Chapter 15:
His first thought was that the back office was incredibly small. His second thought was of how much he hated the smell of grease. But he would have to get used to it, he supposed. There was a small desk in the corner and he was sat in the broken, weirdly stained chair that sat next to it. He looked at the shelves to the side of him and wondered why there needed to be this much paper in a McDonalds. His application had taken a few days to be accepted but when it had an interview was arranged straight away. He'd hurriedly left school without talking to anyone and made it to the restaurant in record time. Once he'd got there he'd been led into this small office where he had been waiting for around seven minutes getting steadily hotter as time went on. The kitchen being right next door to the office meant that Enjolras was regretting the suit.
Suddenly the door flung open to reveal a short, middle aged man with thick glasses that were perched on the end of his rather prominent nose. His eyes flicked over the piece of paper in his hand which Enjolras recognised as being his application and he scratched his bald head as he took a seat behind the desk. Enjolras quickly straightened his spine and waited expectantly while the man in front of him continued to read the paper in front of him.
"So you're a straight A student it says here." The man said in a higher tone than Enjolras had expected.
"Uh… yes." Enjolras answered, unsure of whether the man had in fact, asked a question. The man finally looked up at him and blinked twice before resuming his original position.
"And you go to the Hugo School up the road?" Again Enjolras gave a one word reply. "Isn't that the really posh place?" The guy asked and Enjolras just gave a polite nod. It was then that the man leant back in his chair, placed the paper on the table and gave Enjolras his full attention. "So why do you want to work at McDonalds?"
Enjolras took a moment, not having thought about this question before. "Well, I am passionate about hard work," he began, "And want to get experience working within a successful and well-known company."
"So you want to be a business man then?" The man asked.
"Well…" Enjolras briefly considered the truth but then decided against it. "Well yes actually. I'm very interested in large chains and would really value the learning opportunities this job provides. An insight into how business actually work day to day."
The man nodded slowly. "Right." Enjolras watched as the man tapped the table. "So what days would you be available to work?"
It took Enjolras a second to process the question. He had expected a far more rigorous interview process. "Well I could work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school times and also Sunday mornings."
The man nodded and Enjolras was unsure whether he was supposed to elaborate. He stuck to silence. He was glad he did when the man suddenly stood up and held a hand out to Enjolras. "Okay then, you're hired!" Enjolras took his hand, smiling. "We'll give you a training date and then you'll be put on the rota next week."
"Thank you!" Was all Enjolras said before the man walked out of the office again. Enjolras took a second to wonder if that had really all happened before walking through the kitchens again into the entrance. He was given a date and a number to call if he had any questions but then he was gone. The whole thing had taken less than half an hour.
He wasn't sure why he hadn't told her. They'd spent a couple of hours together just hanging out at Cosette's house and yet he hadn't mentioned it. There had been ample opportunity to do so, but at the last second he'd decided against it. He didn't think he was ashamed of it, in fact, when he had left the office he had felt quite exhilarated. He was finally on the road to independence, something that he had always dreamed about. And he knew Eponine worked, it wasn't as if she was anyone else from their school who might find it strange for him to go against his family. But yet, he hadn't told her.
He reasoned that maybe he didn't tell her because then she'd know that his father didn't approve of them together, that he was giving up his inheritance to be with her. Maybe that would be too much to bring up right now, especially when everything was so good and new in their relationship. He didn't want to put pressure on anything and if he told her what had happened she might feel as if she had to stay with him. Because being with her had somehow become a quasi-sacrifice. Of course, he didn't see it that way, he was never going to become a partner in his father's firm so he had always expected having to strike out on his own eventually. But still. He knew it didn't feel right to keep this from her.
The next day was Enjolras' induction and so he told himself that he would tell her after he actually secured the job properly. He would leave McDonalds and go to her house and tell her. And that was him plan, the whole time he was being showed how to work the tills, how to group orders, how to fire up the grill and how to properly shovel fries into cardboard, he was thinking about how he would tell her.
But then Grantaire showed up. Enjolras was working at the tills, with his manager watching him from behind when Grantaire walked in through the doors. They both stopped dead. Enjolras didn't know what to do, he couldn't hide. He would have to ride this awkward situation out. Grantaire being Grantaire of course made things worse by walking straight up to Enjolras' till.
"Hey buddy." He said and Enjolras plastered on a fake smile as he took his friend's order. Grantaire was almost 100% certain that he was dreaming. There was no way that Enjolras could be standing there in McDonalds uniform serving his happy meal. It just wasn't how things worked. Enjolras working in a McDonalds was like the Queen at a anti-establishment rally. It just didn't happen. So the delirious smile that was making Enjolras so annoyed was Grantaire's way of coping with this strange out of body experience.
He almost lost it when Enjolras said, "Would you like to super-size sir?"
So that's why Enjolras' plan had to change. He walked out of the restaurant only to find Grantaire sat on the hood of his car. His disbelief had mangled over the half an hour wait into an annoyance. As Enjolras walked over, the last thing he expected to hear was, "What the fuck is this?" It actually made his stop in his tracks. He had been expecting some kind of quip about how cute he looked in his cap but this was totally unexpected.
Grantaire slid off the car. "Well?" He said. "Are you going to actually tell me what's going on?"
Enjolras just replied, "I'm working here now."
Grantaire threw his hands to the sky and sighed, "Oh well of course! That explains everything! I'm so glad you laid that out for me so well!"
"What is there to explain?" Enjolras argued.
"How the fuck does Enjolras start working at McDonalds? And why doesn't his best friend no about it?" Grantaire was still in shock. He was stood in a McDonalds car-park arguing with Enjolras who was dressed in the uniform. It was almost funny. Expect he was struggling to find the humour. "Where you ever going to tell me?"
"Of course I was." Enjolras said.
"Bullshit." Grantaire spat. "I don't believe you!"
"What the f…" Enjolras exclaimed. "Why would you think I wouldn't tell you?"
"Well it's not like you've been sharing much recently." Enjolras sighed as Grantaire's voice dropped. "How's things going with Eponine?"
Enjolras ran his hands over his face. "That's different." He said.
"How?" Grantaire asked. "How is it different Enjolras? How is keeping anything from your best friend anything other than fucked up?"
"Because it's not just me!" Enjolras replied still shocked by where this all was coming from. How long had Grantaire been annoyed at him? "I've got to think about her with all of this. I can't just tell something that isn't solely mine to tell."
"Well why aren't you telling anyone?" Grantaire finally asked the question that had been plaguing the whole group for days. "We all know, it's not exactly like you're being at all subtle with all your giggling and gooey eyes and running off together all the time!"
"I don't know!" Enjolras finally admitted. "I don't know why we haven't told you. It's just something we haven't discussed yet it's still early."
Grantaire felt tired. He'd only gone to McDonalds because he hadn't wanted to cook for himself. With his parents gone for another trip he just wanted to crash out at home. "Fine." He said quietly. "I just didn't expect I'd see a day where we kept anything from each other."
Enjolras suddenly felt incredibly guilty. Grantaire's head hung and his shoulders drooped. He'd been so wrapped up in his life that he hadn't realised he was hurting his friend. "I'm sorry." He said walking over to Grantaire who was now sitting on the raised concrete. "I don't want to keep anything from you it's just…"
"You just didn't think." Grantaire finished for him and Enjolras nodded.
"My Dad's threatening to cut me off." Enjolras muttered and Grantaire looked at him. "He's said that if I date Eponine I can 'kiss my inheritance goodbye'."
"Shit." Grantaire muttered. "That's ridiculous."
"I know." Enjolras agreed. "That's why I'm working here so I don't have to rely on him for anything anymore."
"That makes sense."
The boys sat in silence. Grantaire looked at the little box in his hand and almost laughed at how ridiculous this fight was. If he'd had just talked to Enjolras… or if Enjolras had just talked to him…
"I should have told you." Enjolras admitted and Grantaire nodded. "Are we okay?" They were looking at each other. These boys who had grown up side by side, more like brothers than friends smiled at each other and Grantaire nodded.
"We're always okay." He told Enjolras.
They abandoned Enjolras' car and walked to Grantaire's house where they spent the night playing video games and acting like childish idiots. Grantaire realised that things would change between them and that didn't have to be bad. Enjolras realised that he needed to actively make time for his friendships, he couldn't get too caught up in the new, exciting things that would make him forget what he relied on.
"So what does Eponine think about the job?" Grantaire asked as they were getting ready for bed. Enjolras cringed and Grantaire just sighed and shook his head. "You need to tell her, you idiot." Enjolras nodded but Grantaire wouldn't let go of the topic until Enjolras had pinky-promised to tell her first thing the next day. They each went to sleep content in the fact that they would always have this, this moment, this friendship that would always be there.