Quote:
Originally Posted by
Syd (: 
Ellie was crying. Real tears, now. Dallin closed his head, resting his head in one of his hands. Of course he didn't want her to cry, but he didn't know what to do about it. He could hug her, maybe tell her everything was okay... but would that even work? No, probably not. Especially not when she continued talking.
She didn't want it to change the way he saw her? Dallin shook his head, not knowing how to respond to that. Yeah, he didn't want to look at her differently either. And... it had to be possible. He couldn't let this one little thing mess up the way he felt about her. And it wouldn't. He still loved her; he knew that. There was no doubt in his mind. But he couldn't let himself feel anything else. Because nothing had changed between them. This was just the past.
...Right?
He'd worry about that later. Right now there were still other things on his mind. Such as did he consider that cheating? Well, he'd said it already, sort of. But was that an 'Oops I didn't mean to think that' moment, or was it really what he thought? With a sigh, he lifted his head to look Ellie. He had to look away, though, before he answered her. And, since they were being honest... he'd give her the whole, one hundred percent truth. "Maybe... emotionally." Could you cheat on someone emotionally? "I mean... I get that you didn't do anything. But... you had feelings like that for someone when you were with someone else. And you didn't tell him."
Hopefully that answer wouldn't bring on more tears. He really didn't want to make her cry anymore. But she had asked him. So... well, that was all he could do about it. Tell her the truth and hope she understood.
Honestly, it worried Ellie that Dallin didn't say anything after she told him that she didn't want him to think of her differently. It made her feel like he was already judging her, changing his thoughts about her. Sure, he still loved her, he had just said that. But now that she had told him about this, there was no way that he
couldn't see that in her. And the fact that he didn't say anything, made that sinking feeling even worse. She knew it had changed his views. It had to. There was no way it couldn't.
Still hunched over, Ellie closed her eyes while she listened to Dallin explain his thinking about this "cheating" thing. She furrowed her eyebrows and rubbed one of her temples. Cheated
emotionally. That actually made total sense. Because although they hadn't done anything, Ellie's mind was somewhere else. She nodded slowly and looked down at the floor.
"That makes sense.... You're right." She said quietly.
And she didn't know why, but she stood up from the chair. She walked closer to the fire and stood there for a bit, just watching the flames. Maybe she felt like Dallin needed some distance. It was kind of a lot to take in. And it was his birthday. Ellie ruined it.
"I'm sorry." She apologized quietly.