The Hopeful, The Hardheaded and the Homework

Chapter Five: Weekends and Wanderings: Enoch

"Why don't you go and spend some time outside for once, Enoch? Or at least with your friends."

"Mum, stop." Enoch sighed dramatically and slumped in his desk chair, dropping his head back against the head of it in exasperation. It was just after noon on Sunday and so far, over the weekend Enoch had flitted between the house and the funeral parlour. It was hardly unusual for him, and he generally preferred it that way. Enoch's mother, however, did not and the constant pushing for him to have some sort of social interaction outside of school hours like a "normal" teenager, was beginning to irritate him more every day.

"What about Hugh? Or Emma Bloom? I know you they're your friends. I'm sure they'd-"

"Yeah sure, whateva', friends." Enoch grumbled and straightened up in his chair, leaning forward over his laptop again and trying to ignore her in his doorway.

She tutted and strolled into his room and in an instant Enoch only just managed to pull his hands away from the keyboard as his mother reached over his shoulder and closed it.

"Hey!" He spun on the chair and glared up at the concerned face of his mother. "That ain't fair!"

"I'm your mother, Enoch, it's perfectly fair." She pursed her lips and crossed her arms over his chest. "I'm getting worried about you, Enoch, I want you to spend less time cooped up in here, it's not good for you."

"I'm doin' things!" Enoch snapped but was effectively silence by a stern glare and just scowled at the floor instead.

"You're going to get some fresh air, now go." She pointed firmly to the door, looking as sternly at Enoch as he was at the floor.

There was a long tense moment of silence between mother and son before Enoch sighed and relented first. He stomped to his feet and around his mother to grab a jacket from the top of his dresser and storm out of the room with a grumbled, "Fine."

It was a cool day but otherwise not too unpleasant to be outdoors. Enoch zipped up his hoodie as he stepped out of the gate, which was in dire need of repair and was seriously threatening to come unhinged any moment.

Enoch dug his phone out of his pocket as he walked. He side stepped a puddle by the curb and crossed the cobbled road and darted down side streets until he reached the main roads again. He avoided the street markets, over crowded as ever on a Sunday by screaming children and giggling groups of girls. The chill in the air bit at his nose but considering the lack of pouring rain they'd had the last few days, it was a considerably more pleasant day for London in October.

Enoch's feet were on autopilot, stopping automatically, and mercifully so, at the roadsides before crossing as his mind drifted elsewhere.

His parents had not been pleased when he'd mumbled something about having detention on Friday, though it certainly wasn't his first. Enoch's school record was in considerably less good standing than others were. He kept to himself an awful lot but that didn't make him pleasant as anyone, apart from perhaps Olive, would attest to. Olive. Eternally optimistic Olive Elephanta. Even Enoch had to admit that, though he had found her cheerfulness, such a direct contrast with his surly temperament, annoying sometimes, it was a trait that was probably quite endearing to anyone else.

And yet, instead of pushing her away again and wanting nothing to do with her, Enoch felt himself strangely drawn to trusting her more than the people he'd gone to school with already for years.

He'd let her see what he worked on in private. The only other eyes he knew of that had seen the inside of his sketchbook were the bright green ones of Olive.

Enoch sighed to himself and tucked his hands into his pockets as he sunk down onto a bench just inside the wrought iron fence around a park. There were a few people milling here and there, gossiping teenagers and children and the odd bird feeding elderly hoping for more than the stray pigeon or two to peck at the breadcrumbs on the cold ground.