OCEANS | shirbert

VII. The Moment

CHAPTER VII

The Moment

in which something more than a truce begins

Green Gables, two months and a half ago.

Summer. Never-ending, boring, monotonous summer. It was the first week without school and Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was filled with despair. She had been doing some chores for Marilla as she usually did during the academic year, and most of the time she also helped Matthew and Jerry with the farm, but nothing felt as satisfying as those hectic weeks of school in which she kept doing homework and revising to maintain her place as top of the class so that she could beat Gil-

"Jerry told me I'd find you here"

-bert Blythe.

The boy in question's voice filled the quiet silence of the barn, where Anne was lying in a pile of hay with some book in her hands. She had decided that her spiritless and unexciting summer was going to be spent like this, enjoying Belle's company in the quietness of the barn as she added more and more novels to her collection of already-read. Just as she was reading an extract in which the charming prince appeared in scene riding his horse, another heroic prince appeared in the barn. She did not find him as alluring as the one in the novel she was reading, no, not at all, and he was not riding a horse either. He was standing right under the door, wathing her with hopeful eyes.

Little did the red-headed princess know that the hazel-eyed prince was going to save her summer in some way.

"Hello" the boy mumbled rather quietly as he embraced the sight of the girl. Rays of the typical sunshine of a summer in Avonlea entered through the windows and reflected their light in her hair, giving it a golden shine over her natural auburn colour. She was lying on her back, with her legs swinging in the air against the barn's wooden walls as she held some predictably romantic novel in the air. Such a view.

"Gilbert" she quietly returned to a normal sitting position as she watched the boy approaching her. Anne did not really understand what her rival was doing there. Yes, they had gotten somewhat closer ever since he came back to Avonlea a few months ago. They had spent Christmas together and their talk after Bash and Mary's wedding seemed like a starting point to a forthcoming... friendship. Still, they did not usually meet outside school unless it was an occasion for gatherings involving the Cuthberts and Bash. No, they were not friends. He was not a kindred spirit like Diana or Ruby. But he was not just an acquaintance either.

"Anne" he said quietly, now standing right in front of her, his hands stuck in his pockets and his eyes narrowed at the sight of bits of hay in the girl's hair. "Is everything alright?" she asked, putting her book down and giving the boy with a concerned look. She figured something must be going on, since they never visited each other just

"What? No" he said abruptly. "N-no, just, uh" Why is he so nervous? The Gilbert Blythe she knew from school never stuttered. That day with Miss Stacy, at school, he described himself as global and bookish. But if you asked Anne about Gilbert Blythe, she would have added confident and self-assured. However, in that moment, the tall boy standing there was nothing like that.

As if he was some sort of mind-reader, he suddenly gained his confidence back. "I actually came to ask you if you wanted to have coffe with me"

"Oh, we, we don't drink coffee at Green Gables" she said, furrowing her eyesbrows. "But I can always offer tea, I can ask Marilla to prepare some if you want to but I don't even know if she's ho-" Anne started one of her many usual rambles, not even looking at the boy, but focusing her gaze on the horse.