oblivious [anne x gilbert]

Chapter 13: Dishes

                 A wave of relief fell over Anne as Jerry walked in, he was practically family at this point so when she saw him, she couldn't stop herself forming throwing her arms around his neck. He hesitated for a moment, perplexed, but quickly placed his hands carefully around her lower back. Which did not go unnoticed by Gilbert. They stepped away from each other and Anne began telling all the events leading up to the morning, filling the kitchen with her soft, clear voice and her vocabulary growing increasingly larger as the story advanced. She explained everything perfectly, every fine detail was cared for by her own personal and best descriptors, that made you feel as if you were really there. Gilbert who hadn't heard anything prior to when he arrived, listened intently while he cleaned up, pretending not to listen. Anne had never spoken so much in front of him unless it was in school and even then Mr Phillips would cut her off even before she got this elaborate. He was amazed that she could eloquently and accurately portray what had happened while still keeping all of the real and raw emotion they were all feeling.

When she finally finished Jerry spoke, "Anne I am so sorry, don't worry about a thing, I'll take care of Marilla, I promise," and he lead Anne by the small of her back over towards where she previously sat at the table. "Thank you so much, Jerry, I can't tell you have relieved I am to have you here." She said, a little out of breath from her dramatic telling, but she picked her fork back up and began to eat once more nevertheless. Jerry began to walk towards the stairs and as he did Gilbert turned around and bumped right into him. The plate he was holding fell on the floor in between them and broke with the contents previously on it spewing everywhere.

Anne elicited a small gasp but Gilbert gave her a kind look to assure her it was not a problem and she should continue to eat. "Jerry, can you please help me find another dishrag?" Gilbert asked through gritted teeth. "Uh, sure." He responded through his accent. Jerry lead the way to one of the rooms down the hall with a large cabinet door.

Before he could open it up for Gilbert and show him the towels Gilbert spoke, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he was out of earshot, "So what's going on with you and Anne? I was just wondering because you guys seem really close."

Jerry didn't know how to respond, "What do you mean? We're like family, brother and sister, you know? Why? Did you think there was something between us?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Gilbert mumbled but continued anyway wanting to wrap his head around Anne having a guy friend that's not him, "It just kind of seemed that way," he concluded.

"Oh, I see, you like Anne and you want to know if we're together, no?"

Gilbert's face reddened, "What? That's ridiculous, Anne and I are...um" he faltered for a moment struggling to say it aloud. He cleared his throat and pushed forward, "just friends. That's all." He tried to sound confident and gain control gain but Jerry saw through that. Of course.

"No, I'm sure! Just friends. Right." Jerry gave him a smug, know-it-all look and Gilbert was starting to get really sick of this kid. 

So he did the only thing that seemed logical. Swiftly and abruptly Gilbert brought his right arm up and pushed his outer forearm flush against Jerry's neck, gripping his shoulder with the same hand. He was significantly taller than Jerry so it was easy to be intimidating. Gilbert got right in his face until their noses were almost touching, looked him right in the eye and said, "Listen, French boy, breathe a word of this to anyone, especially Anne and you won't see the light of day again, got it?" Jerry nodded, eyes wide. 

"Good." Gilbert let go, smoothed his clothes and smiled at him. Then reached over his head, opened a cupboard door, grabbed another rag and walked out of the room. Leaving Jerry to compose himself and wonder what the hell just happened.

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Hey! I'm sick of doing my little sign-off haha sorry I'm too lazy to keep doing it, so I'll just say: thanks for reading and I love you guys! xx