Ben okay wow, this is extremely late and I know you hate me right now. Please, before you roll your eyes and hit the 'delete' button on this message - hear me out.

I didn't come that day because something came up. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable telling you what it was about but it was really, really bad and I just forgot all about our meet-up. I didn't answer any of your messages or calls because my phone had been turned off the rest of the day after that. I only turned my phone on when it was too late and I'm sorry I completely forgot you were flying back to Canada that day. I wanted to see you, Ben, more than anyone else in the world but circumstances wouldn't allow it at the time. I've tried calling you again but you wouldn't pick up and I just came back to campus yesterday.

I want to tell you more on the phone if you could please forgive me?

Please.

'Something came up'. Hm, seems a legitimate enough an excuse.

Oh yes, I completely forgive you for making me feel like I'm your little toy that you can just pick up and play with but throw away when you're bored of it whenever you please. I completely forgive you for everything you've done to me this past year - especially this summer, what with your little 'confession' and all. Thanks a lot. I mean, I really needed it! Truly! Thank you!

Thank you for breaking my heart.

"So," Ridley says with a raised eyebrow, "can you tell me why exactly you and Christopher are hell bent on ignoring each other?"

Dee continues to brush her tangled mess of a hair while carefully avoiding Ridley's gaze. "He was being very rude," she replies after a momentary silence between the two friends. "I wouldn't stand for it and we had an argument. And no, Ridley, don't try and convince me to make up with him. He started it. As per usual."

Ridley chuckles and flops down on her tiny little bed. Their new room - in Dee's uncle's house-is significantly smaller than their old room provided by the campus, but its cleaner and the strangely old smell and the dark, vintage wallpaper reminds Ridley of Victorian-era mansions. She quite likes it here. Also, they don't have to cook for themselves anymore because Dee's aunt is a chef, and simply insists that she provide them with a proper dinner - one that doesn't involve a disgusting mash up of yesterday's leftovers and unhealthy takeout food.

"What was it about?" Ridley presses on as a grin begins to form on her face. She already has an inkling as to what the fight was about but she wants to hear it from Dee, just so she can tease her about it mercilessly. Dee, noticing Ridley's expression, rolls her eyes.

"Don't be cheeky with me, Ridley Denvers." She pokes her tongue out at her. "Instead of interviewing me about irrelevant matters, shouldn't you be working on actually doing some work?"

Ridley sighs and takes a sidelong glance at the stack of books and scraps of paper messily piled on top of each other on top of her study desk next to her bed. Just a day back at campus and she's already being hounded by homework essays, notes to look over for the next day and books to read by the end of the week. She groans lazily.

"I'd much rather hear about you and Christopher." Ridley giggles. "And that Cambridge boy you had a brief fling with over the summer."

"It wasn't just a fling," Dee begins but her mouth moves wordlessly as she struggles to elaborate more on her point. With a defeated little huff, she turns away from Ridley. "Okay, so maybe it was a fling, but I don't understand why Christopher was so pissy about it. It's none of his business anyway-"

"Uggggghhhhhhh." Ridley rolls over to one side of her head and face palms herself. So this is what Marcy felt like when Ridley stupidly denied any sort of feelings for Ben and vice versa, back when she was too idiotic to sort herself out. God, how could Marcy have stood all of this nonsense?

"What? What did I say?" Dee demands.

Ridley rolls back to face Dee again. "Don't you get it?" she says. "He likes you back, you fool! Chrissy was just jealous about the fling you had but he didn't quite know how to convey his feelings to you because he's still so bloody unsure of how he feels-"

"But he doesn't feel!" Dee retorts grumpily. "I mean-he doesn't feel anything for me. Christopher isn't attracted to girls, remember? He's as gay as a gay guy could get."

"I admit, I had my qualms about this too," Ridley replies, "but he's liked guys all his life and now that he's attracted to a girl he isn't sure how to deal with it. He's just confused, but if you only just talked to him about it maybe he would-"

"Absolutely not." Dee looks away. "I don't want to ruin a great friendship."

Ridley winces. I've heard that excuse before.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

"Don't sass me with Romeo and Juliet," Dee responds irritably. Ridley tuts at her friend.

"It's from Hamlet, actually." She chuckles. Dee rolls her eyes.

"Whatever."

"My point is that you shouldn't worry so much about the friendship bit." Ridley runs her thumb across her lip as she mumbles her thoughts to Dee. "It's like..." She sighs. "I just - it frustrates me to see how a lot of people don't realize how great they would've been with the person they love because they were so worried about ruining a friendship. And yeah, I get that it's practical to think about the friendship before heading straight into a relationship but it becomes a problem when that's all you can ever think about. I did that, you know? I over-complicated a situation that didn't even have any complications. I won't let you do the same thing, Dee. You need to tell him. Fuck the friendship consequences. At least, for now."

Dee stares back at Ridley with an almost puzzled expression on her face. Ridley wrinkles her nose. "What?" she asks indignantly.

"It's weird," Dee murmurs. "It's like you've come back as a completely new Ridley, you know what I mean? Still quite similar to the old Ridley but not...not quite...quite the same, at the same time." She smiles softly. "Something's really changed you. In a really good way, too."

→ → → → → →

It is two o' clock in the morning and the members of the household are all fast asleep-except Ridley Denvers, who is now propped up on her bed with her laptop resting on her legs, busily typing away with headphones on-- the music effectively drowns out Dee's faint snore, and it's not loud, but still fairly annoying to Ridley when she is trying so hard to concentrate. It hasn't even been three weeks since she began writing her new story Finding Gilbert Blythe on WritersWrite and it's already got half a million hits. People are demanding for new chapters, new moments between her main protagonist Rose and the male lead Daniel. Getting thrust into internet fame is both exciting and nerve-wracking. She's now onto finishing off the fifth chapter of the story now and she's scanning through it with extreme thoroughness. Any typos? No. Grammatical errors? A few, but the readers aren't too fussy about THAT.

After editing and re-editing everything, she finally clicks 'Publish' and watches as comments already begin to bombard her story and she spots a pattern of 'OMGS' and 'LOLS' as she quickly scans through the most recent ones, a grin beginning to form on her face. Writing, on its own, is something that she's thoroughly enjoyed for years and years, but she supposes the best part about the writing is not the actual story itself, but people's reactions to it. She enjoys seeing people write her comments where they express their uttermost desire to throttle her for leaving them another cliff-hanger, or when people tell her how much they love her for writing the story, or how much they are able to relate to it. It's nice. It's very, very nice. It makes writing all the more worthwhile, seeing these people read her story and knowing that her story can make them laugh, or cry and just relate to it and love it as much as she does.

A part of her aches to know that Ben has no idea about her sudden success, and she wishes she could tell him but Ridley is too frightened of what he might say - or what he might not say. He hasn't bothered e-mailing her or contacting her in any other way so she supposes he really, truly wants nothing to do with her. Not anymore. And fair enough. She has treated him in a way you wouldn't expect someone you love - and who loves you back-to treat you. Ridley can't believe herself but there is absolutely no point in crying about it anymore. What's done is done. The pain won't go away - but it'll sting a little less, eventually.

Ridley is just about to call it a day and log out off her account when she hears the familiar 'bloop' sound the app makes whenever she receives a private message. Smiling to herself, she clicks on her inbox and opens the recently sent message from a and she chuckles at the name. While she finds it extremely hard to respond back to comments left on her story, she has no trouble answering private e-mails because they're all sent to her in a much more organized fashion.

Hiiiiiiii, the message begins,

I stumbled across your story Finding Gilbert Blythe and now I am going absolutely CRAAZY over it! I have loved the Anne series since I was...well it doesn't matter because I've loved it for so long!! I'm driving all of my friends mad by mentioning it to them 24/7! I'm probably the only dude I know who is obsessed with the series! I am a male! Shocking I know!! I LOVE GILBERT BLYTHE. I have a crush on him. But I'm not gay. But am I? AHAHA anyway, enough of my ranting. I just want to tell you that you're doing an absolutely amazing job with the story and I was wondering if you could tell me if it's based on real events? The way you write the story seems so raw and...true. I'm sorry if this comes across as a tad too personal.

I love you, though, person I have never met before <3

She ponders for awhile, thinking of a response that would be suitable enough to give to a stranger. Ridley almost hesitates into telling him about her true inspiration for the story. Would it even be appropriate?

Dear GilBeMyMan (GREAT username by the way!), she writes,

I'm so flattered by your lovely compliments. Seriously, I have a huge grin on my face right now so thank you so much for this lovely message! And I'm pretty sure anyone (regardless of their gender) would undoubtedly fall in love with Gilbert Blythe, but it's a real pity he isn't as well known as Darcy or *insert any other Austen hero we can think of*.

I feel a little...ah, scared, to answer your question? But I feel like I should because I've had enough courage to share my fictional story, so why not give you a few vague details on the non-fictional side of it, eh? Well, I won't go into TOO many details (for reasons which are fairly obvious) but I was inspired to write this story after I majorly ruined any sort of chances with a guy who loved me because I realized I loved him at a very inconvenient time, and I told him in a way that just...really wasn't the best way to do it, either. He was my Gilbert Blythe and I didn't even know it. Well, hope that answers your question! I hope you have a great day<3

Ridley hits send and logs out of her WritersWrite account with a deep sigh. Is it possible to be so lonely even when she gets amazing messages like these nowadays? Isn't this what she had dreamed about for years? Appreciation? It does leave a warm glow in her stomach, but it only lasts a few seconds before the warmth disappears and she is left with the dull, almost physical ache she feels when she thinks about Ben. It hits her, quite suddenly, that they haven't been proper friends for a long time now and she feels quite sick at the notion of never having that with him ever again, all because of bad timing. Her life really does feel like a cheap romantic comedy: Two best friends. Secretly in love but the girl's too stupid to realize it. Guy confesses. Girl says no. He's heartbroken. She realizes she loves him. Tells him. Bad timing. Fighting. Crying. Cue a Taylor Swift song in the background.

Ridley even begins to wonder, once she is finally snuggled inside her warm bed, how Gilbert Blythe could ever stand waiting around for Anne so long. That's one thing about their relationship that she's never really thought about. The patience. It's not even unrealistic. It's...it's true love. And Ben waited a long time too, because he did confess he had loved her for a long time. He was incredibly patient with her. She only wishes she'd have realized all these new-found revelations in her life sooner.

But, she thinks as her eyes flutter shut for the night, life can truly be a bitch to you.

→ → → → → →