fine line.//shirbert au

03

Two weeks had passed since what will forever be known as the 'carrots' incident. Gilbert Blythe had become quite popular very quickly within his time at the Avonlea High. He had befriended Charlie Sloane and Jerry Cuthbert, who happened to be Anne's adoptive older brother, meaning Anne Shirley saw a lot of Gilbert Blythe when all she wanted to do was pretend that he doesn't exist.
"Hey can we talk?" an all too familiar voice chirped up. Anne began to roll her eyes as she closed her locker and simply said "about what?" with a bored expression plastered on her face. "Look, the thing is I'm really sorry about the other day, I didn't mean what I said okay? Friends?" smiled the curly haired boy whilst leaning his hand onto the locker next to hers. "You said that twice already" smiled Anne sarcastically as she notoriously rolled her eyes and pushed past him to get to her next lesson. She assumed he would have gotten the message and fucked off by then, he did not. "What will it take for you to forgive me?" pleaded the boy, it was funny one minute he could be the most confident boy in the world and the next he could be shy and timid. It was the effect Anne had on him, she scared him a little but at the same time she was all the more exciting. "Nothing. I don't want to know you and why do you care so much to know me?" asked Anne stoutly, he quickly grabbed her wrist gently and forced her to look at him. "God! why do you have to do cliche things like grab my wrist? ugh just leave me alone" complained Anne. Gilbert simply just chuckled and let go of her wrist gently and took a step closer to her, "because I'm excruciatingly annoying, as I've been told" laughed Gilbert with a slight wink of his left eye. Anne chuckled slightly at the memory.

Flashback begins

"I know you first day didn't go well because you were an asshole but today is going to be different, right?" chuckled Autumn, Gilbert however was frowning at her choice of words to refer to him as. "You're the asshole and yes it will be fine" snapped Gilbert, which only caused Autumn to laugh at him even more. "Just don't insult anyone's hair and you'll be fine, dickhead" Autumn exclaimed as she skipped away into the school with her friends, Bea Willows and Ruby Gillis. Gilbert walked to his lesson and found a seat right behind the same redhead he had insulted the day before. "Hey Anne, I'm really sorry about yesterday" whispered Gilbert solemnly, as he interrupted her conversation which only caused Anne to groan and turn to him. "I have nothing to say to you" exclaimed Anne with a serious tone and tried to turn around. "Come om Anne it was an honest mistake, this is petty" pouted Gilbert as he tried to grab her arm to make her turn around. "Get off me! God you're so excruciatingly annoying you know?" yelled Anne as she shrugged his arm away and turned around raising her middle finger in the air whilst doing so.

Flashback ends

"In my defence you did call me petty and grab my arm" Anne pointed out after recovering from her slight laugh and went back to her usual bored expression. "Yeah I totally deserved it, I am an asshole as I've been told by my wonderful sister" Gilbert emphasised the 'wonderful' as Autumn was passing and flung her head back in laughter and mumbled something along the lines of 'my brother is a dickhead' on her way to class. "I can see the unbreakable bond here"
"Yeah totally, we get on awesomely"
Gilbert had titled his head to the side and bit his lip slightly with the same teasing grin as per usual. Anne had almost let her guard down completely at that moment with Gilbert until something clicked inside of her and she realised she had been staring into his pretty, hazel eyes for longer than she would like to admit. She shook her herself out of Gilbert's trance and remembered that she was supposed to hate him. It wasn't even just the carrots thing either, she remembered how Ruby Gillis had cried to Anne about how she treated Gilbert terribly and should apologise. That was quickly followed by a 'but you're not allowed to date him though Anne, he's mine'. Anne laughed at Ruby for this because the idea of dating Gilbert Blythe sounded repulsive to Anne. Gilbert had been waving his hands in front of Anne's face for quite some time now but Anne was too deep in thought to notice. "Anne? Anne! Hey? Are you okay" Gilbert shook her shoulder vigorously, Anne then fluttered her eyes open and closed to indicate that she was completely there. "I'm sorry I was lost in thought, what were you saying?" mumbled Anne confusedly. "I was asking if you wanted to walk to class together as we are going to be late if you we don't go now" replied Gilbert casually, he didn't realise until it was too late that he had said something wrong because Anne had mumbled something about how she wasn't supposed to be speaking to him and took off running in the other direction.

why do I have a tendency to mess everything up all the time?

why does she hate me so much?

Gilbert thought as he pounded his fist into the row of lockers rather harshly and he cradled his hurt knuckles into his other hand. He didn't do stupid things like that normally but he was already having a rough time at home and he thought smoothing things over with Anne would make him feel a little bit better but instead he just upset Anne too.
He wasn't sure what he did to upset her exactly but he knew that everything he did always seemed to be the wrong thing as his dad always told him, so he must have done something or she mustn't have forgiven him yet.

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"So you just ran away?" laughed Diana as she was combing Anne's curly auburn locks with her own hairbrush. "I'm glad to know my pain amuses you" retorted Anne as she scrolled endlessly through Netflix to try and find something for the girls to watch during their sleepover that night. "My dearest Anne I'm sorry but this is just too funny to pretend like it's not"
"Well it was humiliating for me especially considering it was Gilbert"
"And why might that be?" smirked Diana raising an eyebrow. "Because I hate him and it was embarrassing for me!" snapped Anne which only added to Diana's amusement. "I don't think you hate him Anne, quite the contrary actually I think you like him!"
"Diana Barry how dare you say such a thing! I could never like Gilbert Blythe if he was the last boy on the planet!"
"You sound like a 5 year old"
"You sound like a 5 year old" mimicked Anne only adding to Diana's point even more. Diana decided to laugh it off with a slight 'whatever' and to not bring up the topic anymore that night. They ended up choosing 'the perks of being a wallflower' and Anne caught Diana crying throughout the entire movie which only led to Anne chuckling and moving her arm around Diana and kissing her hair comfortingly.

Author's note: we surpassed 100 reads! That's insane thank you so much <3 I hope you enjoyed this chapter but I will make shirbert friends in the next one dw :)