Hello people of the reading public. So, it's been awhile since I have written anything and this idea just sort of came to me so i wrote it and here we are :) It started because i was watching iparty the other day and Carly says something to Freddie along the lines of you couldn't beat him up your nerdy. My immediate thought was that 1) that guy looked really weak in the arms at least and 2) Freddie has really bulked up. So, that made little sense to me which kinda made me think of this. Set post iOMG. PLEASE do me the kindness of reviewing! It makes my day, positive or negative.

What the hell was I getting myself into? Correction: What the hell was she getting me into? How is it that someone can claim they hate me with every fiber of their being and I still feel bad for them? Because that was me, being my "nubby" self again I guess.

Because she loved to confuse the heck out of me. And she was so incredibly good at it you wouldn't believe. Just when I think I can peg where we are, she likes to go and pull everything apart and make me start over again.

She should be a celebrity: the kind like Lady Gaga that does things like dressing up like a man just for the shock value of it. But she is kind of. Not going to the Oscars famous, but at least in Seattle my two best friends and I are pretty well known for our web show.

If you have ever seen our web show, you already know that Sam is abrasive and rude and tends to injure anyone who spends extensive time with her. She is also one of the most frustratingly complex people I have ever known. She has all the cravings and mood swings of a pregnant lady and all the swagger and strength of a truck-driver/pro-wrestler combo. She's exactly the opposite of the kind of girl I always pictured myself with.

Well, that's not true. I mean, she defies nearly all of my core qualities for sure: polite, generally lady-like, but not a daffodil. This is where it starts to sound like her. I never wanted to date a prissy little debutante like my mom's friends' daughters who always hit on me. I like a girl with a solid backbone. That's part of why I knew so quickly that Carly and I could never be a couple. I never wanted to date the girl who fruit and two rice cakes for lunch.

Sam's like the antithesis of that girl from the stupid romantic comedies that Carly watches. She does what she wants when she wants and takes crap from no one, which I admire so much. She's crazy talented to. But the cool thing is she's not like every girl in our school who is convinced that they're the next American Idol. She is an amazing dancer but doesn't show off about it. I wish I had been at that beauty pageant, because I'm sure the video didn't do her justice.

Also, my dream girl would have to be beautiful, not in the stereotypical big-breasted playboy way, but in her own unique style. Sam is that to say the least. I never really let myself think about it for fear of what she would do to me if she even thought I had thought about it, but she was beautiful in the most effortless possible way. She's the only girl in our school who doesn't wear make-up everyday and looks better for it.

Plus, whether she'd admit it or not, I've also had the pleasure of being one Sam's closest friends. Whenever she comes to me because something bad happened or she just needs to rant, it's like I'm grinning on the inside because I love the fact that I get to see a side of her rarely seen by men who live to tell the tale.

Sam always dates really bad guys. And I don't mean break her heart bad (even though that almost always happens). She dates the kind of guys that will get her arrested. The kind that have to introduce her to their parole officer by date two. It's not like she doesn't get other offers. If you have ever even seen her you'd understand that much. But she only goes for the bad ones. She's convinced that if she ever went out with Mr. Perfect that sooner or later he would fall for Carly and it would be over anyway. With her track record, I can't blame her for thinking that, but it still breaks my heart that she can't see the eyes that follow her every move in the hallway and get that she is as pretty if not prettier than her best friend.

I wish she would. I don't know how many more cops I can out run.

Okay, okay, I know what you are thinking: Freddie Benson? Running from cops? Whatever for? I guess I should explain. Over the past year, I've gained some …ehm …muscle mass in certain places. But, unlike a lot of teenage boys, I didn't do it so that I could get girls or be better at sports.

About a year ago, Sam broke up with one of her horrible boyfriends. Correction: she got cheated on by one of her horrible boyfriends. Now, this girl never cried in front of me, but this time I found her almost by accident. When I found her in the studio, I expect her the punch me and yell and scream, but she didn't. When I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, she didn't even react. When I rapped my arms around her she put her head on my shoulder. I offered to go and yell at him for her, and she told me I'd get beaten to a pulp. But it wasn't an insult as I usually would have assumed it was. It was her looking out for me.

Now, this wasn't the first time this had happened to either of my female best friends. And it occurred to me that neither of them had that father/big brother figure to go and put boys in their place for them. (You really think Spencer is intimidating anyone?) So, I decided I wanted to get a little stronger so I could handle guys for them. The one thing I knew for sure was that I never wanted to see Sam's face look like that again.

Originally I just planned on talking to them. Both Carly and Sam dated some big guys, so I knew that if I wanted to have a prayer for them to take me seriously, I had to look less like the AV club president and more macho. The growth spurt I had was just a bit of good fortune.

Talking was the plan, and it worked pretty well with Carly's boyfriends. I kinda sit them down and give them the father talk. Spencer seems to appreciate it, being that I'm a little bit more intimidating than he is thanks to the height and ehm… other things.

Then one of Sam's exes said something, something that made me see red in a way you wouldn't believe. "You know man, that chick was a nice piece of ass for awhile, but she wouldn't put out." I swear he was high, but I wasn't thinking coherently in the slightest. All I could think of was him treating Sam like that, and I lost it. I clocked him like I had seen in a movie once with all the strength I had.

SOMETHING THEY DON'T TELL YOU IN THE MOVIES: Punching someone in the face full force hurts your hand like crazy. But I could take that. I'd had my thumb broken three times. But then his stoner friend came at me too. Even two on one I thought I could take them, but we were in an alley. Soon someone saw a called a cop. As soon as I heard a siren I bolted.

I don't remember what lie I told my mom about the broken knuckles. I just remember the satisfaction I felt when I overheard Sam excitedly telling Carly that her loser ex had gotten beaten up and arrested for possession all in one day. When I saw them I fed them the same excuse I fed my mom. But I saw the realization on Sam's face. Somehow, she knew it was me. But she didn't say anything.

Later I was next to her in the lunch line when she spoke in the most nonchalant tone," You know, you didn't have to do that."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. I knew she knew but I needed her to know that I didn't want this getting around.

"Yeah Yeah sure, I won't tell your mom." I was moderately relieved. "Oh and Freddie?" I turned again. Should've known it wouldn't be this easy. "Thanks." That was probably the first time I can remember Sam genuinely saying thank you. I just kinda stood there until she had left and the girl behind me was peeved.

I was hoping that would be my only offense. I can only imagine the look on my mother's face if the cops called her a told her that her "little Freddie bear" had been in a fight. But like I said, my friends dated a lot of losers, and if certain things were said my temper peaked. Luckily some of them had softer faces than the first; bloody knuckles I can handle on my own. I got pretty lucky though: the guys never told because they didn't want to admit to being beat-up by a nerd.

Then Sam shocked me, like she always does one day out of the blue. I was really questioning everyone's intelligence due to the fact that there have been a series of attacks on my best friends' (mostly Sam's) exes, and despite the occasional random injury no one even suspected me. I guess my semi-nerdy status worked in my favor in that respect. But when Sam came to talk to me after hearing about her latest former boyfriend, she looked annoyed. Oh Crap. Was she getting back with him?

"You can't keep doing that you know," she told me flat out. I don't know why I expected anything less; Sam never beats around the bush.

"Why?' I said. No sense in denying it to her, she knows.

"I can take care of myself," she said. I scoffed. Sure Sam was stronger and more violent than your average girl, but this guy was 6'5 height and width. I actually got a busted lip from this one. It was hard to explain to my mom. "I'm serious. I don't need some nub like you going and beating up and bunch of huge guys. Which seriously how can you even do?"

"I've grown a little bit." I was only 5'10 but it was enough for me to handle him.

"Just… stop before you get really hurt alright?" Oh My God. Sam just said something to imply she cared about my well-being. OUT LOUD. And here I thought pigs would never fly. But as soon a she said it she blushed and ran off. BLUSHED! It was like some totally new person had possessed her body and was making her say all this crazy stuff.

That was when she first started acting different I guess. After that she was never quite the same. She stopped being aggressive towards me and started calling me Freddie. Freddie! It was the weirdest thing. I asked her about it once but she blew me off.

In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't see something coming. I mean the caring, the name, the smiling; it was like she was putting a sign in my face. But I couldn't even see it. The idea of Sam liking me still confuses me endlessly.

So now, she hasn't returned any of my messages and has skipped school the past 3 days. All that time I have been racking my brain and beating myself up for not seeing it sooner. But I guess I had to decide something: Did I like Sam? I was actually glad for all the thinking time I got before I actually had to talk to her. I mean sure she was beautiful and one of my best friends, but could I ever see her as my girl friend? What would that mean for our show? Did I like her like that?

Then, out of the blue I realized something: that wasn't even a question. I had liked her all along.

So, I'm not quite sure if that seemed really OOC or weird to anyone but it just sort of happened upon me. It turned really different than I originally thought it would. Please Review!