Chapter 11:
It was beginning to get bitterly cold in the evenings and this one was no exception. Eponine had come in from school with a red raw nose, shivering in her oversized coat that she borrowed from Cosette. Luckily Enjolras had set a fire for her. He was sitting on the sofa reading a book when she came into the living room. Immediately she breathed a sigh of relief, the warmth immediately covering her and allowing her to sit in comfort. Enjolras smiled as she came in, gesturing to her to sit next to him. She obliged and tucked her head into his shoulder as she had always imagined doing. He made no move to stop her and so they sat like that for a while. Her reading over his shoulder, much to his unnoticed annoyance.
"This is nice." She muttered softly and he nodded.
"It is." He replied.
Suddenly she heard a knock at the door. Before she could get up, Enjolras was at the door and opening it to reveal a tall shape that she vaguely recognised, although the shadows cast by the fire obscured his face. The figure stepped into the room. She knew who he was. Her heart began to race and her hands started to sweat. Her father was standing there, staring at her.
"Enjolras?" She asked, unable to bring the full sentence to her lips.
"What's the matter Eponine?" Enjolras asked stepping into line with her father. "Aren't you glad to see your Daddy?" He smiled and it made Eponine's insides drop. Why was he here? What was Enjolras doing?
The room around her suddenly felt like it was closing in, the two faces became distorted until she couldn't tell who was speaking. "Did you really think I'd let you stay with him?" A voice boomed. She was so small and the figure in front of her seemed so large. She looked around, the room no longer looking like the familiar living room. Instead, they were back in the old pub. She could tell by the brown walls and red carpet that stuck to her as she tried desperately to get away. "Did you really think you could get away from me?" The voice asked as it bared over her. She could smell his breath and prepared herself for what was coming. The fist swung towards her as she heard something in the distance that almost sounded like her name. Her father grinned as his fists began to thrash towards her.
"Eponine!" She opened her eyes with a start. Enjolras was there, although she couldn't see his face as clearly as she had a second ago. Her body heaved as she gasped for air, sitting up abruptly in her bed. "It's okay," Enjolras' voice said. "It was just a dream, you're safe." She felt his arms wrap around her as she began to see her surroundings more clearly. It was just a dream. He wasn't there. He hadn't found her.
"Gabriel." She said and he gave her one last squeeze before letting her sit up by herself.
"Are you okay?" he asked and she nodded. He had been so scared. A few minutes ago he'd awoken to the sound of her screaming. Fearing the worst, he had torn out of his bed, sprinting down the hall into her bedroom to find Eponine thrashing in her bed, but sleeping. Relief had been brief however as he noticed her hands begin to clutch at her own throat. That had been when he'd held her, hoping that this would help her to get her bearings again. He'd never heard anything sweeter than his name on her lips in that moment. She was okay, he was there.
"I'm fine." She said, suddenly covering herself up in her duvet again. "Sorry." She apologised.
"What for?" Enjolras chuckled. "There's nothing you should be sorry for." He told her.
She looked down, wishing that the ground could swallow her up. Why was it that in her weakest moments Enjolras was always there? And he never seemed fazed either. Any normal person would be running for the hills at this moment. But he stayed.
"What was it?" he asked, breaking the silence that had lapsed.
"My father." She said simply and he nodded. Suddenly he noticed her eyes were filled with tears. He tentatively took her hand in his. "Your house is too quiet." She told him, her voice betraying no evidence of the tears he had seen.
"My apologies." He said and she let out a little laugh. "I will try to encourage more traffic around here."
"That would be helpful." She quipped and he chuckled. Content that she was okay, Enjolras went to get up but was quickly stopped by Eponine's small, "Wait." She had been surprised at how disappointed she had been when he'd removed his hand from hers. The small, reassuring motions he had made along her palm had soothed her anxiety and she wasn't sure if she wanted to let that go. Enjolras was staring at her. She peered up at him through the hair that hung around her shoulders. "Could you…" She hesitated. "Could you stay?" The question needed no thought, Enjolras immediately smiled and climbed into bed next to her. The only connection the two bodies had was through the hands that held each other, quite contentedly.
"Gabriel." He could hear his name being called faintly but he wasn't quite sure if it was real or not. While hearing his first name was a rarity that would have usually caught his attention a rendition of it had been playing around in his head all night. Eponine's soft whisper had caught him off guard. His whole body had been filled with a warmth and then, it seemed, set on fire just by those three syllables. "Gabriel?" This voice seemed a little harsher and a little louder than he had heard it before but he wasn't overly concerned. His main focus was now on the way his friend felt in his arms. As he drifted into consciousness he noticed how she was wrapped around him in a way that he had never experienced. Her head was on his chest and instead of being uncomfortable it was rather wonderful. The scent of her hair drifted into his nose and he enjoyed the heat she provided. "Gabriel? What the hell is this?" That got his attention.
His eyes snapped open to see his mother standing in the doorway. He couldn't move, paralysed in this compromising position. He saw his father come up behind his mother and their faces quickly shared the same shocked expression. "Er…" He stumbled, unsure what his best move was.
"Gabriel Enjolras, what the hell are you doing with a girl in your bed?" His father yelled. It was Eponine's turn to wake up now. Her head popped up from his chest and initially she looked at him, incredibly confused by the sudden disturbance. Then she turned around, gasped quickly, and leapt off of him under the covers.
"It's not what it looks like?" He said meekly.
"Downstairs." His father said, unnervingly calmly. "Now."
Enjolras quickly slipped out of the bed, looking back at Eponine who peeked out of the sheets. They shared a confused and worried look but daren't say anything to each other. Instead all Enjolras could do was follow his parents downstairs and into the dining room where they sat across from each other, glaring at their son.
"You have thirty seconds to explain." His father said.
Immediately Enjolras started to ramble. "So, the thing is… she's just a friend I swear but she needed a place to stay and then in the night she had a nightmare about… well anyway, I went in to make sure she was okay and…" he trailed off. Of all the many lines of arguments he had taken over this years, this was by far his weakest.
"This 'friend' of yours," Enjolras' mother, Demi, began. "Why did she need a place to stay in the first place?" She asked.
"She had to get away from her family." Enjolras answered, unsure of how much he should give away. If his parents knew the truth, he was sure they'd let her stay but he couldn't betray Eponine's trust like that.
"So what, oh let me guess, she ran away because her parents are like, sooo overbearing and wouldn't let her skip school to go to the Green Day concert?" Hearing his mother put on that Snotty Girl voice almost made him laugh it was so out of character.
"No actually…" Enjolras began but he was cut off.
"No matter what the circumstances were," Enjolras Snr said. "You should've have consulted us before letting her stay. Just because we're away doesn't mean that you can do whatever you like." He chastised. "Now, Demi would you please go upstairs and help the girl pack? I need a quiet word with our delightful son." Mrs Enjolras didn't seem too happy with the idea but she nodded and stood up without a word.
Once she had left the room Enjolras Snr turned to his son. "Why the hell did you let a Thenardier into this house?" Enjolras was shocked.
"How did you…" He began but once again was cut off.
"I'm a lawyer in this area for God's sake!" He cried. "Of course I know who the man is! I've put him away a few times in my youth. And therefore I am very aware of his family especially when they're suddenly enrolled in the same school as my son!"
"She's not like them." Enjolras tried to explain.
"Of course she is!" He yelled. "You think you can grow up with that monster as a father and not grow up to be like him? I expected some kind of common sense from you son, not to be taken in by a pretty thing with a so-called tragic backstory!"
"You don't know her."
"And you think you do? How do you know that everything she's done hasn't been a lie? She could have been sent by her father to seduce you into a sense of security where you don't notice she's robbing you blind!" Enjolras rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't trust scum like that."
He seethed with anger. He had never wanted to punch his father so much in his life. How dare he make assumptions about her? How dare he call her that? He couldn't believe that his father would be capable of such incredible blindness to anything other than class.
"She's my friend." Enjolras said, his eyes meeting his father. "She is the most caring person I know and you have no idea what you're talking about. You say that he's a monster? She would agree. That's why she came here, to escape that life!" His words did nothing. Enjolras Snr just sat there, unmoved and expressionless.
"You are not to talk to her." Enjolras made a huff of indignation. "You are not to speak of her again, she is not to step even a foot into this household again." Enjolras made to walk out of the door but his father caught his arm. "I don't care if you fallen in love with the little tart, she will never be accepted by our family."
Eponine sat in silence as Enjolras' mother packed away her things. She had Enjolras' hair, or rather, Enjolras had hers. The golden curls had been preened to fall loosely over her shoulders. Her eyes, however, were darker than her son's eyes. They now refused to look at Eponine who had quickly pulled on some more clothes when the family had left the room. She found it hard to hold in the laughter. It was just such a ridiculous situation, such bad timing. Her legs had been completely intertwined with his, their hands still clasped and her head on his chest. If this wasn't compromising enough she was only wearing a t-shirt. And, she suddenly realised, that t-shirt belonged to Enjolras. Again, the laughter bubbled. It had been nice though, for that short moment when she had woken and not realised the intrusion. His chest was hard but so warm and comfortable and the way his hands had been rubbing her back… she definitely understood why the parents had been so shocked. They must have looked like lovers. She found herself thinking of his lips. She thought about how she probably shouldn't think about him like this for too long, they were friends after all. Though perhaps, they had moved a little from that now.
His mother made a sound to tell her that she had finished and that Eponine was expected to follow her. As they went downstairs she heard raised voices from the dining room. She wondered who was winning that argument. It would be an interesting thing to see two Enjolras' argue. If he was anything like his son Enjolras Snr would be a force to be reckoned with. She had hoped that she would catch sight of Enjolras once more before she left but the door did not open and suddenly she was ushered into a taxi.
She sat there once the door had been shut, suddenly realising that she had no idea where to go.
As soon as he could Enjolras was out looking for Eponine. He'd left the dining room assuming that she was still upstairs and became close to enraged when he found out she'd been shoved in a taxi and left. His father had shouted some warning behind him but Enjolras took no notice. He jumped in his car and wondered where she could have gone.
Grantaire's phone lit up. "Hey, it's fine she's here." He heard his friend's sigh over the phone. "We're at the café."
"Okay." Enjolras said it sounded like he was in the car. The boy must be worried to have broken the law. "I'll be there in five minutes." The phone clicked as he hung up.
"So, tell me again why you were cuddled up with our Golden Boy?" Bahorel said, unable to contain his amusement at the story. The rest of the boys were equally enthralled with the tale of their great leader's first sex scandal.
"It was completely innocent!" Eponine protested. Now that she had a coffee in her system she was a little more awake and a little more aware of what had happened. "I had a nightmare in the night, I thought my father had found me…" The boys nodded, their gleeful smiles not faltering for a second. "And I was calling out and stuff so Enjolras came to check if I was alright."
"I bet he did." Joly added and the boys laughed uproariously.
"Oh shut up!" Eponine said, whacking his arm. "Anyway, so yeah we then completely innocently," She emphasised. "Fell asleep and then the next thing I know there's two angry strangers at the end of our bed."
"Interesting that you said 'our bed' 'Ponine, has Enjolras made it a habit to come and 'check up on you' in the night?" Combeferre quipped and Eponine rolled her eyes.
"What did Demi do?" Grantaire asked. As much as he found the situation incredibly amusing he also knew Enjolras' parents.
"She was livid, threw my things in a suitcase in complete silence, not even looking at me before shoving me into a taxi." Eponine explained.
"And his dad?" Grantaire asked.
"I heard them arguing as I left." She said and Grantaire cursed under his breath. Fighting with his father always put Enjolras into the worst mood. Grantaire prepared himself for a lot of damage control.
Well, as they say, speak of the devil and he doth appear. Grantaire thought as Enjolras strode into the room. The laughter and chatter that had prevailed now stopped as they all waited for him to speak.
"Are you okay?" His first words were directed at Eponine who nodded. "Right, well… according to my father I should no longer be friends with you." The boys scoffed, but Eponine just watched him. "That, of course, is absurd but it does mean that you won't be able to live with me anymore." She had assumed this and had been thinking of solutions the whole morning.
"What about my house?" Grantaire offered but Enjolras shook his head.
"I'm assuming that at this exact moment my father will be calling all of your fathers to warn them off of accepting 'Ponine into their homes." Eponine's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before Enjolras admitted. "He knows who your father is Ep." She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, what did it matter? It's not as if her friends didn't know now. But there was another hand that worried her, if Enjolras' father told the police her location, her father would know within seconds. If her father knew where she was… Eponine refused to think about that.
"What about Cosette?" Marius, who before had been unusually quiet, suggested. "I'm sure she'd let you if you asked." Eponine nodded. She knew Cosette would help her, she had never known anyone to be as compassionate as her fair-haired friend. It was just a question of whether she wanted to stay with her. Would it be awkward for the two of them who had only recently been reacquainted? Enjolras looked at Eponine, waiting for her reply. He wished that she could come back with him; the house would feel empty without her.
"Alright, I'll see if I can stay with Cosette."