I blink in surprise as my father, Colonel Steven Shay, asks me to go to Florence with him. "W-What?" I ask.
"Come with me." he repeats.
"That's crazy! I can't just leave" I protest, "School, iCarly.." Freddie. I blush as I think of the tech producer of our webshow. I turn to look at him and notice the look on his face and can tell by the look on his face he doesn't want me to go even though he's trying to hide it.
If you'd asked me five years ago if I'd ever be thinking about the geeky boy next door I'd have laughed, but so much had changed since we'd began our webshow. In the beginning we'd just been three morons with a camera but then it had become so much more, it had become something we loved.
Spencer tells me to go while I know he just wants me to go I want to slap him for trying not to talk me out of it, T-Bo says something about Italian smoothies and Gibby urges me to go also. I turn to Sam who surely won't let me leave, instead she gives me a speech about if it were her father (and I can tell Freddie is as surprised as I am). Then I turn to him "Freddie?" I ask, careful not to let hope leak into my voice.
"You should go." he tells me though he looks like he doesn't believe a word of it.
"I'm going to Italy!" I declare just as my father mentions Italian boys, not that I give a care about them, and turn to my father "How much time do we have?"
"Four hours."
I smile sadly, "Just enough time."
Freddie heads upstairs and I soon follow, hoping to talk to him before the show begins but I have no luck as Sam is right behind me.
It hits me, as I'm standing in the iCarly studio, that this could be the last iCarly ever... This is the end of something that we thought would never end. I guess when you're young it seems like nothing will end, but they always do.
"In 5...4...3...2.." Freddie counts down.
The show goes smoothly, we're on top form tonight, I will miss playing the idiot farm girl who thought the cowboy's mustache was a squirrel. Spencer was on top form as Baby Spencer.. Well until my father started choking him when he found out my brother dropped out of law school to be an artist.
We're beginning to run out of time so I step in front of the camera and tell the audience how much the show means to me and how much I'll miss it, every word is straight from my heart and I mean everyword.
"I'm Sam." my best friend finally says.
"And I'm Carly."
We look at each other for a moment before looking at the camera again, "And this has been... iCarly." we say.
Freddie puts the camera away and I resist the urge to hug him. Instead Sam, Gibby, and I go downstairs for a few minutes. I try to be sociable but my head is still upstairs with the dark haired boy who's made iCarly possible since the beginning. First I go upstairs to my room, I have a few more things to pack up, and Spencer walks in. "Hey Kiddo."
"Hey."
"So... Italy huh?"
"Yeah.."
"I'm gonna miss you." he tells me, smiling
"Don't."
"What?"
"You're gonna make me cry." I say, forcing myself to smile as I zip up my last bag.
He stands up and hugs me tightly, I hug back and smile, "One more goodbye to say." I whisper. He just looks at me with a knowing look and I slip away upstairs to see him packing up the equipment
"I leave in a few minutes." I say.
"Your dad might be wazzed off if you're late." he teases and I smile.
"You know you don't have to pack it all up right now." Because it makes it final, it makes it... Real.
"Yeah but tomorrow Gibby wants me to help him research the proper care of weasel."
He turns away and I bite my lip, this is the moment I've been waiting for all night, this is my chance to tell him how I feel. I cover his hand with mine and when he turns to me with a shocked look I lean in, my other hand hooking around his head and pulling him into a soft, tender kiss.
He kisses back and my heart stops for a moment, I haven't kissed him since the taco truck incident and it's better than I remember. When we pull apart he clears his throat and I do the same, "I um... Should go get my bags."
"I'll help you with those bags."
I smile and head downstairs where everyone is waiting. Dad is talking to Spencer so I walk over to Gibby and Freddie and hug the nerdy boy next door tightly.
I turn to Gibby who starts crying, "Aww Gibby, don't cry... One more for the road?"
He nods with a sniffle, "Gibbeh." and hugs me.
"I'll ride down with you." Sam offers when it's time to leave. We group hug and walk into the elevator, Sam and I let go and the boys walk out still hugging.
"I love you guys." I say sadly, glancing at Freddie.
"Love you too." they all say, but I notice the boy I'd kissed just ten minutes ago says it first.
When the elevator closes Sam turns to me and she looks like she's gonna cry, which makes me want to cry, "I want you to have this." she tells me and puts her blue remote Freddie made her in my hand.
"Sam.."
"Take it." she tells me.
I take it and press a button so the remote makes a cheering noise, the exact opposite of how I feel right now, we hug and I whisper in her ear, "Take care of Freddie for me." She nods as the elevator dings and the door opens.
I step out of the elevator "Goodbye Sam.."
"Take care of yourself Cupcake."
The nickname brings a fond smile to my face and I get into the car with my Dad.
As Dad drives to the airport my mind wanders back in time to when we first started the show.
"Why don't we call it iCarly?" The thin, nerdy boy suggested.
"I like it." the blonde girl said in between bites of ham, "I hate bones in these things!"
I nod in agreement ad grinned at my two friends.
I'm snapped out of my flashback by my father who tells me we're here. We drop off our luggage and head to the plane, I make sure to keep my laptop with me, and once we're seated I open my laptop and put my earbuds in. My web browser opens to some strange twitter page, a Dan Schneider, and I quickly type in the iCarly website. I click on the first video, the very first iCarly we ever did.
"I'm Carly!" the younger version of me says.
"And I'm Sam!"
"And this is a little webshow we like to call... iCarly!"
I smile fondly at the video and start browsing through different videos on the website, my mind again drifting back to five years ago.
"Hey Spencer.. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure kiddo." my brother replied.
"Can I borrow your camera?"
"Well... I can't loan it to you."
"Why not?"
He laughs nervously and gets up to grab something off the end table, "I turned it into a squirrel."
I suppress a giggle and sigh, that means my only other option is Freddie.
I cringe at how I used to treat him, he had been really sweet and a good friend and I wish back then I'd been nicer... Maybe things would have turned out differently and he wouldn't have had to nearly die for me to even begin to realize my feelings for him.
I close my laptop and close my eyes, letting sleep over take me. I wake up about four hours later and look out the plane window, memories of when we'd flown to Japan, well jumped out of an airplane to Japan, crossed my mind and I smiled before letting sleep over take me again,.
I wake up off and on again,I really just want the plane ride to be over. When we finally touch down in Florence dad tells me there's an apartment he rented when he found out he'd be going to Florence, and it's only ten minutes away.
While we walk we bump into a blonde woman about my age and my heart hurts a little as I think of Sam back in Seattle, which of course makes me thing of every one else in Seattle I left, including Freddie, "Sorry." I mumble.
She says something in Italian but I have no idea what, I guess it's time to begin learning a new language, though I wish Freddie were here, something tells me he'd be a good tutor.
Dad tries to start a conversation but I'm a million miles away and don't reply to any of his questions, which I feel bad for, and he gives up as we turn onto our street.
"This place is beautiful." I finally say.
"You look like your a thousand miles away"
"Sorry." I sigh guilty.
"It's fine, it's your first day here, I don't expect you to adjust automatically."
"Thanks."
The apartment is nice, it's walls are painted white and there's a picture of a boat on the wall nearest the entrance to the kitchen. To the left is a hall which Dad tells me is the bathroom and two bedrooms.
"This place is amazing." I tell him. He winks at me and leads me out to the back door where there's a canal below and you can see people taking boat rides in it. "Wow.."
He nodded, "Now, how about some dinner? You didn't really eat on the flight."
My stomach growls and I realize I'm starving, "Sure."
He orders a pizza, which makes me drool a little, and twenty minutes later it's here.
The first bite is amazing, it definitely tastes different than American pizza, but I keep expecting Sam to try and steal the pepperoni or Freddie to spend twenty minutes trying to make the perfect piece of pizza. After dinner Dad goes to bed, he didn't sleep much on the flight, and has to report in tonight.. I don't even know what timezone I'm in anymore so I pull out the remote Sam gave me and step outside.
The sun feels good, the climate is definitely different from Seattle, and I spend the next twenty minutes pressing the various buttons on the remote. I marvel at just how smart our tech producer was, to make this remote. I head inside with my main link to Freddie, Sam, and iCarly and spend the rest of the day just lounging around the house
The next day I wake up to find Dad still gone, a voicemail tells me he'll be gone for a couple days and I should think about colleges I may want to attend. I roll my eyes and delete the message, I'm not sure how long I'm staying let alone if I'm going to college here or not.
I decide to explore the city today, luckily Dad left me money for food and anything else I might need. I have to admit, the city is gorgeous, I pull out my phone and text Sam my address so she'll have it. I decide to get a cup of coffee, what Seattleite doesn't like coffee? On my way to the coffee shop Sam calls me.
"Sam?" I ask as I answer the phone.
"The one and only."
"Oh my god, it's only been a day and I miss you!"
"I miss you too Cupcake, how's Florence?"
"So beautiful, but I miss Seattle so much." The blonde girl laughed and it must have been contagious because I found myself laughing with her. "How's Freddie?" I finally force myself to ask."
"Oh... He's fine.." She says in a knowing tone, "Listen I just called to tell you something."
"What?"
"I'm moving to L.A"
"What?!"
She shrugged, "There's nothing here for me Carls, Freddie doesn't need me... He needs YOU and Gibby well... It's Gibby."
I sigh and nod, "Well,... I wish you luck, and I'm going to come see you sometime I promise."
"I'll hold you and the nub to that promise one day."
We say goodbye and hang up as I enter a star bucks, a familiar sight is nice, and I order a cup of coffee.
By the time time I get home I'm exhausted, and it's almost dark out. I slip into my pajama's, pink bottoms with bunnies and a black t-shirt, when someone knocks on the door.
I look up in surprise but walk to the door and look through the peephole to see Freddie. My heart stops as I open the door, "Freddie?"
"I didn't mean to wake you up." he tells me.
"N-no it's okay." I answer even though I hadn't been sleeping, my mind was on autopilot.
"I can't say goodbye." he tells me, "I love you and I can't say goodbye."
I don't have a reply, nothing seems to make sense, so I just kiss him like I did at the studio.
He kisses me back and I pull him into the apartment just as my Dad walks in and clears his throat.
We both jump and I try to explain, "You remember Freddie?" He nods so I continue, "He came all the way here for me... And I really want him to stay... So, can he stay? Please?"
The general pauses for a moment and then nods with a smile, "He can stay." he finally says.
I let go of Freddie to hug him and then go back to Freddie and kiss him happily, Italy is really looking good now.
Note: This is a companion fic to iCan't Say Goodbye, and there will be a third one (this is now caled the iGoodbye trilogy... Or something) but that's a ways off. This was intended to be published for Creddie friday, but I missed it on my timezone, however I think it still counts on so I'm good. Happy Creddie friday! I don't own iCarly or Starbucks, if I did I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions.
