A Shoulder To Lean On

It was another weekend day in the Loud house with all of the kids doing their usual things: mud pies, tea parties, science experiments, and pranks. After reading comics for a while, her grew bored and decided that some video games would be a good remedy. He left his room and walked down the hall, heading toward the stairs. As he was walking, Lori was also walking out of her room, on her phone yet again. Lincoln didn't even need to guess who it was she was talking with; the constant stream of “No no, I love YOU the most!" was enough of a giveaway. Lincoln merely rolled his eyes as he walked past her, annoyed at hearing the this banter day after day; sometimes he wished that Bobby and her would break up, just so he didn't have to listen to this any longer.

While Lincoln walked down the stairs to play his games, Lori continued to chat with Bobby; repeating phrases in a rather asinine fashion. Still, For Lori, it was less about the conversation and more about Bobby himself; she loved just hearing his voice. She loved everything about him, from his eyes, to his voice, to his mannerisms; Bobby was her dream guy. She kept talking with him until she heard beeping coming from her phone, signaling that the battery was nearly depleted. This was a common occurrence when she would talk Bobby; she just couldn't bring herself to hang up the phone. After she had gone down to get a soda, she came back to her room, placing her phone on the charger and the soda on the small table next to her bed.

She laid on her bed, flipping over and placing the magazine in front of her, kicking her legs while she read. Now she had to wait until her phone was done charging before she could talk to her object of affection. As she was reading her phone kept going off like usual; Lori knew it was Bobby leaving messages telling her how much he loved her and wants to see her.

"Ah, it's so nice to feel loved..." Said Lori with dreamy eyes.

She finished reading her magazine and finished her soda and looked at her phone to see how far it had charged. During that time it had only charged 30%. She needed to find a way to pass enough time until it was complete; what could she do? After pondering for a bit, she thought it might be fun to crush Lincoln at some video games while she waited. She left her room and walked downstairs to find Lincoln simply playing against the computer in Super Mega Brawlers Turbo Fighters XXIV.

"Alright move over twerp, time for you to get a real challenge." said Lori as she grabbed the second player controller and pushed "start" to force the game back to the character selection screen.

"Hey! I was winning that fight!"

"You just would have lost to the arcade boss anyways; I just saved you the humiliation."

"Shouldn't you be busy texting Bobby right now?" Said Lincoln, obviously irate at Lori's sudden intrusion.

"Phone's charging. C'mon pick your character already!"

Sighing, Lincoln chose his usual character and selected the stage. After a brief load time, the fight began and Lori proceeded to wipe the floor with Lincoln, who was only able to deal some moderate damage. This was par for the course and one of the reasons why he hated playing with Lori. The only reason why he put up with it was because it was actually improving his skills, though he'd never admit that to Lori. So the punishment continued until Lori grew bored and left to her room again. Lincoln turned off the system and went back to his room, looking annoyed.

In her room again, Lori checked her phone. It was at 96% which to her was good enough and pulled it off the charge. Now it was time to look at the texts and voice mails that Bobby had left her. She first checked her text messages, expecting to see the usual texts of Bobby wishing that he could see her. As she opened up the messaging app and looked at her new texts, the smile on her face disappeared immediately. She read that first text over and over again; it was a very simple message, all it said was,

"Okay baby I just finished talking to Lori. You know how long she goes on. Want to meet up and fool around like usual? I need me some sugar. ;)"

She looked up from her phone and stared blankly, quietly stating.

"Bobby is cheating on me."

No no, don't jump to that. Maybe he could be talking to- No that doesn't work, why would he call his Mom "Baby?" Maybe it was- No that doesn't work either. She kept thinking of explanations for the text, but all of them kept falling through. There was no getting around it; Bobby obviously sent this to another girl. When she finally accepted such a realization, her heart shattered. Her legs gave out as she fell to the floor, sobbing.

Meanwhile Lincoln had just finished going to the bathroom when he heard crying for Lori and Leni's room. He knew that it was Lori crying and wanted to see what had happened, but at the same time he knew that there was a good chance that something would be thrown at him. After a short debate, he knocked softly on the door and opened it.

"Lori? Are you ok-?"

Before he could finish his thought, a phone was now racing toward his face. Fortunately he managed to duck in time.

"JUST SHUT UP! JUST GO AWAY!!"

Such shouting resonated throughout the upstairs, causing all of the Loud children to stop in their tracks. They huddled around Lori' room, wanting to peek in. Lincoln knew that something very serious had happened and knew that it wasn't a good time for all of them to barrage her with questions as to what happened and such. Lincoln turned to his sisters and said,

"I'll go and talk to her; 10 siblings might be too many right now."

The rest of them nodded affirmatively and let Lincoln enter the room, though they all had their ears to the door. As Lincoln entered the room he found Lori sitting in the middle of it with her head on her knees, sobbing. Worried that something might be thrown at him again, he quietly made his way toward her and sat down next to her. He fidgeted a bit, trying to figure out exactly how he would comfort her before placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry. For whatever happened."

Lori looked up from her knees and saw Lincoln next to her with his hand on her shoulder, looking sympathetic.

"If you want, you can talk to me. I won't say anything back or pretend that I know what's going on, since I doubt I do."

Lori stood up and looked at Lincoln with murderous eyes; in her grief she felt rage at being cheated on and Lincoln was the only person in her sight that she could take it out on. Even with such a gaze beating down on him, Lincoln didn't flinch.

"If you want to yell I won't mind."

Lincoln normally didn't have a resolve like this, but when it came to his sisters, he'd always be there for them. He'd do anything for his sisters' happiness; they were his family. Looking at Lincoln's supportive face filled her with so many complicated emotions that she couldn't contain herself and she exploded.

"STOP!! DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO ACT LIKE THAT!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HURT I AM AND YOU THINK YOU CAN COME IN AND ACT ALL COOL!? IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK!?"

Even as Lori screamed at him, his face didn't change. Somehow this made Lori even angrier.

"AREN'T YOU GOING TO SAY ANYTHING!? YOU'RE NOT MAD THAT I'M SCREAMING AT YOU!?"

"Nope."

Lori was really starting to lose it now; she picked Lincoln up by the shirt and held a fist up to his face.

"HOW ABOUT IF IT PUNCH YOU?! BET YOU'LL GET ALL MAD AT ME THEN!"

"I won't. I know you're hurt and if punching me will make you feel better, then do it."

Lori pulled back her fist, ready to smash it directly into Lincoln's face. She couldn't bring herself to throw it forward though. She stood there holding Lincoln with her fist cocked for a bit before lowering it. As she lowered it the rage subsided, leaving only hurt. Now she looked at Lincoln not with murderous intent, but with eyes filled with pain. She grabbed onto him and squeezed him tightly, crying into his shoulder. She sat down, not breaking the embrace and placing Lincoln in her lap. Lincoln wrapped his arms around Lori and hugged her back, offering her the support that she needed.

"Thanks Lincoln..."

"Anytime Lori... Anytime. Feeling better?"

Lori broke away from Lincoln's shoulder and wiped her tears away, giving a small nod.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit better."

"So what happened?"

"Bobby's... Bobby's cheating on me."

"HE'S WHAT!?"

The same sentence came from 9 different voices as the rest of the Loud siblings crashed into Lori's room.

"What?? Guys?? How long have you been there??"

"Oh who us? Heheh we were just passing by..." Said Lola.

"We've been here sthince you threw your cthellphone at Lincoln." Said Lisa, who was then the target of many angry glares.

"Bobby's cheating on you!?" Said Luna angrily.

"I don't understand, what does cheating mean? Were they playing a game?" Said Lana.

"Yeah, the game of Love! And Bobby cheated!" Said Luan.

"I still don't get it."

"Okay you know how Lori and Bobby used to text each other and said 'I love you' and all that?" Said Lincoln.

"Uhuh."

"Well they made a promise to do those things only with each other."

"Right."

"And Bobby broke that promise."

Now that it was properly explained Lana's eyes grew in revelation as she gasped.

"Nobody breaks a promise with my sister!!"

This news caused the entire family to swell with rage. All of them looked like they were ready to kill Bobby if he ever came into their field of vision. Seeing this, Lori had to calm them down.

"Guys, no; I don't want this becoming a huge thing and I don't want you guys to hurt Bobby. I know for a fact that a few of you will, Lynn."

"Aw c'mon Lori! At least let me hit him in the head with my hockey stick a few times!"

"No. Right now, I just want to be left alone so could you all just leave?"" Said Lori who pointed at the door.

All of the sisters begrudgingly complied and left the room in a huff. Lori knew that this wasn't the end of it, but at least it provided a moment of solace. As Lincoln began to walk out, Lori stopped him by grabbing onto his shoulder.

"Wait."

She turned him around and gave him a tight hug.

"Thanks again Lincoln, I needed that."

"No problem. If you ever need someone to talk to or to listen to you, I'm always here for you." Said Lincoln, trying to reassure his sister.

"Well if that's the case," Lori pulled him back into her room and closed the door. "I have a lot to talk about."

"Like what?"

"Like stuff with Bobby, duh."

Lincoln sat on Lori's floor and proceeded to listen to all of the feelings that Lori had been bottling up; the suspicions, the denial, all of it. Lincoln didn't say anything; he knew that what Lori needed was an ear to listen. The most he did was hold on to Lori as she cried. The conversation went on for what felt like hours and by the time they were finished, Lori was out of breath. After a long enough pause, Lincoln finally asked,

"You good now?"

"Yeah... Yeah I think I'm good. You know now that I think about it, when did you get all mature like this?"

"When you needed me to."

"Wow, that's a mature answer. It's kinda' creepy."

"I listened to you for THREE hours and you call me creepy??"

"Yeah, but; creepy in a good way. Well I'm going to go to the store and buy a bucket of ice cream to work my way though. Since you were so mature, do you want to come with and get a bucket for yourself?"

"YOU want ME to go to the store with you??" Said Lincoln in astonished tone.

"You have three seconds to answer before I change my mind." Said Lori, who had now reverted back to her usual self.

"Okay okay I'll go!"

"Excellent. I'll let Mom and Dad know that were leaving. Now then... Get out of my room!!"

Lincoln dashed out of Lori's room with a smile on his face. He knew he had done well, and now that Lori was back to her bossy self was proof of that. Of course, he knew that this mood change was only temporary. By the time night rolls around she'll probably be crying again, and Lincoln couldn't blame her. Still, the fact that she's okay now was what mattered to him. After getting the okay from the Mom and Dad, the two headed off to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream.