"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

I stood in the Benson's hallway, waiting as Mrs. Benson punched in the code that would open Freddie's door. I wasn't sure what I'd see in there. What I found was a lot worse than what I expected, though.

It was entirely different than the last time I'd been in his room. His walls were now a dark brown, he had no posters up, he didn't have anything on his dressers, and actually, he only had two dressers and his bed, and a TV mounted on the wall above the door. The rest was empty.

He was laying on his bed, his eyes closed and hair looking perfectly disheveled, with ear buds in his ears listening to something hard rock and loud. Even his appearance was different. He was wearing a tight black cotton shirt and baggy skinny jeans. Socks but no shoes.

"Freddie, you have a visitor." Mrs. Benson said quickly. He didn't hear her. Or if he did, he didn't respond. She sighed and turned to me.

"When you want to leave, push that button and I'll come let you out."

"Okay. Thanks Mrs. Benson."

She exited through the door, letting me hear it bolt behind her. Without a moments delay, I ran up to him and attacked him in a hug.

"What the he-" He began. I pulled away and smiled at him. "Carly?"

The way he looked at me was weird. It was like he was trying to make me not so disappointed in him- as if I was disappointed. I was only hurt that no one had told me.

"When did you get back?" He asked casually, sitting up and leaning against his headboard.

"Last night at ten." I told him.

"I'm glad you're back."

I nodded awkwardly and looked at the ground.

"Spencer told you?" He asked casually. I nodded again.

"Let me explain."

"Okay, explain."

I didn't mean to come off as frustrated, but all of a sudden, I was.

"Can you explain getting addicted to crack and meth? Or the alcohol? Or what about that girl you knocked up."

He smiled. "Carly… Did Italy get you going bad-A?"

I shook my head at him. "Explain."

He frowned. "No. Not now. Not until you chill out about all of this."

"What's wrong with you? Don't you get that what you did was wrong?"

"Yeah, maybe I do, maybe I don't. It's my problem, not yours."

He stood next to me, shouting back at me. I was seriously ticked.

"It is my problem too!"

"Why?"

"Because you were my best friend, and now you're this guy I don't even know!"

"I'm still Freddie!"

I stomped over to his door and pressed the red button.

"Carly, wait."

"No."

"Please? I'll explain. Don't leave. Please."

His voice came across soft and desperate. Still not the Freddie I knew. I leaned against the wall next to the door.

"Are you not allowed to leave your room?"

He shook his head. "I should be allowed all over the building, but my mom's freaked that I'll try to kill myself again. She already took everything that could be any threat. Even my socks. Now I've got to wear these."

He pulled up his pants and showed me his ankle socks. They were black and made his foot look cute… I had a mini heart attack. Was I so bad that I thought his feet were cute? Yes? Oh my gosh.

"I'd be freaked too." I admitted.

He stepped forward. "Are you going to ask why I did it?"

"No."

"Really?"

He took another step closer. My heart started to pound.

"Why'd you do it." I asked softly.

He tilted his head, but didn't take his eyes off of me for a second.

"I thought you weren't coming back."

He kissed me. I missed his lips.

I wondered why the heck I was kissing him. Seconds earlier we'd been screaming at each other, and now…?

I couldn't help but notice he'd gotten better at kissing too. Probably happened when he was high or drunk, but he must have had a lot of practice.

His hands found their way to my waist, and mine to his neck. While I ran my fingers through his hair, he was doing something… I didn't realize what it was until I felt his hands in my back pockets of my jeans.

"Freddie!" I shouted, breaking the kiss. He gave me a look.

"What?"

"Why'd you stick you do that?"

"Do what?"

He was looking genuinely confused.

"You know… With your hands?"

He looked even more confused. "What's wrong?"

"It was totally inappropriate."

"So when you were dating Griffin, it wasn't totally inappropriate to make out in his bedroom?"

I scowled. "How do you know that?"

"Griffin was one of the guys I used to smoke with. A lot of stuff would come out when we'd be high."

It was weird how comfortable he seemed talking about it.

"That's entirely different."

Mrs. Benson opened the door. Freddie rolled his eyes at his mother and walked back to his bed, flipping his pear phone on.

"I'll come by tonight." I promised. He gave me a salute.

"I'll be here. Hey, will you bring pizza? And some crack?"

Mrs. Benson huffed. "Freddie, we talked about these rude jokes. 'Those who joke about drugs and alcohol never ever progress at all.'"

'Only Mrs. Benson, ' I thought.

Freddie winked at me before putting his headphones in.

"How'd it go?" Mrs. Benson asked after shutting the door.

I shrugged. "It was okay."

"You're coming by tonight?"

"Uh-huh."

"Alright. I'll make you fish loaf."

I told her that sounded alright, and walked out into the hall, leaning against the door.

What had just happened?

"Spencer, I'm going over to Freddie's."

"Be home by ten. And be careful."

"Will do."

I smiled at my brother before grabbing the pizza box and 2 liter of soda.

Mrs. Benson answered the door, took one look at the food, and shook her head.

"My Freddie's not going to have that."

"C'mon Mrs. Benson." I pleaded. "He's been good. He deserves a treat."

She grudgingly let me in, making me smile. After punching in the ridiculously lengthy code to get into his room, the door swung open. This time, he was sitting on a beanbag, watching the T.V. As soon as the smell of pizza wafted on over to his side of the room, he perked up and smiled.

"Freddie, I expect you to behave." She told her son. "I'll be checking in on you both in a bit."

There was that overprotective mother voice. I wondered how Freddie could've snuck drugs into his room without her knowing.

"You brought pizza, I've net Netflix. This is one hell of a date." He said, laughing.

"Freddie, don't curse."

He took the pizza box from me and smiled as he jumped onto his bed. But his expression faded when he saw me staring at the bed.

"What?" He asked.

"Can we sit on the floor?"

"Why?"

"I'd be more comfortable. "

He shook his head. "Same old Carly."

I realized I forgot cups.

"Let me go call your mom-"

"Why can't we drink it out of the bottle?"

I gave him a look.

"What? Is it too barbaric for you?"

"No… Fine. Give it to me."

I unscrewed the cap and took a swig.

"Drink up." He laughed out. I scowled at him and stole the remote off the bed, flipping the cannel off of NCIS, and onto my favorite soap opera, Girly Cow.

"Come on." Freddie groaned, trying to take the remote away from me. I sat with it below my legs.

"Eat your pizza. C'mon, I paid twelve dollars for it."

"Fine, if you shut off the da-"

"Don't curse."

"Dang show." He finished, correcting himself. "Please?"

I, annoyed, flipped the channel to Psych.

"So tell me about Italy." He said, once he finished his pizza.

"It was good." I stated, not really thinking about Italy… I was thinking more along the lines of, "I want to kiss him…"

"A little more detail maybe?" He joked. I smiled and rubbed my hands together, shaking the crumbs into the corner of the pizza box.

"I went to a good school there. I made some friends. I spent a lot of time with my dad. So… yeah. It was good."

Freddie took my hand. "Is something wrong?"

I wanted to scream, 'How can you expect me to focus when you do… this? Look awesome, and hold my hand, and talk to me like I'm important even though there has to a million other things on your mind!'

But that would seem too forward.

"I'm fine."

"It's just weird with everything being like this?"

"Yeah."

He looked away, taking his hand off mine. I wished he would have put it back.

"I know that everyone's mad at me." He said. "You don't have to hide it."

"I'm not mad."

That wasn't a lie.

"But you're not okay with it."

Bingo. If only it made any sense…

"It's just a lot to take in. Give me a week and I'll be used to it."

Freddie gave me a sad look. "You won't get used to it Carly. You'll come back twice tomorrow, and twice for the rest of the week. Then you'll come once, and then on and off before you won't come at all. It's what's happened to everyone. It'll never get any easier."

To put it mildly.

I've decided I'm going to have two update days until further notice… You can expect updates on Tuesdays and Fridays, with some special occurrences where I may get ahead and post an extra chapter just because! Honestly, I think it's crazy weird that people are reading this story and liking it… I just wanted to say what I thought should happen next and it's just taking off!

OK, one thing I want to make clear… I've gotten a few 'Seddie' and 'Creddie' reviews. Right now, it's looking like Creddie, right? I'm not sure if it's going to stay that way… I'm still going over possible plot twists in my head. The reason it says Carly and Freddie in the summary thing is because they're the people you'll see the most. So don't get set that this is a 'Creddie' story just yet. We've still got a ways to go!

So PM me ideas, follow the story (and favorite it if you're feeling happy) and REVIEW! PLEASE!

I LOVE seeing reviews! Some are long, some are short, and every one so far has been so encouraging!

Thanks all! Love you!

~icywhisperingkiss