"Enoch and I were just going to study-"

"Well not in your bedroom you're not, Olive. I'm sure you can study out here just fine."

Enoch fought very hard not to roll his eyes in front of her father, he'd already let his tongue get away from him and say more than he probably should have. He wasn't very good at first impressions and had never tried to be so asking him to make a good impression on Olive's father when he was everything Olive was not, was a very difficult thing.

As soon as the man had looked at him, Enoch knew he hadn't liked the look of him, and his blunt, curt way of answering and trying to evade questions that really weren't hard to answer, hadn't exactly redeemed him. He probably looked exactly how his attitude was, so was he surprised when her father made it quite clear he wanted them out in an open room? Not at all. But that didn't mean he had to like it.

He did not want to be here and all too eagerly followed Olive into the adjoining dining room towards the dining table which was just out of immediate view of the kitchen doorway.

"Seriously?" He muttered, careful to keep his voice low so he wouldn't be overheard easily. Unfortunately, Olive's father, probably under the impression that they couldn't hear him from there, did not lower his as much as he could have.

"I don't like that boy."

"Theo, you just met him, he's probably nervous."

"Look at him, I don't like that Olive's spending so much time with someone like that."

Enoch did roll his eyes now and Olive, who had just sat down, looked over at him with wide eyes and shot up out of the chair as fast as she'd sat in it.

"We can hear you!"

Everything went silent for moment in the kitchen before the unmistakeable sound of footsteps meant Olive's parents had left.

He watched as she pursed his lips and sat back down before looking at him with wide and apologetic eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Enoch, I didn'-"

Enoch scoffed and leaned his elbow on the table, "Oh c'mon, as if 'e was gonna like me anyway. I don't care." It was completely true. He really didn't care whether Olive's parents liked him or not because most people didn't. He didn't put enough effort in to be likeable with most people. He only cared that she liked him.

"He'll come around, I know it..."

"Olive. Can we not? I seriously don't care."

He rolled his eyes and tried to look more interested in his English work than he really was. Of all things to convince him to come over. Because he might actually get something achieved in the classes he didn't like if he wasn't alone to procrastinate and get frustrated.

But he did get frustrated. He got frustrated easily with essays and analysis. His idea of worthwhile analysis was checking a human beings vital signs and the flow of blood. Not inventing seven different points of view in a damned newspaper article that probably weren't even there to begin with.

But at least he was scraping by, if only barely, maths was much worse. With only two weeks of school left there was no way he could scrape up to a passing grade for the term. So he ignored it, and instead elected to highlight passages and annotate scribbled notes on articles instead.

Olive hadn't been wrong. It was slightly more tolerable in her company, but even then, the words and phrases just swam in front of his eyes until he got annoyed with it and had to distract himself with something else.

So every so often, Enoch would look over at Olive and watch the way she pursed her lips when she concentrated, and look at her neat, loopy handwriting. She was much more interesting to look at than boring old homework. Then there would be movement in the doorway as someone walked past and occasionally he would catch her father casting a cursory, but no less critical, glance their way as he no doubt invented reasons to pass the doorway. Did Enoch really look so much like a troublemaker he actually thought he would try anything? Apparently.

He wasn't comfortable here, well out of his comfort zone that Olive seemed to be widening more and more to his surprise. But even then, under a protective father's eye and having English homework swimming in front of him, one thing bothered him considerably more than the others.

He waited until he knew her father was not just outside the door to nudge Olive's elbow slightly and turn his head to her, otherwise hardly moving.

"Since when d'ya talk 'bout me like ya boyfriend?"

Olive dropped her pen and turned a sudden shade of pink that would have made Enoch smirk in amusement had he not been more concerned with the potential answer.

"Wh-oh-well..." Olive stammered and Enoch's eyebrows raised higher as he actually turned himself to face her properly. "Okay in my defence, I never actually used that term, it was just...assumed."

"Why?"

"Well do you blame them? You can't tell me your parents don't think the same thing? Your dad practically made you agree to come."

Enoch opened his mouth to respond before cutting himself off and pulling a "fair enough" face. She had a point. When he'd gone out with Olive a few weeks ago, he hadn't even said who he was going with for his mother to guess. Not that there were too many options. His father too, insistent as he was on Enoch getting his act together in school, which only made him want to rebel more, had outright asked him that night if he was supposed to be dating this girl.

That had been an awkward conversation. Enoch still didn't quite have a straight forward "yes" on the tip of his tongue. Everyone might know now but that didn't mean Enoch was ready or wanted to admit it.

"Maybe." He muttered and watched as Olive cast a wary eye towards the doorway before looking back at him.

"I promise I never said it. Why would I when we haven't even talked about it."

We. It was just a little word but that too made it feel so much more like a unit, a couple, a pair, whatever.

"I wasn' aware it was somefin' ta talk 'bout..." Enoch mumbled and looked back down at his homework.

"Well, if this is going to keep going on, we probably should, don't you think?"

Enoch felt heat rising right through his chest to his throat and reached up to tug on his already loose school tie.

"If what is gonna keep goin' on?" He knew perfectly well what she meant but with so much happening that was unfamiliar and uncomfortable for him, something was bound to crack eventually.

"Enoch...are you okay?"

He must have looked as suddenly cornered as he felt. His foot had begun to tap under the table and his face was screwed up into a scowl down at the paper as he still refused to look at her. He didn't answer.

"Enoch?" Then Olive's hand was on his shoulder and it was a little better, like something was alleviated. How could she care so much? "I didn't mean to...was it because I said we should talk about it?"

"Olive, stop it." Enoch groaned and ran a hand over his face. "I'm fine. It's just damn 'ot."

Olive ran her arm down his arm and Enoch couldn't help it. He didn't mean to shrug her off, but he needed a minute to breathe at least. He stood up, pushing out his chair and made a beeline for the front door, narrowly avoiding walking right into Olive's mother who had just stepped through a doorway in front of him and stared as he past.

He stopped on the front steps and dropped his hands onto the freezing railing where he promptly hissed and withdrew them. It was a little better out here. He could quite literally cool off. It was too much at once and damn it all he was scared of what would happen if he finally admitted to himself how much he actually did care about Olive.

"Enoch, what was that?"

Enoch glared at the railing and didn't so much as look over his shoulder when Olive hurried out behind him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, okay?

"I'm sorry if I said something..."

"Oh for cryin' out loud, I'm not upset. That'd just be stupid, wouldn' it?" He turned around and crossed his arms over his chest in the cold breeze, his gaze fixed just behind her head instead. "I needed air, s'at alright wiv ya?"

"You can stop pretending, Enoch." Olive pulled the front door closed and took another step back, her eyes remained fixed on his face but he couldn't bring himself to look right at her.

"Oo's pretendin'? I did needa get out."

"You know what I mean."

"Fine!" He didn't quite mean to snap, but the moment his eyes finally focused on Olive, she was staring at him like she'd never seen him before. "Ya wanna know what's ticking me off? It's words like "we" and "us" and stupid fings that make us...somefin', and if we're some-" He cut himself off and felt colour begin to flood his cheeks as he looked fixedly at Olive. "...nevermind."

"If you've changed your mind..."

He didn't want to look at her, but he did. He slowly dragged his eyes back up to Olive's and sighed, his anger and frustration abating a little now there was at least a door between them and her parents.

"You know I ain't good at fings like this. But if I said girlfriend, that makes it real, don't it? And it's only a matter o' bloody time til you get me off that pedestal ya see me on-"

"Enoch, I don't put you on a pedestal, I'm no-"

"Yeah, ya do. 'owever long that stays, ya gonna see me the same way I see myself eventually. That is what ticks me off about it."

Olive just stared at him with wide eyes for a long few seconds and Enoch immediately regretted saying anything. It wasn't like him to admit that much ever, he'd just gotten so frustrated and angry, hardly unusual that it finally came out.

"Enoch..."

He liked the way she said his name. He'd never really paid much attention to it until now but there was something oddly satisfying about it. Olive's eyes looked greener than ever as she stared at him.

"I've told you. I'm always going to see the best part of you whether you see that or not. Have you really been thinking like that this whole time?"

Enoch didn't answer. He just held her gaze and tried to keep his face as impassive as ever, slipping the mask right back on as if it had never slipped at all.

"Everyone looks at us like we're a couple now anyway."

"I don't care what they think."

"Putting a name on it and actually showing that you care, which I know you do, Enoch, isn't going to lose anything. I promise." She reached out and touched his arm again and Enoch's eyes faltered from her own to look at it there. "I knew what I was getting myself into but if you can't see your own good, you need someone to see it for you, right?"

"When you say 'need'..." Enoch mumbled. He'd never thought he needed anyone. Care as he might for Olive, a good deal more than he wanted to admit, he was independent by nature and wasn't about to acknowledge needing someone else. Wanting her around, now that was another matter. "Alright."

"Alright...what? You don't mean...you don't mind if I called you that?" Olive brightened and a happy little smile began to spread over her face.

Enoch rolled his eyes. "...if you put it that way, I dunno. Don't go...blabbing it like that though."

They'd ended up close again, almost toe to toe on the landing outside the front door and Olive was smiling so happily it was like a balm to Enoch against the hot headed, stubborn frustration he'd been caught in.

He couldn't remember who closed the gap first, whether she had risen up or her toes or he had leaned down to her first. But it hardly mattered when her hands were warm on his cold cheeks and he could hold her again for a few moments. It always felt right.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

Enoch actually felt Olive gasp against his mouth before they both leapt apart as if an electric current had passed through them.

Standing in the doorway, apparently on his way out, was Olive's father looking for all the world like he would have rather been anywhere else.

"Sorry..." Olive squeaked out, her skin redder than Enoch had ever seen it. Of people to walk in, or rather out, on them...

"I don't want to be seeing that on my way out of my own house." The fireman glared fiercely at Enoch so much so that the seventeen year old's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the sheer animosity in the look he was giving him. "And you watch it, young man."