The City That We Loved

Patron Minette and the Jondrette Girl

Grantaire's phone ringing at nine in the morning woke him. After the whole café fiasco the night before, he'd went home and got completely hammered. Waking up at nine did not feel nice.

"You've reached R," Grantaire said. "How may I ruin you?"

"Did Enjolras stay at your place last night?" Combeferre asked.

"Nice to talk to you, too, 'Ferre," Grantaire said.

"I'm not in the mood right now," Combeferre said, with an angry sigh. "Did he sleep at your flat or not?"

"Apollo did not stay the night, no," Grantaire said, sitting up and stretching. "Wait, he didn't go back to his flat?"

"Nope," Combeferre said. "Shit...I don't know where else he could've gone. I tried his phone. It's not like he'd walk all the way from the café to Feuilly's and he wouldn't stay at Joly and Bossuet. He's afraid of what might go on in that residence. The only place I could think of is Bahorel's but Courfeyrac just texted him and he said he hasn't seen him."

"I would suggest calling the police but since he's not liked very much there I won't," Grantaire said.

"Why are you so calm about this?" Combeferre asked. "Hell, why are you such a dick to Enjolras? He never did anything to you." Grantaire shuffled to the kitchen to make himself a coffee.

"He made me spill my coffee," he said.

"Not funny. We're going to go out looking for him. You have an hour to be ready or I will personally keep you out of our meetings." Then four eyes hung up. Grantaire sighed and changed into a hoodie and sweats. He'd rather stay at home and drink all day, for it was the second last weekend before exam chaos started before the summer, but he felt responsible for whatever happened to Enjolras.

Grantaire quickly made himself breakfast. He took a long chug of absinthe before leaving the flat. He assumed they were meeting at the Musain. Of course, they were.

"...it's not like Enjolras to run off, though," Jehan said as Grantaire entered the back room.

"Yeah but it wasn't normal circumstances last night," Combeferre said. "He probably stayed at an old friend's place or something."

"Why isn't he answering his phone then?" Joly asked. "He always answers his phone. Maybe he got sick and lost the feeling in his fingers. Or--"

"Okay, Joly," Bossuet said. "That's...that's probably not what happened."

"Combeferre!" Marius shouted, running in. A girl with dark brown hair followed him in. She was dressed in old ripped clothes that looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time. In fact, it appeared she hadn't washed in a long time. "This is Eponine. She knows where Enjolras is."

"You do?" Combeferre asked. Eponine nodded. "Where is he?"

"M-My father and the Patron Minette found him wandering aimlessly," she said. "They figured from his clothes that he had money so they captured him. He didn't have anything on him so they're ransoming him."

"Well, shit," Grantaire said, popping a piece of gum into his mouth.

"Enjolras' parents disowned him," Courfeyrac said. "They won't pay for a ransom."

"Eponine, how much is the ransom?" Combeferre asked.

"Ten thousand euros," she said. Grantaire was surprised at how low it actually was. "But it goes up ten thousand every hour. So now it's about eighty thousand."

"And there's the punch line," Grantaire muttered.

"You really shouldn't be talking right now, Grantaire," Courfeyrac said.