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After everyone began to leave, I started to collect all of the dirty cups and bowls to wash while Matthew and Marilla were on the front porch with the remaining guests. As I stood at the sink, I could feel someone watching me so I stopped to turn my head. It was that boy, Gilbert. "Can I help you? Shouldn't you be on your way home?" I ask him. He just smirks at me as he walks closer. "Anne. I wanted to apologize for what happened at school. It's just that you were ignoring me and all I wanted is to be your friend. To know you, this interesting new girl. Is that so wrong?" The nerve of this boy! I was internally screaming. I took a deep breath and answered, "Well, I am sorry but that just is not possible. If I want the girls to like me and be my friends, we cannot. If they even knew I was talking to you, they'd cast me out. I am just beginning a new chapter in my life and never had real friends before. That's just how it needs to be." I turned and continue washing the dishes and hear him sigh.
"One more question. Is it just me that cannot be your friend or is it all boys? I mean, you seem pretty cozy with Billy. Is he allowed to be your friend? He's not a nice kid, you know? I mean, I saw the way he treated you in the woods." With that proclamation, I stop and face him again. "Y-you saw? What did you see? Tell me!" He looked shocked at my sudden outburst. "Well, it looked like he had pushed you down or something. You were brushing dirt and leaves off your skirt as he was backing away from you when I saw you guys together. I mean, am I wrong?" Thank the Heavens, I think to myself. I thought he'd seen him steal that kiss. "Umm, well, I guess your kinda right. I mean, he had confronted me about something horrid that I had said about Prissy. As I was backing away from him, I fell over backwards. So, Billy didn't push me, per se, but his actions did cause me to lose my balance and fall." I feel my cheeks burn at the memory of what happened next.
"Well, he didn't help you up. That's not very gentlemanly of him, but that's to be expected from Billy Andrews." Gilbert walks over to the sink and grabs a drying cloth. He's never gonna give up, so I allow him to help me. "Um, won't your parents worry that you are not home?" I ask him. He gives me a small smile and answers, "Well, my mom died during childbirth, so I never met her and my father's probably sleeping. Our neighbor's sitting with him. He's very ill at the moment." I felt horrible. "I'm sorry. I, um, I didn't know." He chuckled at that, "Well, you wouldn't now, would you? We've only just met." We continued on with the dishes until we put the last one in the cabinet.
"Why, Gilbert Blythe? What on Earth are you still doing here? Your father will be worried sick. Matthew? Please take Gilbert home on the buggy." Marilla and Matthew had finally come in for the night. "Oh, no need Miss Cuthbert. I have my horse tied up in the barn. Goodnight all. Anne? I hope to see you back at school soon." He put his cap on and turned to smile at me before opening the door and leaving. I notice he has fine eyes, but shake my head to rid myself of the thought. "Goodnight, Gilbert Blythe." I turned around and saw Marilla staring at me. "Anne? I want to you to know you can feel safe here. The next time someone or something bothers you, please come to us. I know this is all still new to you, but you are ours now. You're a Cuthbert, and Cuthbert's don't just sit back and watch, we help. We love." I gave them both a hug and then went up for bed. It was nearly midnight. Well, I had the weekend to heal my bruised pride. Hopefully, Monday morning, I will feel better and get back to school.
I was, in fact, not able to enjoy the weekend or go to school. Sunday morning, I woke with chills, sweating and sick as a dog. My night in the woods was quite an adventure, but it gave me pneumonia. The doctor was called, I was put on bed rest, and I was miserable. I was in and out of consciousness, sleeping most of the day Sunday. Marilla had told me the Andrews children stopped by after church when they heard I was ill. They brought me some beautiful wildflowers they had picked in the meadow on their way. Marilla found a spare pitcher and arranged them on my table by the window. Diana Berry, my dear bosom friend, brought some tea cakes she baked herself. I couldn't eat them so I begged Matthew and Marilla to enjoy them for me.
I was no better by Wednesday morning, and Gilbert stopped by after school to drop off some assignments Mr. Phillips had prepared for me. I told Marilla to thank him for me and she said he wanted to see me."No, absolutely not! Why, I look positively ghastly! And what could we have to say to each other? Thanks but no thanks." I began to cough uncontrollably and started to choke on the mucus attempting to leave my lungs. In comes rushing the very person I didn't want to see. "She's choking! Oh, dear God in Heaven! She's choking!" Marilla cried out. Gilbert rushes into my room!
I am laying down and he lifts me up to turn me over. "Anne, you're going to need to spit that out, keep coughing it out. That's it. Good. Sit up. You need to have your head elevated if you're going to lay in bed. You could have aspirated." Gilbert was so level headed. How did he know so much? Marilla hugs him and thanks him. "I've learned a lot over the past year with my father being sick. It's actually why I want to become doctor." He ask Marilla to make some camomile tea with mint leaves. "It will help as an expectorant so she can rid her lungs of all the mucus from the illness. She really should take a nice, hot bath but if she is too weak, put some hot boiled water in her wash-basin. Have Anne place her face above the steam and cover her and the bowl with a towel. This will help with her breathing as well. You'll be right as rain in no time." He smiles at me.
His smile, oh, that simple little gesture. Why did it make me feel weaker? 'Anne, get ahold of yourself. You DO NOT like Gilbert Blythe!' I berate myself internally. I feel myself blush, but luckily, I am sick and can blame it on my fever. Ha! There! Nobody will ever be the wiser. I fall asleep after my tea. When I next wake, it is dark, but I sense someone in the room. "Hello? Who's here?" I say weakly. I hear footsteps approaching me. My door is ajar which is odd because Marilla usually closes it when she leaves. I feel a hand touch mine. Farmer's hands. "Matthew?" I know as soon as I hear the clearing of the mystery guest's throat that it is not Matthew.
"I couldn't sleep. Can't focus knowing that you are here, sick and the last thing I said to you was not so nice. I'm sorry, Anne. I feel like that is my defense mechanism when I feel jealous. Jane pointed it out to me Friday night. I don't want you to be in pain. please don't die." It was Billy Andrews. In my room. Did Marilla know he was in my room? He just sat next to my bed, leaning his head against my hand. "I watched Blythe come visit. I was on the path by the gate when I saw him enter the house. He was here a long time. My stomach hurts just thinking about him being close to you. I like you, Anne. I know you probably hate my guts. I should have never forced that kiss on you, but I'm kinda sorta glad I did because the moment I did, my mind went crazy with thoughts of you and me being together. It's crazy, I know. I cannot see your face and I know you are looking at me like I am a loon." He chuckles softly.
I don't know what comes over me, but I begin to comb my fingers through his soft curls. It's an intimate gesture that I have only read about in silly romantic novels. I hear him sigh as if he was holding in his breath for hours. He turns toward me, takes my hand, opens it up, and kisses the palm of it - right above my wrist causing my heart to race. "Anne? Will you be my friend? We can just be friends, and if you want more, you can take my heart. You're like nobody I have ever met. But friends first. I want you to see me as a friend and not some dumb jerk that let his anger get the best of him that one time. Please." I squeeze his hand in mine. "Friends." I say in my weak, raspy voice. He gets up and kisses my forehead. "Goodnight my friend, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert." He then turns and opens my window; climbing out. Well, now I know how he got here and that Marilla did not know there was a boy in my room.
*Hope you're enjoying my story!*