The Barricade Girl (A Les Miserables FanFiction)

Chapter Eighteen

"See, I can tell by your face –" Enjolras says to me as we dance.

"Tell what?" I squint at him, confused. Inside, I'm surprised at how natural this feels. I thought it would have felt awkward, but it doesn't.

"That I'm clearly out-dancing the rest of them!" He smirks. This is met with immediate boos and groans of disagreement from the rest of the group.

"That's not true!" I try to shout over the noise to pacify the rest of the group. "You're all wonderful! But...I can tell that this isn't your first time dancing such a dance..." I playfully raise my eyebrow at him. "You kept that talent quiet..." I smirk.

"I keep a lot of things quiet..." He blushes bashfully and looks at me, and I look back, not breaking our eye contact, falling into each other's gaze and smiling lightly. And for a second, we are in our own world. A noise from outside brings us back to the dusty upstairs room in the Café Musain.

"Gavroche!!!!" We hear voices shouting from outside – children's voices. "Gavroche!!!" Gavroche runs over to the window, and Enjolras and I break apart following him to the window to see what the commotion is. When we reach the window, we see a group of little children, Gavroche's age and younger, dressed in rags. "Gavroche! Are you coming out to play?" They shout up at him.

"Can I?" Gavroche faces lights up as he looks at me, and then looks at Enjolras. "Please, Enjolras?"

"Fine –" Enjolras starts and Gavroche runs towards the stairs. "BUT!" Enjolras adds a little louder than before to get Gavroche's attention, making him stop and turn around to face him. "Don't be out too late!"

"Yes, Sir!" Gavroche salutes sweetly and innocently before running down the stairs. We watch at the window as Gavroche runs out into the street and starts to run off down the street with his little friends.

"Gavroche!" I shout into the street, not being able to help myself.

"Yeah?" Gavroche and his friends turn around as he shouts back.

"Stay safe!"

"I will!" He beams back cheerfully, before turning back.

"All of you, be safe. Look after one another!" I wish I would shut up. I sound like such a worrier...I sound like such a Mum!

"We will!" They all shout back in an echo of little voices, before turning back around to run off in the opposite direction.

"Are they your parents?" One of the little girls asks Gavroche as they quickly disappear down the street, so quickly that we don't get to hear Gavroche's answer.

"Is he going to be okay? It's starting to get dark –" I look at Enjolras, a little pinch of panic and worry seeping its way into my voice.

"Calm down...He'll be fine...he always is!" Enjolras answers in a calm and reassuring manner before I have a chance to finish my sentence, gently putting his arm around my shoulder as we watch Gavroche laughing gleefully with his friends as they run.

Enjolras gave up on waiting on Marius to return and had started the meeting. Things had gotten quite heated – so much that you could almost feel the adrenaline in the room. I sat the whole time by the window waiting for my brother to get here, gazing out the window, praying that any second, he would appear around the corner. I had been sat here for almost fifteen minutes while the boys talked and listened to Enjolras. And then I see a familiar figure running – no, joyfully skipping – toward the Café Musain. Marius bounds up the stairs and sits himself beside me at the window, not speaking a single word to any of us. Enjolras doesn't miss a beat and continues talking to the group as if Marius had been here all along – it seems that nothing will deter our leader from his aim. Marius sits with a stupid, dreamy smile wiped across his face.

"What's the matter with you?" I smirk at my brother, gently nudging his arm, amused by the look on his face.

"Nothing, I'm fine...we'll talk later..." He smiles widely.

"Is this because of the blonde girl – ?" I start to ask, but Marius cuts me off.

"We'll talk later!" Marius places his hand over mine.

"Tell me!" I pinch his hand.

"Later!" He pinches me back playfully. I tune myself back in to the conversation happening between Enjolras and the boys. I move from the window to sit on one the chairs around the table. I try to signal for Marius to sit beside me, but he doesn't see me – he's just sat there, staring into space. I roll my eyes and sit myself down. Enjolras starts to pace the room as he thinks aloud.

"Courfeyrac! Do we have all the guns? Feuilly, Combeferre! Our time is running short! Grantaire, put that bottle down!" He points at Grantaire, not even turning to look at him. It's almost as if he has eyes in the back of his head or some kind of sixth sense – he just knew that Grantaire was about to take another swig of his drink. "Do we have the guns we need?"

"Give me brandy on my breath and I'll breathe them all to death!" Grantaire laughs. Enjolras gives him 'the look' – the unimpressed look. He just stares at him, and I can almost see the disappointment travelling through the air from Enjolras to Grantaire in the awkward silence that fills the room. Grantaire sinks down into a seat beside me.

"Good one, Grantaire...you really got him there..." I murmur sarcastically so only Grantaire can hear, making him snort in amusement.

"Enjolras!" Combeferre speaks, breaking the silence and bringing the meeting back to topic. "At Notre Dame the sections are prepared!"

"At Rue du Bac they're straining at the leash!" Feuilly adds.

"Students, workers, everyone! There's a river on the run!" Courfeyrac chimes in, getting excited with very animated movements. "Like the flowing of the tide, Paris coming to our side!"

"The time is near..." Enjolras stops moving and stands behind my chair, placing his hands on the back of it, resting there. "So near it's stirring the blood in their veins...and yet beware! Don't let the wine go to your brains!" He slaps Grantaire on the back of the head and snatches the bottle out of his hand.

"Hey!" Grantaire moans in mock-offence.

"For the army we fight is a dangerous foe..." Enjolras continues. "With the men and the arms that we never can match. It is easy to sit here and swat them like flies...But the National Guard will be harder to catch. We need a sign to rally the people! To call them to arms! To bring them in line!" The rest of the boys cheer in agreement. I look at Marius, who is still sitting by the window with a faraway look on his face. Joly catches me looking at Marius and sees this faraway look too.

"Marius, wake up!" Joly makes Marius jump. "What's wrong today?" He walks over to him. "You look as if you've seen as ghost!"

"Some wine, and say what's going on!" Grantaire leaves his seat and slaps my brother on the shoulder, offering him another bottle of wine that my brother rejects politely.

"Where did you get that? I just took your bottle off you!" Enjolras exclaims in disbelief, signalling to the bottle that he took from him.

"I have my ways!" Grantaire winks, pointing to the inside pocket of his waistcoat, revealing a stash of alcohol.

"Grantaire!" I exclaim.

"Don't act so surprised, Miss Juliette!" He says in a high-pitched voice, before turning back to my brother. "Now, tell us what's going on!"

"A ghost you say? A ghost, maybe! She was just like a ghost to me –" Marius starts to explain, seeming completely captivated by whatever has happened to him.

"Uh-oh..." I say under my breath, slowly rising from my seat.

"One minute there – then she was gone!" Marius finishes.

"...It's the girl..." I gasp under my breath. My brother is in love...and I'm not sure I want to hear about it...but I know I'm going to whether I want to or not. And chances are, at some point or another, Eponine is going to hear about it, too...