Enjolras typically considered himself to be fairly brave, but what had happened to him that Sunday still made him feel shocked later that night. He had never seen a dead body before, the dead minister's strangled neck still made him want to throw up.

"Enjolras! I saw about ten cop cars outside of the church! You were there, weren't you? Oh my God, what happened?" As expected, Eponine was the first person to know about the events of that afternoon.

"Oh, gosh... I don't even know... it's all kind of a blur. The minister of the church, you know, he just, I don't know, he was strangled. I don't know." Enjolras hated to recount the details.

"What do you mean you don't know? Was he strangled or wasn't he?"

"Uh... he was. He was definitely killed. I just, can't believe it happened."

"I understand, must've been awful... Was anyone else hurt?" she asked him.

"No, but you know Christine Daae, right?"

"Yeah, I know her," Eponine responded, thinking of her now, some-what close friend with a bit of panic.

"The body of the minister, it just kind of fell out of the wall and it landed right next to her. It was awful, she looked like she was going to throw up. She just kept shaking for the rest of the time, saying crazy things about how she knew the killer..."

"Oh my gosh! That's terrible! Will she be okay?"

"I don't know, it definitely shook her up. She's not going to be around school tomorrow. I think she'll be okay, I don't even know, she was acting really weird..."

"And she's so nice, too. Christine's like one of the nicest people..."

"How do you know her?" Enjolras asked.

"I helped her in math a little while ago. We're pretty good friends. Why did you go see Christine, anyway? I didn't know you were friends..."

"Oh, I'm not. I just went with Meg, you know Meg? She's in your grade. I don't know, I had nothing to do so I just tagged along to watch Christine sing in her church choir. It was just so unexpected... I still feel really... not right about it."

"Hey, you had a hard day. Just go to bed now, maybe you should skip school tomorrow," Eponine suggested.

"No, I'm going to go. There's no point in staying at home and focusing on what happened. It's better to act like everything's normal."

"Alright, see you tomorrow then."

"Bye, Eponine."

After the phone call, Eponine had to admit she felt a multitude of different things. She was absolutely sad for Christine and even Enjolras, though he hadn't experienced the worst of it. She felt pity for the minister's family and his friends- no one in their small town was ever murdered. Not murdered in cold blood. Or was he even killed? Maybe he committed suicide.

Eponine didn't know.

All she knew was she felt bad for her friends and was glad that she wasn't there. Her problems with Marius and her family seemed so small in comparison. Although she tried to stay focused on pity for Christine, Enjolras and the poor minister, the back of her mind was repeating only one sentence.

I just went with Meg, you know Meg?

Meg Giry. Eponine tried to think of what she knew about her. The little, blonde girl had dated Courfeyrac when they were sophomores or something, but even then they had never been particularly friendly. She was really into dance, Eponine knew that. Meg had never received much more than a passing thought in her mind.

Why didn't Enjolras want to spend time with her? Had he finally gotten tired of her too? Like all of the gossipy, judgmental people of Alfred? Like her parents? Like Marius?

She already could imagine it. Meg and Enjolras were going to become best friends, and he would forget about Eponine, just like Marius had. Well, it was a bit of an exaggeration to say Marius had forgotten her, but Cosette had easily changed everything by just... existing.

Cosette had changed everything. Enjolras probably even met Meg through Cosette, because they were riends because everyone seemed to love Cosette and she fit in with everyone else perfectly.

"Eponine?" a voice asked her, she quickly realized it was Marius and uncharacteristically blushed at the sound of him.

"Sorry, sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

"No problem, I was just wondering if you know how to do this?" he asked her, shoving a binder her way. It was already study hall, she could hardly believe their entire Monday had passed. Effortlessly, she could explain it to him, math was probably the only thing she was good at, Eponine thought bitterly.

"I was just thinking about what happened yesterday." And that wasn't a complete lie, anyway.

"I know! Crazy, right? Everyone who was there didn't come in today, besides Enjolras," Marius commented. He had heard the worst of the murder, not only was he good friends with Enjolras and Raoul, Cosette was best friends with the two girls who were there.

"It's so sad, too. You never hear anything like that around this area, anyway," Eponine agreed, shuffling through her homework, while worrying about an upcoming Spanish test. It really had never been her best subject.

It was hard to deny that Marius was good-looking. He was one of the rare people to never suffer from an awkward, middle school phase and Eponine had always admired him. Even if he did have a girlfriend, they were still friends and he was kind, funny and smart. As she thought about it, there really was no reason NOT to like Marius.

Of course, Eponine still liked him. No, like wasn't a strong enough word to describe it. Eponine loved Marius, she did. She loved him.

However was it impossible to start loving him like a brother, and nothing more? Maybe. Eponine was going to try it. She could still love him, just a different kind of love.