OSTRACIZE | GILBERT BLYTHE

27

Ellis sat on the bench just beside John Blythe's grave. A few tears were rolling down her face.

She lied.

She was not fine.

Gilbert Blythe wasn't coming back to Avonlea.

"I'm sure that he will come back." Ellis whispered wiping away her tears. "His family's here." Ellis paused looking at Gilbert's siblings graves. "You're here." She focused on Mr Blythe's grave.

Ellis rubbed her hands up and down her arms, wishing that she didn't run outside without taking a coat. Her fingers were that cold that they felt like pin pricks and so she pressed them together so harshly, so that she could finally feel something.

"There's something about the wind that's telling me that he's coming back." She paused to wonder if what she had said sounded stupid. "Don't you worry, he'll be back."

Ellis was curious to know if she was actually trying to convince the inanimate object or herself that the boy wouldn't leave them behind.

Her teeth chattered and her body trembled she watched ahead as the flakes of snow fell delicately upon the rolling hills.

The snow was beautiful and she knew that Carter hated it because it ruined the crops but she couldn't deny that it was quite an aesthetically pleasing sight.

She thought she was hearing things when there was a call that sounded familiar to her name, it could've been the whirring of the icy winds or it could've been.

"Gilbert?"

The boy jumped down from a horse drawn carriage, his brows furrowed as he took a step forward and the horse galloped on without him.

Ellis stood from the bench, panicked that the seat would be covered in snow if she stood any longer, and then sat back down slowly.

Gilbert approached the girl from behind, he hadn't seen her in so long that even the length of her hair as stupid as it sounded hurt his heart. Her shoulder length locks reached her hip and flowed still as silky as he remembered.

"What are you doing here?" Gilbert questioned and Ellis scoffed looking out onto the graves.

"I could say the same, Mr Blythe."

The way she said it sounded so cold that Gilbert wondered if she was even the same person as who he had left. Mr Blythe sounded so unfamiliar as if she didn't know him anymore.

But if so that meant no one knew who he was because no one knew him quite like Ellis Bennett.

So formal, so unlike her, she'd changed and he didn't like it at all. He hated it. He hated himself for leaving. God why did he have to leave. Leave her behind. Leave her.

He noticed that she was violently trembling and so he attempted to free from his coat to give it to her. He offered the material to warm her but she shook her head.

"No, I don't need it." She made direct eye contact with Gilbert her face seemed slimmer as if she'd lost so much weight that she'd melted away "I don't need you."

It hurt Gilbert to hear those words but it hurt even more to see a close up view of her injured face. A bruise visibly old but yet prominent lined her cheek bone and opposing eye.

He should've been there to protect her, he knew that, and he definitely felt guilty about it.

He held the the coat over his arm and looked up to the house he has been longing for the whole travel home.

"Would you like to join us?" He questioned pointing to his house, if he could just get her warm maybe make her some tea maybe he'd be able to start his long winded apology.

"No." Ellis snapped but she felt as if she had no right to be so cruel so after a pause she finished with, "Thank you."

Gilbert had so many questions swarming his head and he didn't know where to start but he didn't feel as if he was going to get a good enough answer from her at that point in time.

So instead he asked one final question,

"Will you be attending school?" Without allowing her to answer he continued "I will be, just so you know."

Ellis nodded without saying a word and with a defeated sigh he turned from the girl and headed for the warmth of his house.