Broken (Gilbert Blythe)

chapter 4

-Class-

The class was doing busy work. Nova was trying to do her work when a piece of paper hits her foot. She looks up to figure out who it was. Gilbert was looking at her. Nova widens her eyes and shakes her head slightly , to signal for him 'not to talk to her.' She looks back down to her slate to continue her work. Gilbert makes sure that Mr. Phillips wasn't looking, he throws a piece of chalk and it hits Nova's hand. Nova looks up in annoyance, towards the board. She decides to try to ignore it. If you ignore the problem, maybe it'll go away.

Gilbert gets up slowly, grabbing his apple off of his desk and walks over to Nova's desk. He sets the apple on the corner of her desk. "Whoops." Nova takes a slow, deep breath. Gilbert bends down beside her. "Hey." He looks at her. He can't get over how beautiful she is. She was trying to ignore the fact that a handsome boy was trying to get her attention, of all people. Nova continues writing on her slate, trying to make the boy bending down beside her, to go away.

Gilbert yanks her slate out from under her hand, Nova looks up and does what her instinct told her to do. "Hey!" She yelled then she back handed him on his cheek. "I said I can't talk to you!" Gilbert grabs his face. Nova looks at him in shock, then looks at her hand, that has now turned red from slapping him so hard. He smirks, "You just did." Nova was in shock, she didn't really pay attention to what was going on around her. "Andrews!" Nova looked up slowly, up to Mr. Phillips. "Get up here now!" Nova walks slowly but surely, up to the front of the classroom. "What a vicious display! You're an Andrews, you of all people should know how to act! This is unacceptable!" Mr. Phillips erases the board and starts writing

'Nova Andrews has a very bad temper."

Nova's breath quickens, her stomach fills with butterflies, tears in her eyes. "Now, stand here and stay put, and the rest of you pipe down!" Nova started to feel like she's suffocating. "Let this serve as a lesson to you that we do not tolerate such displays of temper, here in a civilized society." Gilbert stands, "It was my fault. Sir, I, um... I-I teased her." Nova looks at Gilbert with her teary eyes. "Quiet, Blythe. That is hardly an excuse." The class started laughing. Nova's heart is about to pound out of her chest, her stomach is making her feel like she's going to throw up. She looks to Prissy, just to see her giggling, which made Nova feel even worse. "Quiet, all of you, and return to your lesson." Gilbert sits down and looks Nova, who isn't looking at him anymore. Nova feels like the walls are closing in on her. She felt like she needed to escape before she has a meltdown in front of everyone. She starts to walk out of the schoolhouse, with Mr. Phillips telling her to come back at once. But she ran. She ran until her legs couldn't anymore. She went to the trail and into the woods. Nova couldn't stay there any longer with those judging eyes. She makes it to a stopping point and starts crying. She sits down on the ground, against a tree and brings her knees to her chest. Nova felt like she couldn't breathe. Her heart quickening with every breath and tear. She's tired of always being the outcast. Nova stayed there for a good while until she decided it was getting too cold for her. She started her walk back home.

-The Next Morning-

Nova didn't sleep much the night before. She sat there staring into oblivion, having thoughts race in her mind, like it's a competition. She didn't feel like herself. When she got home, Nova just told her mother that she wasn't feeling well, which, thankfully, she believed. 

There was a knock at the door, interrupting her thoughts. She looks over to see her sister, Jane, still asleep. Someone opens the door, just to find out its Prissy. She comes and sits down on Nova's bed. Nova sits up and leans onto her older sister's shoulder.

"I can't go back." She says with tears forming in her eyes. "Everyone, even you, were making fun of me." Nova leans off of Prissy. Prissy looks at her, "Nova, I'm so sorry." Nova shakes her head. "Don't even bother." Nova gets up to look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes didn't look as bright as usual. Her hair isn't curled. Nova grabs a amber colored dress from her dresser drawers. She brushes her hair. Nova puts it in a half up, half down. She looks at Prissy, "Make sure Janey gets up for school." Nova walks out, goes to the restroom to put her dress on, then she leaves the house without saying goodbye. She left her things at the school, so she didn't need to grab anything. Nova took the long way around to school, past all the houses and farms, she sees Gilbert Blythe's house and his farm. Nova keeps walking until she hears someone call her name.

She turns around and sees the handsome boy that was trying so hard to get her attention the previous day. She just looks at him, kind of taken aback by the fact he's even talking to her after what she did yesterday. "Hi." She says quietly. "You never walk through here." Gilbert says chuckling. Nova smiles a little, "I know. I just wanted to take some time to myself before school." He looks at her and sees that she doesn't have a jacket on. "You must be cold." He starts taking off his jacket. "No, I'm fine. I don't want you to be cold." Nova says as Gilbert puts the jacket around her. She didn't notice she forgot to get a jacket when she left. "It's not that big of a deal." He smiles at her. "Thank you." Nova looks down and sighs, saying hesitantly. "I'm so sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have done that."

Gilbert keeps looking at her. "It's okay. I kind of deserved it." He said shrugging shoulders. Nova shakes her head, "No, you didn't. You were being so sweet to me, I shouldn't have treated you that way." Nova looks and sees Gilbert still staring at her, him noticing her hair doesn't have her usual curls and she isn't wearing one of her bright colorful dresses. "Why didn't want to talk to me?"

Her eyes widen slightly, "Um... well, the girls are going to kill me if they find out that I told you this." Nova says shaking her head and laughing. She looks at Gilbert. "Ruby likes you. All of the girls say that she has dibs. So they told me not to speak to you. They about had a heart attack when they saw us walking together." Nova laughs. Gilbert laughs as well and look down then back up to Nova. "Let's be friends." Gilbert holds out his hand for a handshake. Nova looks at his hand and says hesitantly, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea." Gilbert looks at Nova, confused. "Why not?"

She looks into his eyes. "I'm not one to be friends with anyone. Nobody really likes me." Nova chuckles, nervously. Gilbert smirks, "Well I like you and I think we should be friends."

Nova's heart quickens when he says 'I like you.' She takes a deep breath and nods her head. "Okay." She grabs his hand and shakes it. "Let's be friends." Gilbert smiles and starts walking, "Walk with me?" Nova smiles and starts walking with him. Gilbert looks over to Nova, noticing she has blush on her cheeks. He smirks. "So tell me about yourself, Nova Andrews." She giggles. "Uh, I don't...I don't even know where to start. There's not much to know." Nova looks down, trying to hide her blush.

"Well, what is your favorite thing to do? Like, do you have any hidden talents?" Gilbert teases. Nova shakes her head. "Not really. But I do like to write." Nova smiles and looks at Gilbert. "It's very calming. But, for right now, I can't really do it. Billy decided to take my book and rip it up and throw it into the furnace at school." Nova says with a hint of disappointment and sadness and looks ahead at trail. "That sucks." Gilbert said with a frown. "Do you have any other hobbies?" Nova looks over to Gilbert. "I've never said this out loud before. So don't make fun of me when I say it." She says laughing. Gilbert nods his head while laughing as well. "I won't, I promise." Nova takes a deep breath. "I like to sing." Gilbert stops Nova. "Really?" She blushes, "Yeah."

"You gotta sing for me." He says, stepping in front of her. Nova stops and looks Gilbert in the eyes. She shakes her head nervously, "I-I can't." Gilbert raises his eyebrows. "Why not?" Nova breaks eye contact and looks down.

"I'm not that good. I just do it when I'm bored, not in front of people." Nova chuckles anxiously, she walks around Gilbert to avoid the awkwardness. Gilbert grabs her arm and stops her again. "It's okay. I'm not going to force you to do anything you're not comfortable with." He says smiling. Nova nods. "But I do expect you to sing for me sometime in our friendship." He teases Nova. Nova giggles, "Okay."

Nova looks over to Gilbert, "What about you? Tell me about yourself." She smirks at him. Gilbert chuckles, "There's not much to tell about me, either. I live with my dad and take care of him. I don't really know what I want to do with my life. Like, career wise." He laughs. Nova looks ahead, watching where she walks.

"Where's your mom?" She felt the tension build right after she asked the question. Gilbert looks ahead, not wanting to look anywhere else. "Um... my mom...she passed when she was giving birth to me. I was a breech baby." Things got quiet after he said that. Nova didn't really know what to say. She grabbed his hand and looked at him. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked." Gilbert shakes his head, "You didn't know. It's okay." He gives her a sad smile.

authors note

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Gilbert and Nova finally had a moment! If you guys have any suggestions, please comment down below your ideas or dm me on here! don't forget to vote! thank you guys!

~ mack :b