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.

And then.

It happened.

A genuine laugh coming from the both of them. They both started laughing histerically, as if the best comic had told the most hilarous joke in the whole world.

Anne noticed how the boy's eyes would crinkle when something did really make him laugh.

Gilbert saw how Anne's lips curved in a different way when she was not able to contain her laughter.

It was magical. Almost straight out of a novel.

"Well, Miss, I guess we should keep going" he said, with a more relaxed tone now that the laughter had stopped. He offered her his arm, not expecting Anne to take it, but he did anyway.

They made their way silently towards the girl's home, which was not that far away from them since they had been walking for a while. However, there was a thought that did not leave Gilbert's mind. It was the first time ever since his father had gotten ill, that he had laughed. And it was a refreshing feeling that he did not know he needed until that day in which he shared a journey in the woods with a certain redhead.

He looked over at her, who had her eyes focused on the front, probably staring at the dark horizon in which you could already see part of Green Gables. He wondered what went on in that head of hers. Gilbert was a very attentive and observant young man, and most of the time he could read people with such ease. But Anne was different. She was some sort of mysterious enigma, a challenging mystery waiting to be deciphered.

"You should wait here, until the storm stops" she said.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't want to bother you and the Cuthberts, I..."

"Non-sense, Gil" she said, completely unaware of the boy's new nickname she had just let out so naturally. "Marilla and Matthew are already asleep, and even if they were here they'd tell you to stay. They're quite fond of you"

"Fond of me, huh?" he said, smiling. He was very fond of the Cuthberts as well. Since his father passed away, they had both taken care of him. "Did you call me Gil?" he raised an eyebrow as a sign of curiosity.

"What?"

He sighed. "Miss Shirley-Cuthbert, I think you should book an appointment with Dr. Blythe" he said with his annoying boyish grin as he slowly took a step closer to her, closing his arms behind his back. "I'm afraid you're losing your audition"

She kicked his arm swiftly, bitting her lip. "You're not even a doctor yet"

He just chuckled. "Whatever you say"

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Why don't you start a fire?" she suggested. "I'll get some blankets for us to dry"

Blankets? Anne and I? Wrapped in blankets? Near the fireplace? This late at night?

Suddenly, all the confidence he had built up when Anne was near tore down. As the girl headed upstairs, he stood there with an odd feeling of nervousness that went through his whole body.

"What are you doing there?" she came back, startling the boy. "You had one task, Gilbert Blythe" she said. "Are you going to do this to your future pacients?" she pointed at him with her thin, pale index finger, moving in the air with a look of amusement in her face.

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at the gaze of the girl with a pile of blankets in her tiny arms. "I already told you that you would make a better doctor than me" he simply said as he took the blankets from her and made his way towards the living room.

"It does not seem like it is going to stop any soon" Anne said after an hour, looking out of the window. Her hair had dried now and the previous rainfall had left some soft curls in it that made her look more grown-up. As she turned around to face her friend, the white curtain of the window fell over part of her head. The boy stared at her in awe. She looks like a bride.

"Gil?"

"Um" he mumbled nervously. "You look..."

"I warn you to choose your next words carefully" she threatened him, although her voice was soft. "I still have my slate around"

"Nevermind" he said, approaching her towards the window and softly taking the white curtain from her head with careful hands. She held her breath as he looked out of the window. "This looks bad"

"You should stay the night" he looked at her with a confused expression and wide eyes. It was surely an unusual invitation.

"It's alright" she assured. "I'll prepare the sofa for you and I'll head upstairs"

Once the "bed" was ready for Gilbert, she told him she was going to go to sleep. "Good night, Anne" he said, holding a candle light in his hands, already wrapped in a blanket as he sat in the sofa. Anne stared at the scene. Gilbert's hair was messier than ever and for the look in his eyes she could tell that he was exhausted. The weak dim of the candle made his hazel eyes sparkle.

"Good night" she whispered from the door.

She stood at the foot of the stairs with a focused look on her face. You can do this, Anne. You don't need him. You're not scared.

But the noise of the raindrops hitting the ceiling and the prospect of the stairs creeking at her steps resembled a terrorific mixture of her memories from the orphanage and a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Even though she knew by heart the way to her bedroom, the staircase looked absolutely gloomy.

Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was so disappointed with herself when she made her way back to the living room. She was thinking of asking Gilbert Blythe for the candle when she bumped against something wrapped in a thick blanket under the frame of the living room's door.

As she lifted her gaze, she found a sleepy curly-haired boy looking down at her. They were so close that Anne could see the different sparks of colour in his eyes. Green, brown, honey. She noticed he had some freckles too, but they were not much noticeable from the distance.

"Anne" he mumbled with a husky voice.

"Um, I-" she breathed out, not knowing what to say. Why? Why do I get speechless near him when I know so many impressive words?

"You're shivering" he said, matter-of-factly. "Here" and wrapped the blanket around the girl too, so that now they were both trapped in a whitish cozy mess as he sort of hugged her from outside the blanket, trying to shelter her from the coldness of the house.

"Thank you" she muttered, which made Gilbert smile softly. The usual Anne would have punched the boy's arm lightly, telling him that she needed no help, that she could take care of herself. But now, this time at night and with the wind blowing outside, it felt strangely good. Anne did feel a strange, unfamiliar feeling indife her that she could not quite place.

They both stood there, paralyzed, standing at the wooden floor and wrapped in each other's essence. She strictly kept her eyes on the floor, trying to avoid the boy's gaze. "I can walk you to your room, if that's what you've been meaning to ask" he finally said, after a few minutes.

After a soft nod coming from Anne, the boy dropped the blankets to the floor without saying a single word, and headed to the stairs.

They were already half-way to the upper floor when a roaring thunder hit the night sky with such a tremendous noise that made both of them jump of fright. As a cause of it, Anne grasped Gilbert's arm tightly.

He was at an upper step than her and without letting go of the girl's firm grasp, he instinctively went down to the same step she was standing at.

"I'm sorry" she said as she aimed to release her grip. Gilbert stopped her movements immediately, drawing back her hand to his hold his arm as he stood right in front of her. Anne's back was against the wall, and Gilbert Blythe was standing very, very close. She did not know why she did that back then, but she took her free hand and placed it in the boy's arm, gripping it strongly. "Sorry for what?" he whispered, getting closer to her. Is he going to kiss me? He's so close.

"We should go" she said abruptly, causing the boy to break from the trance in which they both seemed to be bewitched in. "We don't want another thunder to scare us, right?"

"Yes, you're right" he answered, scratching the back of his neck as an habit of nervousness.

That night, although they were both comfortable in the warmth of their respective beds, they were unable to sleep. A certain thought ran their minds.

We are definetely not friends.

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A/N - WOW! I never thought I would be able to write something this cute and fluffy! I'm actually quite proud of this chapter since it's one of my favourites.
Again, let me know what you think! 💘 Don't be a silent reader :)