Summary: Sam and Freddie have a serious conversation about friendship.
A/N: I wrote this after watching iQuit iCarly last night. I saw something going on that I haven't seen before. And I don't like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly.
iAm Not Your Friend
"Sam! Go wash your hands!" Sam had just returned to the studio from using the bathroom, and Carly, with her own brand of spidey sense knew that Sam was not keeping up with her personal hygiene.
"Maybe you should go with her Carly and show her where the soap is. It could be a learning experience." Freddie said from a beanbag on the floor.
Sam, never one for letting someone else have the last word responded with elegance, "Yeah, or maybe I could punch you in the face."
"Sam. Hands. Now." Carly told her pointedly.
"You know," Carly said after Sam had left, "you really should be nicer to her. Her mom's in jail."
"Again? That's twice in the last six months!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Well, apparently Sam's mom walking in public in a bikini counts as obscenity. And since it was so soon since her last arrest the judge gave her 30 days in jail. Spencer had to go down to the police station yesterday and convince the arresting officer that he was Sam's father so he wouldn't call a social worker."
Freddie looked at Carly in disbelief. "Who on Earth would believe that Spencer is Sam's dad? He would have been in middle school when he had her."
Carly shifted awkwardly. "Well, Spencer easily persuaded the officer in a way that made everyone in the room uncomfortable. I don't really want to talk about it."
Freddie looked bemused. "Poor Spencer."
"Yeah poor Spencer! And poor Sam. She would never tell you this, but she's taking the whole thing kinda hard, and she's pretty upset about it. So could you just be nicer to her for a while? For me?" Carly pleaded.
"Okay." Freddie agreed. "But if she gives me a wedgie, the deal's off."
"Thanks Freddie." Carly said in relief.
The conversation ended with the reappearance of a happy and excited Sam. "Wow, I didn't know that soap could feel so good. It has all these scrubbing beads in it, and it feels like it's exfoliating your hands. It's amazing!" She said with an insane, yet contented smile on her face.
Carly gave her a confused look that quickly turned to understanding. "Sam," she sighed, "that wasn't soap, it was face wash."
"Oh," she said looking abashed, "well at least my hands are clean." She smiled at her best friend before turning to Freddie. "So, Fredford, you got anything to say?"
"No. It was an honest mistake." he said simply.
Sam stared at him suspiciously before finally switching the subject. And so, the three continued with a nice, relatively argument-free night.
One Week Later
Freddie was entering the lobby of Bushwell Plaza after having taken out the trash (which was his least favorite chore as it require a sixteen step sterilization process). It was six o' clock at night, but since it was the dead of winter, it was already pitch black outside.
In order to delay the inevitable scrubbing from his mother, he decide to take the stairs instead of riding up the elevator. Just above the third floor, he ran into Sam who was coming down.
"Hey Sam, where are you going?"
"Not that it's any of your business nub, but I'm going home to check on Frothy. I didn't have time to check on him after school because of detention."
"I'm sure he'll be fine until tomorrow. You can't leave wearing that." he said, noticing that despite the season, Sam was still only wearing a short sleeved shirt.
"Frothy's never been alone this long before and I need to make sure the TV's on the right channel for him."
Freddie stared at her strangely. "Seriously Sam, I think your demented cat will be okay for one-"
"I'm not going home for Frothy." Sam finally admitted. "There's a whole chicken in our fridge, and I don't want it to go bad."
Freddie smiled at his blond friend. "Sam, It will probably be fine tomorrow."
"How do you know?" she questioned.
"I don't, but knowing you, you'll eat it whether it's spoiled or not. It's never stopped you before."
She smiled back. "That's true."
A short silence followed that was broken by Freddie. "Look Sam, I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about your mom."
"Thanks." she replied with a strained smile.
"And if you need anyone to talk to, I'm always here for you."
Sam didn't reply back.
Freddie continued, "It's just, you're my best friend and I-"
"No I'm not."
Freddie looked at her confused. "What?"
"I'm not your best friend." she told him clearly.
"What are you talking about? I know we fight a lot, but I still consider you and Carly my best friends."
"No. Carly is your best friend. I'm just your friend."
Freddie didn't know how to respond to her, so she continued. "You said that you are always here for me, but it isn't true. You are never here for me. You found out about my mom from Carly, and it took you a week to talk to me about it. That's messed up Freddie."
"Well, maybe if you told me about what was going on in your life we wouldn't have this problem." Freddie responded with a touch of anger in his voice.
"Why would I? You've never cared about my life before. Maybe if I were Carly, you'd care about what happens at home. But I'm not her, and I'm not saying that I want to be, but we just aren't that close." Sam responded calmly.
Freddie sighed, already regretting what he was about to say. "Come on Sam, after all these years, you have to know that I care about you."
Sam didn't laugh at him or make a joke. She simply asked, "Do you? Do you really Freddie? Because I cannot think of a single time when you cared about me more than Carly. Who did you side with when we got into a fight about that iCarly T-Shirt?"
She went on," How about when we stopped iCarly? That was only a few weeks ago. You filmed with Carly and left me to do it by myself. I remember telling you that you didn't have to choose between us, and you told me that maybe you wanted to choose. And you did, didn't you? "
" I'm not saying that you are a bad friend, Freddie. In fact, you are a great one. You're the one I would go to and make jokes about how I saw Lewbert in jail when I was visiting my mom. But lets not pretend to be something we're not. I'm not your best friend, and you're not mine." Sam finished. She looked at him, but didn't say anything else.
Freddie cleared his throat. "Your right Sam. I don't know why I ever thought we could be best friends. Well, I have to go. I hope your mom gets out of jail soon." he said stiffly with a cold tone.
He then made his way up to his apartment leaving Sam on the stairs. She sat in the same spot for 2 minutes and 38 seconds before she broke down crying.
