The City That We Loved

Patria

He wouldn't stop crying. Grantaire watched as Enjolras sobbed into the table, occasionally banging his head against it. Maybe he'd gone a little too far.

Especially since the golden leader was supposed to make a speech in about an hour. Grantaire feared what Combeferre would do when he found him like this.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Grantaire asked. He honestly had no idea what to do. Was this normal behaviour for Enjolras behind closed doors? It was doubtful. Very doubtful. He guessed ninety-eight percent of it was the weed. The other two percent was Enjolras being Enjolras and over working himself.

"What is there to talk about?" Enjolras sobbed. "France isn't free and it's all my fault! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" His shoulder shook with his sobbing. Internally, Grantaire was laughing so hard. Externally, he knew if he'd started laughing, the crying would only get worse.

Suddenly, Enjolras slammed his fist down on the table and he stood up, quickly.

"Where are you going?" Grantaire asked.

"To save France, that's where," Enjolras said. "I'm gonna make King Charles pay!"

"Whoa, whoa," the drunk said, grabbing Enjolras' arm.

"Unhand me, drunkard! France needs its leader! Patria needs me!"

"Patria?"

"Patria. My motherland. My love! Come, Emile. You're coming with me." Enjolras grabbed Grantaire's wrist and dragged him out of the room.

They ran right into Courfeyrac, Marius, Jehan, and Combeferre on the way out.

"Where are you two going?" Courfeyrac asked.

"To save my Patria!" Enjolras announced.

"God..." Jehan exclaimed. He sniffed the air. "What's that smell?"

"That would be weed," Courfeyrac and Grantaire said together. They all looked at Enjolras, whose lip was starting to quiver.

"Uh oh," R said. "Here we go again." Enjolras burst into tears and crumpled to the floor.

"Patria will never be saved," he cried. "And it's all my fault."

"GRANTAIRE!" Combeferre roared. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" Enjolras whimpered. Jehan helped the young leader to his feet and they went back into the back room of the cafe, followed by Marius.

"He wanted to get high and I had a stash back at my apartment," Grantaire explained.

"Enjolras hates weed, R," Courfeyrac explained. "I tried to get him to smoke a joint one time and he refused. I bribed him with everything but nope...wouldn't budge. You had to have insinuated it somehow."

"I may have...challenged him a bit," he said. Combeferre's face turned red and he walked into the back room, probably to explode at a wall instead of Grantaire.

"That's it," Courfeyrac said. "Why didn't I think of that? It's actually genius. But...when Enjolras gets back to his regular self...well, you might want to get the hell out of dodge...just sayin'."

Just then, the front door opened.

"Shit," Grantaire and Courfeyrac said at the same time. Enjolras' mother and father had both just walked into the cafe Musain. R and Courfeyrac bolted for the back room.

They needed to get Enjolras out of there.

"Parent alert," Courfeyrac said. Combeferre looked up from trying to comfort a still crying Enjolras. "M. and Mme. Enjolras just walked through the door."