.
All At Once
[The Fray]
Disclaimer: I don't own nor am I affiliated to iCarly or the song and artist that inspired this story in any way.
"Sorry."
"It's cool."
All it took was a ten-second kiss from Sam Puckett and bam, they were dating. Freddie was not one to shy away from an opportunity to date a hot girl, more so now when his infatuation with Carly was diminishing with each passing day. He was a perfectly normal (well, as normal as you can get when you've got Marissa Benson for a mother) teenage boy and Sam was a perfectly hot teenage girl, violence and all. So when Sam surprised him with some lip-to-lip action during their last lock-in, it took him just about five minutes to recover from his shock and decide that dating Sam doesn't seem like a bad thing, and several minutes of making-out later, he knew for sure that it wasn't bad, not at all.
The first few weeks were the best. Sam's good-doer streak seems to be going well, and she's been especially sweet to him since they started dating. She still called him names and occasionally smacks his arm, but it's more flirting than anything really. Carly was amazed that they actually got along pretty well as a couple and seemed to be genuinely happy for both her best friends. Gibby has proven to be a popular addition to the iCarly team. Brad is also performing exceptionally as their intern, not to mention his fondness for cooking all sorts of delicious food for them. Yes, everything was going well for Freddie, until he decided to pull a Freddie and started over-thinking things.
He thought about his plans for the future, the plans that he built since he knew how to think for himself. Not one of those plans included Sam. He realized that maybe he had to squeeze her in those plans somehow, now that they've been going steady for a while. But Sam was someone who doesn't easily fit into plans. He found it hard to stick to plans whenever Sam was involved, and he had always been the man with a plan. And so the over-thinking grew into nitpicking, and his great relationship with Sam suddenly took a stumble.
Sam didn't share too much of his hobbies and interests.
Sam always burned a hole in his pockets.
Sam is not serious about her studies.
Sam doesn't think about the future.
Sam doesn't seem like her soul mate.
"I think maybe we should take a break," Freddie slipped in casually as they were watching a rerun of Girly Cow on the afternoon of their last day of classes for the school year.
"What?" Sam snapped her head so quickly at his direction; he thought he heard her bones crack. "What's the matter? Why would you want to break up?"
"I'm not saying we should break up, just take a break. It just doesn't seem like our relationship is going perfectly," Freddie explained.
"Nothing's perfect Fredly," Sam countered, a stone-cold expression on her face.
"Well, I believe that a relationship should be perfect. Don't you think we deserve a perfect relationship? I'm just saying, we're each other's first serious relationship, maybe we should test the waters first to know if we're really for each other, you know?"
"Test the waters? Take a break? Hah," Sam laughed humourlessly. "That's just a stupid way to say that you want to date other chicks and fall back to me if things don't work out for you. I'm nobody's safety net Benson. Either we continue dating or we break up, I don't believe in taking stupid breaks."
"Sam…" Freddie looked at her pleadingly.
"Just pick one, it's not that hard. What do you want?"
"Well, it's just… I want things to be perfect and, well—"
"I get it. Bye Benson, it was fun while it lasted," and bam, they were over.
One week.
Two weeks.
One freaking month.
The whole fucking summer.
Not a word from Sam.
He knew he was an idiot. Carly told him so. Spencer told him so. Brad told him so, and punched him afterwards. Even his mother told him it wasn't his best idea and she was not Sam's biggest fan. He tried contacting her of course, but phone calls went to voicemail, texts and e-mails remained unanswered, going to her place resulted in a lot of yelling from Mrs. Puckett. He thought he wanted perfect, but two months with no Sam told him that all he wanted was Sam, plans and the future be damned. At least he would see her tomorrow, that is, if she decided to show up on the first day of school. It was highly unlikely, but he decided to hold on to the only chance he's got.
Turns out, she did show up—fingers entwined with Brad's. She smiled politely at him, told him she was sorry for not returning any of his calls, texts, and what not, told him it was what she thought he wanted, told him maybe it was for the best, told him that maybe they did deserve perfection and gave Brad the brightest smile he'd ever seen her give anyone.
He saw Carly from behind them smiling sadly at him. He had told her the night before that he knew now that he had fallen in love with Sam, and his fear for something so serious was what had maybe pushed him to take a step back.
"She cried for an entire month after you told her you wanted to break up. I'd been there for her as much as I could, but Brad was there for her the entire time. Even when she told him to leave her alone, even when she told him that he had no chance with her, even when she told him she'd never get over you. I'm sorry Freddie, but I'm happy for Sam, maybe you should have listened when she told you there was no such thing as a perfect relationship," she patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"I know. But she was as close to perfect as I could ever get," Freddie sighed and walked out of the school, feeling as if Brad had punched him again, only this time, the pain went straight to his heart.
Maybe you want her, maybe you need her
Maybe you've started to compare to someone not there
Maybe you want it, maybe you need it
Maybe it's all you're running from
Perfection will not come
Maybe you want her, maybe you need her
Maybe you had her, maybe you lost her to another
To another
.