"Anne, Anne come on." Gilbert called for her in the corridor finally catching her he brought her into a hug. "Anne this wasn't your fault." He told her.
Anne hugged into him crying on his shoulder. "I brought her here.. I... I..."
"You influenced her into something you thought would make her happy. Anne that's an act of a true friend. But ultimately it was her choice to come here, you didn't make that decision for her, you can only influence you can not choose for her."
"How was she so unhappy here Gil? How did I not know?" she asked him crying still.
He took her to his side and slowly walked get back to her room "You know one of the things I always admired in you was that I could read your emotions." He told her. "I mean everything, EVERYTHING you need to know about you was written in your eyes and I thought 'Wow! Who is that girl? And how is she so open?'" he sighed a moment taking breath "But you know not everyone has that quality about them some folks put on a brave face put a smile on for the world they almost fool themselves and I think... I KNOW that's Diana." Gilbert took a breath. " it wasn't just you she fooled I thought she was fine, when I spoke to Fred two weeks ago he thought she was fine, if Fred didn't see it how are you suppose to know?" he asked her, sitting her on her bed he made sure the camera was no longer rolling.
"We're kindred spirits, we're meant to just FEEL something's wrong." She told him.
He smiled at her. "You know that's not how it works." He said sitting back beside her on the bed. "Come on, we're kindred spirits and we don't always know when we need each other." She put her head on his shoulder as he put an arm around her
"And that's something else, I've not been with her enough maybe if I had I would have known…"
"Anne its natural for us to have a wider circle of friends once we've spread our wings and learned to fly on our own, Anne come on I mean we've not spent that much time together but you have the people on your course you have Stella and Phil and that's okay because I have people from my course, Andy and Pete and the Lambs. But it doesn't mean that when I'm with them I think you've forgotten about me." He paused a second and made sure they had eye contact "You haven't right?"
"No…" she trailed "but…"
"no, no buts. The decisions that Di has made have been hers to make. She chose to come here she chose to do accounting. Alright we both know how shy Diana is so maybe it wasn't her choice not to have widened her pool of friends but she chose not to confide in you, SHE could have asked to hang out more but she didn't, for whatever reason. But she also made a really brave decision to realise this isn't what she wanted and to walk away." He paused for a moment. "I KNOW this isn't your fault. Diana and you will make up and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. " He whispered. With the lack of sobbing Gilbert tried out a joke "Now are you sure about those Squirrels?"
Anne looked up at him seriously rolling her eyes. "No squirrels." She said.
"Right, okay so I know the boundaries it's good for me." He said with a closed mouth twisted smile. "I know Chinese food! Weren't you saying the other day you wanted to try that place on South Road?" She smiled a little. "Is that a smile?" He said teasing. She made a hallow laugh "That's a smile, I have a smile!" he said teasing more.
"Gillll…." She trailed with a half-smile on her face.
"Come on." He said sliding off the bed holding out his hand. "Come on, how can I make it more tempting? I mean its dinner with a dashing young man…" he said. She chuckled at this. "… I know I'll pay? How's that free Chinese food?" he offered. She laughed and took his hand he pulled her off the bed and smiled as they linked arms out the room.
