“Boooo!” She jeered, the sound quickly dissolving into giggles. “Kidding, kidding, but I was expecting something a little more resolved as an ending. Something like, ‘and it worked, and the teachers learned their lessons and the students were able to get their point across and everyone lived happily ever after.’ But alas.” Daiane breathed a sighing exhale, lifting her shoulders in a shrug as a light smile warmed her expression. “Well, the audience, at least, has always thought that you were really smart even if your old, Bri’ish teachers didn’t. And the audience thinks that if any of them saw you today they’d be extremely embarrassed with how wrong they were about you. And about your friends—I don’t know them, but if they’re anything like you, they must be great too.” She hummed, pulling her legs into a criss-cross position.
Daiane sighed with a slight laugh as she was reminded of the physical limitations of her passing fantasies. "I guess I am a bit of giant compared to you, which I usually like for the sole reason that I can pick you up,” she flashed a grin her way, ”but it does make these very cute romantic gestures I steal from rom-coms a little lot more difficult." Embry placed her free hand on top of their clasped ones, an action similar to what Daiane had attempted but far more comfortable for the two of them. “This is cute too,” she said with a giggle.
“Oh.” It was a big weight off her shoulders to know that Embry didn’t think that, but as she heard Embry continue on, it was almost as if the weight had plopped back on. “Oh, no, it wasn’t—no. It wasn’t assault. She just misunderstood—she didn’t force herself on me, she probably just thought that I would, you know, reciprocate. And when I didn’t, they stopped.” She glanced down at her hands, which were closed tightly around her warm drink. “I mean, they didn’t know I was dating you, or anyone at all, and it was a Ferris Wheel—those are objectively romantic—so I just—” Daiane blew air through her lips, wondering why, on some level, she had been so quick to jump to their defence. “I just don’t really blame them.”
As she spoke, her hand unfolded from the cup, falling against the table to tap anxiously against the wood. Embry lay her hands on top of Dai’s own, the comforting gesture causing her hand to still and Daiane’s eyes rise to meet Embry’s. “You aren’t?” She asked softly. Her next exhale was relieved, some tension falling away as her breath did. “I was worried that you…” Daiane took a steadying pause, forcing herself to be vulnerable with her girlfriend. “… that you would maybe want a break or something.” She shook her head, pulling her hand out from underneath Embry’s to hold her own head with both hands. “And I know what you’re gonna say, but it just feels like I keep f^cking up with you. Like this, the Demi situation—which is the whole reason that we can’t even tell most people we’re together, and it’s my fault.”