When Tomorrow Comes

Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"Oh God!" Enjolras exclaimed. "Eponine!"

He tried shaking her, but this time her eyes refused to open again. He took her pulse on her neck as Combeferre had showed him once. He sighed in relief; the pulse was still there. It was weak, but it was there.

Enjolras picked her up and started walking down the alley. And that's when he ran face to face with Montparnasse and his friends.

"So you found her..." he started.

"Look, I know you're mad, but..."

"You're damn right I'm mad! I can't feel the left side of my jaw!"

"Look at her, Montparnasse! She's barely breathing! You know she's done no wrong, she just needs a doctor's care."

Montparnasse looked to the ground.

"She did do something wrong..."

"What's that?"

"She loved you instead..."

"How...? How is that wrong, Montparnasse?!" Enjolras bursted out. "She just listened to her heart!"

"Yeah well right now her heart isn't in the best condition, isn't it?"

Enjolras lay Eponine on the ground and lunged towards Montparnasse.

"You son of a bitch!"

He tried hitting him again, but with a wounded arm he was no match for a street kid like Montparnasse, who quickly pushed him off. Before Enjolras had time to respond, the three men behind Montparnasse took out their guns and pointed them straight at him.

"Fine, shoot me," Enjolras said. "It's what you've been waiting for."

"Oh, you're not getting off that easy," Montparnasse replied. "You're going to watch the one you love die..."

Enjolras started to panic.

"No, you can't," he stuttered.

"You're going to see what it's like to lose the one you love. You're going to see what it is to live with that hole burning through you. Heck, you're going to feel what I've been feeling since I saw you two under that bridge the other day!"

Enjolras' heart stopped.

"All this time... You knew?"

"Yes... Everytime I saw her look at you, I knew she'd never look at me the same way."

He took a deep breath.

"Everytime..." he repeated.

"Montparnasse, listen to me."

"No, you listen!"

Montparnasse was shaking. His veins were about to pop out and his eyes were bloodshot.

"You don't know!" Montparnasse shouted. "You don't know what it feels like!"

"I do..."

"No, you don't!"

"Four years ago!" Enjolras exclaimed.

He lowered his voice.

"Four years ago, I met this girl. My age, blonde hair, blue eyes... It was the first time I felt my heart actually beat faster in my chest."

Enjolras laughed a bit.

"I was acting like a fool," he remembered. "I couldn't even talk to her without sounding like a complete idiot."

"What happened?" Montparnasse asked.

Enjolras immediately lost his smile and looked to the ground.

"She, umm... She died."

His words got stuck in his throat.

"She was doing fine. One day she came home coughing. It was winter. Her mother thought it was just a cold. But then it got worse. Doctor said it was incurable... She was gone the next Spring."

Enjolras wiped a tear off his cheek.

"I know what it feels like when someone you care about is just ripped away from you," he said under his breath. "I know what it's like to lose someone..."

And then he looked at Eponine.

"But I'm not going to lose her."

He looked at Montparnasse with pleading eyes.

"Montparnasse, please..."

"If I let you leave," he managed to reply, "I lose her for sure."

"You've lost her anyways," he let out.

But Montparnasse still seemed to hesitate.

"If you love her as much as you say you do," Enjolras told him, "at least do it for her."

Montparnasse looked at his gun, tossing it between his hands. And then he looked at Eponine lying unconscious on the ground, the pool of water beside her slowly turning red.

"For her sake," he told Enjolras. "Go."

"But Montparnasse!" one of his friends objected.

"Look at her," he replied, nodding towards Eponine. "I can't let her suffer like this. I'm... I'm not her father. She's suffered enough."

Enjolras gently grabbed Eponine's body and walked past Montparnasse.

"Thank you, Monsieur," Enjolras whispered in his ear.

"Take care of her, rich boy. She deserves so much more than this."

Enjolras smiled.

"You have my word," he promised.

And then he was off towards the hospital, leaving Montparnasse and his gang standing alone in the alley.

"Why did you do that for?" one of his friends asked.

Montparnasse stared in front of him, his eyes gleaming. This was the first truly nice thing he had done in his life that would benefit someone other than himself.

"Because," Montparnasse answered, "I can't write the story for them; I have my own story to worry about..."