And The Sun Will Rise (ExR Fanfic)

Chapter 7

Song for this chapter: Landon Pigg-Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop

The next morning, Enjolras woke up feeling like he'd been hit by a truck. He'd barely slept after what had happened last night because of all the conflicting emotions whirling round his head. The storm inside him still hadn't quite subsided when he sat down to have breakfast with Courf and tried to respond appropriately to his chatter. Why did his friend have to choose today of all days to be awake at a reasonable time? But apparently, he didn't fool Courf for a minute, because eventually, he set his coffee mug down with a bang and stared straight at Enjolras.
"Okay, enough. Something's the matter with you and believe you me, I will get to the bottom of it."
"Nothing's the matter. I just didn't sleep well, and I've got a ton of deadlines coming up that I'm stressed about."
Courf rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. You forget I've known you since fifth grade and right now, you're making the exact same face as when you tried to convince the teacher that it wasn't you who freed the lab rats. I can always tell when you're lying."
"Oh, alright. I feel kind of bad about being so rude to that guy yesterday, if you must know. I probably overreacted a little."

Enjolras decided to give his friend a crumb of truth and hope he'd be satisfied with it. Courf seemed to swallow it, anyway, because he stopped giving Enjolras that X-ray look.
"Well, I, for one think your reaction was entirely appropriate" he replied. "And why do you even care about that weird dude? I mean, it's not like you're ever going to see him again."

And that, right there, is the real problem, Enjolras thought. But of course, he couldn't tell Courf that. His friend wouldn't understand any of what he was feeling right now. Enjolras didn't even understand it himself.
"Yes, you're right. He's not worth worrying about. Now come on or we'll be late for uni" he said quickly, needing to get out of this awkward situation before any of his real thoughts could spill out of his mouth.
"Ugh, uni. Even the word gives me the creeps" Courf muttered, but he obediently trudged after Enjolras.

***

Somehow, Enjolras got through his lectures, although he couldn't have said afterwards what any of them had been about. It wasn't like to him to be so inattentive and as he and Courf walked to the Musain together after their last class of the day, he mentally gave himself a good shaking. Pining over that guy wouldn't do him any good. Yet despite his best intentions, he couldn't help looking for him once they got to the café. To his great disappointment, the only person around was Éponine, who was folding napkins at the counter.
"Hey, you two. You're just in time for lunch."
"Does that mean you've found a new cook?" Courf asked hopefully.
Éponine smiled.
"I have. And he knows his stuff. There's a quiche he made on the table in your conspiracy den. Wait till you try it. That is, if the others have left you any."
"They'd better or there'll be hell to pay" Courf said, pulling Enjolras along behind him so quickly that he almost tripped over his own feet in his eagerness. It turned out that there was indeed quiche left, but Enjolras just pushed his piece around listlessly on his plate. Apparently, crushing on someone not only took away your capacity to form a coherent thought, but also completely messed up your sense of hunger.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jehan, who was sitting beside him, asked when he saw Enjolras wasn't eating.
"Yeah, just not hungry."
"Hmm... if I didn't know better, I'd say you're in love. I've certainly never seen you turn down food before."
Enjolras quickly stared down at his plate, feeling like his face was on fire. Those goddamn poets- there was just no keeping anything from them.
"Oh, but you are, aren't you?" Jehan said with a smile, picking up on his reaction.
"Keep your voice down!" Enjolras hissed, worriedly glancing at Courf on his other side to see if he'd heard anything. But Courf was too busy fighting Bossuet for the last piece of quiche and didn't appear to have noticed.
"Sorry, sorry. Who is he, then?"
"No one you know."
It wasn't a lie, not really. After all, none of them knew anything about the guy from yesterday- not even his name, Enjolras realised.
"Well, anyway, you should eat something. You can't live on love alone. And this quiche really is delicious" Jehan said, thankfully letting the subject rest. To shut him up, Enjolras took a bite and immediately closed his eyes in bliss. Jehan hadn't been exaggerating-it really did taste amazing.
"Mmm" he went, unable to stop himself.
"I know, right? Absolute foodgasm" Jehan grinned.
"Okay, I need to find out more about the guy who made this. And then, I'm going to ask 'Ponine how much I have to pay her so I can hire him to make this for me every day."