Their relationship had changed that night. It was hard to tell whether it was for better or worse at first but it had definitely changed. Olive knew something so personal about his whole family, whom Enoch hated to talk about at the best of times. She'd known already that underneath all those walls, all of which contributed to who he was, Enoch had a very raw and real part to him that he condemned. She'd known already that there was a lot more to Enoch than she knew, and a lot more to his family than the lovely mother who had immediately taken a liking to her and the father who frequently was hard on his son. Growing up was never easy and no child ever got on with their parents every second of every day, but it was almost always a certainty there was someone worse off. In this case, it was the young man she loved, and that saddened her.
Enoch was a troubled soul who didn't want people to know how troubled, and extremely introverted and private. Even in the years since getting together, he had only opened up with her enough for him to be comfortable with her instead of awkward. Even that wasn't a guarantee.
But now, over the course of one day of high tensions and tense conversation, culminating in a burst of anger in the car at night there seemed to be a very palpable shift in the place where they had sat, comfortably stagnant in their relationship, neither heading forwards nor backwards.

There was movement, and as much as he didn't like to act like a cliché couple or cuddle, or talk about what exactly they were doing, Enoch had to notice it too. Olive was sure of that much. Surely it was a good thing, if the circumstances had left a bit to be desired.

Things weren't the same, and they wouldn't be the same again.

Olive wasn't even sure she could look at his parents in quite the same light again, not that she would ever in a million years find it her place to let on that she knew anything. It made the evening she was invited over before she left for Cambridge again, a lot stranger from her perspective. To know that there was something so big that had been so cut out of their life was peculiar. Like a great huge cloud only she could suddenly see. Enoch hadn't been comfortable at all. She was sure he regretted telling her even though she hoped he might have found it a little more bearable that someone finally knew. But what did she know?

Unsurprisingly, brief, visible discomfort aside, Enoch seemed determined to forget the whole thing and Olive didn't blame him a bit. She wasn't exactly going to bring it up. It was enough he trusted her enough to open up about it at all for even a minute.
Olive was never going to forget the look in his eyes then. There had been a right sight more than anger directed at her there. He said he'd made peace, it had been a long time, especially since he'd only been a child, but it was plain enough in how badly his hand was trembling on the steering wheel and the hint of sadness that she'd never seen before, that Enoch had not fully accepted it. He just pushed it away with everything he didn't want to deal with. She'd seen many sides of Enoch anywhere between furious and very happy, though the latter wasn't always frequent, but until then she'd never seen him legitimately sad. It broke her heart and she hoped he'd never have that look about him again.

xxxXxxx

Days of the holidays turned into weeks and the time for Olive to go back to Cambridge for the start of term approached as rapidly as if there had been no time at all in between. It wasn't until the week before when the opportunity came up to finally catch up with Emma, whose family had gone to Bristol for Christmas and she had only come back to London for a week and a half after. It was strange that most of her friends be so far away. Although she, Fiona and Hugh frequently skyped Olive and Millard at Cambridge. Olive was still very much in the 'don't hold your breath' phase of convincing Enoch to actually use it so she could see him at least.

"Honestly, I love sharing a dorm with Fiona, but if I walk in to Hugh helping himself to our fridge one more time before she's even in, I'm going to scream. At him."

Olive barely refrained from spitting out a poorly timed sip of tea and hastened to cover her mouth to hide the giggles. She could very easily imagine Hugh doing exactly that. He and Fiona were an adorable couple and had been sweet to no end in high school to the extent that no one would have been in the slightest bit surprised if they were to suddenly announce an engagement before either of them finished university. Especially since they had both ended up at the same school.

Emma scoffed, twisting her hair up into a bun on the top of her hair and fastening with a hair band where she sat cross legged on her couch. "I wish I was exaggerating."

"Oh, I believe you." Olive, having recovered from her barely restrained giggles, smiled as she looked down at her cup. "And Jacob? How often do you see him during term?"

"Maybe once a month lately, maybe I'm just bitter that Hugh and Fiona see each other all the time. Maybe we're really the worse off ones, Olive. We gotta stick together."

For a few seconds Emma sounded entirely serious, and Olive thought she was definitely at least being a little bit serious before her friend wrinkled her nose and sat forward on the couch, pressing her mug between her hands.
"And Enoch? Does it drive you mad not seeing him all the time? Or am I just an awful person?"

"It's weird isn't it? Seeing everyone almost every day and then going to hardly seeing them at all." Olive smiled a little to herself, dodging the question as much as she dared without looking obvious about it. "I miss it sometimes. But it's still kind of exciting."

"Uh huh..." Emma was looking at her slightly suspiciously and Olive was sure she saw right through it, Emma always could...and Enoch had told her multiple times she was a bad liar. Yes, of course she missed home, and Enoch, and everyone else. In fact, part of her didn't want to go back. If it weren't for the greater part of her that enjoyed the independence, she probably wouldn't.

"So have we all been replaced yet? Off in the totally far away world that is Cambridge University?"

"Huh? Oh shush." Olive shook her head and bent down to leave her empty mug on the floor. "Apart from Millard, and my flat mates, I haven't made that many new friends yet.

"Nathan and Althea?"

"Yeah. Althea's very...well she hasn't exactly warmed up very much but I think that's just her. She's friendly enough in a very...straightforward way."

Emma uncrossed her legs and a devilish grin suddenly lit up her face. "On a scale of one to...ninety-nine, how jealous is Enoch?"

Olive sighed and looked to the side with a blatantly obvious, "stop asking me that" look on her face.
"I don't know what you mean? Jealous of wha-" she dissolved into a gasp when a cushion hit her in the side of the head.

"You know exactly what I mean. Come on, you never answer that. Jealous that you're living with a guy and it's not him." Emma scoffed and raised a white blonde eyebrow expectantly. "Come on, you never have time to tell me properly."

"One to ninety-nine?"

"Yeah."

Olive screwed up her nose and looked sheepishly at her best friend. "Like a hundred. How did you know he wo-"

"Seriously, Oli?" Emma just shook her head. "You remember how jealous he got when Jacob sat next to you in a class? You were both just mega crushing on each other then, you weren't even a thing yet." She scoffed, and it came out more of a snort. "He still doesn't even like Jacob very much."

"Oh he wasn't th-okay. Yeah, he was." There was no way Olive could get through pretending otherwise even remotely convincingly.

"If he didn't even have a reason to be jealous then, he's got to be way worse over this."

"You make it sound like he has a reason now. I keep telling him every time he comes up that he doesn't."

"Not like that maybe. If there's anyone who knows how much you adore Enoch O'Connor, it's me, you know that." Emma smirked. "And hopefully him. But a strange guy living in the same flat as you without Enoch around to make him keep his hands to himself? I just figured he'd be nuts over it."

"Nathan's not strange, he's perfectly nice really..." Olive wrinkled her nose again as she thought about it. "He probably thinks about as much of Enoch as Enoch thinks of him though. I'm pretty sure the first thing he said once Enoch left the first time he came up, was "Olive, no offence, but your boyfriend is kind of an... of an..."

"Arse?" Emma finished for her and Olive nodded slowly.

"Every time Enoch's up it's just..." She sighed, and then, in a rush of frustration and unvoiced concern it all spilled out. "Every time Enoch comes it's a few days of glaring and grumbling and making a point of touching me all the time like he's marking territory. Which, mind you, he wouldn't ever do in public because of silly pride."

She paused for breath and looked up to see Emma staring at her with wide eyes.
"Never thought I'd hear you complain about Enoch being affectionate."

"I'm not. I'm really, really not, I love it when he is. It's just..." she couldn't find the words. She had tried to tell Enoch how much better it would be if he could just see there was never going to be anything to worry about and he wouldn't listen. She'd never hold his possessiveness against him, in fact, it made her feel loved when he never said it in words, and protected. It was just the way Enoch was programmed.
But the part of Olive that just made her want everyone to just get along was equally prevalent.
"Enoch knows I'm his, I just wish he'd listen to me more. I want people to get along."

"You're literally the sweetest person on the face of the planet, Olive. Of course that's what you want. Enoch has never, ever struck me as a talker except when he's arguing something he knows he's right about...then it's getting him to shut up that's the problem-"

"Emma...where's this going?"

"He's not going to be okay with it." Emma shook her head and Olive, though she knew she was right, sighed heavily and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. When had that tear fallen?
It was enough just to vent really. Emma was right. Enoch wasn't a talker, and while Olive had tried to tell him numerous times he could relax, refused to listen to that.

"-he's a guy. I know there's possessive boyfriends and then there's Enoch, but...he's still a guy and you're his girlfriend who he can't be around much. If someone else can be, he's not ever going to like that someone else."

"I know..."

"-but if he doesn't listen to reason just snog some sense into him. Or refuse to. Whatever works...I reiterate, he's weird but he is a guy."

And gone was the logical, reasoning person Emma could be in favour of the sarcastic and blunt one.

"Emma Bloom!"

xxxXxxx

Olive was awoken by a soft buzzing beside her head and to a crack of sunlight from the partially opened curtains she'd forgotten to close properly. She snapped one green eye open to find her phone, the background of which was a surprised looking Enoch who'd forgotten to look broody for half a second when she kissed him, flashing with a banner message. Actually, half a dozen of them.

She stifled a yawn and flicked through them. They were all much of a muchness but everyone made her smile. All birthday well wishes. Her mother had written an impressively lengthy one about how proud they were of her which almost made Olive want to call them right away. Even Enoch made an exception to his texting more than one word at a time in favour of three words instead.

Happy birthday, Ol

She would talk to Enoch later too. Olive smiled to herself and ran a hand through her ginger hair as she sat up and tugged on the too big, grey t-shirt she wore as pyjamas that Enoch had left for her months ago. She loved it. It had been her favourite of Enoch's shirts, though most of his clothes were similarly patterned and coloured except for black and green, largely because it was the one he'd put on years ago the first time she'd seen him without a shirt. Yes, so what if she still remembered that?

Twenty minutes later she was showered, dressed and presentable enough for a weekend at home, except for Millard's promise to treat her lunch later. No sooner had Olive ducked down and hit her head in the fridge to get some orange juice when a cheerful voice came out of nowhere.

"Happy birthday!"

Olive squealed and very nearly dropped the bottle as she straightened up to a blonde haired snickering face. "That wasn't funny, Nathan!"

"What's funny about someone's birthday? I can't help it if you're jumpy. I tried the same thing on Althea the other day and she just stared at me and told me to grow up."

"Maybe she has a point." Olive huffed and hopped up onto her toes to reach a glass from the top cupboard just in time for the girl in question to breeze in, Rapunzel like hair and all, with a monotone,
"See?"

"Oh come on. It's not your twenty-first is it because we have to do something if it is. Bring that Brainiac of yours along,"

"Millard is taking me to lunch apparently already. And no, it's not. Just twenty, thank you very much."

"Well whatever." Nathan, whose spirits only ever dimmed the eve that an assignment was due which he hadn't finished yet, hopped onto the little counter and swung his legs before producing from behind his back a neatly wrapped present. "I got you something. It's only small, don't worry, but it is a birthday so you'd better take it."