As soon as Eleanor's parents leave, the BBQ is pretty much over. Eleanor, overcome with emotion, leads him back to his room, where she cries on his shoulder. He's never seen her cry & he thinks it might be her first time, because her sobs are just tight little hiccups desperately trying to escape their confinement. Justin is not a crier himself, but he imagines, if he ever felt the need to, he would let it happen, the way his sister Jeanette used cry, long & loud, she could go on for hours at a time, her tears streaming inexhaustibly. Justin used to love watching Jeanette cry, the way she would sit on the floor, arms tucked around her stomach as she lifted her wet, reddened face to the sky & howled. Eleanor cries more like his sister Josie, like she's afraid of her own tears. "Just let it all out, Princess," he encourages her quietly as he holds her, and she loosens beneath his hands, letting her tears fall finally, drenching him in them.

Justin has finally grasped what Eleanor was so afraid of: she's lost everything she had, he can't begin to comprehend how much it was, but she let it go rather than leave him. Because she loves him, he did hear her say it, he's sure. It would feel a lot better if he weren't afraid she's going to start regretting it as soon as she wants something he can't get for her. "I didn't want to ruin your life, Eleanor," he says quietly, sadly, knowing no apology could ever be enough, nothing he will ever do will make up for what she's lost. His strange little princess suddenly picks herself up & looks at him, her dark eyes gleaming & defiant behind the drying tears, "My life is far from ruined, Justin," she says, "All I've lost is something most people live without their entire lives..My life isn't ruined if yours isn't, Justin." He's been told repeatedly he had ruined his life, but he never believed it himself, until it became an issue with Eleanor's family.

From what he understands, her parent's cut off all support, including her school, and since her job is some kind of school-based thing, she doesn't even have that to rely on. Justin wanted a princess: he's willing to take care of her princess style, as much as he is able. So he offers her his home, or to move with her somewhere else, and actually gets a little caught up in the idea, imagining having her all to himself in some cottage where they'd never have to see anyone else again. She shakes her head sadly, and tells him she wants to be independent, to support herself, and he's jerked back into the real world, a big let down.

She's smiling as she takes his hands, "I've never been on my own, Justin, or had to take care of myself, and I won't be able to live happily if I don't do it, at least for a while. I want to be able to pay my own rent, but that doesn't mean I want to start sleeping up in my room with Kira again," she says to him, "Nothing will change between us." It's futile to say nothing willl change, Justin thinks, things always change...

"Tell me you love me," he says, grasping handfuls of hair, needing to hear it, again, to be sure, she still means it. "I love you, Justin," she says, her smile prettier by the second. If he's got that, he thinks, he can do anything.

Eleanor's bitch mother is gone now, and Eleanor seems to have no regrets, to look forward to having to live like a regular person. Justin begins to relax.