I know the last part might have seemed a little bit rushed, but I have plenty more Cambridge stuff in store, don't worry about that! :) 

Here's a nice long chapter to make up for it.

xxxXxxx

"So....not only are ya draggin' me ta somefin' I still really don't wanna do...but now ya sayin' it's in North'ampton? Didn't fink ta mention that bit?"

She should have known he would react like that. As if Enoch would have just smiled and nodded understandingly. As he'd said, he really didn't want to go at all.
"In my own defence, I didn't know where it was going to be. My aun-"

"Ya couldn't 'ave said, 'oh by the way, it's an hour and an 'alf away'?"

"It's not that far, Enoch, it's closer than Cambridge is and like I said, I didn't know."

"Where the 'ell is the good idea part'a this?"

The entire conversation, or rather argument, would have had a lot more impact and Enoch could have come off a lot more sour had they not been speaking in relatively quiet tones in the corner booth of a café.

Olive just shook her head and wrapped her hands around her mug to warm them.
"The good part, Enoch, is that I want you to actually meet my family because you're important to me."

"It's a bad idea if ya want a good impression. I ain't good at social stuff." Enoch persisted to grumble across from her, staring into his black coffee like it was a crystal ball showing their future. "Ain't it enough I know ya parents? Sure I see 'ow that matters but extended family? Really?"

"Really. I'm sure you'd feel the same if-" Enoch just raised an eyebrow and her and Olive stopped herself mid-sentence and sighed, "-Okay, maybe you wouldn't...but I care." She let go of her cup with one hand and reached over the table to place it over one of his. "Think of it this way, they can't dislike you more than Dad already does."

It didn't exactly sound very persuasive as soon as she said it but Enoch paused in his complaining for a second. A muscle twitched in his neck and he tilted his head just a little in a 'well...' sort of way before just scoffing. "I don't fink he could 'ate me anymore if ya said ya were pregnant."

"Enoch! Why would you say that?!"

"Now there's a question ya ask every five minutes."

He hadn't exactly said it loudly but Olive felt herself turn pink all the way to her toes and she pulled her hand back to try and hide her face behind it instead. Enoch was either completely unaware of how inappropriate she thought that was or he just didn't care. Probably the latter. He always said she got embarrassed too easily and maybe sometimes he had a point but really, now she thought she was entirely justified.
Enoch, evidently, did not.

"Oh come on. That was embarrassin'? I didn't even say nofin'. You'll get over it."

"Shush." She mumbled from behind her hands and when Enoch just scoffed, finally dropped them and pretended she wasn't burning red. "So are you going to come to Northhampton or not?"
It was both in the moment of hesitation and the reluctant lowering of his eyes that Olive knew she had won this time. If she didn't know he would have just grumbled and pulled away, she would have kissed him. So instead she just nudged his leg with her foot under the table and gave him a smile.
"Thank you!"

"I didn't say nofin'."

X

Every step of the way here had been a trial. Including telling her parents she'd persuaded Enoch to come along this year, much to her father's warning that his family was probably not going to take to him either. To that, Olive had simply pointed out that they asked every year to meet her boyfriend and now they actually had a chance to. At least they would find out one way or another if they were going to like him.

Enoch didn't give a damn if people liked him or not, it was plainly and simply the fact he didn't want to be social that made him resist coming along. But now, all of Olive's asking and gentle prodding had finally paid off. She stole a glance at him occasionally across the car where Enoch had barely spoken more than two sentences in forty-five minutes or even looked at her more than a couple of times. She didn't need to tell him again that she was glad he'd agreed. He didn't care if she was glad or not. Neither did she need to tell him that despite her determination to get him to come along, she was actually extremely anxious that her family wouldn't like him after all. If today didn't go at least moderately well there would be no hearing the end of it that she could do better, or at least nicer, than Enoch. She wouldn't listen of course, but it hurt a lot more than she let on every time her father made his position on the matter perfectly clear. What on earth it was going to take for Enoch to prove himself enough, she had no idea.

So they barely spoke the whole drive there until they got into Northhampton and she had to start giving directions to her grandparents.
"It's really not going to be that bad, I promise." She watched Enoch's face carefully as his hand slid to the bottom of the steering wheel.

"Do ya just? Well I guess that settles that then. You must be right."

Olive cringed slightly at the bite in his voice but Enoch did not seem at all inclined to take it back. His jaw clenched slightly as he pulled over at the curb behind the station wagon that belonged to Olive's aunt and uncle. They were probably the last here, but the later the better anyway.
"Do try to be a little more pleasant inside, Enoch..."

"Easier said than done. Don't ya blame it all on me if they don't like me." He muttered but his head snapped back to her when Olive reached over to squeeze his hand gently. "Let's just get it bloody over wiv."

If he was already in this mood, it did not bode well for the rest of the day. Olive swallowed a lump in her throat and smoothed the skirt of her dress over her stockinged legs as she stepped out of the car. Impressively enough, Enoch had at least dressed nicely. He almost never wore buttoned shirts that hadn't been school uniform, and they were hardly nice, but Olive secretly really appreciated it when he did because, she wouldn't tell him and he wouldn't care if she did, he looked really good in them.

"I'm not nervous. I can see ya finkin' that." Enoch muttered when they stopped at the front door and Olive promptly closed her mouth where she had been about to say exactly that. "I couldn't care less."

"You care a little bit."

"You overestimate me."

Olive rung the doorbell quickly, partially to put an end to Enoch's grumbling for a moment and elbowed him in the ribs lightly, which he responded to in kind without hesitation.

For almost eighty, Deidre Elephanta was still an impressively spry woman with a unique sense of humour and unquenchable enjoyment for entertaining. Her grandmother, who always seemed to smell slightly of cinnamon, was one of Olive's very favourite people in the world, so was it any surprise that she wanted her to get on with another of her very favourite people?

Olive beamed as the door swung open and she was immediately tugged into a warm hug. There was something so warm and special about a grandparent's hugs that made her realise how much of a family oriented person she was.

"Olive! I'm sure you get more beautiful every time I see you, my dear."

Olive smiled and then blinked rapidly when the slightly wrinkled hand patted her cheek a little harder than was probably intended. She could feel the awkwardness radiating from Enoch behind her shoulder and quickly stepped backwards to pull him forward by the arm.

"Granny? This is Enoch..."

"At last! I can't say how disappointed we are to finally have you join us, young man."
The smile only grew even wider and then her grandmother had taken one of Enoch's hands in both of her own before Enoch had a chance to resist. Olive hid a smile behind her own hand at how taken aback Enoch clearly was. "Oh don't look so surprised, I'm only joking, of course we're delighted you could be here! Come in, come in."

She fell behind into step with Enoch who leaned over to her ear to mutter quietly. "What was that s'posed ta mean?"

Olive giggled and slipped her hand into one of his as they followed Deidre down the corridor towards the living room. "Granny has a...unique sense of humour, she does that a lot. You'll get used to it."

"Don't fink I will...oh blimey..."

The living room, despite its generous size, was thoroughly over furnished and seemed still smaller with as many people as were crammed into it. Two small toddlers, twin boys, were squealing on the mat tugging a teddy bear between them like tug of war.

"Look who finally made it to join us!"

Enoch suddenly pulled his hand out of her hold, the first inevitable sign that he was extremely uncomfortable with this many strangers. Olive didn't blame him, she wasn't at all surprised if he felt overwhelmed with it all and she certainly wouldn't hold it against him. They had taken baby steps to get to this point and now it probably felt like one giant leap in comparison.

Olive was soon swept into the customary row of hugs between her cousins, her uncle and her aunt, her grandparents and last of all, Claire, now eight, who happily attached herself to Olive's waist. Finally, after she extradited herself from the family she only saw a few times a year, she took a few steps back towards her boyfriend, standing awkwardly by and smiled up at him.

"You can finally meet Enoch now. Enoch?" She placed a hand on his arm and stared to introduce her family.

"This is my uncle, Peter, and aunt, Sarah-"

"Good to finally put a face to the name, how do you do?"

"My grandpa-"

"Olive has a lot to say about you, young man."

"Eliza, my cousin."

"Hi."

"And that's Claire... and you know my parents, obviously."

Claire didn't say anything and just smiled shyly.

Enoch answered each introduction with an unsure, muttered, "Hello" and didn't really make any sort of movement save nodding his head.

"Glad you actually made it." It was an extremely forced civility that came out of her father's mouth and when they both looked over at him, Olive could see him clenching his jaw together and shooting Enoch a look that clearly said 'play your cards right, kid'.

"Poor lad's just been thrust into it all head first, we can save the questions until they at least have a cup of tea or something." Deidre chirped and jerked her head towards the kitchen, gesturing to Olive's mother who was actually smiling at Enoch, the one person in the room besides Olive who wasn't critiquing every move he made. "Hope, dear, give me a hand won't you?"

"Are you both just going to stand there or going to join us, it's much nicer by the fire-Eliza, off that phone please and you can hop up to let them at least sit together."

"But-"

Sixteen years old, Eliza was the oldest of Olive's cousins and the first of now four Densmore children. She sighed reluctantly and promptly sulked as she was forced to put her phone away at her mother's request and got up from the couch to let Olive and Enoch sit there instead.

Enoch didn't sit. Instead he muttered something about preferring to stand instead and leaned against the arm of the couch beside Olive.

"Olive, your parents have said you're loving Cambridge, how are you finding it by yourself?"

Olive beamed and jumped at the chance to talk about her school, which allowed Enoch to stay silent longer which she was sure he was only glad of.

"I'm really loving it."

"You blink and they've left the nest, Peter, Eliza will be gone before you know it."

For a few minutes, interjected only by the arrival of two cups of tea, one black and one white for Enoch and Olive respectively, the peace was held and no tongues needed to be. Until Enoch was invited into the conversation by her grandfather, and clearly had not been listening.

"And how about you, Enoch?"

"What?"

"...What do you do with yourself? You're at university aren't you?"

"Uh...yeah."

Please just answer plainly. Please don't be sarcastic. If only she was telepathic, but to Olive's relief, Enoch did anyway.
" 'uman Anatomy."

"That's a weird hobby."

"Eliza, that wasn't kind."

And then it went to awkward hell.

"You're O'Connor right? As in the funeral business." Her uncle snapped his fingers as if he'd just placed something vital and to Olive's dread, Enoch hadn't been able to hold back a scoff. She didn't have to look at him to know he was rolling his eyes.

"That'd be my claim ta fame."

"What'd I tell you?"

"I do believe it's high time we ate, actually. Out with you all!"

Olive wanted to hug her granny for breaking the tension before someone, on either side, had said something to give a worse impression.

This wasn't going too badly, it could have been much worse. Enoch could have blurted out something much more sarcastic that just came off rude and her family could have been judging him a whole lot more than they did.

The long table was decked out in all kinds of lace and white and red fabric with an entirely Christmassy feel that Enoch would not like. But whatever he thought, at least he kept it to himself. Olive chanced the opportunity to reach under the table and rub his hand where it was tapping restlessly on his leg. He caught her eyes and she smiled to try and say it was fine. Maybe she shouldn't have made him come this year.

Claire, whose ringlets gave her an entirely Shirley Temple like appearance, coughed like she wanted to make a point in a very obvious imitation of an adult and Olive looked around and couldn't help an 'Aww...' escaping, to Enoch's distaste. The little girl was holding out the Christmas cracker from her plate, but not to Olive like usual, instead she was looking at Enoch with an expectation that would have been mean to deny. Well...at least one member of her family liked him.

Enoch looked just as confused as if he'd been given a flute and told to play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' by the gesture.

"Uh...no."

Claire's smile dimmed a little but only for a second before she held it to Olive instead who more than happily obliged the little girl.

"Don't you like Christmas?" Claire chirped, any hurt at Enoch saying no to the cracker banished from her face in favour of an innocent curiosity.

"Not particularly."

Enoch might as well have grown a second head for as strangely as people started to look at him.

"Well...it seems we have a Scrooge in our midst! No matter..."

Olive managed to divert most of the attention away from Enoch for most of the late lunch, until one of the twins started to cry, which started the second one crying and sent everyone staring and quiet until they had been whisked out of the room by Aunt Sarah. Then there was no fielding the questions away from Enoch much longer.

"Enoch's an unusual name, isn't it? Don't know of any 'Enochs' around."

"Grandpa..." Olive started then Enoch kicked her gently under the table and she raised her eyebrows at him. Clearly he didn't care.

"Indeed, I think it's biblical." Her grandmother joined in and that's when Enoch tensed up slightly. "It means dedicated."

"How did you know that, Mum?"

"I know a great deal of things, Theo, thank you."

"Well...I don't think 'dedicated' is far off..." Olive beamed and nudged Enoch to try and make him stop glaring at his plate "I mean it has been two years, right?"

Claire had come out of her shell around a new person apparently, and decided she had taken such a liking to Enoch that the next thing she came out with made everyone at the table stop.
"Do I call you my cousin, Enoch? Are you married?"

"Huh?" Someone started laughing. Olive went pink and Enoch dropped his fork.
She stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye to see that for once, he was just as embarrassed as she was. Redness had flooded his usually pale face to the extent he actually tried to hide it behind a hand.

"Oh my g-no. Just Enoch is fine." He all but growled.

Olive wanted nothing more than to sink right through the table and through the floor and disappear. How on earth had Claire jumped to the idea that they were married? There was some irony in going from talking about the name Enoch meaning 'dedicated' to Claire thinking they were married but now was not the moment to appreciate irony.

xxxXxxx

"He's just...weird."

"He's not that weird..." Olive sighed, trying to pretend the whole conversation wasn't happening as she dried a plate. But there was no letting up on it now.

"Eliza, saying Enoch is weird is not nice at all."

Thank you. Olive let out a breath and smiled a little over at her aunt, only to have her add, "He's just a little unusual." Oh.

"Mum, that literally means the same thing."

What it was about Enoch that made him so unlikeable to everyone, almost everyone, Olive thought was extremely unfair. Just because he wasn't good at, or enjoyed, being very social did not make him a bad person. There was a lot of good in him that nobody seemed to want to look for.

"Granny? Please tell me you don't think he's awful at least. He gets enough of that from Dad."

"I don't think he's awful. I think...well, honestly, I don't think he's very pleasant but he's not awful."

"At least you picked a good looking one..." Eliza added as she inadvertently picked up the bowl Olive had been reaching for. "There's that at least. Even if he's not nice."

No one was fair. Enoch loved her, and that was all she could ask of him and she loved him. If only someone else in the world, that wasn't an eight year old girl, could even try and see below his wall of darkness. Enoch O'Connor might as well have been the definition of 'pariah' he was so outcast...even if he wanted to be.

"Frankly I think it's more important to be a nice person, and that boy clearly struggles with t-Olive?"

"I'm fine." She faked a smile but clearly, she wasn't fine. Her breaths were starting to come shaky and fast. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Enoch and it wasn't fair to her. "I'm just gonna get some air."