Nunquam Erit


~~~3~~~
Frangere

As soon as she saw Marius' face, she knew something was desperately wrong. His gentle forehead was creased into a worried frown, and he regarded her with troubled, sorrow-full eyes.

"Cosette?"

"Oui, Marius...?

She expected a thousand things, she supposed; his grandfather had refused to allow them to be married, things weren't going well for him or his roommate, even that his roommate had thrown him out, anything, but not...

"Cosette, I loved you --"

Loved. The past tense chilled her, made her go rigid, made her heart suddenly crack, though it had not yet come to shards. And now he was almost babbling, words tripping over themselves in a frantic, shy, unhappy rush.

"Courfeyrac - very good friends - allowed me to stay with him - loved you - cared so much - but René - didn't intend - didn't know, and never meant - kissed me - I'm so sorry, Cosette!"

And then her heart did splinter. "I understand. It's all right. I know. Love can fade, can turn, can twist," she hardly knew what she was saying, "there can be someone else so easily. You talked about him. He sounds wonderful. I'm happy for you. I hope you're happy together. I hope you're happy..." she managed before her voice broke.

He smiled in such childlike relief she wanted to break along with it. This was her Marius, whom she purely, truly loved, and he was shredding the leftover pieces of her shattered heart, without even meaning it. "Thank you, so much, thank you for understanding."

Of course there was a pause, awkward and long, in which his smile began to fade.

"Well... Adieu, Cosette. Thank you, again."

"You're welcome. Adieu..."

Then he was gone. Gone forever, she realized. Maybe she'd see him sometimes, but he was never going to sit with her on the marble bench again, and they would never talk and laugh about little things again, and they'd never be married, never be married. She sank down on the cold stone, lost, and, as she hadn't since her father took her from the Thénardiers', she cried.


Chapter Four.