Forever Red - an Anne and Gilbert Story

6. Dreams and Dramas

Chapter Song: Wonder by Shawn Mendes

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Gilbert Blythe had always been a pretty practical kind of a boy.

Living on a farm and having to take up a lot of the work, he'd learned to adapt and be resourceful despite his delight for academic pursuits. It was perhaps because of this practicality that he was surprised at the depths of his feelings for Anne Shirley Cuthbert.

She was headstrong and quick to temper, she was outspoken and had an excessively active imagination. She believed that women should have the same opportunities in education as men, and that there was very little that a man could do that she could not. She was fiercely passionate about her friends, her family, and even the world around them and the creatures in it, and she didn't care who knew - even if it sometimes got her into trouble, which it regularly did! It was all of these things that should have been a red flag to a practical sort of boy like Gilbert when considering someone he might hold affection for, but he found every attribute more and more endearing.

As he lay on his bed staring at the ceiling it was her face that danced in front of him. Her clear grey eyes that sparkled with wit and humour and something he didn't have words for, her red hair that she'd hated so much but which he felt held her apart from apart from the others, her ivory skin sprinkled with freckles.

He remembered the feel of that skin beneath his fingers when he'd stroked her nose that time in the wood, the softness of her knuckles beneath his lips when he'd kissed them, and just that very day, the warmth of her hand in his in a public display of friendship that he could have barely hoped for.

Yes he was a practical boy but he was also a realist, and he knew with all his heart and soul that Anne Shirley could have announced she was joining the circus to become a sword swallower and he would still have not been able to put a stop to the feelings that had blossomed inside of him.

He hadn't dared hope she returned the same affections, even getting her to agree to friendship had taken almost two and a half years! Yet, the memory of her eyes locked on his that morning had stirred something inside of him. He had seen something in their depths that he'd seen briefly that time in the woods, but thought he'd imagined. He'd felt as if his soul was seeing her soul just by staring into one another's eyes, and that connection, now made, couldn't be undone.

He realised that if Anne could hear his thoughts this moment, she would declare them as decidedly romantical and it made him laugh out loud at himself.
No, for now he had to be satisfied with friendship. Goodness knows he'd hoped long enough for that, so why couldn't it be enough?

Gilbert turned onto his side and blew out his candle. The inky sky was clear, with a sprinkle of stars painted across it, reminding him of the dusting of freckles on her nose. It made him smile, and his last thoughts as he gave way to sleep were, as they always were of late, her.

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Completely unbeknown to Gilbert, Anne was across the way similarly dissecting the day and battling with thoughts of him.
Like him, the moment where their eyes locked together had been more significant and magical to her than when their hands shook one another's in front of the entire school. Although their public truce had of course stirred up all kinds of gossip and observations during the course of the day.

Can you believe they have finally put their feud away?

Who will fight for the top spot now?

Did you see the way she shook his hand? Like a boy!

On and on it went all day but Anne simply blocked it out and focused on her studies, trying to put the gossip, and Gilbert, out of her head as much as possible. The difficulty was she couldn't put him out of her head. All day he kept popping up, and she suspected it wasn't entirely by accident.

First during geometry when she'd taken her work up to the teacher to check something, and whilst waiting for the teacher's reply he'd caught her eye and actually winked! Thankfully no one else could see from that position.

Next time he'd been heading out to break and whilst fetching the ball to pass to Moody, his arm had somehow brushed against hers. Anne's eyes had snapped up at that and she remembered how she felt as if she'd been stung by a jellyfish so sharp was the reaction in her, even though she questioned whether it had actually happened as he'd kept walking without so much as a backward glance.

As school was ending he of course was heading the same way as them, and although he walked a way behind, he started up whistling the very same tune he had the night he'd left her at the gate of Green Gables. It was like a secret message just to her.
Anne hadn't dared turned around to look at him as both Diana and Ruby were with her, and she and Diana had spent the best part of twenty minutes convincing Ruby that their earlier reconciliation was a friendly exchange alone. She recalled the conversation that took place at lunchtime.

"Anne, he actually touched your bare hand" she'd whispered, as if they had committed some awful sin.

"Yes but only to shake it as he would have done for Moody or Charlie or Billy" she'd countered.

"But boys don't touch girls' hands unless they're courting" her eyes had grown wide at this revelation, as had Diana's.

"Ruby, have you known me to moon after any boy?" she started. 

" No. But... "

" Did you see me treat Gilbert any differently to anyone else I am friends with?" her voice was raised slightly with forced impatience, as she tried to react as she normally would. 

" No," she'd conceded, casting her eyes downwards and turning her lips into a pout." It's just I wish ever so much he'd touch my hand Anne." At this her eyes began to fill with tears, and as Ruby was more than a little prone to hysterics, Anne intervened quickly.

She moved forward and held Ruby's hand, partially from guilt for her own turbulent feelings.
"Ruby my dear, he shook my hand as he would another man, a comrade if you will. When he touches your hand you'd want it to be a romantic action wouldn't you? A display of love, where he removes your glove to kiss it, not one of simply friends shaking hands."

" Besides" Diana had added with a slight grin, "It took Anne and Gilbert over two years just to make friends, I think it would take at least five to be anything more!" She'd giggled then, and Anne was forced to join in, although the idea of that made her chest feel hollow.

Ruby's face had lit up at this joint effort of soothing her, and Anne could tell by the faraway look in her eyes that she was already picturing Gilbert kissing her hand.

Lying in her bed now in Green Gables, Anne shivered with the memory of Gilbert kissing her hand. It had been so gentle and so soft, like a whisper on the breeze. She remembered how it had warmed her skin even with that slightest of touches, and she wondered, not for the first time, how it would feel to have that same sensation on her mouth. Oh to be kissed properly like a heroine of one of her own tales, or one of her novels!
Even more thrilling was the idea of being kissed by Gilbert.
She knew it was well past bedtime, and so she snuffed out the candle before Marilla noticed it was still burning and came to chastise her, and curled up in bed.

As her eyes closed and sleep took her, she dreamt of Gilbert, stood in the garden at Green Gables, placing white apple blossoms in her hair before bending to softly kiss her mouth.

She had no idea that at that very moment he too dreamt of her kiss, nor did she have any idea that by the following week all their dreaming would be in tatters.