Embry hugged her arms over her chest, contradicting the small smile on her face as Daiane complimented the drawing she had given her. Like every other artist, her one downfall was hearing praise for her work and it took every ounce of her being to not counterargue. Instead, she focussed on how she hated the air of awkwardness that was surrounding their conversation and she longed for the sense of comfort that she often felt when she was around Daiane. “No!” She quickly exclaimed when she offered to return the drawing. “No.” She repeated, softer. “I made it for you, you should keep it.” She added. Having the drawing back would just be yet another painful reminder of her stupidly impulsive mistake but she would never say that out loud.
As their eyes met, Embry could see the confusion in Daiane’s eyes, clear as day and it made her wonder what was happening behind them that produced this confusion. Was it something she had said? Or something she had left unsaid? Either way, something was confusing her and Embry knew that, like everything about this conversation, it was her fault and she needed to do something to fix it. Then Daiane gave her an uncertain nod, further indulging Embry’s want to fix everything, and as she continued, Embry had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from interrupting her in the middle of her sentence.
“Daiane…” Her voice broke. “I don’t want you to stay away from me. I have never wanted that. What I said on Valentine’s Day was impulsive and so, so stupid and it wasn’t the truth. The truth is, I need you, Daiane. I’m miserable without you. I don’t think there are any words that could possibly express how awful I feel about what I did but I’m so sorry. Do you think you could ever forgive me?” The words began falling out of her mouth and into the air before she could stop them, putting everything out in the open. She kept her gaze focused on Daiane’s eyes, not wanting to miss any changes or hints that they might give away and as she saw tears appearing in Daiane’s eyes, she could feel her own begin to sting.
@unsungcheerio - Daiane