better than anyone really. She knew her before all of us."
Grantaire suddenly jumped up from where he had been slouched on the wall. "Marius call your little lady, I want to talk to her."
Cosette met them at the Musain and they all sat around that little table for the first time without a topic to debate. Cosette was sat with Marius but they were positioned opposite the boys. She felt rather like she was being interrogated. All they needed was a huge flashlight.
"So, can you think of any pattern to her old disappearances?" Grantaire asked her and she thought about it. Her dilemma was that she was unsure of how much these boys knew about their friend. She didn't want to reveal too much because that would be like betraying Eponine's trust. But she had an inkling of where 'Ponine had got too and she was worried about her.
"Well," Cosette began and the boys practically leaned in to hear her better. "She would always disappear when her dad needed her help at a job." She picked each word carefully. "So she could be with him." She prayed she wasn't. Although they had been young girls when they were friends Cosette had seen the fear in her eyes when Eponine was near her father. She was there to witness the change in Eponine's father after they lost the pub. Let's just say after that Eponine became uncommonly clumsy.
"What work does her father do? Maybe we can track down his company?" Joly suggested and Cosette cringed.
"He does… freelance work so I don't think you'd be successful." The boys sighed and Marius squeezed her hand. He had told her that she didn't need to answer any question if she didn't want to but she truly did want to help.
"What about a boyfriend?" Grantaire asked. "Would she disappear with a guy?"
Cosette shook her head. "I never knew anything about a boyfriend but," She reminded them. "We were young when we were friends."
Grantaire resisted the urge to throw something against the wall. They had nothing. All they could do was wait for her to return and pray that it was all in one piece.
Cosette was taken home by Marius and after he left she sat in her room. She thought about her old friend and how she had one day disappeared and never came back. She was just gone. It looked like it had happened again. The looks on the boys' faces were familiar, she had worn a similar expression once. She'd never found out where Eponine had gone or how she had ended up in that school with those boys. When she was younger she used to be envious of Eponine, she seemed so free in comparison to Cosette with her father's strict rules. But now she saw that she'd had it all twisted. It wasn't that her parents let her have her freedom, it was that they didn't care where she went. It made her appreciate her father and she was ashamed to say that she hadn't thought about Eponine much after it was clear she wasn't coming back. Now she wished that things had been different, that Cosette could have somehow saved her.
The air whipped across her face as she leant out of the car window. It felt nice to ride around in the night-time. Everything was so quiet. She felt an arm on her as Parnasse pulled her back into the car. "You're crazy." He laughed and she hit him in response. The car bumped along the uneven road as they drove round and round the city. Occasionally they would stop for some food but mostly they just drove. The radio blared and Eponine closed her eyes. It was incredible how quickly she'd slipped back into it. The complete lifestyle. She realised now that the past few years had been so difficult because she'd been denying who she truly was. She was a thief, just like her father. He had been happy when she brought back Parnasse again and she almost enjoyed how well they got on. Thick as thieves. Her father had taken Parnasse on a job that night and the younger man had impressed Thenardier so much that he was allowed to spend the night. From that point Eponine hadn't had a moment alone. She would go out with Parnasse and keep watch for him and his friends and would laugh as they made their escape. She and Parnasse would sit in the back of the car and he would rub her hand with his thumb and she would be filled with a kind of warmth.
Occasionally she would think about the boys. Wonder what they were doing. She assumed they would barely notice her absence. It's not like they really liked her anyway. Somehow she had forgotten that they had been forced to take her on. Parnasse reminded her that she would never belong in that world.
"I'll have to go back to school though." She said now as they sat in the car. Montparnasse grimaces.
"Why?" He asked. "No one will care if you don't go back."
"I know," She replied. "But I want to." Parnasse rolled his eyes. "Besides if I don't go back they'll come to the house. We had to give the address when I started. I'm on scholarship so I doubt they'll let it slide."
"Fine." He replied bluntly. "But you know better than to get involved with those rich dicks again, don't you?"
She nodded. She doubted they would make a fuss. Montparnasse was right when he'd said they didn't care. She was a charity case at best and she knew it was true.