disclaimer: not miiiine

"Freddie?" Carly tilted her head to study her friend. She raised her eyebrow at his glazed eyes and slacked jaw.

"Sam.." He said, letting the three letter word roll off his tongue. He focused his eyes back at her, an almost scared expression on his face. "You don't think... that I.. like... HER. Don't you?"

"Actually..." Carly was going to say yes. But when she saw the wide-eyed look he gave her, she hesitated. "Nah, I was just kidding." He let out a deep breath as she giggled. "Why such a reaction?"

"Because! I mean... why would you think that?" Freddie contorted his face in what seemed to be something in the middle of confusion and amusement.

"You guys are fighting all the time--"

"Exactly"

"It's like Rob and Harmony from Henry Popper"

"Oh," He nodded his head and puffed his cheeks in a gesture of acknowledgment and gave this some thought. He shrugged, brushing it off in a way that said literature shouldn't be taken seriously. Then he looked at her with a slight smile, "But I want you to know... The reason we broke up is not because of any third party."

Carly laughed at his slight attempt to go back to flirting. She playfully punched him on the shoulder. "I understand," She said in a mock-solemn voice before plopping on the couch to watch television before he followed suite.

After an hour or so of random channel surfing and small talk about the first week of sophomore year in high school, Freddie bid Carly a farewell and she walked him out the door. Before leaving, he hesitated and touched on the subject once more, "I really thought you were my perfect girl." The brunette simply smiled and gave him another hug. "You'll find her," she whispered in his ear.

She turned around and proceeded to her usual night time rituals. All the while, thoughts of the day ran through her head. It was a weird feeling of freedom that she felt now that Freddie was off her back. But at the same time, she was going to miss his random flirting. She was a girl after all and, more often than not, a guy giving a girl extra attention was always a good boost on the ego. Then she thought back to all those years that Freddie had tried to win her over. Why didn't she fall for him? She shrugged to herself as she dried her hair and changed into her pajamas. Everything was in place. He was not bad looking, he gave her attention, he was nice, friendly, smart. Yes, maybe he was a little bit of a dork, but dorky guys are fun to be around. Even with all of this, for the life of her, she could not at all come up with a concrete answer to why she never fell for him.

These thoughts still ran through her head as she picked up her toothbrush and generously applied toothpaste on it. The moment she placed it in her mouth, her cellphone rang. She walked out of her bathroom and grabbed the phone off her bed. She snuck a glance at the caller ID and mindlessly clicked on the talk button then delicately balanced it between her shoulder and ear. After muttering a toothpasted hello, she heard Sam's voice on the other end.

"So how was The Date?" Sam asked, putting extra stress on the last two words.

"Iwuzhohkey buh--"

"Spit out your toothpaste," her friend interrupted. Carly bent over and spat the foam. She quickly swashed some water in her mouth before cleaning her toothbrush and putting it back in its container.

"It was great. But it didn't work out."

"Great but didn't work out? Contradictory terms... spill"

"It was going fine but, right before you came in the room, he kissed me--" at this moment Carly heard Sam do a spit take. Poor girl was probably drinking some water. She suppressed a laugh as an image of Sam came to mind.

"WHAT?? Are you crazy? Never EVER share food with me ever again."

"Stop overreacting, he kissed me," she said as she stressed on the fact that it was the guy who took the initiative. "But that's when we realized it wouldn't work out. It didn't feel right. So we decided to just be friends."

"Like, forever?"

"Yea, forever."

There was silence on the other end except for the slight sound of Sam forming her next coherent thought. "Wow, I actually feel sorry for the guy. Busted by Carly Shay..."

"Well.. He felt the un-rightness of it too, so I wouldn't worry," she said as she imagined Sam nodding on the other end.

"You know what?"

"What?" She asked as she heard the two of them collapse on their beds simultaneously.

"I feel sorry for the next girl he's going to obsess over."

"Why do you say that?"

"She's going to have to live up to you."

Sorry sooo sorry for the long update. School and work and more school. Plus I had writer's block and didn't know what to do with it. Now I know exactly what I'm doing and I've thought things through. Sorry for the lack of juiciness in this chapter. There's a reason for all of it, though. Also, I'm going to follow Carly's POV in third person. So basically, you only see what Carly sees. BUT.. once the juicy parts come in I will be making separate/accompanying oneshots following Sam's, Freddie's or Spencer's (yes SPENCER's) POV.

Also, you won't have to wait long for the next chapter. I already have it ready and will be uploading it as soon as you lot review... or not. I'll upload it anyway. ;)