▷ Counting Paths - Matthew and the Atlas

«No ones ever looked at me that way»

___

April 14th

TILLIE BOUTLER might not get the best of grades, but she is smarter than everyone else thinks. She's also one of Josie Pye's best friends, so that can only mean one thing — she's a sucker for rumors and gossips. When she spots a wave of red hair walking through the school halls, she feels the urge to ask.

"Anne! Anne, wait!"

The redhead turns around. She wonders what Tillie might want — maybe she needs more tutoring.

"Tillie, hi" she says. She's standing now in front of her locker, getting her binder and some books out of it.

"I've heard you broke up with Charlie!" Tillie says. "Is that true?"

What. The. Hell.

"No? No! Of course not" Anne can't believe her ears. She just FaceTimed Charlie yesterday! "Why do you ask?"

"Some girl from another class says that you and Gilbert are together" Tillie explains. "Like together, together"

"WHAT?" Anne gasps. "No, no no no, of course not"

"Oh, okay"

Tillie looks almost disappointed.

"I can assure you there's nothing going on between us" Anne says, gripping her books strongly against her chest. "Nothing"

"It's just- you know, everybody's been talking about the way he looks at you and how similar you are and-"

"Tillie" Anne says, frowning. "Stop"

"Sure. Sorry, Anne" Tillie smiles. "Anyway  I also wanted to tell you that I'm having a sleepover this Friday, you're coming, right?"

"Sure!" she says. Tillie gives her a content smile and a quick hug before starting to walk away from her. "Oh, and, Tillie? Make sure to deny all those rumors, okay?"

___

"Ready to continue the best English project on Earth, Daisy?"

That voice.

It's been less than five minutes since Anne's talked to Tillie, and she can't get Gilbert out of her head. Now he's there, walking behind her, and he's making things worse.

Why do I kinda like Gilbert Blythe? she thinks, walking faster than usual and trying to get to class as soon as possible. Her first class of the day is Art, and Gilbert's not there, so at least she'll have time to think properly with him out of the picture. I can't like him — I have a boyfriend who loves me and whom I love. We've been together for three years and there's nothing wrong with our relationship. Do I feel attracted to Gilbert because I miss Charlie? Probably.

"Yeah"

What? No Gatsby? No nickname? Gilbert thinks. He watches her speed up her pace so he starts walking faster so that he can catch up.

"Are you okay?" he asks cautiously. His arm accidentally brushes against hers as they walk. Anne can't help but shiver at the wave of electricity she feels running up her body.

"Yes" she says with her eyes fixed on the front as she walks. The boy chooses to look at her instead. She's wearing a knit flowery dress with a black leather jacket that makes it impossible for Gilbert to stop staring at her. Wow.

"You're clearly not" he frowns. "If you were okay, you would've said 'Yes, why do you ask'?"

She stops in her tracks to look at him.

"How...?"

"Shirley, I've known you for months now" he says, matter-of-factly. "I can tell that there's something bugging you"

Yes, YOU are bugging me! It's you, your stupid dark curls and broad shoulders, the raspiness of your voice in the morning, the fact that you know my coffee order and all the literary references you make and your taste in music — that's what's bugging me! You're messing with my hormones, Gilbert Blythe!

"It's nothing" she says, giving him a reassuring smile. "I just need to find Diana" she stands now in front of her Art class's door. "But I'll see you on our lunch break, in the library, okay?"

"I'll be there" he gives her a thumbs up as he watches her enter the classroom.

___

Jerry is fixing his locker after that day of school when someone taps his shoulder, making him turn around.

Ruby Gillis is leaning against the locker next to his.

"Hi, Jerry Wan Kenobi"

Did Ruby Gillis just reference Star Wars? She did. She just did. She just called him after Obi Wan Kenobi.

"Hi, Ruby!"

The girl with the golden locks and the brightest smile in all Avonlea pats his back in a friendly way. Jerry freaks out — internally, of course — at the contact of her hands against his hoodie.

"Wanna come over today? We need to keep watching the Star Wars saga"

Wide eyed, the boy closes his locker abruptly, turning his body to look at her directly. Although he's obviously freaking out, he thinks of a more or less relaxed answer.

"Sure! I'll bring snacks"

"Why don't you come with me now?" she says. "I need to do some grocery shopping, anyway. Then we can go to mine"

Jerry has always hated doing grocery shopping. Honestly. That is something that Anne usually does at home, not him. But doing some shopping with the girl he's been in love with for years and then watching his favorite saga with her? That's the best plan he's ever heard of.

"I'm in"

___

Anne walks to her car in the school's parking lot on her own. She's taken off her jacket since apparently the weather's getting warmer. The girl is humming the lyrics to some song when she hears her name, well, her surname, being called from not too far behind.

"Shirley!"

Not him again. Crap.

"Hey, where's Jerry?" Gilbert Blythe jogs to her car, leaning against it once he's arrived.

"He's going to Ruby's today. Apparently they're on a Star Wars marathon" Anne smiles at the thought of one of her best friends and her brother spending time together. She really hopes things work between them, because apparently Jerry has a big fat crush on the blond girl, and her brother is starting to grow on her.

"How cute" Gilbert says with a funny voice, batting his eyelashes and placing a hand on his chest in the most dramatical way.

"Yeah" Anne whispers, playing with her car keys. She should really head home. There's not too many people left in school, let alone in the parking lot — but she doesn't want to be seen or interacting with him. People are starting to talk, and she hates that. But she really, really loves spending time with him.

"Listen, did you know there's an elevator that only teachers use?" he says, taking her car keys away from her hands and playing with them, throwing them up in the air and catching them as they fall, as if he was a juggler. "Apparently it leads to a library in the third floor" he adds with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I do. I've been in this school for more years than you have"

"True" he nods. "Well, what do you say?"

"About?"

"The elevator"

"I don't give a fuck about the elevator" she rolls her eyes. The boy notices her gesture and frowns.

"Why are you so annoyed?" he asks. He drops the car keys to the floor with a failed juggling , making him crouch down to the floor and grab them. When he stands up again, he gets closer to the girl, taking a better look at her.

"I'm not annoyed, I'm frustrated" she sighs, noticing his not-so-smart move of crouching down and standing up to get closer to her. By instinct, she takes a step backwards.

"About?"

You.

"Nevermind" she says, grabbing the keys from his hands and trying not to think about how good her hand feels against his. She opens the door of her car, but when she's about to hop in, the boy pulls her to him with a hand and slams the door close with the other.

"Shirley" he says. Her back is leaning against her own car, and he's standing close to her. His hand is still on her arm.

"What now?"

"Let's misbehave" He winks at her with a teasing smile that makes her want to slap him and smile at the same time.

"If you're suggesting to get inside that elevator, it's a no"

"Come on"

"No"

"I can be very persistent" he says, tilting his head and looking at her with a pout.

"I can be very stubborn"

He goes silent for a few seconds — then he bursts into laughter, as if she'd said something hilarious. He can be so infuriating, she thinks.

"Are you scared?"

"Of course not!"

"Oh my god" he gasps. "The Anne Cordelia Shirley-Cuthbert is scared of elevators!"

"I'm not scared!" she says, her face going red or both anger and perhaps a bit of attraction towards the boy in front of her.

"You're lying. You just did something weird with your nose"

"What?!" Anne scoffs. Do I do something weird with my nose when I lie? That's total bullshit. "You're just making that up"

"You're scared. Oh my, you're scared" he covers his mouth with his hands to cover up the fact that he's smiling like an idiot. He's obviously not laughing at her, but rather smiling foolishly at how adorable yet terrifying she looks when she's mad at him. "Hey everybody!" he cups his hands around his mouth to make his voice louder as he shouts. "Anne Shirley-Cuthbert is afraid of-!"

Anne slaps his arm before he can finish his sentence. "I'm not!"

He takes a step closer to her, now standing inches away from each other. His eyes go to her lips to her blue eyes. "Then fucking prove it, Shirley"

She looks into his eyes for longer than she should before muttering her following words. "Fine" she says. "Let's get into that fucking elevator"

___

"A secret library on the third floor" A very disappointed Anne looks at a pile of old books covered with flying moths. The secret oasis Gilbert promised smells like shit and rotten books. "More like a dirty storage room"

"Sorry" he chuckles as he stratches the back of his neck. "I really was expecting a cool, tiny, old library. It seemed like your kind of heaven"

"Let's just go back" she says, getting inside the elevator. He follows her after.

She chooses to stand right next to the button panel. When the boy aims to push the ground floor button, he leans her body very close to hers — his chest almost brushes against hers and his neck is really close to where her mouth his. Crap. He smells so good, like aftershave and apple shampoo at the same time. Wow. Crap.

She holds her breath. "W-What are you doing?"

"Pushing... the ground floor... button?" he says, looking at her with a confused look.

"Oh, yeah" she sighs in relief. "Okay" she leans against the elevator's mirror, closing her eyes.

"Shirley?"

"What now?"

Her eyes are still closed.

"Would you promise me that you will not murder me?"

"What?" She opens her eyes then.

"The buttons doesn't work"

"Yeah, right" she lets out a nervous chuckle.

"I'm serious! Look, it does nothing" he keeps pushing the buttons in the panel, but none of them do anything. The girl, wide eyed, looks at the buttons and then back at him in a mix of complete despair and pure anger.

"I KNEW IT, I FUCKING KNEW IT" She starts pushing the buttons repeatedly. The boy gets closer to her and grabs both of her hands, making her stop.

"Stop it, you crazy, you're gonna break it!"

"It's already broken because it doesn't work, you asshole!"

"Okay, calm down" he says, running a hand through his dark curls. As much as Anne is mad at him, she can't help but feel a burning feelings inside of him when she watches, completely mesmerized, his fingers run through his hair. Wow. "Let's just open the door and stay in the library, then we can call someone"

But the elevator's door doesn't open either.

Anne crumbles to the floor, sitting down and drawing her knees close to her chest. "I knew it, I fucking knew it, Gilbert" she mumbles under her breath as she checks her phone. "And of course, there's no signal here BECAUSE WE'RE STUCK IN A SHITHOLE!" she laughs ironically. "Why did I even agree to this?"

"Look" Gilbert kneels down next to her. "It's my fault, I'm sorry, okay?" he whispers . "Let's just relax and hope some of the teachers working this afternoon calls for the elevator, okay?"

"Who the hell is going to come up here? THERE ARE NO BOOKS BECAUSE THE MOTHS HAVE EATEN THEM ALL!"

Gilbert doesn't answer. Instead, still kneeling down in front of her in the tiny elevator, he looks at her for a few seconds before starting to laugh really, really loud. The girl gives him a death stare that lasts for about three seconds, because she starts laughing as well.

"DON'T. MAKE. ME. LAUGH!" she yells between her laughter as she hits his arm with her binder repeatedly, making him fall down from his kneeled-down position. "THIS IS MEANT TO BE SERIOUS, ASSHOLE!"

Lying in a fetal position on the floor, the boy keeps laughing, covering his face with his hands.

Anne looks at him from where she's sitting, burying her face on her knees as she laughs as well.

"You're such a fool" she says after a minute, wiping away a tear that she'd shed because of their laughter attack.

The boy lies now on his back, hands on his stomach. He tilts his head to look at her, eyes crinkled of happiness. He studies her — he's never seen her so genuinely happy. "I am indeed" he whispers when the pair of blue eyes meet his eyes.

___

It's been nearly two hours since Anne and Gilbert got stuck in that elevator. It's around 5 p.m. and no one's come to the rescue.

They've shared a comfortable silence for half an hour now. Gilbert decided to revise for an upcoming Chemistry test and Anne is re-reading The Great Gatsby, highlighting some passages she considers useful for their essay. They're sitting one in front of each other and whilst Anne is very focused on her reading, Gilbert glances at her every once in a while, watching how her eyes scan the pages and how her lips vocalize the words she's reading.

Anne's noticed, of course. It's not like Gilbert Blythe is any subtle about his staring. She shouldn't like the way he stares at her, so admiringly sometimes and with so much desire, some others. It's a weird combination, but she does like it. It reminds her of a song he showed her a few weeks ago.

No one's ever looked at me that way

And it's true. There's something so different in the way the hazel-eyed boy looks at her that makes her confirm that indeed, no one's ever look at her like that.

"What's your biggest fear, Gilbert?" she asks out of the sudden, closing her book and marking the page she was reading with her index finger.

He looks up to her, closing his notebook and leaving it aside.

"Failure. I know it sounds materialistic but all I want is to succeed in what I want. I want to be a doctor and that's what I'll be. I won't let anything come in my way"

"That's worthy of admiration"

"Thanks" he says with a nod. "What about you, Shirley? You always ask the deepest of questions but I never get an answer from you. It's a real discrepancy in our relationship, don't you think?

"Oblivion" she says, looking at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oblivion" she repeats, now looking at him. The boy cups his face with his hands, resting it there to listen attentively as she keeps talking. "I'm scared of people forgetting about me. I know it sounds too self-centered, but it's the truth.

"It's not self-centered. I understand"

Of course he does.

"Why Medicine?" is the next question she asks.

Gilbert blinks twice as he thinks of his answer. No one's ever asked him that question, only his dad — he's been wanting to be a doctor since he was five.

"My mom was a doctor, a surgeon, actually. Ironically, she died giving birth to me. There were some complications and... well, you know. I've always wanted to honor her somehow"

His mom. She thinks of the other night, when he was so extremely drunk he told her that his mom still haunted him in his nightmares. She wonders if she remembers anything from that night. He said he didn't, she thinks, remembering their conversation. Thank God, because he said some... things about me — he basically shouted he likes me.

Anne's face turns into a worried frown.
"I'm sorry, Gil" she says as she leans forward, reaching for his hand. "I knew she wasn't around but I didn't know that"

"It's okay, Shirley" his smile curves up into a crooked smile. "I'm okay"

"Looks like you and I have more things in common that we thought, huh?"

"You think that the only thing we have in common is dead parents?" He frowns.

Fuck, I messed up.

"No, I mean-"

"I was only kidding, Shirley, relax!" he says, squeezing her hand.

"Oh, thank god, I thought you were mad at me!"

"You should've seen the look on your face" he says with a smile. "Besides, I could never be mad at you"

"Never?"

"Impossible" he moves his hand from hers and pokes her forehead with his index finger. "You're my favorite person here"

"Yeah, sure" she giggles.

"I mean it! There's no one quite like you"

"There's no one quite like you". He's said that before. He said that when he was drunk, the other night. Maybe he meant it.

Anne looks at him, realizing now that he's been staring at her for a few seconds now. She bites her lip.

"Do you promise that you'll never be mad at me?"

"I promise" he says, offering his pinky. "Never"

Just as she looks her pinky with his, sealing a promise, the elevator starts to move.

___

It's 6 p.m. when Gilbert arrives home. Just as h opens the door, his father calls him from the living room.

"Hi, dad" he says. John Blythe is sitting on the couch, watching a movie with Bash. "Bash"

"Hey son, where have you been?" he asks.

"You wouldn't believe it" the boy chuckles at the recent memory of him being stuck in an elevator with a certain redhead. A memory for a life time, that's for sure. Never in his wildest dreams he would have expected to spend two hours stuck with her in such a tiny and closed space.

"Anyway, there's someone waiting for you in your room" John tells him.

Gilbert runs up the stairs and walks into his room to find Fred Wright sitting on his bed, studying the books on his night table. He hasn't seen him since that night at Moody's. "Gilbert?" Fred looks at him when he realizes his presence.

Gilbert sits down next to him.

"Fred, hi, what's wrong?"

The other boy takes a deep breath before starting to talk.

"I... hate to ask you this but can I... can I... crash here for a few nights?" he asks. There's uncertainty in his voice, as if he was very embarrassed of what he's asking. "I'm turning 18 in a month and my parents-" he stops when he mentions his family. "I need to find a new place to live and..."

"No"

"Oh, I-it's okay, I understand" Fred says, biting his bottom lip and looking back at the books. Gilbert has admired Fred ever since they became friends. He somehow manages to keep everybody happy and always makes everyone laugh with the silliest of jokes whilst he has to deal with stuff that's way too serious for a teenage boy.

"You're not 'crashing' and you're not going to look for a place" Gilbert says. "You'll stay with me for as long as you need"

Fred looks back at his friend.

"Gilbert, it's not necessary"

"Fred" Gilbert places both his hands on the other boy's shoulders. "It's not bad to ask for help, okay? I'm your friend. And I'll always be here for you. Please, let me help you"

Fred sighs. "Gil, I know you're father's ill and then there's this nurse that is super cool but I don't know, I don't want to intrude"

"You won't intrude. You'll stay with us, period" Gilbert says with determination. "I'm sure dad will like the idea" He gives Fred a reassuring smile. He obviously doesn't mind giving the poor boy a helping hand, but he's also excited at the prospect of them spending more time together. He's never had any siblings and although he hates to admit at that, even to himself, having grown up with a single dad makes him feels lonely sometimes. "We could prepare the guest room for you"

"Gil-" Fred is about to complain again, but then he notices Gilbert's excitement in his eyes. "Okay"

"It's settled, then"

Fred doesn't hesitate a bit when he leans in for a hug. "Thank you, Gilly" he says as he wraps his arms around the boy. Gilbert does the same, parting his back in a friendly way that calms Fred down and makes him be even more sure than he was before that Gilbert Blythe is a true friend to keep.

"No problem, Freddie"

___

A/N - HEY! I took a bus the other day that lasted two hours so I finished writing this chapter and chapter 14 as well :)

I hope you like this!

Do tell me what you think of this story so far, your theories and what you think is going to happen next!