Disclaimer: I don't own The Loud House, the brand, as well as all of its characters and settings belong to Chris Savino and Nickelodeon, all rights reserved.
Chapter 3: Apology.
There she was, in front of Lincoln's room, the only thing she had to do was to knock the door, expect for a response from her brother and just inform him of dinner being ready, that's it.
… So why was it so hard? Was it because of her pride? She certainly wouldn't care to move a finger for anybody that yelled at her the way he did, if he wanted to talk to her, he had to be the one to apologize! … But, this wasn't the time nor the place for said apology to take place, she was just fulfilling an order from her dad, so, again, what was stopping her?
On top of that, she felt neither rage nor resentment towards the albino, rather, the same pain and guilt that she felt in the kitchen were starting to resurface.
- maybe, just maybe… - she thought – I should be the one to apologize? – Lola pondered this realization for a moment, before harshly shocking her head in disbelief.
- NO! Why should I be the one to apologize? He's the older one of the two, he is bigger than me, he shouldn't have yelled at me, the sister that supports him best! The sister that always worries about him the most! The sister that looks up to him the most! He betrayed me! – Lola's inner thoughts became intense, filling her with rage and… a lot of sadness as well, but more quickly than not, the shame that she was feeling earlier had also come back, stronger than ever.
- Besides… if I admit guilt over what I did, he'll probably think I'm weird… - Lola lowered her head in shame and fear of her brother fully realizing the act of desperation that she performed this morning to get him to spend some time with her at her room.
- Lola? Lincoln? … Is everything alright up there? – the faint sound of Lynn Loud Sr.'s voice echoed from the dining room downstairs, snapping Lola of her trance and making her realize that everyone was already on the dinning table and waiting for their arrival, leaving her with not much time to gather the courage that she needed to finally knock on that dreaded door.
*tok* *tok*
- Come in! – the energetic voice of Lincoln is heard from behind the door, making Lola shiver and lose her resolve unexpectedly fast.
- Hi L-lincoln – Lola barely manages to get the words out – d-dad says dinner is ready – She says in one of her incredibly rare stuttering moments while waiting for a quick nod before running away to the dinning table, without even checking if Lincoln actually leaves the room.
As she quickly ups her pace by going down the stairs, Lola finds herself with a sight that, given any other day or situation, would have filled her heart with glee and joy, but that today, was having quite the opposite effect on her, clouding her brain with unease and anxiety.
There was a completely normal dinner table filled with the entire family minus Lana, Lincoln and Herself(… and Lori, it just never feels complete without her…), but the thing that was leaving her uneasy was not any specific absence from the table, but rather…
The presence of three empty chairs right next to each other, with one of them being used by Lynn as her latest trophy's spot, meaning that she would have to sit right next to… him…
The sitting positions of the Louds have never been set in stone, unlike many families, every time the Louds organize themselves on the dining table, they do so by choosing a random spot on the table, with the only exception being the Loud parents, who always sit at the edge of the table right behind the windows, and Lily, who is always in a baby chair next to Rita, as a result, no siblings compete with each other for a specific spot, it's been like that ever since the "kids" table and the "adults" table were merged as a result of Lincoln and Lynn switching places back and forth and ruining the distribution of food in the house as suddenly everyone wanted the "kids meal". For a while it worked like that with zero objection from everyone, as all Loud siblings found an unique opportunity to interact with other siblings that they don't talk much with by pure "chance", however, Lola had begun preferring to sit right besides Lincoln, a thing that she achieved by analyzing the order by which each Loud sibling arrived to the table, which was never random, to align her "entrance" with that of Lincoln's, as he has a natural tendency to go for a chair with adjacent empty spots and was at least faster than Lucy and Lisa at getting to the table, of course, Lola wasn't dumb, she also knew that she couldn't always sit by Lincoln's side, for the rest of the sisters would quickly realize that she is picking a spot next to him, so she would only do it occasionally, with the rest of the times choosing to sit close to Lana or as far away as possible from Luan and her painfully unfunny "dinner jokes".
Today however, was just one of those rare occasions in which she wasn't choosing a spot to eat and definitely not right next to him, considering that this time around, even Lucy and Lisa were already on the table first due to how long it took for her to inform Lincoln. Lola sighed in defeat and walked slowly to sit closer to her dad, as she also wasn't looking forward to smell Lynn's "glorious fruit of labor" as she would define it herself, waiting for the chair at her left to be inevitably occupied by him.
As Lola gets her chair ready to sit on it, Rita Looks at her with worried eyes, noticing the very apparent lack of enthusiasm in her face, and decides to break the ice in the table by speaking first.
- Honey, is there anything wrong? – Rita says while bringing a little smile to her own face to try to lighten the mood a little.
- She's probably mad at Lana for leaving all of her chores to her for tonight while she goes to have some mudwrestling fun - Before Lola could even answer, Lynn Jr. decides to come up with a reason on her behalf, fearing that she would talk further about their Little "disagreement" back at the kitchen.
- Oh come on sis, no need to be so muddy about it, get it!? – Luan intersects as well to tell one of her awful puns, surprisingly, this time around Lynn Sr. is not the only one to emit a chuckle out of it, for L.J. also finds her chance to laugh, probably in a pathetic attempt to move on from Lola's "gloomy" state.
Fortunately for everyone, including Lola herself, the unwanted attention to her current predicament did fade away, leaving Lola immersed in her thoughts without any interruption as her family continued talking about unimportant stuff or how Lynn Jr's trophy is amazing and yada yada. That is of course until a certain white haired boy makes an appearance.
- Sorry for being late guys! I was reading comics in my underwear so I had to get dressed – Lincoln sheepishly says as he casually seats in the remaining chair next to Lola.
- Ew Stinkoln, way too much info! – replies Lynn Jr. with a mocking disgusted face.
Everyone on the tables laughs full heartedly at Lynn's remark, except for Lola, who was still in a very awkward position, sinking herself into the wooden chair as her eyes steal brief glances at Lincoln's amused face, ~ his radiant smile ~ a smile that, if only temporarily, makes her forget everything that is wrong with her life, the smile of the person that she looks up to the most, a sight that actually made Lola ease her frown and curve her lips towards a small, but genuine smile of herself.
Following the rest of dinner, despite the fact that Lynn Sr.'s "Himalaya Goat Liver stew" was a dish better referred to by name than actually eaten… Lola was finding an easier time being on the table than expected, despite the fact that she couldn't bear to talk to Lincoln yet, Luan (and Mr. coconuts)'s puns were not that bad after a while and even got a chuckle or two from her and Luna's tale about meeting one of Mick Swagger's crew members in a concert today basically carried the entire conversation, if only because Lola got to see Lincoln's face being genuinely interested in Luna's story.
Eventually, everyone managed to miraculously finish the "exotic" dish and returned safely to their respective rooms, Lola then, to the surprise of everyone, offered herself to clean the dishes, if only to avoid the tension of having to go upstairs with him and have him say something among the lines of "I'm waiting for an apology", a thought that made Lola shudder in an instant.
Having finished the dishes, she finally decided to go upstairs, correctly guessing that everyone would be asleep by now, and headed straight to her room to continue her essential beauty sleep… and to feed Lana's pets, but before she arrived to her final destination, she stopped to take a peek at the door that leads to the Albino's room and repeated to herself the conclusion that she had reached after a long introspection of herself during the perilous dinner that she endured.
- I have to apologize to him -