Green Eyed Beauty

Chapter 17

"Just ask her to the dance!"

Gilbert groaned for what seemed like the umpteenth time that afternoon, silently wishing he hadn't told Charlie and Moody about his slight crush on Jade. When are they going to let this go?

"I can't believe you're scared of a girl!" Charlie threw his hands up in the air, attracting the attention of some of the customers in the shop. Gilbert gave him a pointed look.

Moody grabbed a bag of sugar off the shelf and placed it in his basket. "Not all of us dare to walk up to the girls we like and ask them to be our dates to a formal event."

Gilbert felt his patience ticking as his best friends argued about his faith in his looks and personality.

"I wonder if Billy will try his luck with asking Jade to the dance." Moody thought out loud. The image of Billy holding Jade and dancing with her in front of dozens of Avonlea folks made Gilbert's body fill with an odd seething feeling.

"Too bad he won't be going with her since she's going with me." The curly-hair boy blurted. His friends turned to look at him.

"You realize that requires you to ask her to the dance right?" Charlie raised an eyebrow. Before Gilbert could think his thought through, he opened his mouth again.

"I already did."

"WHAT?" WHAT?

All 3 boys now stood in the shop, with different degrees of shock on their faces as the owner seemed to contemplate kicking them out.

Look what you've done now.

He opened his mouth but Charlie beat him to it. "I knew you had it in you! You sly fox! When were you going to tell us?" He grinned wickedly.

"Were you going to show up to the dance with Jade on your arm?" Moody gasped. "You wanted the element of surprise! You're so clever, Gilbert!"

Gilbert watched his two friends excitedly congratulate him on his lie. His heart sank. Great, now you've really done yourself a chore.

Charlie and Moody laughed and clapped Gilbert on the back and even refused to let him pay for the apple seeds he was holding, finally allowing the 3 of them to leave the poor shop owner alone. "You're finally going to stop whining about it! I can't believe little Gilbert has grown up and gathered the courage to ask his beau to the dance!"

"She's not my beau." Gilbert argued weakly, not trusting himself to defend against the two boys without digging himself into a further hole.

"Not yet." Moody smiled. "Who knows? Maybe you'll even get a kiss! Or start courting her!" He added in a quieter tone.

At the mention of kissing, Gilbert's mouth went dry. Kissing? Jade?

His heart began to beat significantly harder and he felt his cheeks burn.

"Look at him! He's barely breathing!" Charlie laughed, throwing an arm around his best friend's shoulders. "Don't worry, Gilbert. Just focus on the dance that's happening in 5 days first. Everything else happens after."

He simply nodded and let his friends drag him back to the Blythe residence as they joked about Gilbert's dancing abilities and tried to figure out how to do their hair.

They sound like girls. He rolled his eyes. Gilbert saw his house appear and felt dread fill him. He had to tell Mary and Bash about this. Maybe they would have a solution.

"Well, this is me!" Gilbert spoke up, pulling himself out of Charlie's grasp. "I'll see you both at school tomorrow."

He didn't give his friends a chance to respond and booked it to the front door of his house. He swung the door open, frantically looking around the room.