Something Peculiar (Enoch O'Connor)

9. Look Alikes

"Antonia!" Emma said as she ran up to the brunette peculiar, and devoured her in a giant hug.

"Emma, what's wrong?" Antonia asked as she hugged her friend back, hearing her quiet sniffles and sobs: she was crying.  "What happened?"

"It-it's a guy.  He came th-through the Loop and-"  Her words got cut off, caught in her throat.  Antonia worried about that the guy had done to her.

"What did he do?" she asked her friend.

"He-he's Abe's grandson!" she said through her sobs.  Antonia had never met the famous Abe Portman, but everyone in the house had fantastic stories about him.  Emma's were all mostly of her fascination and love for him, and how he left her to go fight in the War, then got married. 

"Oh, Emma," she said quietly as she hugged her friend tightly.  "I'm so sorry."

"He looked just like him, too.  It hurts to look at him.  What if he has the same peculiarity?"

Antonia felt selfish because of the fact that her thoughts drifted to Wesley and Enoch.  They looked alike.  They had the same peculiarity.  "I feel your pain," was all she said.  She  felt awful, because she didn't know what else to say.

*** *** ***

A couple hours later, Antonia finally managed to get Emma to stop crying.  They went downstairs to go get some fresh air, and that's when she saw him.  He was standing in the doorway, wearing a heavy coat and only one shoe.  "You must be Abe's grandson," she said quietly as she led Emma past him, outside. 

"Antonia!"  Enoch came running down the stairs after them, and went out behind them.  "Hey, can we talk for a minute?"

"Not a good time," she sad as she made a gesture towards Emma.  "If we have to talk, we can do it later, okay?"

A small frown made its way to his face.  It'd been days since Reggie told her what he'd heard Enoch saying, and she continually found herself avoiding him at all costs.  "okay, I guess," he sighed.  "But swear we'll talk later."

"Enoch, my friend is upset.  She's crying, and she's heartbroken."

He stared her for a moment and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.  Instead, he just nodded and went back inside.

"What was that about?" Emma asked her friend as they sat down beside the house.

"It's complicated," Antonia sighed. 

"I could use something complicated to get my mind off the whole Abe thing."

Antonia let out a breath and nodded slightly.  "Okay.  Well um, a few das ago, Reggie told m he overheard Enoch talking to someone.  Don't know if it was himself, or a clay doll, could've been a naked Millard.  But he um, he said that he...  He likes me."

Her  eyes widened.  "Does he know you know?"

She shook her head.  'I-I've been avoiding him.  I just...  I can't do this again, Emma.  It's better for him this way."

"It's better to have the only person he actually cares about ripped from him?  Antonia, you're really the only person he cares about.  I've never seen him like this before, since you showed up.  You don't have to go out with him, but you can't avoid him.  At least, not forever.  Go talk to him."

"I'm with you right now."

"I think I need to be alone for a little while, just to process everything and take it all in.  I'll find you later, okay?"

Antonia sighed as she lifted herself off of the ground.  "Okay."  She went inside of the house and up to Enoch's room.  "Enoch?" she asked quietly as she softly knocked on the door.

It flew open within seconds, and there was Enoch standing on the other side.  "Hey," he said as he opened the door for her.

She awkwardly took slow steps into the room, and he closed the door behind her.  "So um...  What did you wanna talk about?"

He looked at her for a moment.  "You know what I wanna talk about.  Why have you been avoiding me?"

She looked down at her feet.  "It's complicated."

"I don't care how complicated it is, I want an answer."

More flashbacks of Wesley, of him saying nearly the exact same thing. 

"Look," she sighed.  "You're a great guy, Enoch.  I really like you.  Just...  Not in the way you like me.  I'm sorry, you're just too close to being Wesley.  It's too much."  She didn't need to look at him to see his disappointment.

"If that's how you feel, I'll respect that.  I don't know how you know, I didn't plan on telling you until you were over the whole Wesley thing.  But it's okay that you feel that way, I'm not gonna push you on it."

"I'm really sorry, Enoch."  Saying it broke her heart, and she wanted to cry.  She cursed Reggie for ever telling her what Enoch said, because it might've just cost them their friendship.  "If things were different..."

"I know."  He hugged her.  "Don't worry about it, okay?  Let's just forget it ever happened."

She slowly nodded, burying her face in his shoulder.  "Maybe when I get over it..."

"Take your time," he said quietly.  "I'm not gonna bring it up again."

She stepped away to look at him.  "I don't mean to sound rude, but if things were different...  If you were different, or if he was different..."

"It's not rude, I get it.  You loved him.  Probably still do.  So I'm prepared to wait.  You'll let me know when you're ready, if you ever are."

She hugged him again.  "Thank you, Enoch."  she tried to enjoy that moment, because she felt that their friendship was going to be a little awkward for a while.  So she enjoyed it while it lasted.