"Nice guy. Is he always like that?"

Olive heard Jacob pipe up behind her where she stood against the wall staring wide eyed at the door through which Enoch had disappeared. She knew he had maths next, and how much trouble he would be in for skipping class right in front of Mr Barron's eyes. The instant dislike Enoch had taken to the American exchange student was alarming.

"More or less, yes."

Emma's voice chimed in and Olive looked over her shoulder to her fair haired friend who had appeared over Jacob's shoulder and come over to nudge her.

"Come on, we're going to be late...Enoch will sulk for hours."

But she didn't understand why Enoch was sulking. All through English Literature, while she should have been analysing a passage of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', it bothered Olive and twice Emma had to elbow her to stop her highlighting the novel itself.

Enoch was confusing at the very best of times, and it intrigued far more than bothered her most of the time. But he was being different now. It wasn't even his sudden dislike to Jacob that was unusual, it was how suddenly defensive he was being. Olive had seen how often he looked at her in History, unexpected to say the least as it was usually her who looked at him across the vacant seats between them. It was like he didn't like her having anything to do with Jacob, quite an about face given the strong impression he gave of disliking spending time with her himself.

She had just been being friendly. It was interesting having a student from the States in class with them now. Olive wasn't for a moment interested in him the way she was interested in Enoch, something that she was sure he didn't notice.

Unless he did and that's why he was fuming. Maybe he was so embarrassed and mad with her being she'd encroached his personal space and kissed him. Olive had been second guessing herself the whole night about why she did it. What on earth had possessed her to think that kissing Enoch O'Connor was going to be well received. When he hadn't pushed her off in disgust or even grumbled at her to leave him alone, Olive had let out a huge sigh of relief. His skin had been cool to the touch and was so pale that the redness that had flooded his face was easily visible.

Olive propped her chin up in her palm where she had rested her elbow on the table. Enoch wasn't anywhere in the cafeteria today. He was clearly avoiding everyone and she wasn't surprised given his outburst.

Jacob Portman had joined them, mostly at Emma's encouragement, at their table and was now squished on the other side between her and Hugh.

"Olive?...Olive?...Olive!"

"Huh?" The girl snapped out of her concerned daze at Hugh's slowly raising voice and Fiona's elbow in her ribs. "Sorry..."

"I said, is Enoch a good tutor?" Hugh repeated with the same good natured albeit teasing grin as ever as he popped a chip into his mouth.

Olive felt the blood rush to her face yet again. The moment that Millard had told Emma, her best friend hadn't let it go all morning and now Hugh was starting too. Was that why Enoch was so upset today? He'd made it perfectly clear he didn't want to get a reputation for being nice, much as Olive knew there was some of that goodness deep down.

"He's not as impatient as I expected him to be and he really helped, thank you very much." She mumbled and Fiona beside her giggled at her automatic defence of the broody boy.

"I'm sure he did. He's bloody brilliant at biology. It's more the fact that you've done the impossible that I can't believe."

"I keep telling you all Enoch's not so bad as you all make him out to be."

Someone laughed and Hugh snickered his agreement as Jacob spoke up with a raised eyebrow, his accent thicker than ever surrounded by British teenagers. "Well he's not good at first impressions."

"Or twenty-first impressions, don't worry, you'll get used to him." Emma added, smiling at the American and tossing her blonde waves off her shoulders.

Olive wrinkled her nose and got to her feet so quickly her head spun for a second and she dropped the fork she'd been playing with.

"I know you don't mean it, but stop it. I don't know what's the matter with Enoch today but he was being nice for once and I don't think that happens often."

"I know what's the matter..." Hugh muttered, looking everywhere but at Olive as innocently as he could while she tried to ignore his comment. She was reasonably sure she knew what he meant and she didn't believe it.

"Olive, we're only teasing. We didn't mean anything." Emma added, looking imploringly up at the red head who just sighed and shook her head, a few strands of hair falling in front of her eyes.

"I know, I just don't think I'm very hungry today."

With that, Olive stepped over the bench seat and headed towards the doors. Lunch period had only just started; she may be able to find him. Even though Enoch may have completely skipped the last class he wouldn't have completely stormed out. Part of her, a strong and very vocal part, told her to leave him well enough alone and that searching him out would only add fuel to the fire. But an equally strong part of her, which she was more inclined to listen to, said that there was every chance she could defuse him and put to rest any unpleasant thoughts he had about her talking to Jacob.

It was another full ten minutes of searching for him before Olive caught sight of Enoch sitting by himself away from the rest of the scattered groups of students who chose to eat outside instead. He was occupying a little indented alcove between the library and the main halls. It was almost completely secluded and, as such, was frequently used by couples who couldn't wait until after school hours for a snog.

Enoch was sitting on the stone ledge, his rain slicker on over his uniform and the hood pulled up over his head as he bent over his sketchbook and scratching careful lines with his pencil. From his direction, Olive could hear the very faint beat of some alternative rock song that told her he had his ear buds in. A tell-tale sign that someone did not want to be disturbed.

"Enoch?" She tried but to no avail. Enoch probably couldn't even hear her, that or he was fully aware of her presence and was just ignoring her. Each option was equally likely.

Olive sucked in a breath and took a step closer, clearing her throat and hesitantly reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder.

Enoch reacted immediately. His head shot up and he jumped slightly, making it clear that he hadn't seen her there at all. Olive jumped too when he did, both just as surprised as each other before she dropped her hand and smiled a little at him.

Enoch sighed and, seemingly reluctantly, pulled one ear bud free but did not so much as pause his music as he looked up at her with those calculating blue eyes Olive liked so much. "What, Olive?"

Her heart skipped another little beat automatically when he said her name. His Cockney accent was thick and harsh but she couldn't help but like the sound of it. She cleared her throat and tilted her head so her hair fell over one shoulder.

"What's the matter with you today?"

Enoch sighed loudly and his head fell back in exasperation before he glared at her and pulled his phone out of his pocket to turn off his music. "You're not gonna leave me alone, are ya?"

"If you want me to leave you alone you'll have to say it in those few words because I obviously did something to make you so sour today." Olive pursed her lips stubbornly and steeled herself for the cutting 'Go away' she was certain was coming.

But it didn't. Enoch stayed silent for several seconds before rolling his eyes and looking back down at his book. The moment he did so his eyes widened minutely and he closed the sketchbook so fast the pages blurred.

"Why the 'ell do you care so much what I fink about the Yankee?"

"Because it was very rude and unjustified. Horace said you were jealous, not that I know what you would be jealous about, and you completely overreacted and-"

"Do you ever stop talkin'?"

"If you're acting so mean again because of yesterday then I won't ask you for help again. If it bothers you that much...I'm sorry. You were being so nice I didn't think you would mind...I didn't mean anything by it." Olive swallowed a lump starting to form in her throat but she was momentarily distracted from her feelings seeing Enoch lift his fingers to his cheek. He didn't even look aware of himself.

Just like that the eye contact was lost and Enoch looked back down at the ground.

"I don't care 'bout that." He grumbled and as he looked at the ground and clenched his jaw, he suddenly looked more than just sour and Olive's heart went out to him. There was something under the bitterness that was more than an unjustified dislike for Jacob Portman whom, Olive had to add, she was not remotely interested in like that.

"Then what? You know perfectly well that if you can trust anyone you can trust me."

A muscle twitched in Enoch's jaw as Olive sat down beside him on the stone ledge and his guard went right back up.

"Why would I be jealous? 'Cause some Yank come's outta nowhere finks 'e can charm ya into forgettin' your other frie-uh-"

Olive's jaw dropped slightly at the exact moment Enoch realised he'd said too much and cut himself off to turn around and scowl at the wall.

"You do think I'm your friend?"

It was a completely ridiculous thing to think that her being friendly to people meant that she didn't care about trying to be Enoch's friend anymore or that people couldn't be nice to more than one person but Olive didn't care in the least now about Enoch's pathetic justification for rudeness.

"I didn' say friend. I said frie-uh..."

A smile broke over Olive's face, so wide her cheeks ached after a moment as she positively beamed at him. This only made Enoch scowl harder. He was so determined not to care that Olive was sure he cared quite deeply sometimes. If he had come so close to admitting he considered her a friend then that was already more than enough for her.

"Just because I spoke to Jacob doesn't mean I don't still want to get to know about you, Enoch. People can have more than one friend."

"That you go around kissin'?"

"Jacob? Because I was speaking to him? But you don't act like that if I talk to Hugh or Millard?"

She still couldn't wipe the smile from her face and leaned over until her shoulder brushed his higher one.

"I'm not remotely interested in Jacob Portman. It's just exciting to meet someone from America, that's all."

Enoch's lip twitched visibly though he remained staring firmly at the ground and Olive felt a warm tingle in her chest. But she couldn't let that turn into hope that Enoch might care more than he admitted he did as a friend.

"I still don't like him." He muttered and raised a dark eyebrow as he barely glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and Olive giggled a little. "Why?" He added, which took Olive completely by surprise.

"Why...what?"

The boy moved so suddenly that Olive sucked in a breath when he turned to stare directly at her. There was no indication in his face what he might have been thinking, the twitch of his lip that could have either been the start of a smile or merely a smirk was long gone.

"Why the 'ell do you care so much and try so 'ard? I can't seem ta get rid'a you."

Any other time Olive might have taken that personally as a comment that he did want her to go away after all but the severity and dry, humourless sarcasm was gone from his voice so he sounded genuinely curious as to why.

Olive licked her lips slightly and didn't look away for fear he wouldn't look at her again while she tried to think of the words to say.

"I will always choose to see the good in you, Enoch, because I don't think you can see it yourself."

For once, Enoch didn't seem to have anything to say and something that wasn't quite happiness and wasn't quite grumpiness that Olive had never seen before drifted across his face and his eyes left hers for half a second, dropped just a little lower from her eyes and then immediately looked away again.

Had he ever had anyone believe in him like that? Surely his family must but Olive knew, somehow, deep down that she couldn't explain why, that no one had said it to him.

Enoch O'Connor enchanted her in ways she couldn't quite explain. Despite the harsh, mean exterior there was something below that was vulnerable and protective and genuinely good that he didn't want to show. It shouldn't, and didn't at all excuse his rudeness and mean, snippy comments that he so frequently made but that wasn't all he was and that meant that he wasn't completely as dark as he tried to be.

At least now she had the knowledge that she was his friend.