A Coffee and a Smoothie

By OneHorseShay

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sakes, don't sue.

Rating: T to the max for Adult Content and Themes and possible Language

Timeline: Starts just at the end of 'Who Did it to Trina?' and assumes that 'Tori Tortures Teacher' is the following episode.

Summary: Starts during the end of 'Who Did it to Trina?' Jade bonds and reflects on her life and romantic relationship with an unexpected person who can surprisingly relate.

Chapter 1

Guidance Councilor's Office
Hollywood Arts High School
Friday, September 16, 2011

"KEEKO!" André shouted as he threw up his hands then leapt over the couch to dash out the door.

Jade bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as she out an annoyed breath. This afternoon had turned into one big waste more so than she original thought in letting Cat talk her into coming to see Tori's play even with the hilarity of watching Trina swing all about and destroying the entire ranch house set (and watching Tori's play ruined).

The faint noise of knuckles knocking on wood caught the raven haired teenager's attention away from her self reflecting on her regret of wasting her afternoon to look up with the rest of the Hollywood Arts students to see the smiling and handsome face of Freddie Benson looking around the edge of the half opened door. He rested his left hand on the door handle of the office door while softly knocking on the wood door with his other hand as he greeted them, "Hey."

The rest of the students turned to look at the Seattleite visitor with various expressions of being pleasantly surprised by his presence. Jade felt a twinge of disgust in her stomach at how Tori instantly turned on her flirtatious charm (at least she didn't do her flirtatious hair flipping) as the brunette walked past Lane and greeted their guest with a warm smile and overly cheerful tone, "Hey, I was wondering where you took off to."

The brown eyed teenager finished entering the room and shrugged his shoulder while giving the brunette a boyish grin, "I was with Trina. I just wanted to make sure she was doing okay and that she knew someone was there with her. She seemed like she was going to be fine when I left, but she's going to be sore for the next few days… and I think cranky."

Jade held back a smirk as Tori threw her head back and sighed loudly at the prospect of having to deal with a cranky sister over the weekend. The pale actress imagined for a moment that Trina would put her rival through the same misery as she did when Tori was the older Vega sister indentured servant before the Ke$ha performance to get her out of the deal.

The raven haired girl was pulled out of her forming fantasy of a miserable Tori with Freddie motioning around with a hand towards them while asking curiously, "So why are all of you here instead of with Trina?"

Lane looked as if he was caught off guard for a split second, but recovered enough to answer while holding up the golden colored gimbal, "The gimbal attached to Trina's harness looked like it was cut—"

Rex spoke up with more than appropriate cheer in his voice, "And Lane was accusing one of us of sabotaging Trina's harness, but it was just some old equipment that broke from her weight."

Freddie smirked as he looked over to Lane and commented with a little bit of prodding in his voice, "I guess Lane really is pretty good at jumping to conclusions."

The guidance counselor crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at the teenager.

The iCarly tech-producer cracked a bigger smile as he met the school employee's annoyed stare.

Jade was curious as the rest about what the Seattleite meant by the statement, but instead of asking for him to clarify, she asked with a smirk as she got up from the wicker chair, "What made you finally decide to ditch Trina and come back?"

Freddie turned his attention to the pale singer while still wearing his friendly smile, "Well…" He scratched the back of his head and let out a soft laugh, "She kept flirting with me… really flirting with me… now I know what it felt like on the other side when I was thirteen."

Jade saw Tori raise a curious eyebrow and mouthed a half formed question in her mind, but Freddie pulled the hand away from the back of his head and raised it to wave her off and interrupt, "Never mind." Jade slipped in before Tori could make any response with a shrugged a shoulder and casually remarked, "Figures she would try something like that."

The visitor raised an eyebrow as he looked back on her with a curious expression.

She smirked at their Seattle visitor with a narrow gaze and answered coyly, "Freddie, you're a pretty handsome, smart, nice guy… and famous." She finished with a soft, somewhat sarcastic laugh, "I'm surprised she didn't just jump on you."

He bowed his head down slightly smiled at the compliment and softly answered, "Thanks…" He let out a soft laugh as he finished, "I think the painkillers they gave her saved me from that fate as she was getting pretty groggy as I left."

Jade passed the quickest of glances towards Tori and maintained her smile as seeing Tori giving her the briefest of pouts, before the brunette quickly recovered with a soft smile towards her guest and resting a hand on his upper left arm. She spoke with an apologetic tone with that puppy dog look expression that Jade couldn't stand, "Sorry about that. Trina can be—"

Jade instantly supplied with a hint of laughter in her voice, "Annoying? Irritating? Nauseating?"

Tori dropped her hand away from Freddie's arm and frowned as she gave Jade a cold stare.

The pale actress smirked in response and mentally checked off another point in her head against the brunette.

Freddie clasped his hands together getting everyone's attention and stating with a nervous tone, "Anyway, so… are we ready to head out? The after play celebration might be canceled, but I doubt you want to hang around here anymore."

The brunette snorted out a quick breath to apparently release her irritation at the raven girl turned back to Freddie. She answered with an easy going voice, "Yeah, we can go ahead and go." She looked to Lane and asked playfully, "Unless Lane has anything else?"

He raised his hands and awkwardly smiled, "No, no… I don't have anything else. Go, go have a good weekend."

Freddie motioned with his right arm towards the direction of the exit and allowed Tori, Robbie and a happy Cat to pass by him. Tori called out just as she exited the office, "See ya Lane." He remained standing at the door and turned his attention to look at Jade and politely asked, "You coming?"

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked inquisitively at the brown haired boy as she remained standing in place. "No, Beck's picking me up."

Tori had stopped just at the threshold past the door and gave an accepting nod, but Freddie spoke up, "Oh… I could stay and wait with you?"

Jade couldn't hide her slight surprise at his suggestion and it apparently didn't faze him as he looked over his shoulder to Tori and stated casually, "Robbie can drive and Beck will just drop me off after he picks us up."

Jade didn't have a chance to contemplate an answer before her mouth simply spoke, "That's fine." Her eyes shot open wide at hearing her own words. It wasn't as if she was adverse to spending time with the Seattle native, but surprised that he would offer and she would readily agree.

Tori looked even more surprised and stumbled over her words before she was finally able to spit out, "Okay, I'll see you in a little while. We're having dinner at seven."

Jade noticed the playful grin he gave to Tori as he responded, "Looking forward to your mom's cooking."

Tori smiled back to him then turned and started on her way down the hallway. Cat walked back into the room and took a moment to give a quick hug to Freddie, which he happily returned, then let him go to catch up with Tori and Robbie. He let out a soft laugh then looked to Jade once they were out of sight. He motioned again to the door and politely spoke, "After you."

She nodded to him then walked around the wood table dominating the center of the gathered seat to pass him and exit the room. She heard over her shoulder Freddie bidding farewell to the guidance counselor and pulling the door shut behind him.

The pair started their way down the hallway, but Jade wore a regretful expression as she glanced to her right at the oblivious teenager who he thought he was helping out. Once they were several feet down the hallway, she gently grabbed him by the elbow and brought him to a stop. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow for an explanation. She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes while crossing her arms under her chest. "Look, I lied. Beck's not picking me. I drove to school today."

His eyes darted back and forth for a few moments with his lips becoming a thin line then he cautiously asked, "Okay? Why not just tell us that?"

She frowned and eyed him which he instantly got the message that he really shouldn't ask her that question. She let out a soft sigh and let her shoulders drop. She met his eyes with a half smile and regretfully stated, "I'll just go ahead and drop you off at Tori's—"

He interrupted with a lighthearted voice, "Or we could go get a smoothie?"

Jade straightened her posture and raised her pierced eyebrow.

He cracked a halfhearted smile and continued with a bit of tribulation, "Or whatever you want. You obviously didn't want them to know that and dropping me off right away would give it away so… we have to kill some time and… I'm an ear if you want it?"

She tilted her head to the side slightly as she looked to the handsome tech-producer and contemplated his suggestion. He cracked a playful smile strangely similar to one that Beck would flash her way and hated to admit could get her to do almost anything. She nodded along a few moments later and asked in a tone that suggested that she was doing him the favor, "Coffee?"

He snorted out a laugh and answered, "Coffee is good."

Jet Brew Coffee Shop
7055 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Jade sat comfortably in the stool chair as she sat across from the Seattle visitor at one of the high tables near the large front window of establishment. She held the Styrofoam cup in both her hands and sipped from the rim of her fancy coffee that she decided to try on a whim and Freddie had insisted on treating her. She looked across the table to see Freddie sip on his straw of his rich (and overly priced) smoothie he wanted to try.

She sat the coffee down off to the side and leaned forward resting her crossed arms on the table to support her as she asked, "It's a surprise to see you just showing up in the audience."

He sat his cup down and took a soft breath as he looked up to meet her eyes. "A pleasant one I hope?"

She softly smirked with an approving eye as she answered, "Yes it is. Better circumstances this time, but what made you decide to come down?"

He gave an agreeing nod, but she noticed that he avoided her gaze by focusing his attention on the table as he answered with a casual sounding voice to her ears, "I saw Tori's post about her play and I thought it might be fun to come down to see it and hang for a bit, so I contacted Tori and she offered me to stay at her house for the weekend. I guess it was the excuse I needed to get away from it all for a little while."

She nodded along accepting the answer. "I guess we all just need a change in scenery at some point."

He glanced up to her for the briefest of moments then looked away while he answered, "Something like that." She furled her brow as she saw that a soft blush was forming on his cheeks while he continued to look down at the table and take the occasional sip from his smoothie.

A few moments passed before it occurred to her that leaning forward and resting against her arms, she was giving him a good view of her cleavage, especially as she had the top button undone on her dark gray scoop neck shirt and he was fumbling to look anywhere else but her. She actually felt a flush of warmth on her pale cheeks warm and felt a twinge of flattery for his bashfulness.

She cleared her throat and sat back up to let the backrest support her then casually tried to sip on her coffee.

He looked up and met her eyes. He apparently saw through her attempt to remain casual as he looked away and mumbled out, "Sorry… I didn't mean—"

She cracked a smile as she forced her voice to remain casual, "No, I didn't realize the ah… view I was giving you. Most guys would have tried to look every chance he could get away with as we were talking as if I was a piece of meat."

He looked straight into her eyes and responded with a clipped tone, "My eyes were up."

She leaned slightly back in her seat with evident surprise to the sharpness of his tone.

He blew out a breath and shook his head. He looked up to her eyes with a regretful expression and tone, "I'm sorry, it just… the circumstances just remind me of something Carly accused me of doing one time despite the fact I was looking her straight in the eyes at the time." He brought his straw back to his lips and sip on his smoothie in an apparent attempt to comfort himself.

The pale actress tapped her fingers on the metal table and causally commented, "An ear?"

He grinned then let out a relieving laugh which brought a surprise smile to her face. "It was a few years ago when Carly did a charity fight with Shelby Marx—"

"The professional fighter that Tori looks like?"

He gave her a polite point as he answered, "Yeah, that's her… anyway when Carly first 'challenged' her, someone commented on the site that she looked like a pole or something like that, I don't remember the exact phrase that was used. She was outraged and said that she was getting curvier everyday. I agreed with her that I had noticed that she was getting curvier to reassure her, but she suddenly acted offended that I was agreeing with her and told me 'eyes up' when I was doing that in first place. She even gave me grief for thinking Tori is pretty when she was dating Steven."

He leaned back in his stool and glanced out of the window as he finished, "I hate to say it, but sometimes Carly says the stupidest things as if they are the Gospel truth and she expects everyone to agree with what she says. What's worst is I think she believes what she's saying it true."

The idea that Freddie had fallen under Tori's spell like every other guy (and Beck a part of her always feared) bothered her a bit, but she focused on the part of her his statement which brought out a soft laugh, but immediately ceased when she saw his slight frown directed at her. "Sorry, I just… I find it kind of funny that you're getting grief for agreeing with the girl. It's usually the other way around."

His frown was replaced with a small smile. He spoke with a relieved voice, "I don't get it; maybe you can explain it to me?" He softly shook his head with a grin as he continued, "Girls want to feel pretty and beautiful and you want to be told that, but when a guy actually says that there's something wrong with us?" He glanced up to the ceiling for a moment as he looked to her that he was coming to some kind of realization. He focused back on her and asked, "You know what?" He leaned forward to look her dead in the eyes to help make his point, "I'm single. I'm allowed to have an opinion on the girls around me without having to feel guilty about it or being made out to be some pervert. Tori is pretty. Trina is pretty. Cat is pretty."

She narrowed her gaze on him and whispered out cautiously, "What about me?" Maybe it was due to a little pride on her part, but she didn't like the fact that he could say that he thought the rest were pretty, especially Tori, yet he didn't include her.

He sat up and paused for a moment which caused her to immediately frown and turn her cautious gaze into a harsh glare. He looked caught for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but the tiniest inkling in the back of her head told her that it wasn't due to him being fearful from her reaction yet she couldn't really pinpoint what was his true motivation for not speaking.

He took a soft breath then whispered to her in such a way that she felt he was gently caressing her, "You are beautiful."

Jade's eyes opened wide as he looked to her bashfully as maybe he was crossing some line. She cleared her throat then tried to ask with a nonchalant voice, "If you really believe what you just told me, why were you so hesitant to say it?"

He let out a chuckle which only caused the actress to become irritated, "Because you have a boyfriend; it becomes a little more complicated to compliment another guy's girl without someone jumping to some kind of conclusion. I know from personal experience for the time Gibby wanted to beat me up over me supposedly trying to get with his ex-girlfriend when all we did was literally trip over ourselves because of the loosing fitted clothing of the hobo costumes we were wearing for a party Carly had thrown."

He smirked and shook his head. "The most ridiculous part about the whole thing is that he gets so wazzed off at me for thinking I was going behind his back but then turned around and cheats her on later with the girl he knew I was getting a date with as if it wasn't any big deal." He looked back to meet her eyes with a hopeful tone, "I'd like to avoid a fist fight with Beck… I wouldn't want to have to hurt him."

Jade remained quiet from hearing a bit of insider information on the inner workings of the iCarly crew and maybe the inner workings of the handsome tech-producer sitting across from her. A part of her felt a little amused at the idea that Freddie could hurt and win a fight with Beck, but a quick glance at his arms even underneath his rolled up sleeves and plaid patterned buttoned shirt with vest failing to hide his muscular chest told her that his statement wasn't some pie in the sky boast. She suddenly remembered that he had survived being hit by a truck one time attesting to his ability to take a hit. However, another part felt a little troubled that she found it hard to imagine Beck actually showing that level of jealousness or possessiveness of her then realized that she couldn't remember a time where he had actually shown any level of jealousy when it came to her.

She looked down at the table and could feel a sense of… inadequacy. She glanced over and saw from the corner of her eye and saw several teenage girls, and maybe one in her early twenties, looking in their direction, but specifically at Freddie. It may have been that they had recognized him from the web-show, but she turned her head slightly to get a look at their eyes and instantly saw that they were eying Freddie just as they would Beck when she was with him.

Her anger flared up into her chest that regardless whatever guy was in her presence, others would tune her out as if she wasn't there and zero in on him. She looked back to Freddie in the eyes and placed her right elbow on the table to support her hand resting delicately against her pale neck above her necklace. She spoke softly, "Well he's not here."

She heard the caution in his voice and the hesitation in looking in her eyes as he responded, "I can see that… where is he?"

The raven haired teenager looked away from his soft eyes and down at her PearPhone sitting on the silver table next to her resting coffee. She whispered so softly that she wondered if she had only said the words in her mind or out loud, "I don't know."

She really didn't know where Beck was at the moment. They had just started giving each other the silent treatment in class and instead started trading text messages to one another to communicate, but it was quickly deteriorating into outright arguing. She guessed by next week they would be openly fighting in class and maybe with their phones. She wasn't even sure what they were starting to argue about this time. However, she was sure about one thing: that as always, he wouldn't listen to what she had to say.

She glanced back up at Freddie and it didn't escape her notice that he took a hesitant breath and looked to her with a sympathetic expression. Usually that would just annoy her to no end, but this time it didn't as he wasn't paying attention to the girls a few tables over gawking at him, but straight at her… as if she really was his center of attention and not because he was perving over her.

The singer wondered, she wondered… then a thought occurred to her as an overwhelming sense of curiosity came over her as she had to know. "I heard that Sam dumped you…" She took a quick, soft breath and finished with a cautious tone, "I'm sorry to hear about that."

Freddie's mouth dropped open as he was caught off guard from the sudden change in subject.

She regretted in an instant that she had brought it up as he leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table and slightly frowned. The dark haired teenager broke eye contact as she could easily see from his eyes that the subject matter of him and Sam being a couple looked liked it left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He blew a loud breath through his lips then answered, "It's okay. For the record, she didn't dump me… Sam overheard something Carly said about Spencer and the girl he was seeing at the time and felt like it applied to us. She expressed her doubts about whether we should be together at all and I took the opportunity to bail out of the relationship I should have done by the end of the second week if it wasn't for Carly. I got her to admit that the break up was mutual to try to spare her feelings… heck, I even claimed equal responsibility over the years of us going at each others throats when it's actually her tormenting me every chance she gets to make my life miserable… which she does succeed at quite well. I think it was my way of making it up to her and myself for sinking down to her level in the relationship."

His description of what happened was eye opening and one particular thing jumped out at her other than him saying that Sam made him miserable, "Her level?"

He looked down to break his eye contact with her as he finished, "I'm not proud to say that I finally started treating her the same way she treated me… I was just as vicious back to her… except I never punched her back when she hit me whenever I disagreed with her… which was quite a lot over those three weeks, but she's hit me for years." He shook his head as he whispered out regrettably, "You don't know how much the relationship brought out the worst in me. I don't want to be that person again."

Jade held her breath as she saw the glimmer of real shame in her eyes. She felt an overwhelming sense that she should say something, anything, but he continued, "To top it off, I don't know if I'm the good guy for giving her a fair chance at trying to change her ways with me and to see if there could be something there at the time that plenty of girls wouldn't give me or a pathetic loser for saying yes because I wanted to hookup with a pretty girl that liked making out with me… the only thing I do know is that I haven't been able to look myself in the mirror in a long time." He growled out in frustration then turned back to sip on his smoothie.

The pale raven haired girl looked to with an apprehensive expression from the sheer honesty and candor of his words and caused her to once again make a comparison with her relationship with Beck. It wasn't exactly on point, but it was close enough for her to think on the fact that she had always taken the blame for the problems in their relationship, yet the young man sitting across from her in all honesty knew very little about was willing to admit his own mistakes and failures when he could have easily hid behind the fact he had been in what could be generously described at best as an unhealthy relationship. She wondered why Beck couldn't do the same when their relationship wasn't anywhere near as troublesome.

She gently rested her hand on top of his resting on the table. He looked up at her with a guarded expression, but she looked him straight in the eyes and gave him the faintest of smiles. She whispered softly in a comforting tone, "I see a good guy."

He wore an even expression as he looked to her and assessed her statement. He gave her a penetrating stare and she for a few moments felt a little exposed.

She pulled her hand away then quickly licked her lips and asked, "Okay… I can somewhat understand at least giving it a try to see if it could work out and calling it quits when it obviously isn't working, but how does Carly fit into everything?"

He gave a half smile as he elaborated, "I let Carly browbeat me into staying with Sam after I found out that she sabotaged my application to go to a workshop camp that would have gotten me into any college I wanted with listing that on my transcript." He frowned as he delved deeper into his story, "Heck Carly knew what Sam had done weeks before and kept her secret. Carly tried to use it to break us up because she got all mad that we were spending time with each other and neglecting the show. She slipped it to my mom and immediately after my mom told me about it and I was still just trying to wrap my head around what had happened, Carly demanded that I forgive Sam on the spot with the idea that I just have to accept the way Sam treats me, because supposedly Sam ruins things for her and she has to put up with it. She thought Sam was sincere with her lame apology that she gave after she first tried to brush it off as if it wasn't a big deal because she did it before she started liking me and we got together. Carly had the nerve to ask 'Who cares?' that Sam janked me over."

He snorted out a breath and shook his head. "Funny, I can't remember anything Sam has done to Carly that's on the scale of ruining college plans… that's right, Carly doesn't put up with it."

Freddie took several deep breaths as dragging up the memories was obviously causing some suppressed anger to rise up and the raven haired teenager actually grew concerned for a moment for his wellbeing.

Jade was initially floored with the story and had a hard time in believing it, but her mind recalled the time that Tori had briefly ruined Beck's chances on his movie spot in a film with Melinda Murray. She had been absolutely furious over the matter and didn't shy away one bit to be snarky and short with her rival over the matter. Beck had attempted the same thing of trying to let her anger go with Tori overnight as apparently Carly had succeeded with Freddie, however she would have none of that. She could not magically flip a switch in her head and heart to forgive a girl that at the time cost her boyfriend his first spot in a theatrical release movie. She wasn't going to give credit to the actress for fixing a screw up that should have never had happened in the first place.

The pale actress never voiced it to Beck, but it did annoy her that he didn't appreciate her being upset for him while he kept his cool and collective image up. She realized as she went further down that train of thought that he had never shown any real signs of being upset for her when she lost out on things. Just like today, he was mysterious absent when Tori got Steamboat Suzie over her, so he got to avoid actually having to actually take her side over Tori's side. He was conveniently in Canada when her live performance art 'Clowns Don't Bounce' was pushed aside for Tori's 'Prome' despite already having booked the Asphalt Café in advance, so he avoided having to take a position a second time. She figured that maybe she should say something to him about it, but she had a feeling that he'd brush her off as always. Also, as much as she like Sikowitz, his blatant favoritism of Tori over her was starting to really get on her nerves.

She finally pulled herself from her thoughts and focused back on the brown eyed teenager sitting across from her. He looked like he was fuming at that point and sipping on his drink to help calm his nerves. She responded the same way she did when André lost his chance at a record contract, attempt to comfort the teenager, "Freddie, you're a smart guy. There's got to be something else that can make up for missing out on it. All the technical work you do on iCarly has to count for something?"

He nodded along for a moment then looked to her with an irritated expression as he answered, "You'd think that wouldn't, but you'd be surprise how that's not the case. About a month ago, we were having an exposé done for the show and the one producing it refused to interview me. She didn't think I wasn't important to the show other than a 'camera monkey' for the show."

He leaned back in his chair and smirked, but it wasn't a humorous one as he continued his story, "Instead of Carly and Sam supporting me and simply refusing to do the interviews unless I was with them, they agreed to still do them… they even interviewed Gibby and thought he was more important than me to the show. I named the damn show and I'm treated this way over frankly a 'Johnny-come-lately' that wormed his way into our show."

The actress felt as if the bottom of her stomach fell out as she realized he had it worst than she did in wanting some decent friends she could count on as she had told one of the tots she interviewed for her Slap page and worst than not being acknowledge for one's talents, but actually being told and considered nonessential to the show. She thought about Sinjin and his crew of weird and borderline disgusting perverts that she didn't like, but even she didn't question their talent and importance in making a production successful when they were onboard. Sinjin really was good at set design and that's why she trusted him to work on her 'Well Wishes' production.

She finally gathered her thoughts to ask, "What did you do about it?"

"I wanted to prove that I was important to the show, so I wanted to star in something, but they dumped the whole thing on me to come up with something without any help or input. I came up with something and I bombed badly… I can't say for certain, but a part of me thinks they wanted me to fail…"

"Is that normal though?"

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow.

She shrugged a shoulder as she asked, "I mean just coming up with your own sketches? I just don't know how you handle the production of the show."

"It's not… the show is actually a collaborative brainstorming process in the writing and I contribute whether they will admit it or not. We don't really do individual things at the spare of the moment and on the rare occasion that Gibby wants to do something, Carly has to approve of it before it goes on the air and helps polish the idea anyway. She's very particular about what goes on the show and hates having to wing anything."

He took a quick sip to wet his mouth then continued, "I really think that's why it bombed… I didn't have anyone there to help me polish it. It's not the acting part. I've acted in several reoccurring bits we have for the show and more or less have creative control on those parts. I do other short videos we put up online between shows. I can act and not to sound arrogant about it, I probably have more practical experience in acting then most of the people that go to Hollywood Arts…" He put on an awkward smile as he was obviously hesitant to say his next words, "Including you."

She slightly frowned, but before she really could take any offense, he pointed out the blindly obvious truth, "I may not perform in every show, but we do nearly fifty shows a year and we just celebrated our forth year doing the show this month, so you can do the math."

She glanced down at the table and softly laughed embarrassingly, "Oh… you got me there."

He gave her a quick sympathetic smile then continued, "Anyway… then I tried to show off my technical skills for the show by getting a camera I've been working on off and on for a while. It would film then project in three-D without glasses or three-D ready monitor."

Jade sat up straighter from being impressed with his ambition for such a thing. She considered herself a real actress inspiring to be a professional one after graduating, so she couldn't ignore how the three-D craze had effected how movies were produced. She asked genuinely curious, "Did it work?"

He slightly frowned then took another sip of his smoothie before answering, "Yes and no. I could get it to do that, but it made everyone's eyes screwy when they watched it. I did cure a few rare cases of eye problems, but other than that, I tried and I failed… as always."

She slightly frowned for a moment at seeing him being down in the dumps. She blew out a soft breath through her nose and stated in a tone as if she was saying the sky was blue, "Okay, so you failed." She leaned forward again and disregarded the fact that she was flashing him a nice view of his cleavage as he was looking her straight in the eyes as she spoke, "So, try again. How many things around here do we take for granted worked the first time?" She held up her PearPhone to help illustrate her point. "How many PearPhones have they've been through to get us to this? Heck, try and sell your idea to the Pear Company. Maybe with all their brainy guys they can figure out how to make it work and you get a nice royalty check out of it?"

Freddie blinked several times as she saw the preverbal gears turning in his head. He finally answered with a relieved tone, "That's… that's a really good idea. Thank you."

She smiled warmly from the praise as it had been awhile since someone had given her any praise while lying her phone back down on the table. He returned it with one of his own that reached his eyes.

A momentary sense of peace seemed to fall on the pair as they started back on their respective drinks. The raven haired teenager realized that her coffee had cooled more than she wanted, but she wasn't going to complain as it really hadn't bothered her.

Freddie broke the comfortable silence about a minute later with a soft whisper, "I'm sorry for dumping all that on you… I wanted to be an ear for you, not the other way around."

She looked up to see his apologetic eyes. "It's okay… I guess I needed to do some listening. It just… gave me a few things to think about on my own relationship." She quickly closed her mouth as she realized that she may have said something that she didn't want to share.

The brown eyed teenager asked with self-deprecating humor in his voice, "Trying to learn from my screw ups?"

She let out a relieved breath as she answered, "Something like that."

He smirked as his eyes told her that he had picked up turning his earlier comment back on him, "Glad I could help then."

She grinned warmly at him, but was interrupted with the ping from her phone. She closed her eyes and shook her head then looked down at her pear shaped phone. She quickly read through the text message from Beck and clenched her jaw tight.

"Is everything okay?"

She looked up to see his concerned face, but frowned deeply as she stared harshly at the brown eyed teenager.

He raised his hands up in surrender and commented, "Sorry."

She tilted her head to the side slightly as she whispered, "No, it's…" Giggles from her right caught her attention and interrupted her train of thought. She glanced over to see where they were coming from and saw the same girls once again eyeing Freddie with almost embarrassing looks of lust in their eyes.

As she looked back to the web tech-producer, she caught sight that Freddie had seen the girls. He looked to her with an embarrassed smile and stated, "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I have to make a run for the restroom. I think the smoothie is already catching up with me and it would give you a moment of privacy to take care of…" He trailed off as he motioned a hand to her phone.

The singer glared at the teenagers at the other table. They quickly lost the smiles and smirks off their faces. She looked back to the table and particularly her phone as she took several deep breaths. She glanced in the direction of the obscured view of the restrooms then back to her phone. She tapped the screen to read over a sarcastic response from Beck. She clenched her jaw tightly and let her line of thought started leading her down a path that she knew that she may regret, but…

She picked up her phone off the table and locked it then slipped it into her left boot as she stood up from the table. She casually made her way to the restroom which was at the back of the establishment. She rounded the corner to a small hallway created by a partition wall made to keep the doors themselves out of view from the rest of the establishment. Instead of heading into the ladies' restroom, she stopped in front of the men's restroom.

The pale raven haired teenager glanced over to see that no one was watching from behind the corner then pushed open the door and peaked inside to see if anyone else was in the restroom. She didn't see anyone initially, so she quietly slipped inside then quickly knelt down resting on her heels to see the bottom of the stalls in order to double check anyone else being in the restroom. Fortunately, she only saw Freddie's lower legs and sneakers as he was in the process of exiting the stall.

She turned slightly to her left for her right hand to lock the door over her shoulder. She watched as he was unaware to her presence while he finished washing and rinsing his hands then grabbed a few paper towels to quickly dry his hands. She also noticed that he avoided looking into the mirror at his reflection. He turned as he finished drying his hands and balling the towels up to drop in the receptacle by the sink. He stopped in mid-step and put on a confused expression. "Ah, Jade?"

Jade took a deep breath and took two quick strides to close the distance between them. She grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled his face to her as she crashed her lips onto his lips. She closed her eyes and savored his lips so she didn't see his reaction, but felt his sudden tension by the unexpected contact. She slightly parted her lips and if possible, deepened the kiss as her right hand slipped to the back of his head and slid her fingers through his short hair to allow her nails to playfully dig into his skin.

She finally felt him start to return the kiss and his hands rest on her hips. She started grinning into her kisses as she realized that he was quite skilled in returning the affection with the various pressures against her lips and alternating attention to different parts of her lips.

He pulled his lips away and started trailing kisses down her left jaw line until he reached the spot just under her left ear. She closed her eyes as her fingertips brushed down his cheek then fisted his loose collar while she softly bit her bottom lip to muffle the lustful mew escaping her throat as he continued kissing the spot under her ear several times. He kissed the end of her ear then gently kissed his way down and kissed her pulse point on her neck.

The brown eyed teenager pulled his lips away before he could leave any mark on her pale skin and recaptured her lips without any objections on her part. She felt the tip of his tongue cautiously brush her bottom lip and immediately parted her lips so they could deepen the kiss further. As she enjoyed Freddie's kissing skills that a part of her mind attributed to him honing from his time with Sam (and with Carly that she wasn't really aware of), she felt his left hand slip off her hip and palm the small of her back then pulled her tighter against him.

His other hand brushed down from her hip then a pleasant tingling sensation travel up her left leg as Freddie, with a delicate touch from his right hand, ran his fingertips and palm over her stocking cover thigh. She slightly bit his bottom lip in surprise when his hands reached the end of the back of her thighs and slipped under her loose skirt and gripped her bottom.

His left hand soon brushed down from the small of her back and over her skirt then slipped underneath to join his other hand and cup her bottom. They maintained their kissing as he turned to his left and easily lifted the pale actress off of her feet while she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist and arms around the back of his neck and over his shoulder blades. A moment later, he gently sat her on the countertop of the row of sinks.

As the continued to duel with their lips and sometimes tongues, the Seattleite pulled his hands from underneath her bottom and ran his hands up her sides with the side of his thumbs gently grazing the side of her breasts over the soft material of her shirt. He slid his hands back down to rest back on her hips and started massaging her sides with his thumbs. His touch was a comforting sensation down her lower back for a few moments until he ceased and pulled the hem of her shirt from out of the waistband of her skirt. She shivered as he slid his right hand underneath her dark grey shirt to run his palm across her abdomen and softly brushed across her pale skin to hold her side. It was a strange, but pleasant sensation that went up her spine and down to her lower region from his cool thumb ring gliding across her skin.

She mewed with disappointment as his lips pulled away from her lips for a moment, but let herself enjoy his gentle touch yet underlining sense of strength of his hands that his hands brought on with added sense of security of his right hand sliding further around and rest on the small of her back. She realized a few moments later as to why he had pulled back slightly, so he could plant a soft kiss on her nose over her nose-stud then up to plant a soft one on her forehead then over to kiss over her eyebrow ring.

He started down the left side of her neck again and kissed over her collarbone, down the skin of her upper chest that the exposed from the scoop cut of her shirt until he left a gentle kiss at the top of her cleavage. She tilted her head up to look at the ceiling if her eyes were opened grinned as she found out that he had some appreciation for it. She ran her fingers through his short hair as a sign of her approval and wrapping her left forearm behind his neck along with her breath catching in her throat.

He kissed back up to place butterfly kisses over her right collarbone as his right hand continued to massage her left side and his left hand moved back under her skirt again then gently grabbed her bottom to pull her even closer as to leave no separation between the pair.

She instinctively used her legs to keep him close and pressed against her and as she was hardwired like every other human, started grinding against him as their centers had lined up with him standing and her sitting on the counter. She closed her eyes and softly biting her lower lip as her breaths started becoming shorter. She softly growled out as a jolt went through her from the pleasant friction caused by the rough material of his jeans against her stockings and panties. She started whispering into his ear, "Freddie, Freddie… Freddie—"

She could feel him smile against her neck figuring that he was quite pleased with his efforts to extract those words through his lips.

He pulled her away from her collarbone and recaptured her lips to silence her and she was glad to redirect her energy to his lips.

A knocking came from the restroom door then a muffled voice asked from the other side of the door, "Who locked this door?"

The pair's respective eyes shot open and Freddie immediately pulled away from his kiss and looked to the locked door. He whispered out, "Ah oh…"

She mentally had the same reaction, but she was a little quicker to come up with a solution. She grabbed his cheek and forced him to look at her. "Oh, don't worry. I have an idea, but just play along."

He nodded along, "Okay."

She gently pushed him against the shoulders to get him to take a step back so she could hop off the counter. She reached over and pulled several paper towels from the dispenser then stuck them under the faucet while turning on the water. Once they were damp, she turned back to the brown eyed teenager and started wiping over his lips, chin and the exposed skin just under his necklace where his open collar showed while he looked at her with wide eyed confusion. She slipped her arm under his right arm then led him to the stall he had just used.

She gently put a hand on his shoulder to indicate that he should kneel in front of it then clarified, "Get down and act like you're dry heaving into the toilet; put those acting skills to work."

"Okay…" he answered cautiously as Jade reached for the handle to flush the toilet then he knelt down over the toilet. She turned her attention to stuffing the hem of her shirt back into the waistband of her skirt and taking several calming breaths as she knew that her pale cheeks (and probably more of her exposed skin) had to be flushed with color.

As the water was flushing down, the door to the restroom finally opened up and Jade could hear someone approach then shout, "What's going on in—"

Jade took a step out of the stall to meet the person before he could peak inside the stall. She glare at a concerned employee, old enough to be a manger, and snap harshly hoping her outburst of anger would catch him off guard and give a reasonable explanation as to why her cheeks were flushed if they hadn't faded away, "I don't know what you put in that smoothie, but it made my friend start puking."

Just in time to emphasize her point, Freddie made a heaving sound loud enough to reverberate throughout the restroom.

The Jet Brew employee made a face showing his disgust at hearing the retching sound coming from the restroom stall then focused back on Jade. He started mumbling, "I'm sorry ma'am, but what are you doing in here?"

She snapped defensively as she was getting into the part, "Checking on my friend. What does it look like I'm doing?"

He started mouthing something while looking her in the eyes, "I thought, you… and—"

She turned on her acting skills with her shouting with false outrage, "You pervert! How dare you? I want to speak to your boss right now!"

He rose his hands up in surrender, "No, you don't have to do that. Is there anything I can get you?"

The pale singer snorted out a breath then answered with her irritation filling her voice, "Yeah, a few more minutes of privacy and a refund for my friend."

He turned in his tracks and headed out as he nervously called out over his shoulder, "Okay."

Jade blew out a breath of relief as the door swung close then turned back to the stall. She leaned over and patted Freddie between his shoulder blades.

He pulled leg up to get a foot on the ground then stood up and turned to face the raven beauty. He smile as he commented, "Wow, you are good."

She smirked and slightly bowed her head slightly for a moment. She looked up and retorted, "You're not half bad yourself Freddie Benson."

Their smiles soon faded as they looked at each other apprehensively as the momentary spell was broken between them and they realized exactly what they were in the processes of doing when they were nearly caught.

She bowed her head, unable to look him in the eyes as she spoke, "Look Freddie… I… what I mean to say is…"

He slipped his hand into her hand. She immediately looked down at the strong hand holding her delicate and paler hand. His touch was still soft and warm and still so strong. She looked back up to him with an uncertain expression. He licked his lips then cautiously stated, "I'm not expected to be back at Tori's until seven… so if you need to talk, I'll listen… and you seemed to want to say a lot."

The look of kindness that he was giving her actually made her ache as she wished Beck would just give her that look again. She looked down at the hand holding hers and thought on his offer. After a few moments of contemplation that felt as if time actually felt stretched out to minutes or longer, she took a breath and laced her fingers with his fingers. She turned and pulled him along to head out of the restroom without him saying a word of protest.

Author's Note: Nathan Kress may have been officially uncredited for his appearance in the episode, but according to Lane's Slap page (which is controlled by Dan Schneider), Nathan is playing Freddie in the audience, so I'm taking it as true that was actually Freddie and not someone that looked just like his character. Also, thanks for reading and don't be shy to review.