Jealous Guy

Chapter 1: Mother and my birthday

(Freddie's POV)

Eighteen candles on my birthday cake seemed almost unrealistic to me. Just yesterday it seemed, I had a squeaky kid's voice, my shirts always draped my muscle-less arms, and my mother would always force me to bathe in mountain loads of products to repel any living creature away from my body (it worked on girls too). Now, my voice has dropped several octaves, athletic fit tees seemed to be the only thing that fit, girls can swarming left and right when I pulled out my special vampire voice and just eighteen days ago, all the fuss that my mother had over me vanished, just as she did.

Technically, I was an adult, but I was too broke to rent out the apartment my mom had at bushwall, so I had to live with my dad. The apartment I rented from Lewbert that time I 'moved out' was rented by a custodian in the building, Carlos. I had no problems living with my dad, but he lived on the complete other side of Seattle, away from everything I'd grown accustom to when I grew up. This'd mean I'd have to move school districts, shop at their local mall, start all over and was only able to drive over and do iCarly once a week without showing up to rehearsals except through video chat, which always lagged because I was never there to fix it. It sucks majorly. Not only that, but to me, my dad was almost as complete stranger besides the occasional birthday card from him that I found in the mail before my mom hid it in her closet to collect dust.

My dad and I finally had unpacked all my things about three days ago. The duplex my dad lived in wasn't nearly as neat as my mom's place, but it did alright. It was a small little bachelor pad but allowed space for another person or two, but that pushed it. My dad was a surgeon, so he didn't have a lot of time to tidy up or 'teen-proof' the house like my mom did, let alone squeegee every living corner of the tables or tackle dust bunnies with a shark vacuum. Everything was in array. When I wasn't busy with homework or talking to Carly or Sam on the phone, I'd occasionally grab the broom and sweep around a few times.

The one day he actually got off work, we barely got past an awkward 'hello' and 'how's the weather?' conversation over breakfast before I husked off to my new school, grumbling fits of regrets and the math formulas for my trigonometry test under my breath.

Today, a Thursday oddly enough, I found my dad sitting at the island in the kitchen. A homemade chocolate cake with frosting and a pattern of colored jimmies clinging to the frosting sat on a cake platform. A one and a seven candle were penetrating the shallow region of the cake. Taking two steps forward, a blue envelope and a royal blue balloon were sitting beside a lighter. My dad, appearing out of the corner, formed a smile as he met me in the kitchen. He put his steaming coffee mug to his face and gulped before saying, "Happy birthday"

His smile stuck through as we half-hugged awkwardly. "Your mother would've…well, done a better job than me. I hope I did well. Not really used to this sort of thing; having a kid and celebrating birthdays and all. I see kids at the hospital all the time have birthday parties that their parents throw for them. It's a lot harder than I imagined it being. Trying to make it special, I mean. Like I said, I know it sucks, your face says it all" he laughed and took another sip of his coffee and tried to smile at me.

"You did…exceptional. Thanks" I gave him a smile right back. It brought out the first true smile I'd seen from him all morning. I could tell it was real because most of his face was relaxed.

"The fact that you remembered my birthday and went through some trouble to give me what mom gave me…and put thought in it to make it meaningful…thanks" I struggled with what to say with him. I wasn't really allowed to know my dad that well as a kid. My mom took custody and changed my last name to her maiden name, Benson instead of keeping my father's name, Karev, the second she signed the divorce papers. Nothing nasty happened in their divorce or marriage; they just didn't click…that way. My mom was just a lot older (ten years, to be exact) and more mature than my dad was. My dad wasn't a bad guy either, I mean, the guy's got a medical degree and treats little kids for a living. The way my mom spoke of him, he didn't really fit into the whole 'dad' thing, hence why she was so anal about raising me.

"Anytime" He placed one of his hands on his hips and took the other one to light the candles, mumbling some things to himself. Placing the lighter down in a drawer by the sink, he gave me some time to sit down and think long and hard about what my wish would be. He pondered by the sink a little bit, catching a glimpse of the oven stove before shuffling over to me and sitting next to me.

"Do you want the song, or?" Again, it was totally sensed that he didn't get the whole parenting thing just yet. Another look at the clock also told me he had to be at work shortly and was trying to rush me in a polite way.

"Nah, I'll just blow them out" I took a huge gust of wind back and blew both of the candles out simultaneously. My dad patted my back and took out three papers plates, a cutting knife and two forks. He put the candles onto one plate and slid it closer to the dishwasher. I cut us both a piece that we ate in peace. Man, this cake was delicious! Is this what inorganic, gluten filled cake tasted like?

"Oh my goodness, this cake is…amazing!" Some crumbles tumbled down my face and onto my blue plaid button-up. I could see some crumbs rolling down my dad's face and into the pocket of his navy blue scrubs.

"Really?" He questioned. "I've never been much of a baker. My girlfriend taught me all I know."

"Well, she taught you good!" I chomped down on the forkful that I had in my hand, leaning my head back and nodding. Oh yeah, best cake ever. I've had real cake before, don't get me wrong, but this one, by far, pardon my pun, took the cake. My dad gleamed as if he'd just won a noble prize or figured out the cure for Alzheimer's. He may not know his stuff that well as far as what a dad's supposed to do, but from the looks on my face, my smile that's identical to his, he pretty much got the message that he did a good job, so far. It was a learning process for both of us. Not so much me because I already had a parent, but it was more or less adjusting to the fact that this parent didn't wear a bra or smell like the inside of a Victoria Secret catalogue.

"I gotta head to the hospital in a minute, wanna grab your coat and I can drop you off at your friend's house?" My dad ran his hands through his light brunette hair that barely covered the top of his fingers and put on some ridiculously big specs. I had to stifle my laughter. I'd seen him wear them before, but I got a better look at how ridiculously big they were up close.

"I know, my glasses are sexy" he joked. "They didn't have any other frames that fit my head that were men's"

"No, you look like…Clark Kent. Great glassage-wear, Superman"

"Ha, very funny." I looked at him again. Usually seeing him in scrubs, I saw him wearing a light blue polo with tan colored khakis. Just by looking at us, you could tell I was the spitting image of my father, something my mother also regretted.

"Anyway, friend's house?" He spoke a minute later, breaking the awkward silence between us.

"But dad, it's a school day" I slung my blue one-strap backpack on my shoulder and put my disposable plate and fork into the garbage can, along with my dad's. He grabbed his PearPad, PearPhone, and some extra tennis shoes off the table.

"I know. But, your friends have a surprise, apparently" He smiled again and grabbed his keys off a hook near the door with his coat, shifting everything into his right arm as he used his left to open the door.

"Oh!" He snapped his fingers and dug through his pants pocket with his free hand once we were outside to pull out his wallet.

"I didn't know what to get you, exactly, so here's some cash. There's four hundred bucks in there, happy birthday."

"Thanks, mom always gave me money too."

"I hope I gave you as much as she did."

"Plenty, thanks."

I grinned happily, and then smirked. I didn't mention to him that my mom only gave me eight bucks at a time.

…

My dad and I rocked out to some classic rock on the way to the hospital. Unlike my mom, who always drove five to fifteen miles under the speed limit with a 'baby on board' sign hanging from her prius window, my dad had a black dodge challenger with white racing stripes and did about ten miles over the speed limit, which was speeding, but not so much that the cops could catch you doing it. Even in the cloudy weather of Seattle, he had his sunglasses on.

A song called "Smells like teen spirit" by Nirvana came on. Dad turned the radio up so loud that the car actually shook. It created a pseudo-sense of freedom for me that I would've considered an out of body ordeal. The volume my mom had her classical music on was so low that even people with supersonic-like hearing, like me, still had trouble hearing it. Not that I ever had to because I always listened to my own music on my PearPhone.

"I feel like I'm in the middle of a Los Angeles earthquake!" I screamed over the heavy guitar and drums. My dad nodded and tapped to the beat of the song with his hands and the steering wheel.

"Nothing better to wake a man up in the morning like some black coffee and a little rock and roll vibration, that's what I always say" He laughed and turned down the volume a tad, patting my shoulder.

"So, these kids you hang around with, tell me about them. I know your mom knew them quite well, but I'm trying to get more into the 'dad mode' by being semi-protective about the kinds of people you associate with" He put both hands back onto the steering wheel and merged into the next lane.

I scoffed.

"Compared to my mom, I don't think you could even come close. She implanted a chip in my brain so she could locate me anywhere on Earth!"

This time, he had to stifle back his laughter.

"It did come in handy a few times, but still. It was irritating to know that a foreign chip GPS device was buried in my skull."

"I could take that out, you know. I am a doctor. We get to take advantage of the OR's so I could even take it out tonight after your surprise with your friends as an additional birthday present and as a part of officially being an adult, no more GPS tracking device in your skull."

"Seriously? Oh man, that'd be the best! Then Sam couldn't thwack my head every time we're out and make some comment about how I'm like those dogs that get the chips put into their shoulders."

"Even I have to admit, a chip is a little over the top."

"That was my mom for ya" I said as if she was still alive.

"Yeah, I know. Marissa was always protective over her family members, including me when we were married for a year. I was quite a bit younger than her, and we hadn't exactly known each other for long before we got married, so she laid her eyes extra closely on me. Then you came and became her prime focus. She never took her eyes off you, even when you were sleeping. You never cried much, but she always insisted on sitting by your crib. The minute you'd stir, she'd bolt up from her seat and made sure you were ok. She really took care of you. I was just the guy that put your diapers on backwards and that you threw up on all the time. Your mom was…quite the caregiver. You couldn't have been in better hands. Ever."

I smiled and let a small tear slip at the mention of how much she cared about me. I loved my mom with all my heart.

"Back to what I was saying about your friends? You said something about a girl named Sam?" He clearly urged to get off the subject of my late mother, as it was starting to make us both a bit on the border line of emotions.

"Sam? Yeah, she's one in a million…." I stopped what I was saying and stared off beyond the windshield in front of us as it started to rain. Rain always dazzled me, but it got me off-topic

"She and Carly co-host our show, iCarly" I picked what I was saying back up.

"iCarly, huh? I'll have to watch it soon."

"You should. These girls are hilarious. Carly's about the sweetest pea you'll ever meet. With her shiny brunette hair, breath-stopping smile, and cute dimples, you'd fall in love right on the spot. Sam's a little more complicated. She's this vicious, pernicious blonde with a big heart and bad-ass attitude."

"Sam sounds like this one doctor we have at the hospital, Bailey. We call her 'The Nazi'. Get her mad and you're just asking for your ass to be kicked your entire shift, which could be forty-eight hours long. Bailey's got a good heart, though."

"So does Sam, I just wish she'd bring it out more and stop hiding behind the façade. When we were…"

I drifted off just as an ambulance swept through the intersection. I could see my dad eyeballing it intently and so did I. I was considering either going in the direction of a film maker or a doctor, the ambulance passing by just reminded me of anatomy and physiology last year. That class kicked my ass all the live-long day.

"Man, I wonder what happened…." My dad muttered, rubbernecking to the point where people honked at him to go when the light changed colors.

"You were saying?" He asked, glancing over at me. I lifted my hand up and slapped it back down on my lap.

"Never mind."

My dad never touched on the subject of Carly or Sam again, so I kept it that way by talking about him being a surgeon. I didn't want to blurt out the full details of our friendship with them, some of it is scared. I literally just moved and hadn't spoken more than three words to the guy until today. I might've even just said too much when I was talking before.

We pulled up by bushwall and he let me out.

"Call me if you need anything. Stay out of trouble, last thing I need in my ER today is my kid requiring the defibrillator."

"No problemo, Padre, adios!" I waved off as he floored out of the parking lot. The rain was still drizzling, so I got a bit wet outside. I shook my head like a wet dog upon my entrance. Lewbert was asleep at the counter, so I didn't have to worry about being scolded at today. I took the elevator upstairs and knocked three times before creaking to door open and slowly walking into the apartment. No one was there.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I beckoned, looking at my phone and muttering to myself, "Carly's text said to come right in and-"

Before I could stop talking to myself, someone jumped on my back and covered my eyes with one hand, their other hand on my shoulder.

"Guys! Hurry! Guys! He's here!" The girl on top of me yelled as I tried to spin around in a circle to shake her off. I laced my hands under her legs as we both fell over from being unbalanced. When I opened my eyes, a bundle of blond hair had attacked my face. I coughed to get the hair out of my mouth. Whoever the hair belonged to was lying limply on top of me, groaning. The shifting of my equilibrium fogged my thought process, but I was pretty darn sure of who is was that tackled me.

"Benson…you weren't supposed to fall over" She moaned, rolling off of me (and potentially dismantling little Jimmy and the twins in the process). It was Sam. I was right. As she stood up, I saw Carly, Spencer, and Gibby standing behind her, grinning and containing their fits of laughter.

"Well, when you wrestle and attack me like a football player, how am I supposed to react? I'm not Dolly Sunshine" I spat with some fire, pushing myself off the ground and dusting myself off. They all began to laugh until Carly conducted and shushed them all whilst holding a chocolate cupcake with a candle on top.

She began, "In five…"

Spencer spoke next, "four…."

Then Gibby, "three…"

Sam, lastly, "two…"

All together now, "Happy birthday!" Spencer and Gibby had noisemakers hanging from the corners of their mouths like cigarettes. Sam and Carly had slung their arms around me and swayed side to side. "For he's a jolly good fellow!" They sang as they swaying séance continued. At last, I was standing still, both girls arms still around me.

"Awww, you guys" I patted both Carly and Sam on their sides and smiled. "You guys are the best."

"Blow out your candle!" Carly hip bumped me, which had the domino effect and I ended up hip bumping Sam. It turned into a battle of who could hip bump who the hardest. Carly and Sam didn't have someone on the other side of them, so they wouldn't be getting as sore as I was.

"Before my lovely cupcake gets destroyed, may I blow it out?" My voice was jumpy as Sam had the last bump. I glared at her without moving my head. Still not moving my head, I could tell she was giving me a look almost equivalent to flipping me the bird.

"Sure!" Carly yelled. "In five, four, three, two…"

"ONE!" Spencer screamed, pushing a button on his automatic candle. The cupcake exploded on Carly, leaving white icing and some chocolate cake bits in her hair and on her dress. Sam and I back away just in time. Carly spat out a huge chunk that landed in her mouth.

"Sorry" Spencer whispered, throwing the remote at Gibby, which hit him in the gut.

"Ow!"

"Well, I'm going to go clean this mess up" she said all too calmly with her eyes closed. "Watch your back, Shay" she pointed at Spencer and grunted as she pounded angrily up the steps.

"She seems mad" I said, stating the obvious.

"Nah, I'm too cute to stay mad at, right Sam?" Spencer turned to Sam for an honest answer. Sam kind of ducked behind me with her arm still around my neck to avoid the question.

"I plead the fifth on this one, cake bomber. Why don't you as Le Gibby?"

"Gibs!" He turned to Gibby. Even though he just hit Gibby in the gut a minute ago, the Gibster retorted with a fist pump.

"Yeah! We're both cute!"

"And sexy!" Spencer spurted out.

"And we know it!" Gibby sang, starting to dance in a way that made us all hang our heads to shame, except Spencer who joined in, dancing a little less…slutty. Gibby and Spencer kept dancing and were now singing "Shots" at the top of their lung capacities. Sam and I, still holding onto one another, stood in the middle of the living room.

"So, whatcha wanna do today?" She asked, turning her head my way to block out the semi-stripper dancing Spencer and Gibby preformed on the coffee table. I met her eyes with my own and bit my lip, shrugging.

"I dunno"

"C'mon, man, you're officially an adult. Let's do something radically insane!" Sam began to sway us again. Not questioning her movement, I swayed with her.

"Such as? And nothing too illegal! I promised my dad I wouldn't end up in an ER today, Puckett."

"I was just going to suggest…karaoke? I mean…" She pointed over to Spencer and Gibby, who have worked their way onto a table behind Sam and I. Gibby had his shirt off and was whipping Spencer in the butt with it. "They have a few places at the mall where you can sing and stuff. Plus, we could grab a bite in the food court and go to that point-and-shoot nail gun store!"

It sounded like a cough more than a laugh that came from my mouth, but it was followed with "These two singing on stage? Food? Nail guns? Someone slap my ass and call my Susie-Sally, we got our agenda for the day!"

…

"I can't believe we got thrown out of another karaoke place because of you two!" Carly ranted and stomped out of yet another karaoke singing place at the mall. Sam and I followed right behind her, trying to keep up with her and her wrath. Spencer and Gibby were ushered out by two giant security guards. Gibby had his shirt torn into bits and one shoe missing. Spencer was missing both his shoes and one sock.

"No shoes, no shirt, not allowed in? Psh, since when do people actually follow that rule?" Gibby asked casually once released by the security guard. Carly charged up to him and pointed an accusing finger.

"How about, ummm, Every normal homo sapien!"

Spencer and Gibby both giggled. "She said homo."

"That tears it!" She lunged for both of their necks.

"Whoa, Shay!" Sam stepped in between Carly and Gibby. "You can kick Gibby's little Gibby's later, but it's Fredward's escape of the womb day."

"Escape of the womb day?" I cocked an eyebrow and leaned into her.

"Birthday sounds so…nonchalant, and boring." Sam was still in her shielding position between Carly and Gibby. She finally stood erect.

"Ok, let's do this: Carly, you go cool off with a frozen coffee in Gloria Jean's. Freddie and I will meet you there after we pay a visit to the nail gun store. And you two" She pointed at both Gibby and Spencer. "You two go into that store next to Sears. It seems appropriate for you two…freaks."

"Cool!" Gibby and Spencer booked it down the stairs by the karaoke shop we were just kicked out of.

"Wait! Spencer, you're not allowed in that store again! Grandad said so!" Carly ran after the two frolicking weirdoes. Sam turned to me and took a step back, lifting her hands and slapping them to her sides.

"Ready for your present, Mr. Benson?" Sam asked, lifting her foot up to begin walking ahead of me.

I skipped along behind her, putting my arm around her in a friendly manner. "At the nail gun store? Of course, Miss Puckett. Let's-a-go!"