iGET A LIFE
Chapter 1
Freddie Benson was not really a stranger to girls and the way they acted around him. Usually it was laughing at his intelligence, calling him every single rude name under the sun and teasing him cruelly getting his hopes up for one sweet, sexy, sultry and "magical night". But ever since iCarly had ended, Sam and Carly had moved off to their own things and he was free. Free to be his own kind of man. Carly was on her way to becoming the vice-president and Sam had recently become the President... for the Food Network, that is. They were happy with their lives, they had both moved on. He had tried his hand at many odd-jobs here and there. At the moment he was a bartender downtown at the world's dingiest bar there could ever be. He would work from seven o'clock at night until two o'clock in the morning.
"Yo, the service here is shit," says a slurred voice. "Just like the drinks." It was Gibby. He had been fired from yet another job, dumped by his girlfriend and was on his way to homelessness. He didn't look so hot either. The only thing he had left was free alcohol where Freddie happened to work. The young man's eyes rolled around as he banged his empty glass on the counter, demanding more service and more drinks.
"Dude," hisses Freddie. "You're embarrassing me! Go home! Clean yourself up, and for God sakes, find a new job!" He turned back to finish polishing some glasses that were behind him, since that was his job. Until one glass flew right past his ear, narrowly missing his head and smashing the mirror that was behind the bar. He ducked and covered his head with his hands as the shards fell and shattered around him. He heard a voice calling out "WATCH OUT!" but it was much too late for warnings. Gibby jumped off the stool and hastily escaped the scene whilst the other customers screamed in shock and staff were fetching brooms to clean up the broken glass. Freddie slowly stood up and looked around at the place. This would never happen if he was working in an office or a film studio, he thought to himself, as he picked up a bucket and helped carefully pick up the shards of mirror. It wasn't long before the floor was cleared and Freddie's boss sent him home for an early night. He took off his apron and said "Good night" to everyone, who grunted or nodded sullenly. It wasn't the best place to work. The young man picked up his backpack, swung it over his shoulder and left the bar, promising to find himself another, more respectable job. He passed by many buildings and stopped when he noticed Sam outside the Food Network building. She didn't say anything, as she was busily pacing and talking to someone urgently on the phone. He waited till she hung up.
"No! That's no fucking excuse, Jeremy. You get me that damn pink elephant, or your contract is cancelled! Got it?" Sam yells and then hangs up.
"Bad day?" Freddie asks, innocently touching her shoulder. Sam quickly turns on her heel and finds him standing there. The one she'd been thinking about calling for the past month or so, but never got a chance too. Being president of a TV company was hard work. Even more work than school, which she had always hated. Freddie was right there. She smiled for a moment and then remembered she was meant to hate him forever for some odd reason. Her hand slapped his face and she scowled. Freddie winced after getting slapped and held his stinging cheek. Well, at least she didn't throw a glass at his head.
"What do you want?" she growls, just like she always had done. "Can't you see I'm busy here?" She punches in another number, just when Freddie was about to ask her to dinner. He stops when she talks instead, to a person on the phone. His hand falls from her shoulder. She smiles sweetly as she talks.
"Hey baby cakes, just on my way home," she purrs. "Need anything for dinner?" Sam starts walking away from Freddie, who stands there, dumbfounded. He kicks the wall beside him and shouts in pain, cursing himself for being such an idiot. Of course she's taken already. Why wouldn't she be? Though who would put up with her violence and such just like he once did, was totally beyond him. He watched her hail a cab, jump into it and drive away. A rumble of thunder sounded and the rain poured down, and didn't seem to want to stop either. He slumped his shoulders and made his way home, alone. Just like he had always done. He arrived in his apartment and opened the mailbox, to find a yellow envelope addressed to him. His grabbed it out and climbed the stairs to the seventh floor. That was a lot of stairs. Why hadn't they installed an elevator in here? The young man unlocked the door and dumped everything down on the floor, slammed the front door behind him and collapsed on the couch. He wasn't even hungry. He just wanted to sleep. And sleep, he did.
Five minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
"Fredward Benson! You open this door, immediately!" He grumbled, still half-asleep from his nap and shuffled over to the door. He knew who it was before opening the door, it was his mother. She was about to bash the door down but he had got to it just in the nick of time. The woman looked drenched from head to toe, and he ushered her inside before she could cause any more disturbance with the neighbours. "Freddie!" Marissa hugged her son dramatically, like he was dying or something. "I called your work to see how you were doing and-"
"I got sent home early, mom," he says, flippantly. "Don't worry. I'm fine." His mom looked him up and down, and narrowed her eyes. Freddie held his hands up in front of him to let her know he wasn't lying. She sat down and asked for a cup of tea. She then went on explaining, as she had done several times before now, how he should be close to finding a nice wife and settling down... he was only twenty-three! He shook his head slowly. Marissa Benson stood up and walked around the room, like she was important or something. Freddie sighed and closed his eyes, pretending to agree with everything his mom was saying. He slowly drifted off into sleep. His mother kept on rambling on and on, not noticing that her son was no where near paying attention to what she was blabbering on about.
"There's a lovely girl, she's the daughter of one of the nurses I work with... I think you two would be a charming couple and..."
Freddie snored. Marissa turned her head, and smiled softly. She picked up an old blanket and covered him over with it, just like she did when he was three years old and he had fallen asleep in the car, or in the shopping cart at Hey Food. She left him a little note, put it on the counter, left him some money too and then crept out, leaving her son to have some sleep.
