Shirbert in the Modern Era

Chapter Sixteen: Its a Date

The next day, Anne was feeling much better. She had (more or less) sorted things out with Jane, in retrospect her project hadn't gone altogether so terribly, and she was determined to talk to Gilbert.

She turned out to be in luck, as Gilbert was similarly determined to speak with her.

Fifteen minutes before first period, Anne went to her locker; after retrieving her books, she leaned back against the wall of lockers and took small sips of coffee out of her thermos, allowing the warm metal to melt her cold fingers, and relishing the stillness of an empty hallway.

It was in this state that Gilbert spotted Anne and cautiously approached her.

"Hey-" he said, his voice cracking. Great. Again, deeper this time, he said "Hey, Anne. I just wanted to say that-"

Anne put a hand up and cut him off.

"Gilbert I must apologize for the way I screamed at you in English. It was so completely uncalled for."

"No, Anne, I should be apologizing-"

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong!"

"I was pestering you!"

"You were trying to have a normal conversation! I was just be more ridiculous than usual-"

"You weren't ridiculous! Really, how you ever put up with me bugging you-"

"You never bug me."

Anne's face grew hot, her final words hanging in the air. She wished desperately that she didn't sound so love struck.

Oh how lucky, she thought, were the girls who were able to keep their heart off their sleeves and safely in their chests.

Gilbert's eyes softened. He bit his lip to fight a smile and looked away, refusing to meet Anne's eyes.

Looking back at her, he responded,

"You have to admit that I definitely bugged you in English."

Anne laughed, and her eyes fell to her shoes.

"God it's early."

Gilbert joined her in leaning back against the lockers, his shoulder barely brushing hers. The contact sent her her stomach a fresh wave of butterflies and she hoped he couldn't hear her heart pounding.

He sank to the ground, splaying his legs out in front of him like a little kid. A little voice in Anne's mind said it was cute. Quickly she sank to the floor beside him.

"Coffee?" She asked, holding the thermos out to him.

"You're an angel," he said, readily taking a sip.

They sat in comfortable silence, Gilbert taking the occasional sip from her coffee.

After a minute Gilbert tilted his head back to take a bigger swig of the drink, his mouth smiling from the corners. It was doing funny things to Anne's stomach, so she decided to put an end to it.

"Drink all of it, why don't you!" She said, laughing and reaching over him to grab her thermos. Unluckily for her, Gilbert was too quick, standing up and holding the drink over his head and out of Anne's grasp.

"Hey, I'm still drinking," he said, taking a step back from Anne, who was standing and trying to make another grab at it.

"I take it back, you are bugging me!" She yelled, going up on her tiptoes to retrieve her drink; aligning her own body with his so that if either took a half a step forward, they would be more or less embracing.

In a moment, they both became aware of their close proximity. Gilbert's breathe caught in his throat, while Anne could not fight the heat traveling all over her body and settling on her face.

Gilbert cleared his throat and handed the thermos to Anne, smiling sheepishly, but not meeting her eyes. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, for he knew it would be too much for his pounding heart to bear; he would end up doing something stupid, like kissing her.

Instead of that, he said, a bit too loudly, "Would you wanna get smoothies after school today?"

Taking in Gilbert's sweetly nervous gait and tentative smile, Anne had to resist a sudden and piercing urge to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him fiercely—an urge which she would deny the existence of, but was becoming more and more aware of its origin with each moment she spent with this boy.

As she did unfortunately often, Anne spoke without thinking of the impact of her words.

"Sure. It's a date!" She said, and before either could respond to the statement, the bell rang, and Anne all but ran away from Gilbert, who remained stock still.
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A/N
-omg a fast update lit rally has never occurred for this acc
-THANK U FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT IT MEANS A GREAT DEAL TO ME💋❤️🎉🎁👑🥰
-literally what should happen next
-nobody spoil anything from s3!!!!