Anne with an E - A Winter Journey

10 - This doesn't look good

The girls allowed Gilbert to lead them through the forest, partly because Anne had gotten them lost the day before but mostly because they were afraid to question him when he seemed so tense. Despite the strained atmosphere amongst them, the walk was beautiful. Snowflakes were falling gently from the sky as they traipsed in single file.

Anne was walking at the back of the group, trying to give Gilbert as much space as possible. She knew she had made a mistake by saying that she didn't want to be his friend but she didn't know how to make things better. If she told him the truth, she might expose Ruby's crush on him and lose her friend for good, but if she kept quiet then she might lose him. Anne didn't know which was worse.

Lost in her thoughts, Anne had started to lag behind the rest of the group. She was about to run to try and catch up with them when she realised that Ruby had stopped and was waiting for her to catch up.

"Thanks for waiting," Anne said sincerely when she caught up to Ruby.

"No problem," smiled Ruby. "I actually wanted to talk to you... in private," she said, nodding her head towards Diana and Gilbert who were far enough ahead not to hear.

"Oh? What about?" enquired Anne, secretly dreading Ruby's response. She was certain Ruby was going to issue a final warning about being friends with Gilbert and Anne knew that would ruin any chance she had of reconciling with him.

"Well the thing is... I like Charlie," Ruby admitted shyly.

"So you don't want me to talk to him either?" Anne asked, failing to mask her confusion. This was not what she expected.

"No! Not at all!" Ruby shouted hastily before returning to a whisper. "I mean yes, you can speak to him but that's not what I was getting at. What I mean to say is that I like Charlie and I don't like Gilbert. I know I've been hard on you about him and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so selfish, especially when he likes you so much and you obviously like him too."

Anne didn't know how to respond. Certainly this was good news for her friendship with Ruby because now Ruby wouldn't be jealous every time Gilbert spoke to her. But what did that matter when Gilbert wouldn't even look at her anymore?

"Thank you for letting me know, Ruby," Anne said sincerely. "And I'm glad you like Charlie, I've noticed him looking at you in school. I'm sure he likes you too."

Ruby's blue eyes lit up with glee when Anne said that and she proceeded to tell her, in detail, about every interaction she'd had with Charlie since she started liking him. Anne smiled at her, genuinely happy for her friend and glad that at least one friendship had been restored. Her eyes drifted to Gilbert up ahead as she tried to think of a way to fix theirs.

Anne and Ruby picked up the pace to catch up with Diana and Gilbert. As they hurried through the trees it felt like the snowflakes were starting to fall more and more quickly. By the time they reached the others it was becoming difficult to see more than a few yards ahead.

"This doesn't look good," said Gilbert, looking up towards the heavy snow clouds above.

"What's the matter?" asked Diana.

"Blizzard!" Gilbert and Anne replied in unison.