I'm back! Holidays are most unfortunately over, and work starts up again for me very shortly. But since I'm back home now, chapters should pop up more regularly again.

Thanks so much for the great feedback on this so far. You guys have already been terrific and we've barely started!

xxxXxxx

Olive had said she would call him later that night. To which Enoch had responded only with a "whatever" and reluctantly let her go. It was still, well over a year after he first admitted it, hard for him to say he loved her, even though she already knew it and he certainly did. Even when Olive said it first the words still stuck in his throat and he didn't want to say them out loud, especially not within visual range of her parents. But if Olive already knew then he shouldn't need to say it anyway.

His classes started next week, and, quite the contrast to his attitude to high school, Enoch was actually quietly glad for it. He would be out of the house, and have something he knew he was damn good at and interested in to distract him. Anatomy and Human Biology. There could have been no other choice. Science was something he could get behind gladly and for that reason alone was he leaning over open second hand textbooks with a hand in his messy hair and music drowning out any unwanted company.

Olive would have well and truly settled into her new place and truth be told, Enoch was slightly surprised she hadn't already called him. Not concerned at all, just surprised. In fact it might have annoyed him had she called him now. He would be feigning interest either way in whatever she had to tell him about the flat she was supposed to call home now, that bored him but she should certainly know that. Quite simply he was slightly jealous of her getting out of her parent's house. As soon as he had the means to, he would be out of there quicker than anyone could say independent.
Would he miss her? He hadn't really ever missed anyone before in his life, hadn't really cared enough about anyone to miss until now. It was an unfamiliar feeling knowing that she wasn't going to be right there anymore and it took her going away for him to realise that he did actually depend on her quite a lot. Not that he took her for granted or anything. She should be able to do whatever she wanted to do wherever she wanted to do it. But when the one person whose company he could always tolerate, though it had taken time to get to that point, was suddenly not close enough to drive over anytime he felt like it, it was slightly numbing.
So yes, Enoch would miss Olive. No, he would not tell her, he had too much pride for that. Instead he just made the last time they would have together for an undetermined period of time, anywhere from a week to a month, count like hell.

Enoch let out a long breath and dropped his head down onto the open textbook where words were beginning to swim before his eyes from staring at it so long. Science and biological terminology might be his forte but staring at a book for hours had a tendency to make anyone who was otherwise not an avid reader, tune out after a while.
His hand fell from his hair as he lifted his face and glanced at the time. After eleven. Enoch was well and truly a night owl and quite happily stayed up to all sorts of hours, Olive, however, was unsurprisingly the opposite and was usually easily in bed by now. Not that he was bothered she hadn't called him when she said she would or anything.

Then, almost as if he'd made it happen by thinking about it, his phone went off two inches from his hand and he jumped involuntarily. Olive's name popped up on his screen. Enoch was definitely not one to add stupidly unnecessary contact pictures, once again, unlike his girlfriend. He gave it a few seconds of just staring at the phone before sighing and tapping the little green answer icon.

"Hey."

"Hi...how are you over there?"

Enoch rolled his eyes but his lip twitched just a little while there was nobody around to see as he could hear the smile in her voice.

"I ain't the one that's gone anywhere, Olive." He replied dryly, wishing to dispense with the cliché telephone formalities. "In case ya forgot, that'd be you."

"I'm going to take that as how am I doing, because I'm sure that's what you meant to say."

"If ya like."

"Kind of surreal. It's strange not being home."

"That's a bloody good fing." Enoch muttered, swivelling around on his chair and staring unseeingly off across the room. Was it a bad thing how quickly he could tune out?

"...I miss everyone already. I miss you, you know that?"

"Oh bloody 'ell..."

"Scoff all you like, Enoch O'Connor, but I'm going to tell you anyway."

Even when she was scolding him Olive was cute. He'd let that slip once accidentally when she was trying to be annoyed at him, and hadn't at all meant to say it inevitably, that both put the argument on hold and Enoch into a state of embarrassment for hours. He was letting his mind wander again and tried, he honestly did, to tune back in to whatever she was talking about. In an effort to sound like he was listening, he asked her a question instead.

"What's ya flat like?"

"As universityish as you would think. Just big enough for three people-"

"Three? That's already too many."

"Just because you'd only be happy if you were by yourself." Olive laughed and for a moment she went quiet so Enoch thought the line had dropped out for a second. He was hardly denying it. "You have to tell me how you go when you start. You'll enjoy yourself with your course and you deserve to."

"Whateva." Enoch rolled his eyes and swirled around on his chair which squeaked a little as he stood up and put Olive on speaker to forgo having to hold a phone to his ear. "Ya ain't tellin' me somefin'."

"And I really don't think that I should."

Now if any sentence was going to raise Enoch's suspicions that she was omitting some little detail, that was the one. He frowned slightly and dropped the phone on his mattress as he laid back and tucked a hand under his head.
"It's been like ten minutes, Olive, already ya think I don't needa know somefin'? I mean normally I'd agree wiv that..."

"You'll overreact and be awfully silly about it."

"I don't overreact." He replied dryly and did not appreciate the little giggle on the other end of the line when he said that. "What was that s'posed ta mean?"

"Nothing at all...but you asked for it."

"Bloody 'ell, if ya tellin' me someone swept ya off ya bloody feet already then just say it."

"I hope you're being sarcasti-"

"Nooooo. Not in the least."

Enoch just knew Olive was sitting there smiling and for some reason that frustrated him more. His sarcasm was not charming, he actively tried to be the opposite of that, but Olive only ever took it in her stride. "I ain't gonna overreact, just 'urry up already. Not like I 'ave all night."

There was a little intake of breath as if Olive needed to prepare herself for whatever she was going to say. "It's a mixed flat."

It took him perhaps a little longer than it should have to get it, but for a good few moments he had no idea what she was on about. So he said as much without thinking. "What the 'ell does that mean?"

"It means I have two flatmates here. Althea, who is...rather like you actually, only quieter-"

"Oi, 'ang on..."

"-and Nathan."

Click. The gears finally ground into place in Enoch's brain and he understood. He shot straight upwards on his bed with a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.
"Tell me it's short for...Nathianella or some equally stupid girl's name."

"Enoch, you promised-"

"No, I bloody did not. Ya never mentioned a mixed dorm before now."
Immediately Enoch's mind flooded with thoughts of some idiotic, sleazy twenty year old trying to worm his way into his girlfriend's affections and every jealous and possessive bone in his body started to make themselves known.

"You're overreacting-"

"I fink I'm underreacting actually, the slimy little-"

"Enoch-"

"-finks 'e can just bunk up-"

"Enoch!"

He paid no attention to Olive's sighs that he was being silly. It didn't matter a jot that he knew nothing more than the guy's name. The fact that Olive was supposed to live in a shared flat, hours away, with some guy who was not Enoch himself, was enough to irk him more than much else could have right now. So no, he didn't think he was being irrational in the slightest. For all Olive knew, this Nathan could turn out to be nothing but a playboy who tried to take advantage of the fact that the boyfriend was not nearby. It was for her benefit that Enoch felt so indignantly irritated. Enoch could justify himself all day if he had to.
He hadn't said anything in nearly a minute, just sat there and fumed, until eventually, her soft voice tried again to cut through the stubbornness in him.
"You're making a big deal out of nothing, don't be such a pessimist already."

"I'm not. I'm being realistic." He snapped, "Realistic that there's an 'igh chance 'e's a slimy git."

"And it would be any different if Millard was here instead?"

"Uh, yeah, 'cause I know the nerd."

Olive sighed and Enoch just glared at the phone like she could see him.
"Please don't make this harder than it already is, and it's only been a day. You'll see for yourself it's a perfectly fine flat if you come over sometime."

"Perfectly fine, my foot. But damn right I'll be drivin' over."

xxxXxxx

Enoch had meant every word. It just wasn't going to happen realistically in the next week or two, which did nothing to ease his irritation. But now, with so much to distract him, it wasn't always at the forefront of his mind.

There was nothing that could have bothered him about walking into an open laboratory and being surrounded by cadavers, well preserved and in various stages of disassembly. Enoch had seen it all before, save for the cross section of a human brain inside a split head. Olive, and indeed lots of people with softer stomachs, might have screamed the moment they saw that but not here. Here there were only people who wanted to be here, and who were interested in this sort of thing of whom, Enoch considered himself separate again in his own category.

He had a relatively small class, no more than twenty students at the most, but the smaller the better in his opinion, because that was much less people to deal with.

So willingly did he throw himself into science that throughout the weekdays, Enoch tried to be home as little as possible and the first time his mother tried to get him to talk about how it was, he shrugged her off completely with some snide comment about not being a little kid anymore.

For the next three years, even if he didn't have the means to leave home, much as he might have liked it, Enoch was damn well going to be as independent as he could get. This was his life, while he could delay the inevitable of being stuck working with his father, and then running the business when he had to, for as long as he could do.

It was a full three weeks, at the end of September, with only a couple of phone calls to Olive in between, before Enoch decided to go up to Cambridge.

"Enoch, if you're only ever going to ignore phone calls, why do you bother having a phone at all?"

Enoch sighed and dropped the jacket he was holding onto the bed. He hadn't even heard the door open, much less anyone trying to get his attention. He turned and raised an eyebrow at his mother standing in the doorway with the house phone in her hands and her arms crossed.
"What?"

"Weren't you meant to be at the parlour an hour ago?"

Enoch rolled his eyes and shook his head. "No. I said I wasn't goin' in today."

"To who, Enoch? Because neither of us knew that and your father's been trying to call you for half an-"

"-hour, yeah, I know. What's it ta you?"

"Enoch Reuben-"

"Oh bloody 'ell..."

"I know you're not a kid anymore and I couldn't be happier that you're doing something you love but as long as you're living in our house, I don't think it would kill you to be a little more respectful sometimes."

"It might."

Mother and son just stared at each other with their eyebrows raised in exactly the same way before Enoch rolled his eyes and backed off a little. She wasn't so bad. Of course he loved his mother, because he had to, and she wasn't half as overbearing and condescending as his dad was. He was a little sorry, but not enough to say in so few words.

"I ain't workin' 'cause I'm goin' ta Cambridge." He muttered and turned back to throwing a few clothes in the open overnight bag on his bed. Immediately the atmosphere lightened a little. Olive could always achieve that around his parents even if she wasn't actually there.

"To see Olive?"

"No, ta see the museums." He scoffed and tossed in a folded pair of jeans and placed his laptop a lot more carefully on the top of the pile. "Obviously for 'er."

"Well, I think that's a good enough reason. I'm so pleased it's been so good for you, Enoch, she's such a lovely girl."

"I'm so glad I 'ave ya approval." He snipped dryly. Couldn't she see he wanted to be left alone?

"How long are you going fo-"

"I don't know! A day or two? Stop badgerin' me already." He rounded on her with a glare and swung the overnight bag over his shoulder. "Bye." He snapped and grabbed his keys from the desk, shoving them into his pocket with his phone and stormed out, leaving his mother shaking her head sadly after him.

The sooner he went the better.

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