A/N - I have discovered just recently that in my writing, I just use the word "just" just too many times. It's rather annoying to have to just go back in and just remove all the extra "just"s.
Anyways, just enjoy!
Disclaimer: I just don't own iCarly.
Freddie had been yelling for a few minutes by that point. He was screaming about how unfair my original employment and later promotion was. I think he was overreacting, but it was true—I was a criminal, had violent tendencies, and hardly knew anything about the computers in general. He had every right to be angry, but I could see that this wasn't going to end well.
"He's still in love with me… so sad." I quipped, leaning on the counter next to my manager. The older woman smirked at me.
Finally, Fredbag's anger abated, and he just stood there heaving.
Now, that bad ending I was talking about? Yeah, well, Fredweird got himself fired. The manager even revoked his red shirt. It was brutal, and that's coming from a Puckett. This was pretty much his dream job—aside from his dream of someday owning the entire company—and the dejected look on his face was just too much. That smug bitch of a manager, I figured, could shove it up her ass.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" I asked, glaring at her. I wasn't sure why I was standing up for Freddie, but I was. It wasn't like I gained anything for speaking up. While I felt bad that he got fired, I didn't need to defend him. So why was I still talking?
"Nope." She chirped. I wanted to slap off that cocky grin.
My blood was boiling at that point. Her nonchalance was simply irritating. She had just let off the best guy…er, employee, that the Pear Store had ever had—not to mention that when one day when he actually owned the company, she'd be sorry—and she was none the wiser. I was ready to blow up. Either that would involve screaming or hitting (I quickly decided on both), but in the end, I think I made a better decision.
I had already let Fredloser get pretty far away. Yet, if I hurried, I could still catch him. I wasn't sure why, but I wanted to see if he was alright. Damn, two hours with a job and I was already going soft. I had to return to shoplifting ASAP, before I got any worse. Soon I might start doing… volunteer work!
So I said, "I'll be right back."
From behind me, I heard the manager say knowingly, "I'll never see you again will I?"
I gave her the finger, and left the store.
Once outside I faltered. How was I supposed to know which way Freddork would go? He could go home, which would be left, or he could go further into the mall, which would be right. I figured I would call him, but after checking my pockets, I found them empty. Then, I remembered that my phone was sitting in my employee locker…along with my shirt. Never getting that stuff back, I guess. I was just lucky, it seemed, that they didn't decide to strip me of my employee shirt as well. Everyone would have seen my pink build-a-bra. I would never have lived that down.
"Earth to Sam…" A voice said while a hand waved in front of my face.
My reflexes kicked in. I grabbed the hand and twisted it at the wrist. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the person started whining and pleading to be let go. I did.
"Don't sneak up on me like that."
Freddie stared at me, wide-eyed. "I didn't sneak up on you. You were just standing there, staring off into the distance for like five minutes."
"Don't tell me what I was doing."
He sighed, and rolled his eyes.
"Shouldn't you be at work?" He asked.
I did want to check up on him, but never once did that plan include the fact that I quit. What would he think of that? He would think that maybe I still had feelings for him—which I don't by the way. The week before when One Direction came to iCarly, I was all over them like fire on Spencer. I was totally over him.
"Just taking a break." I said, satisfied.
"A break? I never got a break."
"Well, you were never supervisor either." I stuck my tongue out at him, and I saw his face instantly fall. I wasn't exactly able to comprehend why someone would be so upset at losing their job—jobs sucked anyway—but Freddie did seem pretty torn up over it. "Look," I said softer than before. "I'm sorry you got fired."
"You're apologizing?" Fredlame asked, looking confused and kind of smug at the same time. "Wait…what for?" Suspicion had crept into his voice.
"For being the reason you got fire." I drawled, crossing my arms over my chest. This was more awkward than I thought. Whose brilliant idea was it to apologize? Fredweird was the one who had a spaz-attack, not me. Plus, it's not my fault that I was such a good employee. I didn't do anything to purposefully bother him. I was actually pretty civil for once, if I do say so myself. "Though if you didn't have to go and Freddie it up like usual… you'd never have gotten fired."
"Are you saying this is my fault?"
"Yes. If you weren't such an arrogant ass to the customers, you'd still have your job. You just had to stand there with your mega-hertz and terabytes. News flash, no one cares, Benson!"
That was a few steps back. I quit for the boy, apologized for something that I didn't really do, and then I blew up. So much for checking up on him…
"I care."
"Yes! You and your one person parade! Congratulations on being the biggest loser in the Mall. Keep in mind that Gibby is still in the Pear Store."
Just at that moment, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned and came face-to-face with my manager… or should I say ex-manager?
"I'm going to need the badge and shirt back." She said, holding out her hand.
"I don't have a shirt underneath," I snapped.
"Just the badge then…come on." I pressed it into her hand, and she closed her fingers around it like a bear trap. I didn't want the stupid thing anyhow.
"I left my phone and spare shirt in my locker." I explained quickly.
"You should have thought about that before you quit." She stormed off, sashaying her hips like the cocky bitch that she was. She saw that as some kind of personal victory, and I vowed to not only get my stuff back, but also put a little surprise in her locker. A tarantula? A snake? The possibilities were endless.
I turned back to Freddie who was eyeing me strangely. "What?"
"You quit?" He gaped. "Why? That was a great job."
"Well…" I trailed off. I couldn't tell him the truth could I? Never. Sam Puckett never told the truth…ever. It was more trouble than it was worth. "I couldn't work at a place that treated a friend like that."
Why did I say that?
"Funny, I thought you'd be mad at me for saying all that stu—" He stopped talking abruptly. "Since when did you care about me?"
I don't know why, but that was what finally set me off.
"Since when did I care about you? Since when did I care about you?" I screamed, clutching the front of his shirt. "I've always cared about you, Benson! Why can't you get that through your thick skull?"
He visibly blanched, and opened and closed his mouth like a fish—speechless; as he should be. The little geek really just asked me, the girl he broke up with less than a week and half before, why she cared about him.
Because I was still in love with him… that's why.
There I said it. Happy? I love the little nub still, and it's been killing me. On top of pining after him—and pretending I wasn't even interested anymore—I had to keep him safe from all the dangers in the world, because I couldn't stand to see him hurt. I stepped up to protect him three times now since the break-up, and he hadn't even realized it yet.
"You're an idiot." I added as an afterthought, crossing and uncrossing my arms.
"Are you still in love with me?" He asked.
"Are you?" I returned venomously.
"You are!" He sing-sang, a huge dorky grin breaking out on his face. I started to protest but he was already laughing and dancing around me. "You still love me."
"No I do not!"
"Then why did you keep me from drinking out of Carly's glass and getting jungle worms? And why when you saw all the little bruises on my arms from Spencer's security robot, ask who to beat up? Now, you've even quit your job for me!"
"I didn't quit because of you. I quit because I have integrity."
He snorted with laughter. "Integrity…that's rich." Then he sobered up a bit. "I've noticed you aren't protesting either of the previous things."
"What's there to protest? I did them… big whoop. It doesn't have to have some deep, stupid meaning, Nub." I hissed.
Freddie rolled his eyes at me. That made me irritated, but I bit my tongue.
"You know why I got that job, right?" He asked suddenly.
"Who cares?" I snapped. Freddie shot me a look, and I conceded. "Oh please, oh please, tell me, Freddie!"
"Can do without the sarcasm." He protested, then said, "I got it because I needed to get away from you, Sam."
What a lovely compliment. I was so terrible that he gave up all his free time just to get away from me. Instead of doing what he used to do and just ignored me, apparently my very presence was enough to send him running.
"After the break-up, I couldn't look you in the eye, Sam." I realized that he wasn't saying that I was awful. He was saying that he was still in love with me!
"Are you admitting to liking me still?"
He rolled his eyes…again. "I guess what I'm trying to say Sam is that I regret our break-up. I've been thinking about why we broke up and I still can't find a valid reason."
"Well, there's the fact that we…" I trailed off, lost for reasons.
I could say that we were complete opposites, but that's what drew us together. I could point out that we had no activities we could both enjoy—especially since I got him kicked out of the (lame) Train club—but there were things we did like. We liked to watch movies curled up on the couch, go and play Frisbee or basketball in the park, come up with ideas for iCarly, argue over stupid things, and don't forget the make out sessions. When it boiled down to it, our reasons for breaking up were purely because we were afraid of how serious we were becoming. We're both dumber than I originally thought. And I thought Fredweird was pretty dumb already.
"You have no reasons." It wasn't a question. I still shook my head.
"What are we doing?" I asked, sitting on a bench nearby. Freddie looked after me a moment, then joined me. He landed on the bench with a thud and a sigh.
"Sitting?"
I slugged him in the arm. "You know what I mean."
"I don't know what to say Sam. We did break up. Who's to say that the next time some little thing happens, we won't do this all over again?"
He was right. Who's to say that the next time Carly makes some disparaging comment about our relationship, we won't go through all this again. The idea made my stomach and my heart hurt. I couldn't go through that twice.
"We would break up eventually anyway, Freddie." I used his name…this was getting serious. "It's not like we would end up married—it's not like I'll ever get married."
"You don't know that for sure."
"Yes, I do. I mean, I'm awesome and all, but when it comes down to it, I'm better suited to be a drinking buddy than a wife." I said. All this talk of marriage was making me antsy, but I did bring it up.
"Does that mean we shouldn't try though?" He asked, squinting and looking up through the skylight overhead. It was such a nice day. Too bad mine was going shitty.
"Try to get married?" I asked, scooting away from him. "We're seventeen!"
"No…try to work this out…try to have this relationship, even if it lasts the rest of our lives or twenty minutes from now when you eat all my French fries."
"You're planning on breaking up with me over French fries?" I practically bellowed. A few passersby gave us strange looks. I showed one particulary nosy woman a rude hand gesture, and she was gone in a flash. I smirked.
"Yep," Fredwad said, smirking just like me.
So there we were, sitting on a bench, side-to-side, smiling like two idiots with a dirty secret. Then I realized that was exactly what we were. We were two morons, whose deep dark secret was that we were still in love with each other.
"I love you." I said quietly.
Freddie's head shot up and he looked at me, surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, you idiot." I punched him in the arm, but lightly.
"Does this mean we're back together?" He asked, brightly. His entire face lit up. If I had been lying up to this point and I had all the intention in the world to break the little nub's heart, the pure unadulterated joy on his face at the mere concept of being with me again, would have derailed me. I felt so loved.
I reached over and took his hend, squeezing it so hard that he shrieked a little bit, I said, "Only if you say it back."
"I love you too, Sam. Yeesh!" He eyed me nervously.
We said nothing after that for at least a minute. It needed time to sink in. Finally, Freddie jumped to his feet and hauled me to mine. Not caring that we were in a crowded mall or that we were in public in the first place, he spun me around and planted a huge kiss on my lips.
Then, taking my hand he said, "I think we have a date with some French fries."
"You mean I do."
"We'll see about that." Freddie waggled his eyebrows.
This was going to be fun.
A/N - There you have it...unadulterated fluff. Now, goodnight and farewell kind sirs!