Carly Shay remained just where the door opened to the roof top. She was not very sure how she felt.

Maybe she can feel less guilty to her inner self because she at least tried to get there with a decision that is, as Sam called it, "non-cyclical". Yes, out of that stupid loop she created in order to make her safe, Sam less awkward of their friendship, and both of them puffy eyed.

Or maybe she can remain miserable because nothing really changes from this point. They are still both on the same picture. Yep. And that's all because she let thirty minutes pass. In addition to that, she let a thousand and eight hundred precious seconds slip away just because she was, again, afraid to jump out of the now corroding loop. Trust me, you will understand the loop when the time is right.

Or maybe she can feel a little disappointed! Yeah! Thirty minutes and Sam can't even wait on it? That's some patience she has. It's even shorter than a strand of spaghetti that was just a split second away from her own mouth.

Or maybe, not one of those is what exactly made her stop on her tracks – not even the absence of Samantha Puckett on that roof top. She took long heavy breaths and stepped slowly further from the entrance and looked blankly at the view. She was thinking harder than she was breathing. That pain she carried in her chest seemed to have lightened. Perhaps, it has even gone away. The only thing she felt there was the aftermath of a wound she refused to tend to because of her own selfishness.

She stopped on her tracks because she finally found her cure. Or maybe, she knew where that cure was. And now, she finally accepted the healing capabilities of that medicine. Finally. After six long, agonizing months, she finally acknowledged the truth of her own heart.

She took one last sigh that came with a smile. It felt good. But more than she enjoyed freedom from her own prison, she felt a little amused by how little things can topple the heaviest pitcher.

That day, about six months ago, it was only a comment booster that started all this.

Uh-huh. That's how it all started – the very duo itself, "six months".

'Six months? You kidding me?'

It was August of the previous year and Sam had been gawking at the computer screen for quite some time now. Even when she went to the fridge to get herself perhaps the thirtieth snack item, she would return to the monitor and stare again in disbelief. 'These people are insane.'

'You got that right,' Freddie agreed. 'Well, it takes one to know one. Don't you think?'

To Freddie's surprise, there was no response from Sam. She seemed like she was deep in thought. Sure her hand went automatically to the can of cheese curls to her mouth like it had its own brain, but she was definitely preoccupied by something.

The silence continued until Carly came walking down the stairs, fresh from the shower. 'How did the poll go? Anything interesting happen yet?'

'Well, to Sam's surprise and,' Freddie cleared his throat, 'demise. Over six thousand people think it will take me only six months to graduate out of college from the moment I get there.'

'That's not what I'm brooding about Fredward,' Sam said, turning and showing Freddie her rather bored expression. 'What I don't understand is that OVER SIX THOUSAND people actually opted to answer this useless and boring poll.'

Freddie narrowed his eyes and shook his head in annoyance.

'I mean, duh, we're not even there yet.'

'Who suggested that poll anyway?' Carly innocently asked as she went for the kitchen to cook lunch.

'Uh, you did, Miss Creative?' Sam sarcastically answered while managing to eye whatever ingredients Carly was, at least, able to pull out the nearly emptied fridge. 'We should think of something crazy you know? I mean, let's poll something that involves something worth spending your finger energy with clicking and typing for.'

'I am so touched,' Freddie said rather monotonously.

Carly gave a small laugh at this. She settled whatever apparently "all-green" ingredients she could use for whatever meal she could probably come up with, stared at them for a few seconds and finally lifted her gaze to Sam. 'What do you want to eat?'

'Oh, I want fried chicken,' Sam said happily.

'Do you not see what's on the table?' Carly may have intended to be sarcastic, but she sounded rather amused. 'Apparently, you ate everything and suuuuuuper accidentally left all the vegetables out.'

'Don't blame me. I don't want to have another tooth fall out.'

'I'll just think of something stew-ish or soup-ish so you would not have to knock any of your teeth out.'

'Aw, Carly Shay,' Sam went around the kitchen table, to Carly, and squeezed her in her arms. 'Have I ever told you I love you?'

'No, but that particular line you have said practically every time I'm behind a pile of Sam-leftovers I'm about to turn into food.'

The two girls began laughing to themselves. Not a minute later, they began playing their mini food war around the table, throwing the poor earlier-ignored vegetables at each other

And it went on.

And on.

And on.

And on until it made Freddie feel strangely uncomfortable. He found himself reaching to his nape and run his fingers repeatedly through the tiny hairs on it. 'Uh, you guys? So you have new ideas for a poll or a comment booster then?'

'I don't know, something crazy like, when will Carly finally settle down, since she's acting all wifey,' the two girls continued to laugh. Freddie found it even more uncomfortable.

'I'm betting five years on that,' Freddie said as he finally shrugged the feeling off his shoulder. 'What do you think Carly?'

'I don't know,' the younger Shay said in between breaths as she calmed down and began cleaning up after the World Vegetable War. 'I haven't really thought about things like that.'

'I'm betting,' Sam picked up a carrot and eyed it like it was a deranged tooth fairy before finally biting its head off. Well. The top of it, I mean. 'Six months on it Shay, and you'll be married to Lewbert!'

'Why six months?' Freddie asked, ignoring the latter part of the sentence.

'I don't know, instinct? Mama knows the Shay Junior.'

'Okay, now that scared me,' Carly turned on her heel and headed for the sink, trying to hide the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. 'To be married in 6 months?'

'Whoever said married?' Sam said in between careful bites on the carrot she just picked up from the floor. 'It can be something else you know.'

'Yeah, we'll never know,' Carly agreed – or at least tried to.

'Hey, we can actually use that as a comment booster!' Freddie excitedly strode to the couch where he left his computer and began mingling with his digital, pixilated and RGB friends using the tips of his technological ambassadors he calls his fingers. 'If Carly Shay were to settle down in exactly six months, with whom, and why do you think so?'

'I like it. I can see Freddie creating a hundred dummy accounts to get himself polled highest,' Sam mumbled in between chews.

If you're interested, answer the poll too. You'll get a cameo :D -applicable to first 2.

Thanks for the comments. You keep me from just storing this into my head while I'm listening to heartbreaking music.