Enoch has always been like this. Grumpy, sarcastic and reluctant to talk to the other peculiars in Miss Peregrine's loop. But when a new girl with a rather strange peculiarity shows up, will he manage to keep up this stony façade?
"I'm her boyfriend." The words sounded so good said aloud, but yet, how it was said and at what occasion it was said at made me cringe. "Wait, what?" said Horace. "Wait, what?" said Bronwyn. "Wait, what?" said Millard. "I beg your pardon?" said Miss Peregrine. I swallowed hard. "Yeah... Um, Enoch is... I guess you could say that... Well, we're going out. Basically." Enoch left Jacob and went to sit down next to me, grabbing my hand and acting as if personal space wasn't a thing at all. Which I didn't really mind, to be honest. "(Y/N)'s mine, now. Don't try anything, Portman." Jacob looked understandably baffled, and I gave him a sympathetic and apologetic look. Enoch's hand tightened on mine. "I wasn't going to..." Jacob started, but Miss Peregrine interrupted him quickly. "Now you've met the children, how about a quick tour of the house?" She scanned our faces, searching for any potential tour guides. Her gaze landed on me. "Would you be so kind as to show Mr Portman here around? You two are from the same decade, after all... I'm sure you'll have quite enough to talk about." I nodded. "Yeah, that'll be - " Enoch cleared his throat. "I don't think that would be appropriate. You know. I mean, we hardly know Jacob!" Miss Peregrine gave him a scathing look, but then smiled wickedly. "You're quite right, for once, Mr O'Connor. Maybe it would be better for somebody who is obviously very brave and willing to put themselves in 'danger' to show Mr Portman around? Hmm..." She pretended to think for a moment. "You know what, I believe that you'd be the perfect man for the job, Mr O'Connor! You should get started straight away." I couldn't help but laugh slightly at Enoch's disgusted expression, but one does not simply disobey the Bird. He gave Jacob one last look-to-kill and got up from the sofa, before smirking, bending down, kissing the bit of neck just behind my ear and whispering. "You're so beautiful," into my ear. I knew that he was making a show of it to 'impress' Jacob and annoy the Headmistress, but nevertheless, it made me shiver happily. Miss Peregrine cleared her throat as if she was going to tell him off, but he had already strode out of the room, Jacob following like a lost and slightly, if not very, confused puppy.
It was only 10 minutes later when the two boys returned, Enoch looking bored and Jacob just looking vaguely less confused, but still as excited. I hoped dearly that Enoch hadn't berated him too much... After all, despite what Enoch said, we didn't want to scare Jacob away. Enoch took his place next to me again and slung his arm around my waist, tracing obvious circles onto my hip with his thumbnail.
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(Enoch's expression when he sits with you)
We all sat in silence for a few minutes, Enoch occasionally whispering stuff in my ear, usually resulting in me laughing quietly. Other than that, however, there was no other noise. Even though it was before lunchtime, I started to drift off. Admittedly, I hadn't had much sleep the night before; a particular person was up til the early hours of the morning bashing away at his dolls. My head fell on Enoch's shoulder, and quickly jerked up again as I awoke. Everyone started staring at me, and I blushed bright red before clearing my throat loudly. "Um... Why don't we play a game? I'm sure Jacob would like to get to know us all better, and, as they say, the best way to find out stuff about a person is when you're ready to bite their head off due to competitiveness..." I trailed off, and Enoch snorted. "That sounds like a fantastic idea, Miss (Y/L/N)! Does anybody have any preferences?" the Headmistress said, finally snapping out of her stupor and gazing around at us all. "Ooh ooh ooh!" cried Claire, "Why don't we play how-many-people-can-Olive-deposit-on-the-roof?" Miss P frowned. "Absolutely not. I'm sure you all remember what happened the last time we played that 'game'." Basically, Emma broke her leg and couldn't walk properly for a month. "How about a good old-fashioned game of football?" suggested Millard. There were shouts of protest from all the younger children, and he raised his hands in mock surrender. "Calm down, calm down... It was only an idea." Emma piped up quietly, "Why don't we go down to the beach and play water games? I'm sure Jacob would like to explore old Cairnholm a bit." The two avoided each others' gaze. Miss Peregrine, however, smiled happily. "That is a fantastic idea, Miss Bloom. Everybody change into your swimming suits, Enoch, you can lend Jacob one," there was an eye-roll from Enoch, "And meet at the bottom of the stairs in ten minutes. We're all going to have an excellent time!"
