I was anxious to get chapter 2 up, so here it is. Thanks for all the favorites, follows and kind reviews. Sorry to those nauseated by the thoughts of Creddie, but all you have to do is look at my pen-name to realize the end game. I know there are plenty of Seddie pregnancy fics around, but this will soon take a new spin, so please stick with me for the ride.
Chapter 2
Seven weeks later:
Spencer and Freddie sat at the airport baggage claim waiting for Carly. The saw that her flight landed right on time, so they figured she should be coming down the main escalator any minute. The two men looked anxious, especially the older man, who was jiggling his leg in anticipation.
"Eeeeeee!" Suddenly a high-pitched squeal came from behind them. "Spencer! Freddie! It's so good to see you guys." Before she knew what hit her, the petite girl was picked off her feet by her sibling and twirled around like a rag doll.
"Carly! I missed you soooo muuuuch!" Spencer dragged out as Freddie stood there smiling his hands buried in his pockets.
Carly was still Carly, though slightly tanned from living in a warmer and sunnier climate. Her hair was also shorter than she wore it as a teen and it had a few highlights. It fell slightly above her shoulders and was gently waved, a good look for her. Her makeup was subtle but mature. Her body had filled out a bit since she was in high school, too. In short, she was more beautiful than ever. It was a reunion a long time in the making for the three of them.
When her brother was done smothering her with hugs, Carly approached Freddie and threw her arms around him. "Hey, Freddie, how have you been?" She asked, her head pressed into the comfort of his shoulder for a few seconds.
Freddie slowly withdrew his hands from his pockets and put his arms around the girl's back. "Good, Carls. Real good."
After the brunette identified her baggage and the two fellows retrieved it from the carousel for her, the trio made their way toward the parking garage where Spencer's girlfriend's car was waiting. Spencer was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning and was walking way ahead of the younger people, occasionally turning around and walking backwards so he could talk to them.
"So, how are things with you and Sam?" Carly asked. "I sort of figured she'd be here, too."
"I - I guess she's still in L.A., but um, I- ah- I really haven't spoken to Sam in a while." Freddie confessed with sadness in his voice.
"Really? I haven't talked to her in ages myself, but I thought the way she talked last time I did, you guys were a couple again. I guess I just figured she maybe came back home and you two were living your own little happily ever after."
"That was a couple of years ago, Carly." Freddie said quietly and left out a sigh. "I really thought we were doing well, but uh, I guess we - we just drifted apart."
Without thinking, Carly reached her free hand toward Freddie and laced her fingers into his. "I'm sorry, Freddie." She knew by the way he was talking that his heart was torn up just thinking about their blonde friend. "I know how much Sam always meant to you."
"I mean, I don't understand it, it's not like we had a fight or anything. I guess it all changed when her roommate moved out." Freddie certainly wasn't going to tell Carly that the last time he actually saw Sam, they had slept together, she could figure that out for herself. "Sam called and made up some lame story about Melanie moving in with her because she was going to UCLA and hated her college room mate or some chiz. I should have known it was just a bunch of BS. She probably met some way cool guy and moved in with him."
"It's been a long time since I talked to her, at least two years, and Melanie did move in with Sam when Cat left for college or something." Carly said as Freddie rolled his eyes in obvious disbelief of Melanie. "Yes, Freddie. Melanie is real. She has a Splashface page, check it out if you don't believe me. There's even pics of her and Sam together."
"Sorry, Carls. I don't do Splashface." Freddie said. He was never a fan of putting personal information out in cyberspace and the more education he had in technology, the more dangerous he realized doing so was. "Too many hackers out there."
"So you haven't been seeing anybody?" Carly asked to change the subject.
"Nah. With school and all, I didn't have the time to bother. Gibby tried to set me up a couple of times, but I just blew it off an-an, and . . . " He didn't say the true reason: no other girl could measure up to Sam Puckett. His eyes silently said 'I wasn't ready.'
The two stopped walking about four cars away from the one Spencer was now putting her two biggest bags in and Carly turned to face her friend. She saw Freddie's eyes beginning to water. She always knew Freddie loved Sam more than anything, it's why she mentally beat herself up for kissing him the day she moved away, and why she forced herself to break contact with him, so that he could focus on Sam, but his hurt look was too much for her to bear. "I-um, I missed you, Freddie." She whispered and placed a very slight kiss on his lips, if nothing else to take his mind off his problems. "You've always been a great friend."
Although she didn't expect to, Carly very much enjoyed kissing him and having their bodies close together. Unlike the day she left, this time the kiss felt right to her. She put her arms around his neck and they placed their heads together. Before he knew what was happening, the brunette kissed him once more. This time it was more passionate and less sympathetic. The young man slowly returned her affection, for the first time in over two and a half years, he was kissing a girl and, surprisingly, he was liking it.
"I - um - I missed you, too, Carly." He whispered.
"Are you two just going to stand there smooching or are we going to the House of Waffles?" Spencer asked, jogging up to them and grabbing Carly's other bag from Freddie. "C'mon, guys, let's go. Hup-two, hup-two. Waffles wait for no one. You can suck face later." He was obviously very hungry for waffles.
Carly and Freddie immediately left go of one another. Whether they intended to or not, they were looking very couple-y to Spencer, but he didn't seem to mind. Spencer and Freddie had become the best of friends over the last several years and he knew Freddie would never do anything inappropriate with his baby sister. Besides, he thought they were kind of cute that way.
After a stop for their waffles, the three made their way back to Bushwell and went into the Shay apartment. They were greeted by a small group Spencer had organized for a welcome home party. T-Bo was there along with Socko, Spencer's live-in girlfriend Carrie, Gibby's mom and little brother, Principal Franklin and even Mrs. Benson. Unfortunately, none of their other friends from school were able to be there. Most had either left town or were working or busy with their own lives.
For several hours, the group made small talk and heard about Carly's life in Italy, or at least the parts she felt appropriate to discuss. T-Bo was the first to leave, needing to get back to the smoothie shop before school let out and all the kids came pouring in. Mrs. Benson left shortly after him, citing the need to complete her weekly house cleaning. Mr. Franklin got called back to the school to deal with a discipline problem. By six that evening, even Spencer and Carrie left for a date, leaving Carly and Freddie by themselves.
The two college students had turned on the TV and were watching a movie. During a commercial, Carly sighed and spoke up. "I sort of thought there'd be more to it than this. Did our lives become this pathetic, Freddie?" Here they were, two attractive 21 year old people watching a rerun of a sci-fi movie on cable on a Saturday evening.
"I'm afraid we may have peaked out in high school, my friend." He responded with a smirk. "I don't know about you, but things have went downhill for me ever since."
"Yeah, I think you might be right. But honestly, senior year was no picnic, either. I mean, it started off OK, but as soon as I left Seattle, my life sucked. Don't get me wrong, I loved getting to spend time with my dad, but finishing my high school career in a base school was just a nightmare. First off, I didn't know anyone, and almost all the other kids were intimidated by me because my dad was the base commander. The girls all acted like I was some spoiled princess and the boys were afraid to even talk to me for fear of what their parents would say or how the colonel would react. And that's not to mention going from being a straight A student at Ridgeway to getting B's and C's. I even had detention a couple of times for missing assignments."
Freddie gasped at her confession of the detention. "That sucks, I wish I could have been there to help you study."
"But I understand you were valedictorian." She nudged him in the ribs. "I saw it on the school's web site."
"Sure I was, and that was cool, but prom sucked. I ended up going with Gibby's cousin's girlfriend's sister."
"I saw the pictures on Gibby's Splashface page." Carly said. "She looked like a nice girl."
"Looks can be deceiving, Carls. It was horrible. All she did was pick on and bully other kids constantly. I swear, from what I hear, she went to juvie more often than Sam and the only girl I've ever met that was any crazier was Nora Dershlitt. There was a reason she was home schooled, her parents had the sense to keep her away from other people."
"Oh, so you want to compare prom horror stories. I've got the prom story from h-e-double-l for sure."
"Go on." Freddie said and turned to face her.
"Well, I went with this guy named Jeremy. He was really cute and he moved into the school not long after I did. He really didn't know the story on my dad. His dad was a colonel, too. Some kind of pilot instructor or something. Anyway, he was the only guy who wasn't too afraid of me to ask me to the dance."
Freddie nodded at her story.
"Anyway, he was in ROTC, like on the fast track to coming back home and going to West Point or something, military through and through. He showed up to my door in full dress uniform, but that's not the bad part, he looked good in it. My dad answered the door, still wearing his uniform because he just got back from the office. Poor Jeremy snapped to attention, dropped my corsage on the front step and shot my dad a salute in about half a second. Of course, Dad didn't discourage him and did his best to intimidate him and make sure I was treated with the utmost respect. The boy spent the whole evening calling me 'Ma'am' and he was so scared that he didn't even attempt to kiss me at the end of the evening. And I never heard from him after that."
Freddie laughed a little. "Wow. So I'm guessing you haven't been dating too much."
"You could say that. Basically every decent guy I've met can't hardly speak English or is from a military family and acts like I'm above talking to them." She sighed. "I wish I had you there with me."
"Wh-what?" He said, not sure what she meant.
"I - um, I mean I wish I had someone there that I knew, someone I was close to."
Freddie put his arm around her in a friendly manner and she leaned into him. "I'm glad you're home, Carls."
Before they knew it, their small talk had lasted until after 11 pm and they were both getting tired.
"So what do you want to do tomorrow?" She asked.
"I really didn't have any plans." He replied. "I start my summer job at the Pear store Monday, so I have the day free."
"Maybe we should go by the Groovy Smoothie, I haven't had a decent smoothie since I left Seattle."
"Sounds good." Freddie got up and turned toward the door. Before he knew it, Carly took his hand and he turned to face her.
"Goodnight, Freddie." She placed her lips on his for a gentle kiss.
"See ya tomorrow, Carls. Goodnight."
Freddie went across the hall, crept silently through his apartment so he wouldn't disturb his mother and made his way to bed. As soon as he was through his bedroom door and closed it, Freddie slid down against it and sat on the floor. Tears came to his eyes, thinking of the girl he longed for, the girl he wished had just kissed him. "I-I'm sorry, Sam." He sobbed looking at a picture of the blonde beauty he had sitting on his desk. "I miss you so damn much."
The next day, Carly and Freddie visited their favorite teenage hangout spot and took some time to walk around the city. The revered in each other's stories of what they had done the past three years and how college was treating them. Both were excited that they would be at the same college in a few months.
They found their way to a movie theater and went inside. After that, they stopped for dinner. Carly insisted on Chinese since she was tired on anything resembling Italian cuisine. Freddie paid for the movie and snacks and Carly took care of their dinner. At the end of the evening, they said goodbye in the hallway and Carly promised to stop by the mall so they could talk on Freddie's lunch break the following day.
True to their word, the two friends met up at the mall food court on Monday. Freddie told Carly about his new job and she wished him good luck at the end of his break time with the promise they'd meet up after he got home at six for an evening of video games and TV.
Since Spencer was entertaining Carrie in the living room and Mrs. Benson was home the two friends spent the evening in Carly's room. "Leave the door open." Spencer joked as they went up the stairs, like Carly was a fourteen year old girl taking a boy to her room to study for a history test.
"Ha-Ha." His sister responded with sarcasm. "When you leave yours open." Freddie just rolled his eyes at the two, silently wondering how Spencer could possibly think they could ever be more than friends.
I know there are a lot of Creddie moments in this chapter, but just remember, it's all for the sake of the story. We'll check in on Sam in the next installment and get some insight into her thoughts.