PHILEO | Shirbert

Two ~ I Took The Courage And Kissed Him

The class was quiet, everyone was in the supply room playing Spin The Bottle – except Anne and Gilbert, of course-. Anne had told Diana she would be doing some homework, but in reality, she was reading Pride and Prejudice –again- she was joining Gilbert in a certain way because he was reading too.

'What book is he reading this time?' she thought. Trying to read the title of the book Gilbert was reading 'Human Anatomy, Vol. II' she read. 'Hasn't he read this book before? I'm pretty sure he did. Oh, god. He saw me staring. Look away, Anne'

'Oh god, she's looking at me. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO? Ok, calm down, Gilbert. You got this. Smile" he smiled softly at her. Anne blushed and returned the gesture, quickly returning to her book. Gilbert had glanced at her a few times before she did the same. Anne seemed pretty invested in her book –and also just pretty- 'Pride and Prejudice' he read in the cover of her book 'Again? She must really love this book. It's like the thousand time I see her reading it' he thought. Gilbert was lost for a bit in his thought but quickly returned to his book, giving Anne another look before he continued. In this last –yeah right- glance, she looked sad. Before giving it a bit of thought he-

"Are you alright?" said Gilbert. Anne was too deep in her book to even hear him. "Anne?" nothing "Anne!" he repeated.

"Yes?" she finally heard him.

"Are you alright? You seem sad. It's everything alright?" he said, with a worried look on his face. Anne and Gilbert were friends, well, kind of, they cared about each other, you could clearly see that, but you did not see them talking and hugging like Diana and Anne did. Most of the time, they would be talking and Gilbert would say something –not so harsh- that would make Anne mad, but every time she would come by his house later that day and ask him for forgiveness. He always accepted, how could he not. This is Anne we are talking about, his Anne, well, not his Anne, but Anne. Anyway, he had always forgiven her even before she went to apologize.

"Oh" she looked back to her book.

'So, something is happening' he thought. Gilbert quickly got up from his seat, book in hand, and walked over to her seat. "You know you can talk to me, right?" he said.

"Yes, I know," said Anne "but it's not a big deal"

"You can't say it's not a big deal when I can clearly see that you're not ok" he said, putting his hand on top of hers.

"Ok, will you promise not to laugh if I tell you?" he nodded "no, don't just nod. Say you promise" she said, lifting her chin up.

"I, Gilbert John Blythe promise not to laugh at whatever Miss Anne Shir-"

"Cordelia" she interrupted.

"I, Gilbert John Blythe promise not to laugh at whatever Miss Anne Cordelia Shirley-Cuthbert is going to tell me" he said with his right hand on his heart.

She sighed "I was reading Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth" Gilbert pressed his lips together really hard trying to keep his promise "GILBERT BLYTHE! You promised you wouldn't laugh!" she said, laughing.

"I'M NOT LAUGHING" he wasn't before, but he definitely was laughing now. Anne gave him a playful hit on the arm, which made him laugh even more. She couldn't contain her laugh any longer and joined him. Both were laughing like never before. Stopping a few minutes later.

"What are you reading?" she asked like she did not know that already.

"Human Anatomy," he said "Second Volume" he added with a smile "I read it before, twice. I was just re-reading it, it's really interesting". 'Oh, fuck' he thought.

"What's wrong?" asked Anne. The fear in his face was clearly visible.

"It's just- don't tell Josie or Ruby that"

"Wait, what? What can't I tell them?"

"That I already read the book, twice. I told them that I couldn't play Spin The Bottle with them because I had to finish this book by Saturday and return it to Dr.Ward. Truth is, I don't have to give it back"

She laughed, "It's ok, your secret is safe with me," she said, "Why didn't you wanna play with them?"

"It's not my thing," he said, "Why aren't you playing?"

"I'm not crazy enough to go through that humiliation again," she said "Cole is not here to save me this time"

"Again? Cole?" he said confused "Could you elaborate?"

"When you were away, Josie had the amazing idea to play Spin The Bottle," she said sarcastically "and made our entire class play. When it was my turn, no boy wanted to kiss me. I mean, I don't blame them" she was playing with her fingers "Who would want to kiss me? Look at me, horrible red-hair, face full of freckles, homely, and on top of that, an orphan. Who would want to kiss an ugly orphan?"

"Anne, I-"

"Anyway, Cole stood up for me. He said he would kiss me"

'He said WHAT?' Gilbert thought.

"We were both nervous; he clearly did NOT think what he was doing. So, everyone started chanting 'kiss freaks kiss', well, everyone but Diana, Ruby, Jane, Tillie, and Charlie. Billy and Josie started the chant of course" she remembered "Finally, I took the courage and kissed him" Gilbert's heart stopped when he heard those words.

'Does she like Cole? I thought they were just friends. He lives in Charlottetown now. That explains why she was so sad when we were on the train back to Avonlea' he thought "Kissed- kissed him?" he managed to say.

"Yes, but just on the cheek" he could finally breathe again "that stopped their chanting though" she let out a breathy laugh. "Anyway, how is your dream of becoming a doctor going?" she said, taking out something from her lunch basket.

"Great, Dr. Ward is a great tutor and these books he lends me are really helpful too" he stuttered.

"That's good. I'm happy for you" she smiled "Want one?" she said, offering one of Marilla's famous plum puffs.

"Yeah, thank you," he said taking one "I love these"

"Me too, Marilla is a great baker. I hope to bake just as good as her one day, that would probably take a lot of time to master, I'm a disaster. I used liniment instead of vanilla once" Gilbert's eyes widened in surprise "in my defense, I'd broken the bottle of vanilla and then I found one on the pantry labeled 'Vanilla' but apparently, Marilla had broken the bottle of liniment and put the rest of it in an empty vanilla bottle. So, it wasn't my fault. Not entirely at least"

'She's so funny' he thought 'how could anyone not want to kiss her? Is everyone out of their minds? I'd kill Billy right now if I see him, why does he keep treating Anne like that? Wasn't I clear enough last time? I should probably remind him' he thought 'and Josie too, if I could, I'll slap that stupid queen bee façade she has out of her. Anne is great; she doesn't deserve any of what she has to go through'

"I would've kissed you, you know?" he blurted out.