Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly. It's original story and characters belong to Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider.
A/N:
This story is told from entirely from Freddie's POV, and goes without saying that the characters are slightly OOC, but not by much.
This will probably be a 3 or 4 chapter affair, so I apologize for the slow pace in this chapter. But fear not, the OT3 should be evident soon enough.
When they told me, I sat there for a minute before congratulating them wholeheartedly. I guess I'd always known. It had to have been sitting in the back of my mind while I tried to ignore it. At any rate, I wasn't all that surprised when it happened, mostly because I'd already figured out that there would never be anything between me and Carly as long as Sam lived and breathed.
Not that I resented her, I mean I did a little, but only because of her attitude. Overall I was fine with them dating or whatnot, it gave me a concrete reason to move on. I'd dated other girls to get my mind off Carly, and at one point I'd even started eyeing Sam, but my mind always came back to her. This allowed me to let go permanently.
Of course Spencer freaked a little, but he was Spencer you know? Everyone that liked them supported it, everyone else either ignored it or cut ties. It kind of sucked that some of those people were so closed minded, it sucked even more knowing that Carly would feel hurt because of it.
Yeah, some of those burning bridges were hard to put out, but we did what we could. Sam comforted and fought back, and I joined her. Everyone was a bit surprised at my reactions, because technically it wasn't any of my business and really I should've been in a corner mourning my unrequited feelings. But I couldn't do that, I was trying to be a good person, and that meant helping to protect my friends, no matter what. Carly and Sam were happy, that's all that mattered.
When the dust settled, we were done with high school and off to college. Carly and I had convinced Sam to at least get some sort of Associates Degree while Carly studied journalism at a local private school. I had gone to UCA and studied media and communications, all those years of iCarly and the A/V club really stuck with me I guess.
It was the summer after I had graduated before I saw them in person again. We'd kept in touch but I was so busy with school and internships that I couldn't find the time to go back.
We met at Spencer's and fell right back into our old atmosphere, except a few things had changed. Sam was a bit more behaved so we weren't fighting, and both her and Carly had jobs so we couldn't spend all that much time together. But it was really cool when we did.
It was a hot day in early July and we were cooling off in the old iCarly studio, just hanging out.
Carly was sitting in Sam's lap and I was telling them funny stories about this crazy boss I had last summer.
"So he's sitting at his desk reviewing some of my work, and I'm just about to leave so he can concentrate, but he tell's me that he needs me to be there so he can ask me questions as he goes. All of a sudden his secretary calls him, says his wife's storming through the lobby looking for him. So he gets this crazy look on his face, like he's about to have a heart attack and calls all his chiefs of staff in to brainstorm a way to get out of trouble for forgetting their anniversary. And they honestly had ten minute a meeting about it. I was trying so hard not to laugh. You should've heard some of their ideas."
Carly giggled and Sam tried to come up with some ideas herself. It was good times. After a while we just sat there in silence and I noticed that they were whispering. Then Carly started blushing and they started kissing.
I guess they felt really comfortable around me, and I guess that should be comforting but seeing them make out was leading my mind down alleys I'd rather they not know about. At that point I felt I should give them some privacy and got up, of course they noticed. Carly got all embarrassed, Sam just smiled.
"Sorry Freddie, kinda forgot you were there." Of course Sam still used those back-handed apologies, but at least Carly didn't have to force her to give them anymore.
"It's cool, I was just getting a drink." I started moving toward the door.
"Sure you were." She said suggestively, while laughing. "That's a funny way of describing your alone time Benson."
"Sam!"
"Come on Carls, it's been too long, I couldn't resist."
Carly was still a bit mortified, and Sam was just laughing in her face. At that point I'd started laughing too. They were still cute together.
"You guys want anything?"
"Well if you were really already going down there bring back a peppy cola."
"Sam?"
"I'll have what she's having."
"Yes ma'am."
As I descended the stairs I thought about how things had changed, and how they didn't. In the time I hadn't seen them, they seemed a lot more mature. Like their relationship had helped them evolve. But I'd pretty much stayed the same, I'd matured a bit but there hadn't been any drastic changes in my personality. I was the same soft hearted kid, always willing to help, and slightly more sentimental than the next guy. Though I guess I knew how to handle myself better, mostly due to being exposed to lots of different people. Sam's "lighthearted" cracks didn't get to me anymore. Though she did see through my excuse. Seeing displays of affection like that did bother me a bit and not having been in action for a while had a lot to do with it.
When I got back to the studio Sam was sitting on the hood of the old car prop and Carly was sitting two bean bags away from her, leaving the only remaining seat in between them. They were looking at me expectantly, so I handed them their drinks and sat down. They were still looking at me but kept glancing at each other. I got the sense that they were doing that thing girls do where they talk with their eyes because they just sat there doing that while drinking.
Then Carly broke the silence.
"So Freddie, what's next for you?"
"You mean like for today? I dunno, I'll probably head back home and take care of some e-mails before calling it a day." It was kind of weird having her ask that, I mean she knew me pretty well, and they both knew I wasn't doing anything for the next couple of days.
"She meant in life, like what're you gonna do after you're done lounging around Seattle?"
"Oh." I suddenly felt like I was in the hot seat. "I figured I'd go down to L.A. and start applying for jobs at production firms."
"Aww, why L.A.?" Carly seemed deflated.
"You got some hottie waiting for you down there or something?" I laughed at that.
"Nah, I just think it'd be easy to find work there. I've kept in touch with some of the people who hired me for my internships."
I kind of wished Sam was right. My love life had been rather lackluster, I couldn't keep a girlfriend for more than two weeks. They always left, saying that I was really nice guy but they just didn't feel anything, or that I was too nice for them. The last girl said that I wasn't really all that romantic. After that one I started noticing it myself, I felt attracted to certain girls, but I could never think of doing anything to sweep them off their feet, and I wasn't too sad about it when they left. But after a few more lost causes I started getting frustrated. At one point I'd started feeling a bit broken, so I had just given up on dating altogether. I was beginning to think that I was better off this way.
"So there's seriously no cutie in the picture?"
"No Sam."
"Why not?" When had this turned into grill Freddie day?
It was no use keeping it from them. Carly would get it out of me eventually if either of them thought I didn't give them full disclosure. But I wasn't about to confess feeling depressed.
I sighed. "I just haven't been able to keep a steady girlfriend. It's no big deal."
"Well that sucks..." There was a certain lack of sincerity to her voice. "Oh well, at least we have you all to ourselves for a while."
"Huh?" What the hell was Sam getting at?
"We're just glad you aren't leaving anytime soon, you know? We missed you."
"Oh." I started feeling guilty. Again.
That wasn't the first time Carly had said something like that since I came back to town. I felt bad about not being able to visit for four years and It was becoming clear that they didn't wan't me to leave.
"Anyway, listen we were hoping you'd help us with something."
"What's up?" They already knew I would say yes, and they knew I knew that. So It must be something big if they had gone out of their way to confirm my availability for it.
"We found this little place outside town, so we're moving in together next week. We were hoping you'd help us."
"That's great guys!" I smiled, Carly beamed back at me. It was great that things were going well for them.
"So?" Sam really knew how to ruin a moment.
I scoffed "You make it seem like I could ever say no to you guys."
"Well time has this funny way of making people forget things." Wow, where did that come from?
It didn't matter that she'd said it off hand, it still stung. There had to be something wrong, but I didn't feel like opening that can of worms right now.
"Right..." I turned to Carly. "Anyway, what's this place like?"
"It's a three bedroom apartment in a two family house. The neighborhood seems pretty quiet, and it's only like three exits away from here on the freeway."
I nodded. "That sounds great."
"Yeah, we're signing the lease on Monday, and we wanna start moving stuff on Thursday night. I'm borrowing my buddy's truck, that a good day for you?"
I could just picture Sam driving a big red pick-up, it seemed so fitting.
"Yeah, no problem, I got nothing going on."
"Great, now if we could just get someone handy to stick around and help us while we get settled in." And just like that I felt guilty again. I could tell Carly was joking, but it was true.
We spent the rest of the day watching TV and talking about jobs, and then I said my goodbyes.
As I got settled and started going through my e-mails, I couldn't shake my guilt from earlier. Sam's comment was nagging at me. I had been gone for years without visiting, and I knew that it had to be bothering them more than they let on.
I mulled this over for a while. Would they really be okay with it if I moved down to L.A.? No, I couldn't leave them again after just a couple of months, it just wouldn't be fair, and I honestly had nothing holding me to my initial plans. I decided I'd start looking for work in Seattle.