A/N: Thank you all so much for your feedback! I'm glad so many people are loving it, it means a lot to me! :D

Unfortunately, I don't always have time to sit down and write a chapter every day or sometimes every couple of days as I do have a very busy schedule and don't exactly want to lose my job! So please bear with me and don't be too mad if I don't update for a few days at a time some times!!!

xxxXxxx

Enoch's cheek felt like it was burning for hours after.

He'd barely managed to stammer out a "What?" before he felt the extremely unfamiliar warmth of Olive Elephanta's lips against his cheek that contrasted considerably with the coolness of his skin and the crisp bite in October air.

He'd been caught so off guard by it he had frozen in his tracks and redness flooded his pale skin. Olive had immediately looked away from him, her own skin tinged with the pink of an embarrassed blush. All he'd done was study with her and she was so grateful for help that she'd kissed him? That had never happened before, unsurprisingly. Though, Enoch had to admit, he'd also never bothered helping anyone very much before Olive had asked. If they couldn't do it themselves, why would he care if people could or couldn't grasp what he deemed simple fact and method.

Enoch hadn't said anything in the end after he remembered how to walk and they continued in silence, neither of them looking at the other for longer than a millisecond, though he'd glanced over at just the right moments to catch her doing it.

She had said goodbye to him at an intersection, not far from the funeral parlour he was already late to work at and Enoch, unwittingly at first though he soon scolded himself for doing it, found himself watching her walk away.

All the while his cheek burned warm where she had kissed him and the slightest hint of colour was still visible on his face when he stepped through the door into his father's shop where he was immediately met with questions.

"What on earf took ya so long, Enoch? I need an 'and back 'ere, 'urry up."

Enoch sighed and dropped his bag in the office before letting himself on through into the back of the parlour where his father was glaring at him across the room. His arms were crossed over his aproned chest and gloved fingers drummed on his arm as he stared at his son.

"If you tell me you 'ad another detention, Enoch Reuben O'Connor-"

The boy's brow furrowed at the use of his middle name, which didn't often happen unless his parents were really not happy with him.

"I didn'...leave me alone." Enoch grumbled as he slunk away to the sink in the corner of the room. He rolled up his sleeves to the elbows, disinfected his hands and washed them before snapping on a pair of rubber gloves.

"Then you could 'ave said yeh'd be late. I wouldn't 'ave waited for ye."

"I didn't know. I lost track'a time, okay?"

"You don't often do that. It's a simple question, I was a teenager once, I know how grumpy you get."

"I was studyin' alright?" Enoch's temper was getting hotter and hotter as his father refused to accept his evasive answers. He knew though, that the second he said he was with a friend, especially a girl, his father's entire demeanour would change. "And what do you care if it was a detention..."

He knew his parents didn't think it was normal for a teenager to spend almost the entirely of his life in solitude. They thought it was his lack of social activity, or desire for it, that made him sour tempered and sarcastic and it was as though Christmas had come early for them whenever he did spend whatever limited time he did with Hugh or Emma and the others outside of school.

That was exactly the reason he didn't want to tell them that he'd been studying with Olive.

"You needa change your attitude right quick, young man."

Enoch's blue eyes shot up to his father's dark ones at the warning tone in the funeral director's voice and rolled his eyes as he sighed and stopped arguing, difficult though it was, as he slouched over to help his father with the embalming.

xxxXxxx

'A little bird told me u had a study date'

Enoch scowled at the text message from Hugh Apiston, complete with winking emojis for a full ten seconds before replying with a plain and simple.

Millard. The sneaky little git of a bookworm had been skulking around in the bookshelves and told Hugh and, as she was more than likely to be with him, Fiona.

'So Mill didn't see u helping Olive with her...biology?' Another winking emoji that made Enoch roll his eyes. He could practically see the teasing, over confident smirk on Hugh's face through the words...and why he couldn't be bothered completely writing the word 'you', baffled Enoch completely.

'Knew it! Admit it. U like her.'

'U so do.'

'Fine ignore me'

'Denial'

Enoch switched his phone on silent and tossed it onto the end of his bed, where it vibrated every so often for a few more minutes before Hugh evidently gave up. It wasn't the first time Hugh had been trying to push Enoch into admitting he liked spending time with Olive. Which he certainly did not. There were far worse fates, yes, but that didn't mean Enoch wanted to be around her.

Absentmindedly Enoch lifted his left hand to scratch his cheek and it tingled, entirely in his head he was sure, as he let his thoughts wander from his sketching.

Why was she so set on being his friend? Why was Olive, a perfectly pleasant person with a lot of friends, so insistent that Enoch, exactly the opposite of her in every way, was worth hanging around.

"I think you can be nice somewhere under there."

Of all the people in London that Enoch had ever met, she was the only soul who's never failing optimism did not only baffle, but intrigued him. He had succeeded so far in his almost seventeen years of life, in pushing away anyone who tried to be his friend with a cold word and a glare. Sure there were those like Hugh and Emma who didn't completely leave him alone as much as he might sometimes prefer, but they had stopped trying to understand him or get to know him after a while, content to stay with the little that Enoch ever said positively.

Not Olive.

From the time she first met him on the first day of sixth form, Olive smiled at him and tried to start conversations, never aided or encouraged by Enoch, but it did not deter her. He upset her, Enoch knew that. He'd seen her eyes fill with tears from something that he'd said on more than one occasion and he never cared. But it never deterred her.

Much as he hated to admit even to himself, she intrigued him.

Olive, with her eyes a pretty shade of green and firey hair that smelled like peaches-what?

It had though, Enoch had noticed her shampoo particularly when she had hopped up on her toes and kissed him and how, for the tiniest moment, he had wondered if her hair was as soft as it looked.

The boy groaned and dropped his pencil to slump over his desk and bury his head in the crook of his folded arms. Nope. No. No way. Hugh Apiston was not going to be right. Enoch O'Connor swore loudly, although muffled by his arms before lifting his head and glaring at the ceiling.

If he didn't have feelings for Olive Elephanta, why did he want to see her again? Why was there a warm feeling in his chest he wasn't used to whenever he unwittingly thought about the feeling of her lips on his cheek? Oh for the sake of every living thing...

xxxXxxx

"Apparently Olive felt a lot better about the biology test...now how did that happen?" Emma said, a little too loudly as she brushed past Enoch in the corridor who turned and glared at the boy at the locker beside his. Millard was whistling innocently to himself and surreptitiously trying to hide his head in his locker. Had he told all of Olive's friends?

"Listen, you..." Enoch growled and slammed his locker shut loudly in frustration and Millard jumped so suddenly Enoch heard a thud and a muffled, "Ouch!" before the green eyed, curly haired boy appeared rubbing his head and raising his eyebrows innocently.

"What did I do?"

"Couldn't keep ya mouth shut, could ya?" Enoch growled, thoroughly embarrassed that everyone seemed to know now. "So much for not sayin' anyfing."

"Excuse me?" Millard huffed and crossed his arms over his chest while Enoch glared at him as if he'd done something unforgiveable. "I stated only the facts, thank you very much. It wasn't me who distorted the truth."

"Ya still started it." Enoch growled and shoved his shoulder none too gently into Millard's as he pushed past him and sulked off down the corridor. He didn't care at all what people around the school said about him on his own, that he was an anti-social pale freak who couldn't smile. But if helping Olive with homework was going to blow into rumours about him caring about her all through the school like some weird Beauty and the Beast scenario, then he would have some more problems.

It wasn't until History class that Enoch realised that Olive seemed to be avoiding him. He, for once, actively looked for her glances, usually so frequent though she may not realise he knew, over at him, and the hint of her ever present smile in his direction. She wasn't even looking at him, but instead was engaged in hushed conversation with another boy. The American exchange student had arrived only a few days ago and had taken up one of the empty seats between Enoch and Olive in their row. Enoch already disliked him but what else was new.

The class was abuzz with quiet conversation, tolerable to Miss Wren so long as the students were doing their bookwork. The Cockney stopped trying to be subtle after the first half hour and blatantly stared over at Jacob and Olive, who was laughing now, her pretty bell like giggle that Enoch secretly enjoyed the sound of.

But she'd kissed him. She'd asked him for help, not Portman, so why was she being so friendly to him and not looking over at Enoch every so often like usual. In fact, she'd barely spoken to him in biology, but Enoch had just thought she was embarrassed too. He could see why. Or focusing on remembering the things he'd helped her with. His jealousy was entirely unfounded. After all, Olive talked to other boys all the time, she was good friends with Millard and Hugh and yet...it was purely the fact that it was someone new, that ticked him off.

If all her determination on being friendly with him was going to out of the window because of some foreigner coming in and disrupting the peace, Enoch was going to become a whole lot more sour.

"Yeah, we covered this last year in my scho-"

"Oh shut up about Florida already." Enoch snapped loud enough to stop their conversation and make Horace Somnusson at the desk in front look over his shoulder from the war uniforms he was detailing. Enoch would have made fun of him for it had he cared enough about anything other than shutting up the American in that moment.

The dark haired exchange student raised his eyebrows at Enoch and Olive poked her head out to look at him in surprise from the other side.

"Enoch...he's not hurting anyone."

"It's offendin' my ears." Enoch sneered and was about to add something else cuttingly grumpy when Miss Wren cleared her throat and cut him off.

"Mr. O'Connor, we'll have none of that, back to your work now please."

"Somebody's jealous..." The blonde boy in the next row muttered to himself as the class got back to their work and Enoch promptly tore a sheet of paper from his notebook, crumpled it into a ball and threw it hard at the back of Horace's head with a growl.

"That's the last thing I'd be." Enoch snapped, too loudly again when Horace turned to glare, thoroughly unintimidating, and forgetting where he was.

"Enoch! What did I just warn you about?" Miss Wren's voice was harsh and her words cut short and sharp as the class turned to stare at Enoch. He definitely had Olive's attention now. "Once more and you'll be marching yourself back to the principal. Again."

When the bell rang twenty minutes later, Enoch forced his way out into the hall immediately behind Olive and Jacob and made sure to step right between them. He was a few inches taller than the American and used it to his advantage as he stared the other boy down.

"Back off and go back to America."

"Back off what exactly?"

"Yes, Enoch." Olive's light voice and dainty hands on his arm caught Enoch off guard and he automatically turned his glare onto her trying to pull him away. "Back off what? Don't be so rude."

"Oh now you're worried about me bein' rude?" Enoch grumbled but Olive, hugely to her credit, didn't so much as flinch as she looked up at him with an uncommonly stern look in her eyes. He didn't care so long as she was looking at him and not talking to Jacob Portman.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hey, if you think I'm honing in on some...territory, which by the way, she's a girl not a piece of meat-"

"I don't!" Enoch snapped immediately and rounded on Jacob. By now the scene had gained quite a bit of attention as students stopped where they were outside lockers and classrooms to see what was going on.

"I was just being nice, Enoch, you might try it!" Olive added and Enoch only fumed more. Was she trying to defend the American now? Well fine then. If that was who Olive would rather spend time with now then so be it. But Enoch didn't have to like it.

"Fine then. 'Ave your little tea party at lunch with 'im then." Enoch snapped and then, just as Mr Barron had stuck his bald head out of his maths room to see what was keeping his students, Enoch shoved roughly past Jacob and down the corridor. To hell with mathematics today.