iThink About Gibby
"I still don't understand, Carls. How...why...chizz, there are too many ways to ask..."
"Why do I like...Gibby?"
"That's as good a place to start as any."
"Well..."
"No, no. Let me start this off on a different note." Sam said, suddenly interjecting into Carly's thought. "What is it...not that I care or anything...that you see in Gibby that you don't see in Fredweird?"
Carly giggled and Sam shot her a smirk, half-annoyed, half-amused. The gravity of the question, however, lingered heavily in the air and quickly brought them back to earth. Levity dissipated and gravitas overtook each of them. The shock of the question set in, and not just for Carly.
"Sam...that kinda sounds like you're concerned on Freddie's behalf..."
"Not even close, Shay." Sam abruptly interrupted. "Trust me, Mama don't want no nubs."
The joke flowed easily off of her tongue, but her next words betrayed her resolve.
"But, look...Freddie has been in love with you since the dawn of TIME. Well, maybe not love but some kind of sick, nerdy obsession-with-the-girl-next-door-who-was-always-nice-to-him-even-about-breaking-his-heart...thing. He's, like, the nicest, most caring guy on the planet and you always shut him down."
Sam could feel an awkward situation arising rapidly, surprised by her own words. The words came out like an uninhibited stream of concsciousness. She felt like the faster she said her piece, the sooner she could return back to the good ol' Sam Puckett that some love and others, well, loved to hate.
"He saves your life, constantly deals with you picking eye-candy over him, and now...Gibby, Carly? Don't get me wrong, he's mildly amusing when he manages to wear a shirt or cowers in fear of me, but he's a Gibby. I guess I'm just saying that whatever you see in him over ANYONE else, El Nub-erino included, is lost on me."
Carly was surprised even more than Sam was. Not so much about the confusion for her apparently sudden attraction to Gibby, but rather her kind words in reference to their nerdy side-kick. Well, Sam's approximation of "nice", anyway. Carly shifted in her seat uncomfortably, the silence between them was suffocating.
"Forget it, it's not important, Carls." Sam said, a twinge of regret tainting her tone of voice. Carly snapped back to reality.
"No, really, I understand. Freddie's a great guy and I'm kinda glad you can admit that to yourself, or to me for that matter."
Sam winced slightly to herself. The thought of slipping into niceties about Freddie irked her about as much as if she found out ham was the catalyst, in some way, for making cancer airborne and contagious. She shivered and Carly cracked a smile and broke the serious facade between them, and Sam joined in.
"The only time I ever felt anything for Freddie was after he saved my life. I thought I loved him, but he knew better. He was right...he was just bacon to me."
"Pretty disgusting bacon, if you ask me..."
"Sam!" Carly's face contorted into mock disgust with her friend.
"Ugh, just get on with it."
"Well, since that time he's become more like a brother to me. A brother I made out with in the past, but that's something I can probably hide away until it doesn't give me the creeps anymore..." She cleared her throat, feeling herself trail off once more from the point.
"Anyway. As far as Gibby's concerned...there's something just likable about him. He's unbearably sweet, for starters."
Sam scoffed and she followed it up with an eye roll Freddie would be proud of. "Since when?"
"Since I was able to really look past the large amount of...Gibby." Her eyes widened at how awful that sounded, and Sam quickly took cue.
"Well, there is plenty of Gibby to go around, yes."
"Samantha Puckett, not another word. You know exactly what I meant! Do you want me to tell you or are you going to be a jokey mess the whole time?"
Sam felt intimidated by Carly using her full name, one she was not particularly fond of.
"Fine, Carlotta." She said, dripping with sarcasm which just as soon faded into sincerity. "Please. Continue."
"I meant to say that when you look deeper into the oddness of Gibby, his other qualities really shine through."
"Okay, such as?"
"The boy is practically fearless, Sam."
"He seems pretty afraid of me, Carly."
"EVERYONE is afraid of you. You don't count."
Sam smirked, "Well, fair enough."
Carly couldn't help but join her. "He is not afraid of being who he is. Gibby is the guy who will run around school with his shirt off and not even think twice about what people will say about him. Even when they make fun of him for it, has he ever once been offended? Unless he's a great actor, I think we would've noticed some sort of pain by now. He doesn't care. He is who he is and no one will change that in him. Quite frankly, Sam, I don't want them to. Honestly, how many people do you know that can say they really don't care what other people think? In reality, it's a pretty enviable trait."
Sam seemed to consider her words for a moment before speaking. "Okay, okay. Anything else?"
Carly was determined and it almost seemed like Sam was challenging her to question if her feelings were genuine or if she was just grasping at straws.
"Do you remember last year in Creative Writing when we had to pair up with someone in class to do a series of writing exercises and help each other's editing skills and such?"
"Sure."
"Well, I got stuck with Gibby. The first exercise was to write whatever we wanted...a poem, a letter, anything, but it had to be about someone you care about."
"Uh-huh..."
"I wrote about my dad, but Gibby...I couldn't honestly tell who he was writing about at first. But I think this was the moment that I first started seeing him in a new light. He wrote a poem, something I would have never expected from him."
"Okay, anyone with half a brain can slap rhyming words together, Carls."
She forced out a breath, exasperated by her friend's odd insistence that Gibby couldn't be spectacular.
"It wasn't that he wrote a poem, it's what he wrote." Carly reached down into her bookbag laying in front of the couch and pulled out a larger purple binder filled with loose papers poking out every which way. She ruffled through them, searching through the sea of white to find one particular sheet. Finding it, she snatched it out with gusto and promptly pointed it at Sam. "I made a copy of it when I had a chance. It was the first sign of Gibby not being just a big ball of giggles and hand-soap obsession..."
Sam grabbed it and held it haphazardly. At first she tried to skim over the words, but that soon ended and she felt herself being drawn in by the words on the paper. Sam looked up and stared at Carly incredulously. Her eyes darted back down and then back up to Carly.
"Gibby wrote this? OUR Gibby wrote this?"
"Yeah, it was hard for me to believe, too."
Sam read over the paper once more, slowly this time, really taking the time to absorb it's fine details:
The sun glared down angrily, and blinded me,
Through parted fingers, the image was vivid, though obscured,
Delicate fingers clasping the handle, so strong and so pure,
Blissful as the first winter's snow, her skin was effervescent and glorious,
Her eyes glistened in the solar flare; the ocean depths she held were supersatured with vibrance,
The light, the internal glow of her soul poured out through them...
They so effortlessly put the sun to shame,
Her smile warmed me, held me within and embraced my heart, no interrogations,
The sweat beaded down my neck, yet her joyous mouth had me burning up,
Each second of watching her may as well have lasted a life time, and each life time was cherished,
Tending to the her miniature garden of life, she paid me no mind,
Diligently and faithfully she pruned and snipped and maintained order,
So robotic in a way, and yet so pristine and beautiful beyond what these feeble words could express,
She was the epitome of grace and valor, a sight which had yet to discover these eyes,
Enchanting, unrelenting, desirable care; attention to each minute detail; tending to stray thorns with ease,
Oh, how I wished she would notice I was there, to tend to me like them; I hoped she could feel my presence...
Sam met eyes with Carly and she couldn't seem to find the right words to say. The revelation of Carly having any sort of romantic feelings towards Gibby was jarring enough, now there was another strange facet added to the board that she couldn't have imagined. Carly shifted her eyes mindlessly, as if by letting Sam read the poem she had just let her in on some deep, dark secret. Which may not be too terribly far from the truth of things. Sam broke through the silence.
"...Did he ever mention who this was about?"
Carly shook her head earnestly. "No. All he said was that it was someone he really cared about, but...also someone who would never care for him the way he did for her. I felt awful when he told me that and this was the only time I really felt Gibby give off some sort of vulnerability. It was different. In a way, it was endearing."
"You really do have problems, kid."
"Oh, shut up, Sam." She laughed playfully and tossed a pillow at her midsection.
"You wanna know what I think about this very un-Gibby poem?" A smile clawed at the corners of her mouth, just barely contained by the thought that should be obvious to her best friend.
"Whaaaaaaaat?"
"I think that poem was about you." The smile came into full bloom, erupting like wildfire onto her face.
"Oh, puh-lease. The odds of that are about as good as Spencer having one of his sculptures displayed in an art museum."
Just then, Spencer poked his out of his room, a crazy look in his eye and a goofy grimace met them as he called out to them from behind.
"What was that Carlaaaaaaaaaaaaay?"
The pair stifled their laughter and Carly kept her composure long enough to answer.
"Just saying how much I love you, Mister Shay!"
A rainbow of emotions crossed his face in a matter of seconds. He was confused, angry, insulted, and then smiling again in what seemed to be all at once. He disappeared back into his lair, unseen by both his little sister and her friends. It wasn't as if she couldn't take a peek in there, it was more she was afraid to.
"But, seriously, Carly. What other reason would he share that with you?"
"I don't know...maybe because I'm a girl and I think about...girly stuff?" Carly hoped to counterbalance Sam's amazingly serious turn in the conversation. She wanted Sam to take this matter seriously, but it seems she didn't think she really fully could handle that.
"Well, think that all you want, crazy-lady. I think it's pretty obvious." Sam stood up from the couch, grabbed her things, and headed for the door. Carly held her hands up in protest.
"No, no. Don't do that. Where are you going?"
"None ya business, nosey! I've got some stuff to do."
"Like what?"
"If it was any of your business, you would know." She winked at her and grabbed for the handled, but Carly once again caused her to pause her departure.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"When I see Gibby, I feel like I just stuck my tongue on a battery. I feel this sort of electricity pulse through my body and I can't explain why. Every time he smiles, I can't help but do the same right back at him. When he laughs, my heart feels like it melts in my chest. Even the smallest touch causes me to hold my breath, and suddenly I'm just...elated."
"Big word for such a small girl, Carls."
Carly merely ignored the comment for the time being. "I don't know why, okay? I can't explain why it's HIM of all people. His imperfections are what I have come to love, even when other people dislike him for them. This is the first time I haven't fallen for someone who either risked their life for mine, or some jerk who ends up breaking my heart...or loving PeeWee Babies."
Sam's faced turned red from the memory of THAT incident returning.
"Either way...I know he's incredibly funny and insane and now, a poetic soul. But, still, it seems like there's just something I can't put my finger on about him. I don't think I could ever pinpoint my feelings exactly, but I am absolutely sure that they are there. The others I wanted to be with because they were just beautiful toys for me to play with, but Gibby...I feel this in my heart. When I look into his eyes, it's like everything is right with the world."
She suddenly stopped herself, feeling like her verbosity was causing her carnivorous best friend to lose interest.
"Sorry, I know this is stupid. But..." A question gnawed at the back of her mind. "Do you have any idea what I'm talking about, Sam? Have you ever just looked into someone's eyes and felt that before?"
The color drained from Sam's face and she stood there haunting Carly's front door. She gulped and then she seemed to go somewhere else for a moment, her eyes concentrating on the ground in front of her, but delving deep into her thoughts. She laughed, coming from seemingly nowhere and she had the brightest smile Carly had seen her have since they built a restaurant with an all-meat menu down the street.
"Can I be honest with you?"
"Of course, Sam."
"Every day."
The two stared at one another for a moment, and then Sam wordlessly opened the front door. She turned to leave only to see a certain nerdy tech producer standing in the doorway, his arm geared to twist the knob to the now wide open door to the Shay apartment. He looked as though he had been caught with his pants down, the moment catching him off guard. And, of course, who stood behind him? Why, none other than Mr. Gibson, smiling up a storm. Sam glanced back at Carly then back to Freddie and Gibby. She looked into his slightly startled eyes and melted into them.
Sam reached out and punched Freddie in the shoulder, to which he feigned both shock and pain.
"Later, nub." She laughed and he joined her.
"Love you, too, Sam."
Carly looked up at Gibby and the tension filled the air. Carly could feel that old familiar feeling rising in her stomach. The electricity returned and it was apparent to only them. Perhaps she was ready to finally let sparks fly.
Hope you guys enjoyed this. This took all of three seconds to write. I've never minded the Cibby pairing, but I felt like no one went into much detail as to why Carly would fall for him. I think I did okay. Maybe. Review if you'd like. :D