kindred spirits || anne and gilbert

chapter eight .

~•~

"anne shirley-cuthbert, is that a hickey on your neck?" marilla bellows, throwing her towel to the table. anne's eyes widen.

"n-no marilla, of course not!" anne stutters nervously. she quickly lies, "diana and ruby tried curling my hair, and they had never done it themselves before. they left a few burns but they don't hurt anymore."

marilla looks at the girl suspiciously and sighs, shaking her head. "okay, anne. go get jerry and matthew for supper."

anne nods and steps back out of the house, exhaling heavily. as she walks towards the barn, she pulls out her phone.

to gilbert:
rule number three: no more obvious hickeys!

from gilbert:
uh oh... sorry!

she rolls her eyes at the message and pushes it back in to her back pocket.

anne and gilbert have been secretly dating for three weeks now. they have two- well, now, three- rules in the relationship.

rule number one: you may only tell two people about you secret relationship, until they're both comfortable with letting everyone else know. anne told diana and cole, and gilbert told sebastian and charlie.

rule number two: no more giant displays of affection towards other people. gilbert made this rule, as he finds it silly to get jealous every time she kisses cole's or jerry's cheek, and anne agreed. she would be furious if he kissed a girl.

and now, rule number three: no more obvious hickeys. anne's heart is still beating from marilla spotting it, even with terrible eyesight marilla noticed the big, red bruise on the girls neck.

she pulls the barn doors open to find them working in the hay. "suppers done," she says. "come eat."

~•~

the next day, anne makes sure to wear her hair down to cover the bruise on her neck. after successfully hiding it, she leaves her bedroom in a haste. "goodbye marilla," she says, kissing the older woman's cheek as she wishes her a farewell.

she grabs an apple to eat during her walk to school and leaves the house. halfway, the apple now finished, she stops in front of gilbert and bash's home, only having to wait a couple seconds before gilbert comes running out, shoving sebastian back in the home and slamming the door shut in his face. of course, sebastian was planning to tease gilbert.

gilbert stops in front of the girl and grins. "hello," he greets her. she smiles back. the two teenagers walk into the woods and, once safe from anyone seeing, they intertwine their fingers. "you're wearing your hair down," gilbert states the obvious.

"i didn't have much of a choice," anne says, shooting him a glare.

he just shakes his head and smirks. "it looks pretty, though." he reaches up and pushes a red strand away from her face. "are you ready for the math test?"

anne huffs. "i studied all day with the help of matthew, despite the fact that he doesn't understand or remember most of what we're currently being educated on. i hope i'm as ready as i feel."

"you'll do amazing on the test, you always do. i believe in you." they smile at each other.

before entering the school, anne steps on her tippy toes and presses a kiss on to her boyfriends lips. they wish each other good luck on the test before parting their ways.

ruby throws herself into anne's arms, wailing dramatically as she clutches on to anne's shirt. cole and diana stand behind them, diana rubbing ruby's back comfortingly, as cole stands beside her with his arms crossed. he rolls his eyes at the theatrical blonde and quietly huffs.

when gilbert had finished the math test and stood up to hand it in, he accidentally bumped into ruby's arm and then apologized. somehow, the simple action was enough to break her heart again.

"ruby, you guys dated for a week- it wasn't even a real relationship! you guys were still just going on dates and testing the water. you need to move on."

"you can't say that, cole!" ruby shouts at the artist. "moody likes you back, you two could really fall in love. you guys are so... perfect together. it's not fair, why doesn't gilbert love me as i love him?" she looks up at anne with a tear stained face, her bottom lip quivering. guilt hits anne in the gut.

anne nervously smiles. "you can do better than a boy who doesn't love you back, you'll find the one for you some day, ruby."

"but i love gilbert," ruby sobs.

anne exhales heavily, guilt heavy on her heart. diana offers her a small and warm smile, silently telling her that this isn't her fault. why doesn't anne believe it? she feels tremendously horrible for hurting ruby, and she knows that she'll be even more heartbroken when she finds out that anne and gilbert are officially together.

"i have to go," anne announces. "but ruby, things will improve for you. you'll find the right one someday." she embraces the smaller girl before gathering her items and stepping out from their book club shack in the woods.

she wanders out of the woods and smiles when gilbert blythe's home comes into view. she promised him that she would visit him swiftly after dealing with ruby's heartbreak. she begins towards his home again.

"anne shirley?"

anne turns around, her eyes meeting bright blue ones of a familiar girl. she sighs in disappointment. "hello, josie," she greets the girl, obviously unhappy. she crosses her arms over her chest.

josie smirks smugly. "where are you heading off to in such a hurry?"

"i'm going home, if it isn't obvious," the redhead replies, gesturing in the direction of green gables. "and you? your home is nowhere near here."

"i'm heading home from church, i was doing volunteer work." josie looks her up and down. "you know, kids in avonlea are beginning to talk. there's rumors spreading that you and gilbert are hiding things from us."

anne feels her cheeks turn red. she scoffs in fake disgust and says, "that's absurd. gilbert blythe and i are nothing more than friends- at most!"

"who said it was anything about your guys' relationship?" josie says with a false innocent voice, smiling with pride.

anne exhales heavily- josie surely knows how to make anne upset. she balls her hands into two little fists and clenches her jaw, feeling her cheeks heat up again, this time with anger. "what do you want, josie pye?" anne asks angrily, her short temper taking over. "or are you just making another day of my life a living hell?"

josie's smile grows. she was proud that she was so obviously bothering anne shirley-cuthbert. with one hand, she reaches into the back pocket of her skinny jeans and pulls out her phone to hold. "i, along with every other girl in our school, want you to step away from gilbert. you should know by now, he would never want someone like you."

anne smirks slyly. little to her knowledge, he does like someone like her- and he's dating someone like her.

"why are you smiling?" josie scoffs. she's becoming angry, noticing that anne is unaffected by her words.

"you don't control my life. i'm not going to drop gil-" she pauses, almost saying his nickname, "gilbert, just because you're bothered by it." anne gives her a smile, and says, "well, i've got to head home. i'll see you tomorrow."

anne turns away and heads towards green gables, pulling out her phone to explain to gilbert that she can't come over. josie crosses her arms over her chest and glares at the back of anne's head, anger coursing through her veins. she hates anne with all her heart.

"watch yourself, shirley," josie says to no one in particular. she clenches her jaw.