OCEANS | shirbert

VI. The Storm

CHAPTER VI

The Storm

in which two friends fall under the magic spell of rainfall

"I told you!" An anxious Gilbert Blythe sighed, looking at the red-headed girl walking beside him with desperate eyes. "We should have waited under that tree."

The two very soaked teenagers had roamed all along the way to Green Gables under pouring rain and a loud storm that had started a few minutes after they left the Blythe's residence. Despite wearing Gilbert's messenger cap – he practically forced her to, not that she wanted to wear it, not at all –, Anne's dark, wet hair sticked to her forehead and cheeks and Gilbert's curls were nowhere to be seen under a dark treacle of tangled messy hair. His face was covered in little raindrops that had fallen directly from his curls, although most of them resting in his eyelashes.

"I just wanted to get home as soon as possible!" Anne pouted in reply, leading the way, walking a few steps ahead from Gilbert. The boy was trying to catch her way while she rambled about how this was definetely not her fault.

"As soon as possible?" the boy faked a hurt expression over his playful smirk. "I didn't know you despised my company that much."

The girl turned around dramatically. "I don't despise you, Gilbert, but I do not enjoy your presence that much!" she shouted. "So take that look off of your face!"

"What look?"

She groaned. This was her usual dynamic with Gilbert Blythe. Friends who bantered more than talking. He drives me crazy. If only she knew that that feeling was reciprocal.

"Alright then, I'll be heading home" He was lying, of course. There was no possible situation in this world in which he'd abandon Anne. But he liked the fact of seeing her so annoyed at him, so he turned on his heels in the middle of nowhere and started to make his way back home.

"Gilbert Blythe!" she tooked him by the neck if his coat and dragged him back to her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Are you deaf?" he teased. "I'm going back home" he added, emphasizing the word home.

"Ugh!" she groaned, which made the boy let out a genuine giggle. "I really can't stand you!" she said, bitterly closing her eyes in rage.

She released her grip from him, turning her back to him and started walking fastly. She was not quite sure where she was going to, but she was going to prove him that she could perfectly get back home on her own, without needing a man to guide the way or take care of her.

"Anne! Wait!" he said, but the girl kept walking. "Anne, come on!" he jogged towards her as tried to be serious but for some reason the smile on his face would not disappear.

When he finally reached her, he took her by the wrist, which made the girl turn around. There was an angry look in her face that made the boy fear for his life. But yet there was a wide grin that did not leave the his lips.

Somehow she liked this part of Anne. The unknown of her nature. The unpredictable. Like that day she wacked him over the face with that slate.

They looked fixedly at each other, Anne, with furrowed eyebrows and a deadly stare and Gilbert, with a goofy smile on his face, who had to look down at her because of their height difference.

The pair had gotten closer and were now standing inches from each other. The raindrops had gotten stronger and their clothes were dripping water. The scene was bewitching – pouring rain, two teenagers standing intimately one in front of another in the middle of nowhere, gazing at each other with such intensity.