& when I get there it won't be far enough[closed]

[ospreyed]

Who: Eponine and Charlie
When: February 13th, the day after Charlie's 13th birthday
Where: The Arena
Why: Eponine said if she ruined his birthday party, Charlie could come yell at her and get a few free shots in at the arena. She's expecting him to take her up on her offer.

It was only the promise of Charlie that got Eponine out of bed that morning. Throwing on her shoes, smearing her tired eyes with liner, her hair a complete mess, she grabbed a coffee from the dining pavillion before making her way to the arena. She didn't bother to say hello to anyone or anything. All she knew is that by now, Charlie had read her letter. And he probably, without a doubt, hated her for ruining his party. And would never be her friend again.

And that... It stung. Part of her knew it would be for the best. She wouldn't hurt him anymore. But...

But he'd always been there for her. And she didn't want to lose him. Not at the end of the day. There was still that little bit of feeling there that told her, deep inside, maybe she wasn't as hopeless as she thought.

All the same, it was only a matter of time before Charlie arrived and told her he hated her. Welcome to being a teenager, kid.

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[moointhedark]

Charlie had read the letter after the party. It was not what he was expecting. If anything, he thought it really would have been a cool t-shirt and some sort of birthday card, but this was... different. He wasn't sure how to feel about it.

He understood that Eponine trusted him enough to tell him that sort of thing, to hand over the candy and empty packages. This was not something that you just handed over to another person lightly; it was the kind of soul-bearing thing that took courage. But on the other hand, it made him angry: angry at Eponine for giving in to such things, but mostly angry at the people that did that to her, that allowed that to happen. Parents are supposed to protect their children, not use them to sell drugs.

After he had read the letter, he stayed up for a good part of the night just thinking. Is this what being one step closer to being an adult was like? Did it mean finally seeing the ugliness in the world? Understanding that not everyone had it easy and were sometimes used?

Charlie had wanted to feel different and more grown-up, and now he did.

It was a long time before he made it down to the arena. Part of it was due to a mishap in the toilet block -- people flushed drugs and stuff to get rid of them, and that's what he had tried to do with the Easter grass and candy cigarettes. That was a fun one to explain tearfully to the cleaning harpies.

He shuffled at the edge of the arena, sighed. "Hey, Ep."

The offer to hit her stood, but Charlie was above that. Never in his life had he wanted to hit someone and what would it accomplish? Wouldn't it make him as bad as the people that hurt Eponine?

Still, he wasn't sure how she would take his presence. With the tiniest of smiles, he added, "I just wanted to thank you for coming to my party yesterday. You made it a lot of fun!"