The Hopeful, The Hardheaded and the Homework

Chapter Seven: Crushing or Crushed? : Enoch

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.