– Let me touch you –

The next day, Gilbert wasn't in a good mood after convincing himself that Matthew was avoiding him.

"Are you okay?" Francis asked Gilbert, who was pressing his head against his desk. "You don't look so good."

Gilbert shook his head, which was still pressed against the desk. Gilbird remained balanced on Gilbert's head the whole time.

"What's wrong, mon ami?" Francis asked, genuinely concerned about his friend.

Gilbert decided it was about time he told Francis about Matthew. He turned his head so that his left cheek was pressed against the desk. Gilbird shuffled onto the right side of Gilbert's head so that he wouldn't fall off.

"Matthew's been avoiding me," Gilbert sighed, purposely not calling him 'Birdie' so that Francis wouldn't possibly assume he was talking about Gilbird.

"Who's that?" Francis asked.

"He's the guy I've been hanging out with rather than hang out with you and Antonio," Gilbert confessed. "He's the new student who just started here last week."

"What are you talking about?" Francis appeared to be very confused. "There haven't been any new students here recently."

"There has. Matthew only started last week on Monday," Gilbert protested, lifting his head from the desk, causing Gilbird to change position again.

"Seriously, don't start making up weird stuff. There is no new student. " Francis said, still looking confused.

"I'm not making this up!" Gilbert began speaking louder. Why hasn't he heard of Birdie?

"I know you've been spending quite a bit of time on your own, but I never thought you'd create an imaginary friend. That explains why people have been saying you've been talking to yourself recently," Francis began to laugh. "That's something I'd expect from Arthur, not you."

Gilbird began to chirp in anger at Francis as he claimed that Gilbert was on his own, when clearly he had the most adorable bird in the world keeping him company from on top of his head.

Just as Gilbert was about to say something, the classroom door slammed open.

"I'm telling you, it's true!" Arthur said to Alfred as they entered the classroom. "Why can't you believe me?"

All attention was on the arguing couple, but they didn't seem to notice that everyone was staring at them.

"I'm sick of your ghost stories, Arthur!" Alfred replied. "You can claim to see that ghost a many times as you like, but nobody's going to believe you. Stop bothering me about it."

"But I saw the ghost clearly this time!" Arthur claimed. "Its hair was blonde and wavy, and it wore glasses, and-"

"It doesn't matter," Alfred interrupted him. "You're the only one who can see this ghost, so how is describing it going to help at all?"

Arthur just glared at Alfred while trying to think of something to say.

"I don't know why you insist this ghost is real, but ghosts aren't real, so just give up, you're only making yourself look more stupid," Alfred said in an attempt to end the argument.

"Try saying that 'ghosts aren't real' the next time you make me watch a ghost film with you because it is 'too scary to watch alone'," Arthur mocked Alfred, looking proud of himself for successfully embarrassing Alfred in front of the class.

Alfred was clearly embarrassed as his cheeks turned pink and he stormed out of the class. Arthur soon went from looking pleased with himself to looking rather grumpy, as if embarrassing Alfred wasn't as satisfying as he thought it would be. He sat at his desk and Gilbert could hear him whispering strange chants that he couldn't understand, as if he were cursing Alfred.

Gilbert knew he shouldn't get involved with Arthur's ghost stories, but he couldn't help notice that the description of the ghost did sound rather similar to Matthew's appearance. Could Birdie be...? No way, ghosts don't even exist, Arthur is just making up that ghost story, and Birdie probably hasn't been noticed 'cause he doesn't really stand out, he's so quiet. Gilbert continued to try to think of more reasonable explanations for why Matthew had not been noticed. Due to this, Gilbert didn't pay much attention to the lesson.

After the lesson, Gilbert went to check if Matthew was waiting for him at their usual spot by the rocks. He was actually there, standing by the rocks. Gilbert felt so happy; he had missed Matthew so much and was happy that he had stopped avoiding him.

"Birdie, you're here!" Gilbert exclaimed as he ran towards Matthew.

"Yeah, sorry if I worried you by not coming in yesterday," Matthew said quietly, purposely not mentioning that he hadn't been meeting him at the end of school.

"Its okay, Birdie, I'm glad you're okay," Gilbert smiled. He felt happy again just being able to see and talk to Matthew. "I really missed you though."

"I missed you too," Matthew said in return.

"I was wondering if maybe you'd like to meet some of my other friends," Gilbert suggested. If Francis doesn't believe me that Birdie is real, then I'll just have to introduce him to him.

"I'd rather not, I'm just happy being with you, I'm not sure I'd like to meet new people," Matthew replied nervously.

"If you're happy being with me, then why have you been avoiding me so much?" Gilbert sounded annoyed. He couldn't hold in how he was feeling, he had to be honest with Matthew. "You never a give real reason why, but you'll always try to avoid being with me at any time other than at breaks and lunch times!"

Matthew nervously moved a bit further away from Gilbert.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to speak so loud, I don't want to scare you. I just want to spend more time with you, but you keep rejecting me every time."

Matthew just apologised. All Birdie ever does is apologise. I don't want him feeling like he's done something wrong.

"You don't have to keep apologising," Gilbert said.

Matthew tried to think really hard about what he should say while fighting the urge to say 'sorry' for always saying sorry. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings.

Damn, he looks so awesomely cute, I just want to... but I can't... Surely he wouldn't hate me if I did it just this one time. He might actually like it.

Gilbert took a step towards Matthew, stretched his arms wide, and brought them to a close around Matthew's body. Only they didn't wrap around Matthew's body, but rather they went right though him, taking both boys by surprise. Matthew 'jumped' backwards in shock, but he didn't land after this 'jump'. He remained floating in the air looking terrified.

Gilbert took a step away from Matthew and looked up at the floating boy. "Birdie... You... No way!"

A/N: This has all been from Gilbert's point of view, but you'll get to hear more from Matthew in the next chapter. He has a lot of explaining to do!
Also, "mon ami" is French for "my friend" for those of you who don't know. (I thought I should try to make Francis speak more French)