The first few minutes of the ride home were dead silent. Lori was hyper-focused on the road, and Lincoln, who had acted so coolly and maturely in saying goodbye to his friend Ronnie Anne, now found himself holding back tears. This was a complete reversal of how the ride to the city had gone, with Lori sobbing inconsolably and Lincoln too focused on keeping his big sister together to let his own tears fall.

Lori had accepted that the Santiagos were gone—moved away, that is—and was determined to uphold her relationship with Bobby through as much video calling and texting as she could (more than usual, anyway), and they would reunite in college next year. She could survive a year. Yeah, that wouldn't be so bad.

Lincoln, on the other hand, was a bit sad to see Bobby go, as the two were good friends, but it pained him greatly that he had to say goodbye to Ronnie Anne. Sure, he could text and video call as easily as Lori could, but the eleven-year-old would sorely miss his best female friend's company. She may have called him "Lame-O" and dealt more punches to his shoulder than he could count, but he loved his friend and wished she could stay in Royal Woods. Though, the true friend he was, he accepted his friend's decision to move and remained strong when the time came to part ways. But as soon as he and Lori made it in the car, he couldn't help but think that his whole day had been essentially wasted. He and his sister had come all this way to get the Santiagos back, but had failed in the end. How could they have been so stupid as to think that they could stop them?

Lori stopped at a red light and glanced over at her little brother, frowning when she saw his devastated facial expression. "Aww, Lincoln..." She affectionately put a hand on his knee.

"I miss her so much already." The boy was on the verge of tears. "Why did we even do this? I-I mean...did we r-really think that we could convince them not to move just by sh-showing up uninvited?"

Sighing heavily, Lori shook her head. "I...thought things would end up differently, but I guess it turned out to literally be a waste of our time." The light turned green, prompting Lori to remove her hand and proceed.

"I'll say." It was unlike Lincoln to mope, but he was hurting badly right now. "I-I'm sorry, Lori. I—"

"No, don't be sorry," she said, cutting him off. "It's okay to be upset. I can't say I blame you...especially considering how I was on the way up here. I should literally be apologizing to you right now. So, I'm sorry."

Silence ensued. Lincoln wasn't used to seeing Lori like this. She was usually very curt with him, calling him "twerp" or threatening to turn him into a human pretzel when she was upset (a rather common occurrence), but she did love her only brother very much and couldn't bear to see him hurting like this.

For the next few minutes, Lincoln looked longingly out the window while Lori thought about how she could cheer him up. Maybe I'll help him out with his chores tonight. No, not enough. Lincoln didn't mind his chores and would probably find solace doing them alone. SkypeFace with Ronnie Anne for him on my computer? No, he could do that himself if he wanted to. Well, maybe I'll take him somewhere to eat. Get his mind off things. The sun was setting; it was getting rather close to dinner time, and the duo were definitely not going to make it home fast enough.

"Hey, Linc...you hungry?" she asked the boy, breaking the silence.

"Not really," he replied, but his stomach growled to signify the contrary. "Well...m-maybe a little."

Smiling a little, Lori touched his knee again. "There's a burger place down the road a bit. My treat."

"Lori, you don't h—"

"No, let me. We're literally never going to make it home in time for dinner, anyway."

"Okay…thank you."

Smiling wider, Lori reached over and tousled the boy's white hair. "You're welcome."

A few minutes passed, and Lori pulled Vanzilla into the parking lot of the aforementioned burger joint. She got out and started walking in, but she noticed after a few steps that her brother wasn't right behind her.

She turned back and opened the van's passenger door. "Hey, are you—oh…"

Lori could barely remember the last time she had seen Lincoln cry, years ago, but he sure was now. He had fought the tears all the way to the restaurant, finally letting them spill when Lori got out of the van. But now that she had come back for him, he was suddenly feeling very embarrassed. He turned his back to his sister and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force back the tears.

Briefly, Lori thought about going inside and letting Lincoln have his moment alone while she ordered for him (she knew he liked cream soda and bacon cheeseburgers), but she quickly dismissed the idea and decided to directly console him instead. So she climbed into the passenger seat next to her brother and gave him a big hug. "It's okay, Lincoln," she murmured.

"L-Lori, I'm s—"

"Shh...don't apologize." She rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him.

"B-but—"

"No buts. I know you're upset, don't be sorry," Lori said empathetically, holding Lincoln tighter.

He sobbed for a good twenty minutes into her shoulder, wishing they had never tried to get Ronnie Anne (and Bobby, but mostly Ronnie Anne in his case) back. Wishing she had never left in the first place. Wishing he'd had the guts to say to her what he'd been feeling for so long now. It made the sting of not being able to see her even worse.

Finally having shut off the waterworks, Lincoln pulled back to look up at an equally wrecked Lori, whose eyeliner was dripping from her own shed tears. "I-I love her, Lori. I never told her, but...I really love her."

"I know you do, Linc...I'm so sorry you can't see each other," Lori replied, knowing exactly how the boy felt. "You should text her. Right now. Tell her everything."

Surprised at the suggestion, Lincoln gasped. "Wh-what?! I can't—I mean, how do you just text someone 'I love you' like it's nothing?"

"It's not nothing," she explained to him. "Bobby and I do it literally all the time. It's how you feel. And you probably don't want to cry over the phone to her, but you'll feel a whole lot better getting that off your chest. Just text her."

"O-okay." He sniffled and took out his phone. Opening his messaging app, he typed a few sentences.

Hey. I miss you already. There's something I've been meaning to tell you, but I was too busy trying not to cry when we said goodbye earlier. I love you, Ronnie Anne, so much it hurts not to see you. Please don't think I'm so lame for that.

Tapping "Send," he chewed his lip. "Well…I guess that's it."

Lori pulled him in for another hug. "It'll be okay. I'm sure you'll see her soon, and I know she loves you, too. I sure do."

"I love you, too, Lori," Lincoln said, returning the embrace. "Thank you for being here for me."

"Always, Linc. Always."

The siblings walked into the burger joint with Lori's hand affectionately rubbing Lincoln's back. The boy may still have been upset, but he was starting to realize that maybe this whole trip hadn't been for nothing. It wasn't too often that Lori was overtly nice to him. Maybe this was the beginning of something special.

Suddenly, as the two sat down, Lincoln got a text message.

It was from Ronnie Anne!

Really? You seriously said that in a text? You're such a dork! But I love you, too.

Lincoln smiled for the first time in hours. No…today certainly wasn't a waste of time.