A/N: You know I find it funny how I can always tell if another author read my writing or someone else's, mind you they never steal a lot but I can see the similarities. Not calling anyone out, just stating an observation.
Enjoy the next chapter and PLEASE REVIEW!
And again, if anyone is interested in making me cover art I will love you forever! I have no idea what i want, but i'm sure whatever people come up with will be amazing! Thanks I love you all :D
Enjolras hunched over his books as he tried to focus on studying for this exam the following week. The café was unusually empty that evening, it was early Friday and most people where out partying rather than studying like him. Even Eponine wasn't at the café and she was almost always there but Mr. Myriel had 'forbidden' her from working there due to her ankle and wrist. Eponine had insisted that she was ok to work but even after a week later Mr. Myriel didn't budge. Enjolras couldn't blame him for his concern, he was just as apprehensive about her getting back to work as he was, but Eponine loved her job. Ever since she got her job three months ago Enjolras noticed that she seemed a bit different, she was still her usual self but now there was some other spark within her.
Enjolras realized he was thinking of her a little too much and quickly proceeded to push those thoughts out of his mind as he turned back to his books. He only got through a couple more pages when he heard someone shuffle near him and take a seat next to him, a bag dropping at their feet. When he turned his head to see who it was he found it was the last person he ever expected.
Sitting there right next to him was a girl with an overly cheery smile and a flirty look in her eye. Enjolras found himself face to face again with none other than the overly perky and preppy Garlinda, or was it Glinda; frankly he really could care less.
"Hi Aiden" She said in an overly sweet voice "Fancy running into you here."
Not really considering I spend all my free time here and you probably knew that. He thought but still gave her a "Hey" out of instinct before turning his attention back to his notebook. He noticed that she was still staring at him with wide eyes and a toothy smile. "It's Garlinda right?"
She gasped, "Its GAH-Linda! Not Gar, just Gah!"
"Sorry." he said off-handily, his eyes never leaving his book.
She put her elbows on the table top and placed her chin in her hands, "So what exactly are you doing?"
"Studying" He stated plainly as he took some notes
"Oh," she responded, "but its Friday night, don't you want go out and have some fun. I mean YOLO right?" she added, touching his elbow as she did so which caused Enjolras to wince internally: it wasn't just the fact that she touched him but the fact that she just used the term YOLO. Anyone who knew him knew he absolutely hated that term, every time Grantaire used it Enjolras would go off on a long and antagonistic rant about it and it would feel like none of the Amis would ever hear the end of it. He would harass everyone about how it was a term that everyone misinterpreted and simply used it as an excuse to party and waste their time on getting wasted. Even Eponine, who hated the term as much as she did and was known to go off on her rants too, had to admit Enjolras really took his too far.
"I'm not really one for 'Yolo' in those terms. I find it better to focus my attention on things that will actually help me in the future." He replied, trying his hardest not to be hostile toward her though it took every inch of his being.
She looked a bit taken back but she continued on, "Oh well I'm sure even someone as dedicated as you has to have fun at some points."
He pressed his forefinger against his temple, "I do but my forms of entertainment aren't like everyone else's."
"I'm sure we can find some similarities." She said with a wink. "Are you busy right now…well what I mean is are you occupied with anyone currently."
"Not exactly, I did want to study in peace…."
"Oh that's good; I feared you thought I was rude when I interrupted your tutoring session with that one girl two weeks ago. I mean I totally invaded your session, I must have like made you look really unprofessional and that is so not good for business."
Enjolras raised an eyebrow at her, "I think you misunderstood-"
She didn't listen and cut him off, "At least that's not a problem this time."
The pen in Enjolras' hand almost burst from the pressure he put on it when Galinda said that. He tried to correct her and let her down easy but she wasn't listening. He stealthy rolled his eyes when he noticed that this girl wasn't taking his hints. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down and not to say something he would regret. From the way she was looking at him Enjolras had the feeling that he wouldn't be relieving himself from Galinda anytime soon. She went on about some of her interest and the latest party that everyone was going to be at, and she kept moving her head in an overly feministic way, it took all of Enjolras will power not to get right then and storm off. While his friends called him 'unemotional' and 'stoic' he was also a gentlemen and polite to people if he didn't know them, when it came to his friend he didn't give a damn. He didn't know how long he had been listening to Galinda's consistent or how much longer he could stand listening to her without bursting but he could feel his internal bomb ticking with each passing second. He felt as id he was just about loose it when he noticed a figure take a seat next to him. He glanced over at the figure and found himself looking at the back of someone's head but the second he saw the thick black hair and smelled the raspberry aroma coming from it he automatically knew who it was.
"Hey Linda" Eponine said cheerfully as she set her messenger bag in between her and Enjolras.
Galinda eyed Eponine cautiously, giving her the PGGO again like she had two weeks ago but this time it ended when her eyes locked onto her wrist which was still in a small cast. "It's Galinda actually." She smiled but there was definitely some fire in her eyes, "What happened to your wrist?"
Eponine looked down at it and flexed it slightly, "Oh nothing big, I sprained it when I punch someone who tried to grope my ass at the subway over break."
Galinda's eyes widened, "Really?"
"Yep" Eponine replied but she had to bite down on her lip to hold back a laugh; she could hear Enjolras cough and put a hand to his mouth to do the same thing. "His face was harder then I intended it to be. What can I say I don't like it when people invade my bubble like that, not that I blame him thought, I mean I have a pretty nice ass." She added, gently tapping the side of her behind.
Galinda looked mildly uncomfortable and a little scared, "Sure…um…" She quickly stood up and gathered her things, "you know I totally forgot that I have to go…um do something." She said backing away while keeping her sights and Enjolras and avoiding looking at Eponine at all, "I'll catch up with you later Aiden." She said before turning on her heel and scurrying out the door.
As soon as Galinda was out of sight Eponine busted out laughing. She was laughing so hard she had to hunch over and wrap her arms around her stomach. Enjolras couldn't help but laugh either, thought his laughter was a bit for tame.
"Did you see her face when I told her that I punch a guy? Or when I commented on my ass?" She asked while she was still laughing "I swear I think I seriously creped her out."
Enjolras smiled, "You are a genius 'Ponine."
She straightened herself out, her back still toward him, "I try, when I walked in I saw her sitting over here and you looked like you were in some serious pain. I had to do something, I may tease you guys from time to time but I couldn't let you suffer."
"I was thank you for that. What would I do without you?"
"Explode from Galinda overdose." She replied lightheartedly as she turned in her seat to face him.
Enjolras noticed that as she turned she positioned the brushed some of her hair with her fingers and tried to discreetly place on her face right in front of her cheek.
"So what are you doing here? I thought Mr. Myriel wasn't letting you work while you were injured."
"He isn't but he can't keep me away from the café, and eventually I will break him. He will let me work again soon."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea with your ankle? Think about it, being a waitress means hours and hours on your feet."
"I know, but I like working."
He raised an eyebrow at her, "I think that is the first time I've ever heard someone admit that.'
She giggled, "Well it's true. Working at the café is nice Mr. Myriel is nice, I get to see all you guys all the time, and I make money doing it."
"Out of curiosity how much money do you make?"
"$10/ hour." she stated simply
His eyes widened, "Really? And you work a heck of a lot of hours. I think you spend most of your free time here."
"I know it's a lot but only four other people work here and two of them are Mr. Myriel's nieces….."
"Oh."
"Yeah, and as bad as this sounds I like having the extra money, it makes me feel better." She said biting her lip. She looked up at Enjolras and he gave her a look that told her to go on. "Bare with me as I tell you this….Ever since I stared working at the café I've been happier but ever since I got my first pay check I've felt more normal. I can actually get decent quality stuff, like decent shampoo and condition her that wont leave my hair dry like the dollar store kind, I can get decent razors that wont nick and cut my skin when I shave, I can actually afford to go with you guys to the movies, and lunch at school, when Cosette asks me to go shopping I can actually buy something!" She looked down at her hands after she said that, "I just don't feel like a charity case so much."
Enjolras looked at his friend with a curious gaze. His eyes softened and he put a hand on her back right in between her shoulder blades, causing her to look up at him. "We never saw you as a charity case Eponine. You're our friend and we love you."
"Thanks." She replied sarcastically
"It's the truth and you know it." She laughed at him and he returned the smile.
At that moment her hair had slipped from her cheek, revealing an ugly looking bruise right on her cheekbone close to her ear. He reached up and gently brushed it with his finger, "What happened there?"
She immediatly jolted back as her eyes widened and she bit her lip as she brushed her hair back to cover her cheek, "Oh my shiner? It's nothing, Azelma and I were outside doing some yard work and some of the neighborhood kids were playing catch, they lost control of their ball and I wasn't paying attention. I didn't even notice the ball until I turned around and it clubbed me in the face."
Enjolras looked at her as if he didn't believe her, her excuse seemed legit but then again Eponine was too smart to use overused excuses. She never used the excuses like "I fell down the stairs" or "ran into a wall" but she seemed to be hurt a lot more than a normal person should.
"Oh that reminds me," she began, trying to take attention away from her bruise "please tell me you aren't leaving me alone tomorrow."
He raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? What's tomorrow?"
"Cosette's birthday party…. remember? Marius has been talking about it nonstop since last week."
He shrugged, "I tend to tune out whenever Marius mentions her name in a dreamy tone I don't care about his lonely soul."
"It's not so lonely anymore." she remarked
"That's right, but nonetheless I still don't care about it. I find that if I tune him out I don't have the need to throw my textbook at him."
"Smart strategy" she remarked, "But seriously Enjy please go tomorrow, I don't think I can handle going by myself. Marius and Cosette will be love birds, Grantaire will probably get drunk and I don't even want to think about what happened at the last party."
"Hey the furniture barricade turned out to be amazing!"
"Until you guys had to clean it up before Courfeyrac's parents came home and called me at 5 am to help you. What exactly possessed you guys to build a barricade in the first place?!"
"Too much alcohol," He replied, "Grantaire spiked my coke."
"That doesn't surprise me." She said sarcastically. "So will you please go tomorrow? Marius also told me his cousin is in town for a visit and will be going to the party…guess who he assigned to baby-sit him?"
"I'm going to take a shot here and say it's you."
She nodded, "You would be correct."
Enjolras rolled his eyes, "I can't believe he asked you to baby-sit his cousin at a party."
"He didn't actually use those words per say… he said and I quote 'Eponine my cousin is visiting and he will be at the party. He doesn't really know anyone so could you please keep him company and be friendly, please!'"
"And you of course agreed."
"It's not like I could exactly refuse…."
"Actually you could have."
"But he used his puppy-eyes, do you know how hard it is to refuse Marius' request when he uses his puppy-eyes?!"
"I can imagine." He said sardonically
"So will you be going?" She asked again.
She gripped onto his arm and looked at him with big wide eyes and a desperate look on her face. One look into Eponine's chocolate eyes and Enjolras knew he couldn't say no, he was beginning to understand what she meant by not being able to refuse puppy-dog eyes.
"Ok, I kind of owe you after you got rid of Galinda for me."
She smiled widely and she gave him a quick hug, "Thank you Enjy you are the best friend ever!"
"I know," He stated pessimistically, "I know."
Who is really starting to hate me now? Anyone?
Next up, Cosette's birthday party ...anyone wanna guess who Marius' cousin is? Let me just tell you know things are going to get interesting :P
See you all next time, hopefully i can update again within the next few days
Please Review :D