Leading Ladies ~ Eponine

Hello Ladies,
With Beneath the Scars coming up this year it is only fair to have the characters be introduced before hand. I had Riley not that long ago and his counter part is Eponine! She was a fun character for me, she is probably a little like Lauren with the motherly instincts, but she has an inner spit fire that Riley needs to kick his butt.

                     Eponine

Light brown hair
Runs every night
Bleeding heart
Favorite book is Pride and Prejudice
Despite all the healthy food she cooks, she has a big weakness for Chinese food
Dropped out of college

Scene:

A couple of my shorter, brown strands fell out of my ponytail as I stood by the cash register at work. Shifting my weight from one foot to the other as I stared out of the wide windows, work was empty. My idle mind was trying not to think about the classes I could be sitting through right now instead of being in this building that was sucking the soul out of my body. A sigh escaped from my lips upward, blowing the thin hairs up as my lips quickly formed into a smile as an elderly woman came to my register.

"Good morning-"

"Oh good morning how are you?" the elderly woman asked cutting me off.

"I'm doing well thank you, how are you?"

She grinned. Her teeth were slightly discolored, "Oh I'm better than most my age. You must be new."

I continued to grin as I noticed all she had bought was an orange.

"Yes I am. I just moved into town with my sister. Do you have a FoodMart card or a reusable bag with you?" I questioned as my manager rounded the corner.

"No and no. What brought you to our town?" the woman inquired as I scanned the single orange.

The beep echoed as there was no one else around. She squinted at my name tag.

"My sister and I just moved to town. That would be seventy cents."

She placed her purse on the belt pulling out the money, with the exact change from a small coin purse in the shape of a baby's sock that had a clasp at the top.

"Eponine's an unusual name, is that from the story Les Miserables?"

I nodded my head, "Yes, actually that's where my mom got it from. She had a thing for different names."

The elderly lady grinned, "I'm Edith. Well have a good afternoon, Eponine."

"Thank you, you too," I called out as she waltzed out of the building.

"She's such a sweetie," Cleo spoke up behind me leaning on her hands so that her heart shaped face was between her hands with her dark red hair framing her face. "She comes in every single day to buy one orange, then on Sundays she does her real shopping. I've been working here since I got my working papers, and her routine has not changed. If she doesn't stop in I'd be worried."

Cleo's brown eyes left me as they turned to the side to watch Edith stroll off in a direction of the Active Adult Community down the street.

"She seems nice," I commented. Cleo was friendly and took to me real fast, like a kindergartener often felt with their knew classmates.

Cleo leaned over her counter to grab a copy of this month's Cosmopolitan. There was a loud ripping sound as she just whipped through the first page. Cleo started to twirl a section of hair between a couple of her fingers.

"So, Eponine do you need to know what the naughtiest sex tips are?" Cleo sang, her voice was even despite the smirk on her heavily glossed lips that shone in the bad lighting, and her eyes twinkled.

"Cleo, shh," I yelped trying to shush her as the heat was rising to my face. My eyes were round bulging out of my head.

Cleo rolled her eyes, thick dark eyelashes fluttering.

"Oh come on. No one is here plus you can't possibly tell me you don't have a sex life," Cleo raised a brow at me taking her eyes off the colorful pages.

"Cleo I live with my ten year old sister and our German Sheppard. I'm their solo caretaker and have bills to pay. I don't even know what spare time is. Spare time is a friend of mine who likes to be a tease and has hidden from me," I answered dryly pressing my back against my register to face her. She snorted. "Plus again I don't have time or even the energy to go out."

"Oh don't be such an old fart you're twenty one," Cleo snapped rolling her eyes.

"How about this? You spend a day with my sister, and tell me how much energy you have left."

Cleo narrowed her eyes.

"Don't use your sister as an excuse. You'll grow to hate her if you do."

I sighed, glancing out the window again. I scrunched my face hating that she was right.

"Look, I know I need to still be able to go out and have fun, but I've got responsibilities-"

"Does your sister have any friends?" Cleo probed placing her hands on her hips, her painted nails contrasting against the uniform.

"Yes?" I questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Have her go to a sleepover with one of her friends, and we can go out for the night."

I sighed letting the air go out of my nose.

"She probably does miss Bobby," I whispered under my breath.

Cleo clapped her hands together in front of her face, beaming.

"Oh we're going to have so much fun!"

"What's fun?" a deep voice behind me spoke, causing me to jump a little. I turned around almost forgetting that there were people in the store.

"Oh I'm sorry," I stammered as I caught eyes with the man before me who had greenish brown eyes framed by dark long eyelashes.

The man appeared to be around my age with a smile that made me go almost weak at the knees. His skin was slightly tanned with pearl white teeth. His hair was thick, mink brown, and curly like in the pictures of Greek Gods, while his jacket hugged the shape of his broad shoulders.

"Hey Blake, this is Eponine. She's new around here. I'm trying to talk her into coming out of her little shell of a life."

"You should totally come by Friday night for dinner. A whole bunch of us go out. It's kind of our thing," Blake responded placing his basket on the belt.

"Why didn't I think of that? Eponine, we go to this bar and food place. There's usually like ten of us. It'll be a good way for you to get out and meet people," Cleo chimed in as Blake took his items out for me to scan.

"If you want, give me your address and I'll pick you up and drive you over," Blake offered, his face was nearly glowing.

"I'll have to make sure I can get someone to watch my sister, but that sounds good," I answered unable to stop my smile.

"Cool, I'll ask Cleo for your number later so that we can work out the details."

I could feel how big my beam was getting and hated how silly I must have looked.

"Okay."

I finished ringing him up as he left, giving me a lopsided grin.

"So, now that we have that settled, what are you going to wear?"