On the first day of her epic sleepover at the Loud House, Ronnie Anne bunked down in a blanket fort in the living room. Being summer time, everyone was up late except for Mr. and Mrs. Loud (and Lily, of course). The three of them went upstairs at around nine, leaving Lori in charge. Lori sat in the armchair with her feet kicked up on the coffee table and texted with Bobby. About that time, Bobby would be done helping around the bodega for the day and would either be chilling in the family room or stretched out on his bed and blasting tejano rap, a genre that he never listened to before Carlotta introduced him to it. At one point, Lori snorted and looked at Ronnie Anne, who sat on the couch between Lucy and Lincoln. "Bobby wants to know if you and Lincoln are behaving yourselves," Lori said with a gleam in her eye.
"Uh...yeah," Ronnie Anne said, confused, "have we ever been bad?"
Lincoln shifted uncomfortably and for a second, Ronnie Anne had no idea what his issue was...then she realized what Bobby meant by behaving.
He thought they were making out and playing doctor or something.
Now she blushed too. She liked Lincoln as a friend and was open to the idea of possibly being more than friends at some point, but that was still pretty embarrassing. "Tell Bobby to shut up or I'll tell you about his other girlfriends."
No, Bobby did not have other girlfriends, but Lori's face darkened, which was the point. "Girlfriends?"
"Oops." Ronnie Anne said. Lincoln chuckled and Lynn flashed a mean-spirited grin; both of them could plainly tell from her tone alone that she was joking, but Lori, ever the jealous type, couldn't. Her thumbs started to blaze angrily across the screen, and Lincoln and Ronnie Anne exchantged a knowing look.
"That was messed up," Lincoln said, "now she thinks he's cheating on her."
Ronnie Anne shrugged. "He shouldn't have said what he said."
See, there was a difference between her and Lincoln. Lincoln put up with dumb shit from his siblings, she didn't. There was a part of her that really admired his patience and forbearance, but there was another part that couldn't help seeing it as a flaw. Ronnie Anne didn't know much about life, but having grown up poor and on the rock bottom of the social ladder, she did know this: If people feel like they can get away with using and mistreating you, they will. If you have a rich lawyer for a daddy or a lot of status, people bend their knee to you. Rather, they bend their knee to your status. If you're poor and there's no consequences for treating you like crap, well, they treat you like crap. And it's not just about being poor, If you're weak, if you're dumb, if you're not 100 percent always on point, someone's either going to hurt you or hustle you. Lincoln got hustled by his sisters all the time because he was too nice and didn't stand up for himself. That's where rumors of him doing his sisters came from, him being too close and cuckish to them.
She realized what she was saying and blinked.
Okay, no, you couldn't really blame Lincoln for rumors like that. Being close to your sisters and getting constantly dunked on by them wouldn't make a normal human being think Y'know, I bet he's porking them. That was just sickness and perversion. Ronnie Anne would never in her life think that without really strong evidence. Those assholes earlier didn't have any evidence, just a bunch of idle small town speculation fueled by jealousy and resentment. Once again, she considered telling Lincoln about it, but kept it to herself for the time being. He really deserved to know so that he was aware of what was being said and confront it if he wanted, but it was so dumb and embarrassing that Ronnie Anne already knew she'd feel like a tard for even bringing it up. She really should let him know.
Hmmm. Maybe right before she left. Why say something now and make things awkward?
One by one, the living room emptied out as everyone else went to bed. Lori, their fearless leader for the evening, was the first to nope out to bed. The mantle of power went to the next oldest in the room, who happened to be Lynn; Leni was there, listening to music on her headphones and bobbing her head, but the Louds always skipped her because...well...Leni wouldn't make a very good leader, let's just leave it at that. Lynn boasted about being "you lord, you master, your GOD" for a while before throwing in the towel and benching herself. Soon, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were the only ones left. They watched reruns of Friends on Nick at Nite and made fun of how lame it was. "The 90s is a freaking joke," Lincoln said. "Look how that girl's dressed."
"I know," Ronnie Anne said. "And that laptop has to weigh fifty pounds."
"It looks like someone just brought their monitor with them."
They laughed. Yeah, the 90s sucked. From what Ronnie Anne had read, they had cell phones, but they were big, blocky, and didn't do anything but call. Most people didn't own one, so if your car broke down or something, you were screwed. She knew the world wasn't black and white back then but she couldn't keep herself from picturing it that way. Then, as soon as the clock hit midnight on January 1, 2000, everything instantly became colored, like the second half of The Wizard of Oz. It was dim and grainy color, but hey, they were on the right track.
When the show was done, Lincoln suggested making a blanket fort. Using the coffee table and couch pillows, they pitched a tent and ate Doritos while watching Adult Swim. Around 12:30, Lincoln yawned, stretched, and got to his feet. "I'm gonna hit the hay," he said.
"Alright, lame-o. Catch you tomorrow."
"See ya."
He went upstairs and Ronnie Anne was alone. She stretched out on her stomach in the blanket fort and watched a little more TV before her eyes started to droop. She turned the TV off, got up, and gave a big stretch. She went up the stairs to pee and just as she was passing Lynn's room, the door opened and Lincoln came out shirtless and covered in sweat. Ronnie Anne wasn't expecting him and her heart rocketed into her chest. He stopped in the doorway, backlit against the light, and fixed her with a shocked, wide-eyed expression. Ronnie Anne looked past him. Lucy was asleep, snoring, and Lynn lay on top of the covers with her arms behind her head. She wore only a tiny pair of boy shorts and a sports bra. She, too, was red and sweaty, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she sucked great gulps of air. A warm, musky smell wafted out and made Ronnie Anne's nose cringe.
What the fuck?
"Oh, uh, hey, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln said nervously. "What's up?"
Ronnie Anne tried to speak but her mind was frozen. She opened her mouth to speak, and nothing came out. She could hear Girl Jordan's voice ringing through her head, accusing Lincoln of sleeping with one of his sisters.
"W-What are you doing?" she asked.
Lincoln rubbed the back of his neck and didn't meet her eyes as he replied. "I was just working out with Lynn. I wanna, you know, lose the spaghetti arms."
"He's really self-conscious about being a living stick figure," Lynn said. She uncrossed and recrossed her legs. Was it Ronnie Anne's imagination or was Lynn's crotch damp? Like maybe -
Ronnie Anne cut that thought off before it could form. "Makes sense, I guess," she said at length. She resisted the urge to rub the back of her neck as Lincoln had done and looked down at her shoes. His explanation rang true, but she still had the feeling that she had walked in on something that she wasn't meant to see. Something deeply disturbing. She opened her mouth to say something further, but scurried away and locked herself in the bathroom instead. Alone, she leaned back against the door and took a series of deep breaths. Did she just catch Lincoln doing exactly what Jordan and the others accused him of doing?
No! That was stupid! Hadn't Lincoln mentioned wanting to bulk up in the past? She couldn't clearly recall but she seemed to think that he had.
She shook her head. She was letting those assholes get to her. She sighed, used the bathroom, and reached for her toothbrush before realizing that she wasn't at home and had left her toiletries bag downstairs.
Ugh.
Nevermind.
Her teeth were fine anyway. The last time she went to the dentist, he said her teeth were strong as diamonds. Whatever you're doing, kid, keep it up.
I brush once a day and drink sugary Mexican soda all the time, but okay, if it works, it works.
She considered a shower, but decided to catch one in the morning. She was so used to her school year schedule of being up at 6:30 that she couldn't sleep in no matter how hard she tried, and a nice, hot shower was just the shot in the arm her morning needed.
Snapping the light out, she left the bathroom and walked to the end of the hall. She stopped at Lynn and Lucy's door when she picked up the faint sound of muffled voices. "God, I'm so sore," Lynn said. "I'm gonna be walking funny for a week."
"You guys shouldn't be doing that," Lucy said, "it's wrong."
"You're just jealous because he doesn't do it with you."
Lucy said haha.
Ronnie Anne's hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened. That conversation rang through her head as she went downstairs and laid in the blanket fort. She stretched out on her back and stared up into the darkness, her expression one of abject mortification. She tried to tell herself that she misunderstood what they were saying, but...did she really? She could buy that they were working out, but that didn't sound like a sisterly chat about exercising. Lucy said it was "wrong" and Lynn said she would be "walking funny for a week." Was she mistaken, or were they…?
No, she was mistaken. She had to be. Lincoln would never do anything like that with one of his sisters. He was kind of a wimp, but he was no freaking pervert. Lynn and Lucy had to be talking about something else, she, Ronnie Anne, just happened to walk up at the worst possible moment. Out of context, it sounded like they were talking about incest when in actuality, they weren't. She was letting Jordan's accusations color her of perspective of things, the way one gets freaked out after watching a horror movie and begins to believe that every natural sound is something ominous and monstrous.
A sudden rush of shame crept up the back of her neck. What kind of friend was she? Someone made a crazy and spiteful comment about Lincoln and now she was jumping at shadows. A real friend would stand firm in his corner instead of instantly assuming the worst because she heard half a conversation.
She sucked.
Even so, it took her a long time to fall asleep that night, and when she came groggily awake just before 6:30, her eyes and head both ached. She pressed her hand to her fevered forehead and issued a miserable groan. She tried to fall back asleep but after ten fruitless minutes, she forced herself to get up. The living room was empty and filled with gloom at this hour, and deep silence held sway over the house. Thin, orange sunlight trickled through the window but did little to dispel the ashy shadows and the lush trees visible through the front window swayed slightly in the breeze. Ronnie Anne had always loved being awake in the morning before everyone else. There was something clean and peaceful about the hours on either side of sunrise; it was like spring, a time of rebirth and rejuvenation.
Maybe she was just a mega-ultra dork, though. That was a possibility as well.
Gathering her things and a change of clothes, Ronnie Anne went upstairs, which was pitch black save for the flickering rust-colored glow of the nightlight in the bathroom. She switched the light on, locked the door, and sat her clothes on the closed toilet lid. She stripped out of her PJs, turned on the shower, and adjusted the temperature. She got in, squirted body wash into her purple loofah, and began to wash herself. As she did so, she went back to what had happened the night before. In the light of day, it seemed silly. Lincoln? Having sex with one of his sisters? Ha, don't make me life. She was still ashamed of herself for letting herself doubt him for even a minute, but hey, she never claimed to be the most rational person in the world. She was only human and as such, she said and did dumb shit from time to time. Even the smartest among us let themselves get carried away occasionally. She hated mentioning Nazis because everyone was always talking aout them, but seriously, some of them were genius level intelligent and they still fell for some dumb anti-Jewish stuff. If someone with an IQ of 150 can go full retard for twelve years, normal people like her should get a pass for being kinda dumb sometimes.
Even so, it was such a freaking stupid accusation. Lincoln is having sex with his sisters. We have no proof or evidence but we're gonna say it anyway hurr de durr. She oughta find Jordan and the others and beat them up for planting a seed of doubt in her head. Show them to run around making baseless accusations about people. If she saw them again, she probably would. Clyde and Cristina would be easy to handle. Jordan would prove more of a challenge, but she was pretty sure that she could take her.
Done in the shower, Ronnie Anne hopped out and toweled off. She pulled on her underwear, a pair of jean shorts, and a purple tank top. Her tiny breasts made little tents in the fabric, and rolling her eyes, she popped the tank top off and put on her bra. She hated wearing bras. She wouldn't do it even now, but her hyper Catholic family had made her feel ashamed of her body. Ronalda, I can see your breasts! How sinful and disgusting! Put on your bra now or you'll burn in hell. If it's so gross, why did God give me breasts in the first place? I didn't ask for them. That's on him, not me.
Dressed, she brushed her teeth, flashed a toothy smile at her reflection, and pronounced herself finished and ready for the day. She opened the door and went into the hall just as Lincoln came out of Luna and Luan's room.
Ronnie Anne skidded to a halt.
Lincoln was in only his underwear, and even from here, his body was tense with nerves, almost like he was afraid of being caught. Luan appeared in the doorway and leaned one shoulder against the jamb. She wore a rumpled nightgown that was partially hiked on one side and slipped down her shoulder/. Her hair was messy and her face a light shade of red, indicating recent exertion. Her eyes sparkled and when she spoke, her voice was low and sultry. "Thank you, Linc," she said.
"No problem," he said.
They stared at each other for a moment, then he went to his bedroom, neither one seeing her standing there.
It's nothing, Ronnie Anne told herself later on. Maybe Luan had a nightmare and Lincoln went to comfort her. It couldn't be...you know...it just couldn't.
Right?
Half an hour after Ronnie Anne caught Lincoln sneaking out of Luan's room, the Louds started coming downstairs. Mrs. Loud, clad in a threadbare pink robe that was probably older than Lori, made a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes and the Loud girls all plotted their plans for the day. Lori was going to the spa with Leni, Luna was going to hang out with her girlfriend Sam, Luan was going to see Benny (whom she called cute and sweet and "good boyfriend material"), and Lynn was going to the park with Francisco. Both of the girls Ronnie Anne had (briefly) considered were involved with Lincoln both had boyfriends, so that pretty much absolved them of suspicion. "You wanna hit up Gus's?" Lincoln asked Ronnie Anne.
"Sure," she said.
They finished up their breakfast and Lincoln darted upstairs to get dressed. Ronnie Anne sat on the couch with Lola and Lana and waited for him. Spongebob was on and Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "Are they still pushing this crap?"
Lana and Lola both looked at her funny.
"Nick keeps shoving Spongebob down our throats when there are so many better shows on. Like..it keeps winning the Kids Choice Award and -"
Lola cut her off. "Who cares?"
"That award doesn't matter," Lana said.
"And even if you did," Lola added, "Spongebob deserves it. It's the best show on Nick."
Ronnie Anne couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you serious? Modern Spongebob sucks."
"Modern you sucks," Lana said.
"You're just mad because whatever dumb show you don't like keeps losing," Lola said.
"I'm getting really tired of the Spongebob hate," Lana said. "It's a good show and if you're really reading that deeply into a cartoon, you got issues."
Lola nodded. "Maybe it's time to get a life."
They both laughed and Ronnie Anne's cheeks blazed with crimson rage. If Lincoln hadn't picked that moment to come tumbling down the stairs, she would have said or done something she, Lana, and Lola would all regret. "Ready?" Lincoln asked.
"You can take her away now," Lola said and shooed Ronnie Anne.
"Yeah, we're done with her crap."
Lincoln's brow furrowed and he looked to Ronnie Anne for an answer. Ronnie Anne took a deep breath that did little to relieve the hot pressure on her chest and got up. "Let's go," she said.
Outside, the day was already hot and bright. A warm breeze blew the smell of freshly cut grass and the sound of laughing children over them. Birds sang from their tree top perches and squirrels chased each other across the yard, one streaking up the gnarled trunk of an old oak tree. "What was that about?" Lincoln asked.
"Nothing," Ronnie Anne said, already calling down, "we just disagreed. Not biggie."
"Did you insult Spongebob?" Lincoln asked knowingly.
Ronnie Anne shrugged one shoulder. You could say she insulted Spongebob if you wanted to, but she didn't see it that way. If you asked her, she just pointed out a fact. "Did you?" he pressed.
"I guess," she said.
"Yeah. that'll do it," he said, "Lana and Lola are major Spongeheads. You can't say anything bad about Spongebob around them."
They walked in silence for a while, crossing busy streets and following overgrown, disused railroad tracks. They passed a group of bums in rags sitting around a campfire, a group of kids on their way to find a dead body, and an old lady pushing a shopping cart full of plastic bottles. There were lots of interesting characters walking the rails today, weren't there? Ronnie Anne started to ask Lincoln about what he was doing with Luan that morning but cut herself off. It didn't matter because it wasn't anything dirty, so it wasn't really her business.
Nearly half an hour after setting out, they reached Gus's. The building was divided into two sections, with the restaurant on the right and the arcade on the left. At this early hour, the arcade was largely empty save for a few early birds standing around the newest game cabinet. The room was dimly lit, like a cave, and filled with flashing lights, dinging sounds, and the smell of stale pizza.
First, they played Dance, Dance Revolution just like old times. Lincoln had always been clumsy when they used to play, but now he had moves. He thrusted his hips, slid side to side, and wiggled his butt. It was comical but also kind of disturbing. It was almost like he had been practicing.
By having tons of sex.
Ronnie Anne stumbled and almost fell. Damn it, will you stop thinking stuff like that? He's not having sex with one of his sisters. Will you stop being a freaking weirdo and acting like he is? What, do you like the idea of incest? Does it turn you on, Ronalda? Do you have some unresolved brother issues? You gonna jump Bobby's bones when you get home?
Her face screwed up like she had just tasted something sour and for a moment, she thought she was going to hurl. Incest was straight up disgusting and she would never in a million years do it with her own brother. God, who would?
Luan?
Lynn?
No. Stop this right now.
She took a deep breath. "You doing okay?" Lincoln asked. He jumped into the air, did a sick 360 degree spin, and stuck a perfect landing.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said and uttered a nervous chuckle, "I just didn't expect you to bring it like this."
Lincoln grinned. "I've been practicing."
"It shows," she said.
After they were tuckered out, they moved onto Ms. Pac-Man and eventually House of the Dead. Following that, they crossed over to the restaurant and ordered a couple of hamburgers and some French fries. They talked a little as they ate, but halfway through, Lincoln's phone buzzed and he took it out. For the next ten minutes, he smiled at it and texted back and forth with somebody. It was clearly a girl.
The fact that he was with somebody didn't really sink in until now. Jordan's group told her that he had a girlfriend but it wasn't real until she saw it for herself. That was good, she was happy for him. She wasn't jealous or upset or anything like that. She had always been open to the idea of dating him, but she was also open to the idea of hanging out with Nikki and Sid; if they were busy, oh well, she'd go do something else.
After a while, Lincoln bit his bottom lip, then quickly shoved his phone into his pocket. "I gotta go," he said in a rush.
"Where?" Ronnie Anne asked.
He dug a twenty out of his pocket and dropped it on the table. "It's nothing, I just gotta go."
Without another word, he hurried to the door and pushed through. Ronnie Anne twisted around in her seat and called his name, but he was already gone. She stared after him for a few moments and then nibbled thoughtfully on her lower lip. The decision to follow him was a snap one, and before she knew what she was doing, she was on her feet and heading for the door. Her stomach rumbled a low warning, and she ran back to the table, grabbing three slices of pizza and mashing them together like a sandwich. She jammed it into her mouth, took a big, hungry bite, and hurried across the dining room. Outside, she went right. He was two blocks ahead and walking quickly, head down and shoulders hunched. He was clearly a man on a mission and Ronnie Anne had to almost run to even come close to closing the gap between them.
If stopped and asked by an omnipotent being why she was following Lincoln, she would say that she was curious about his new gf. She would say that she wanted to see where he would go and find out just who he was dating. That, after all, was the explanation she had given herself. It was not untrue, but deep down, on a subconscious level, she had other motives.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Lincoln led her on a meandering zigzag pattern. The more landmarks she recognized, the more she became certain that she knew where he was going. Even so, when he turned onto Franklin Avenue and went into his own house, her heartbeat sped up. Her mind tried to come up with a plausible excuse but couldn't.
What was he doing here? Why did he run off in such a hurry? And most importantly: Who was he talking to?
Something was fishy here.
For a minute, she considered kicking the front door open and striding in like an old west lawman but decided against it. She was burning with curiosity, but some small yet vocal part of her was afraid of what she might find.
Instead, she went to the park and sat on a propped her elbows on her knees, rested her face in her upturned palms, and heaved a deep breath, blowing away a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail. Doubts swirled through her head and her eyes became muddled with dark uncertainty. She had believed that Jordan and her gang were just jealous and salty buttheads who had a hate boner for Lincoln, but now she was seriously beginning to wonder if they were right. Let's look at the evidence:
Lincoln came out of Lynn's room sweating.
Lucy and Lynn's conversation. Lucy said You guys shouldn't be doing this. Her tone was probably as flat as her butt, but in hindsight, Ronnie Anne was sure that she heard disgust and revulsion.
Lincoln came out of Luan's room, also sweating. The way Luan looked at him was intense, sinful even.
Lincoln was obviously texting with a girl and ditched Ronnie Anne to go be with her. When Ronnie Anne followed, he led her right back to his own house. Maybe she was being paranoid, but all of those things suggested something was up.
Then again, laying it all out made it seem dumb. Earlier, she thought of herself as jumping at shadows, and that was apt, because she kind of was. All of her so-called evidence was circumstantial. If she tried to bring it into a court of law, the judge would laugh her out of the room. She was getting worked up over nothing.
But it didn't feel that way, especially after the latest incident. No one grins at their phone like a goofball unless they're talking to someone they like-like. That was an unalterable truth of life in the year 2021. She had no doubt whatsoever that he was talking to his girlfriend and that he ran out of the restaurant to be with her.
But he went home.
Granted, maybe she was coming to him.
Sudden curiosity overcame Ronnie Anne and she got to her feet. She had to know.
Being as quick as she could, she went back to The Loud house. Instead of going inside, however, she went around the side and craned her neck up to look at Lincoln's window. There was a tree underneath it. If she climbed to the top, she could maybe see in.
Taking a deep breath, she scurried up the tunk like a monkey, shaking the leaves. She used the branches as a ladder and reached the top. She balanced herself on the uppermost limb, her arms out on either side of her. She wobbled, swayed, and almost fell, but retained her balance. The window was directly across from her. She put her hand up to her face to shield her eyes from the glare of the midday sun and squinted her eyes.
What she saw shocked her.
She didn't know what she expected to find, but it wasn't Lincoln on top of a girl and thrusting madly into her. His face was red and sweaty and a series of grunts escaped his bobbing throat. Ronnie Anne couldn't see who he was...uh...doing, but she could hear her gasps and moans of pleasure.
Just then, someone called out from the ground, and Ronnie Anne lost her balance. Heart in throat, she fell, hitting every branch on the way down. She landed in the grass with a thud and the world spun. Two sets of arms grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. Dazed, she pressed her hand to her head. "Thanks," she said.
"No problem," Lynn said.
"That tree's bark is worse than it's bite," Luan quipped.
Both Loud girls wandered off again and left Ronnie Anne alone. She sat on the top step and rubbed her poor, throbbing head. It took her a while to process everything that had happened. Lincoln was definitely in there with a girl...but it wasn't Lynn or Luan.
Case closed, right?
Not so fast. She wouldn't be satisfied until she saw Lincoln's girlfriend.
So, she decided, she would sit here and wait.
She waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The sun tracked across the sky and everything seemed to speed up like a VHS being fast-forwarded. Ronnie Anne imagined some cheesy 80s song or something playing as she sat there minute after minute, hour after hour. Finally, the door opened and her heart leapt. She got to her feet and spun around to meet Lincoln's gf.
Lori, Luna, Leni, and Lana and Lola came out in a big group, laughing over something one of them had said. Ronnie Anne's shoulders slumped and a metaphoric curl of smoke lifted from her head. "Oh, hey, Ronnie," Lori said, "what are you doing here?" She lifted a quizzical brow. Did Ronnie Anne hear guilt in her voice?
No, she decided, she was being paranoid. Lori asked her that not out of guilt but because, well, to be honest, Ronnie Anne was sitting out here like a weirdo. "Nothing," Ronnie Anne said quickly. She definitely heard shame in her own voice. "Just hanging out." She hesitated, then asked, "Is Lincoln in there?"
Lori opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Uh...I don't know. I haven't seen him in a while."
The Loud girls passed on their way somewhere and Ronnie Anne went inside. She crept up the steps and poked her head around the corner. Lincoln's door was closed. Was he still in there with his gf?
Only one way to find out.
She went up to the door and knocked.
"Come in," Lincoln called.
She opened the door, ready for anything.
Lincoln was stretched out on his bed and reading a comic. He was fully dressed…
...and alone.
He noticed the look on her face. "Everything okay?"
Ronnie Anne's mind raced. No, everything was not okay. She saw him having sex with someone and she waited for over an hour on the porch, but this mystery girl never came out and now Lincoln was alone. That meant she had to be one of his sisters. That meant Jordan and her group were 100 percent right about him. Everything she thought she knew about the world was crashing down around her ears and she didn't know what to think anymore. She realized that Lincoln was looking at her funny, and she blushed in embarrassment. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just wondering why you ditched me." She flashed a good natured smile and dropped onto the edge of the bed, doing her level best to act natural. She burst with questions but she didn't dare ask any of them.
"Yeah, uh, my girlfriend texted me.":
Oh...for some reason, she expected him to deny it. "Oh, okay," she said, picking her words very carefully. "You could have said something." She grinned again. "Where did you guys go?"
"She came here," Lincoln said.
That was bull dinky, there was no one in here but him and his sisters. She guessed the girl could have used the back door, but the entire back yard is surrounded by an eight foot tall wooden stockade fence. There was no way this mystery girl could have scaled that fence. In order to leave, she would have had to walk around to the front, and Ronnie Anne would have seen her. That fact alone sank the whole theroy that Lincoln wasn't doing one of his sisters.
God, it was true.
It was all true.
She and Lincoln chatted for a while before she excused herself. She needed time to think and be alone. Outside, the light was beginning to weakn and shadows grew long across the ground. She set off and wandered aimlessly around for a while, deep in thought. Her mind continued to rebel at the idea of Lincoln doing something so gross and nasty, but the evidence was piling up. She considered herself a smart and logical girl, and if there was evidence to disprove something she believed, even if it was near and dear to her heart, she would accept it and change her mind. She didn't want to think that Lincoln was a creepy incest pervert but the facts were telling her otherwise. What choice did she have but to admit that Jordan and her little friends were right? She reminded herself that all of the evidence she had was purely circumstantial, but there comes a point where you gather enough that it becomes just as good. She needed to find more, she needed -
"Hey, Ronnie Anne."
Ronnie Anne stopped mid-step and turned around, Jordan, Cristina, Clyde, and Stella stood in a group behind her. Ronnie Anne's dander instantly rose and her hands balled into fists. "What do you want?" she growled.
"How are things going at Lincoln's?" Jordan asked. "Anything weird happen?"
Ronnie Anne missed a beat.
For her part, Jordan noticed and seized on it. "Something did, didn't it?"
The thought of admitting defeat, especially to these assholes, ,made Ronnie Anne's face flush. She spun on her heels and started to stalk away. Jordan ran to keep up with her. "What happened, Ronnie?" she asked. "Come on."
"Leave me alone," Ronnie Anne grumbled.
Instead, Jordan grabbed her arm and forced her to look her in the eyes. "What happened?" she asked again.
They looked each other in the key for a long moment, and Ronnie Anne came so close to hitting her that her knuckles tingled. She was mad that Jordan was probably right, mad that Lincoln was doing this, confused, angry, upset, and ego-bruised. She could take it out on Jordan right now, she could release all those feelings and experience a heady rush of endorphins, but it wouldn't change anything.
Sighing, Ronnie Anne said, "Nothing, okay? Nothing happened. You guys just got me jumping at shadows."
They were all standing around her now. "What shadows?" Stella asked.
"Yeah, what happened?" Clyde asked.
Ronnie Anne didn't want to talk to them, but she heard her voice anyway. She told them everything that had happened since yesterday, and as she spoke, the faces of her companions winced and twisted in disgust. "I don't know if it's true," Ronnie Anne finished, "but -"
"It is true," Jordan said. "Look, I get that you're his friend. We're not trying to ruin his life here, but...don't you want to know?"
Yes. She couldn't deny that and she wouldn't even try. Curiosity smoldered in the center of her chest and the desire to find out who Lincoln was seeing - be it one of his sisters or someone else - was almost total. She just had to find out who she was.
"Do you have any idea which one of his sisters it could be?" Jordan asked.
Ronnie Anne shoo her head. "I thought it was Lynn and Luan, but they were outside when Lincoln was upstairs."
Jordan frowned. "Damn. Do you think you could find out?"
"Maybe," Ronnie Anne said. "I could try."
From there, Ronnie Anne and the others went to Flip's, where she sat at one of the tables by the window. Jordan and Ronnie Anne worked out a plan in case Lincoln went off to meet his girlfriend again. "My main suspects are Lori, Leni, and Luna," Ronnie Anne said. When the word Lori left her mouth, Clyde's face darkened and his hand tightened around his can of Coke, crumpling it and making dimples in the aluminum. Stella gave his shoulder a comforting pat and Ronnie Anne blinked in surprise. She had always thought Clyde was a harmless little dork, the kind of guy who couldn't bust a gut at a comedy show, but in that moment, he was downright scary. She knew that he was really into Lori but she had no idea that his feelings were this strong.
"We're gonna have to keep close tabs on them then," Jordan said. "I figure it's one of the older ones too." She grabbed a napkin and jotted down a list of suspects. Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, and, last but not least, Lisa. None of them thought to add Lily because none of them thought Lincoln was that cooked in the head. Plus, Ronnie Anne was certain that the sounds she heard were made by an older girl.
Jordan crossed a line through Lynn and Luan. "We know it's not them because they were outside while Lincoln was popping his girlfriend," Jordan said crudely. She drew rectangles around the names of the younger girls. "We're pretty sure that it isn't one of them but it could be." She underlined Lori, Leni, and Luna's names. "These are our prime suspects. Ronnie, tomorrow morning, find out what they're doing for the day and text me. Each one of us will follow them around. You stay as close to Lincoln as possible. If you ever get into a situation like today where he leaves, follow him. If you see him and his girlfriend in his room again, just go right in. Pretend like you have no idea what you're walking into."
"Okay," Ronnie Anne said with a nod.
"Clyde, your dads have tape recorders and stuff, right?"
Harold McBride was the general manager of WKBBL, the local FM top 40 station and had a home studio filled with professional grade recording equipment from which he used to read the weather and the day's top stories.
"Yeah," Clyde said.
"Get a couple tape recorders that we can hide around Lincoln's house. That way we can listen in on what's happening."
Clyde nodded.
"Keep your eye on Lincoln," Jordan said.
"I will," Ronnie Anne promised.
When they were done, Ronnie Anne grabbed a Flpeez and walked back to the Loud house. She stood on the walkway and looked up at the house, her teeth nibbling her lower lip. The Loud house had always been warm and inviting, but after the events of the last couple days, it had become dark and foreboding. She stayed there for a long time before forcing herself to go in.
Leni, Lisa, and Luna were sitting on the couch and watching a movie where some black guy in a hockey mask chased a woman with a revving chainsaw. "I don't know why we're even still watching this," Luna said.
"Lucy has not been present for quite some time," Lisa pointed out. "However, I would be disingenuous if I were to say that I am not enjoying this film."
Ronnie Anne sat next to Lisa but none of the girls acknowledged her. "Where's Linoln?" she asked.
"His room," Lisa said, "as always."
Getting up, Ronnie Anne climbed the stairs and went into Lincoln's room, where he was playing a video game now. "Where'd you go?" he asked.
"Just for a walk," she said with a shrug. "I saw Clyde."
She wanted to test his reaction to her bringing up Clyde, since she didn't know much about their relationship these days or how Lincoln felt about him. "Oh?" he asked nonchalantly. "I haven't seen much of him lately. How is he?"
"He's alright, I guess," she said. "He was kind of standoffish."
Lincoln nodded understandingly. "Yeah, he'd been like that for a while. I don't know why."
"People juist drift apart sometimes," Ronnie Anne said.
"True," Lincoln agreed. "You wanna play?"
Ronnie Anne grabbed the second controller, and for the next hour, they chased each other around a blasted hellscape and shot at each other with blasters. They laughed and joked, and for a little while, it was like old times again. She could almost forget all of the things that had happened over the past 24 hours.
Mrs. Loud called up the stairs to say that dinner was ready, and Lincoln and Ronnie Anne raced each other down the steps. Lincoln was in the lead but Ronnie Anne won by jumping over the bannister and landing on her feet in the living room. She sat between Lana and Lola. "Oh, look," Lana said, "it's the Spongebob hater."
"Spongebob was on five times today," Lola said, "by popular demand, of course. Your favorite show was put on once as a mercy broadcast."
The twins both yukked it up like that was the funniest thing either one of them had ever heard, and Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. This right here was the reason that she was glad she didn't have younger siblings. They were so annoying. Was she like this to Bobby when she was a little kid? If so, she would have to make it a point to track him down when she got back home to Great Lakes City and profusely apologize.
Because her mind was not actively engaged, it drifted back to Lincoln and his possible incest. For the rest of the evening, it weighed heavily on her conscience. After dinner, she sat in the big armchair in the living room and stared off into the distance as she attempted to process everything. She was so caught up in her reprieve that she didn't realize she was no longer alone until Lori sat on the ottoman across from her. "You look like something's bothering you," she said point blank. Ronnie Anne was caught off guard and wondered if she had given some obvious sign of her internal distress. Noticing her bewilderment, Lori smiled, "I have nine younger sisters, and I'm basically a mom to them. I have a sixth sense about these things." Here she tapped her forehead like the black guy in that meme.
"It's nothing," Ronnie Anne said, "I guess I'm just a little homesick."
The lie came to her in a flash of brilliance and rolled smoothly off her tongue. She didn't make it a habit to lie to people but sometimes, a lie must be told, and she was pretty sure that she was decently good at it. She could fool her teachers and even membvers of her family, and if she set her mind to it, she could probably fool almost anyone else, except for maybe a cop.
Or Lori Loud.
To be fair, she didn't really bring her A-game. Some facial tic gave her away and knew it instantaneously, because Lori tilted her head to one side. "Are you sure about that?" the older girl asked.
Ronnie Anne choked. If she had been quicker on the upchuck, she may have come up with a convincing lie, or at least one good enough to make Lori give up and leave her alone. She was not, however, quicker on the upchuck, and she all but told Lori that there was, actually, a problem. Leaning over and laying a warm, sisterly hand on Ronnie Anne's knee, Lori asked, "What is it?"
There was no point in trying to hide or downplay it. The jig was up. How much could she say, though? Lori was one of her prime suspects. On the other hand, Lori had been dating Bobby forever and Ronnie Anne knew her in a way that she didn't know the other Loud girls. Lori was responsible and grown-up. Of all the Louds Lincoln could be banging, she was the next to last one Ronnie Anne truly suspected, behind only Lily.
Still, it would be best not to say anything at all.
That was a good idea, and Ronnie Anne resolved to stick with it, but something about Lori's comforting presence dragged it out of her. Ronnie Anne loved Bobby but in a way, she had always wanted an older sister, someone she could talk to, confide in, and seek advice from in a way that she couldn't with Bobby. Bobby was great, but he was a boy, he didn't know what it was like to be a girl and he had no idea how to handle girl problems. There were things that Ronnie Anne found hard bringing to her mother and she couldn't bring them to Bobby, either, so she just kept them to herself. Since moving to Great Lakes City, she had become really close with her cousin Carlotta, who somewhat filled the vacant role of older sister. Maybe Ronnie Anne was desperate for sisterly figures, maybe she had an inborn weakness. Whatever the case may be, she told Lori everything, starting with meeting Jordan and the others the previous day and ending with seeing Lincoln and "someone" through the bedroom window. She didn't mention the second meeting with Jordan's group because she needed to keep some of her cards close to her chest.
As she spoke, the color drained from Lori's face and she covered her own mouth with her hand. When she was done, Lori sat there for a moment. "Okay, first of all, that Lincoln is...sexually active...is literally, like, I can't even. And second...do you really think it's one of our sisters?"
"I don't know," Ronnie Anne half said, half moaned. "It kind of looks like that."
Lori pursed her lips. "I have to admit, it does." She prodded the inside of her lower lip with her tongue. "We need to find out who it is."
"How?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"I don't know," Lori said, "but I'll think of something. A trap, maybe, or cameras."
"Doesn't Lisa have cameras around?" Ronnie Anne asked, remembering a prior visit to the Loud house.
Sadly, Lori shook her head. "Mom and Dad made her take them out."
Damn.
Lori hummed. "Well, I know it's not Leni. Leni knows what sex is but she has, like, a crude understanding of it. Plus, she'd never be able to keep it a secret."
"So you think it's Luna?" Ronnie Anne asked.
For a moment, Lori was quiet, thoughtful. "Maybe. Or Lucy. I doubt it'd be one of the younger ones, but, I mean, if he's breaking one taboo, why not another?"
They shivered in unison.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this," Lori vowed. "And when we do, I'm going to turn both of them into human pretzels."
She patted Ronnie Anne's leg and got to her feet. "Just hang tight. We'll talk more about this tomorrow. Right now, I need to process all of this."
"Okay," Ronnie Anne said.
Lori went upstairs and Ronnie Anne issued a contented sigh. Lincoln appeared a few minutes later, and they watched a movie together with Lucy. Lincoln sat beside his sister and Ronnie Anne kept more of an eye on them than the movie, which was fine with her, since it was some boring old Italian horror movie with a killer who wore a fedora. LOL, neckbeard, scary.
After the movie, everyone parted ways and Ronnie Anne stretched out on the couch. She felt much better after their conversation, and was ready to face tomorrow.
No matter what it brought.