Finally Friends
A/N: Hey, people! It's me, Sushihiro, with chapter three of my first fanfic, iHate Jeff. You guys get to learn a little bit about Jeff's personality in this chapter...let's just say that he and bloody movies don't mix. By the way, they are all seventeen in this story. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly.
Carly's POV
OMG, I can't believe that Sam has a boyfriend and she didn't even tell me! I'm going to kill her! But I'm way too excited to be angry right now. I give Sam a tight squeeze. "This is so great!" I shout gleefully. Sam giggled. Wait- giggled? I can hardly believe it. In all my years of knowing Sam Puckett I have never once heard her giggle. Wow, this whole boyfriend thing really brings out her inner girl. I release Sam and grin at her. I see Spencer let out a deep breath he had been holding out of the corner of my eye. I'll bet you my stamp collection that he's just relieved that Jeff didn't turn out to be my boyfriend. For some reason, he still hasn't gotten used to the fact that am old enough to date. I roll my eyes in his direction.
Suddenly, he's all happy and he rushes up to Jeff. "Hey, I'm Spencer, Sam's best friend Carly's big brother/ legal guardian," he says cheerfully. Jeff smiles politely and he and Jeff shake hands. I turn to Jeff next."I'm Carly! Sam's best friend/ Spencer's little sister and legal ward." He laughs and suddenly looks more relaxed. He is SO CUTE when he laughs! Oh, who am I kidding, he's just down right cute! Sam shoves Freddie forward. "Introduce yourself, freak" she demanded. Freddie looked Jeff up in down in distaste. I frown. What's eating him?
"I'm-uh- Freddie," he says lamely. Jeff, oblivious to Freddie's actions, extends his hand. "Nice to meet you, Freddie." Freddie looks like he is squeezing the guy's fingers off. I see Jeff wince in slight pain. Freddie suddenly realizes what he's doing and lets go. Okay, this is getting weird. Freddie doesn't seem to like Jeff very much. He's probably worried. Sam's last two boyfriends didn't go very well, and she ended up getting hurt, I understand how he feels. I give Freddie a reassuring smile.
"Well kiddo's I'm gonna go wash up," Spencer says, holding up his paint- covered hands. "How do spaghetti tacos sound for dinner?" I grinned. Nothing in the world tastes better to me than one of Spencer's famous spaghetti tacos. "Awesome!"
"Cool," Sam says.
"What are spaghetti tacos?" Jeff mused.
And Freddie just grunts in reply.
Spencer sprints away and Jeff looks at me. I giggle."Spencer invented them," I answer. "Just your basic spaghetti in a taco shell." Jeff wrinkled his nose. He looks so adorable when he does that...God, Sam is so lucky! "Don't worry," Sam says. "They taste awesome." Freddie rolled his eyes. "Everything tastes awesome to you, Sam. I bet you'd eat the couch if it could fit into your mouth."
Sam whirls around and faces Freddie, fire in her eyes. "How about you eat my fist?" she yells, knocking him to the ground, literally trying to force her fist into his mouth. I turn away, ignoring them until I notice the bizarre look on Jeff's face, then we both burst out laughing. "What's up with them?"
I smile."That's just how they communicate. Better get used to it, they're like this all the time."
For some reason his smile fades. I don't want to give him the wrong idea, so I add the fact that they've kinda hated each other since I introduced them years ago. He doesn't look very reassured. He just shrugs. Not wanting to make it worse, I turn back to the fight. Oh course Sam is winning. She has Freddie pinned down, sitting on his stomach, struggling to stuff her fist between his lips.
Jeff and I watch until Sam successfully shoves her fist into his mouth. I hurry over and pull her off. I don't normally interfere with Sam and Freddie's fights, but she really could suffocate him.
Freddie breathed heavily. "Gosh-Sam-you-almost-killed-me!"
She grins.
"That's the idea, genius."
"Know what, Puckett?"
"What, Benson?"
"ENOUGH!" I interrupt.
"How about we do something until dinners ready? You know it will take a while for Spencer to wash all that paint off. How about we watch a movie?" I suggest.
Freddie shook his head.
"Not until Sam promises not to put her fist in my mouth ever again!"
Sam shrugged.
"Done. Just don't make fun of my eating habits ever again, nub."
Freddie grinned. Then turned, and his grin suddenly fades, remembering that Jeff is here.
"Um...you know Carly, maybe we should just read a book instead. Or we could finish that math homework?"
Ew, math! I wrinkle my nose in disgust. "No way, Freddie!" I protest.
He folds his arms.
"I'm not in the mood to watch a movie."
I think fast. "How about you get to pick?"
His face lights up.
He hasn't chosen a movie for us to watch in three years. Ever since he chose that really boring Sci-fi movie, Sam never let him pick again.
Sam's face broke into a wicked smile.
"Ooh, choose something bloody!"
Jeff's face turns pale.
"Bloody?"
I'm guessing he's got a weak stomach.
"Yeah, it'll be awesome," she says, totally missing the horrified expression on Jeff's face. She turns and hurries upstairs. "Come see the studio," she ordered.
His face brightened a little bit. "You mean like where you guys do iCarly?" Sam grinned. "Duh, C'mon!" He hurriedly followed after her. Freddie didn't budge.
"Freddie?"
He turned to me.
"What's up? You don't seem to like Jeff a whole lot."
He shrugged. "Yeah, well...he's probably a jerk."
I knew it. He's just worried. I give his hand a squeeze. I'm surprised when he doesn't get all 'I-love-Carly' crazy. In fact, he doesn't even seem to notice that I'm touching him. He suddenly looks up at me. "Do you think she really likes him?" he asks. I think about that for a moment. She most likely does. It's a very comfortable relationship, unlike the one she had with Pete, when she couldn't be herself. It's also more toned down than he cutesy relationship with Jonah. It's like if I didn't know they were dating, I would think they were just friends. And that's a important thing to have with someone you like. I really think she does like him and I say so.
Freddie sighs.
I smile. It's kinda cute, the way Freddie has started to care about Sam so much. It's like a dream come true, I thought they'd never start to act like friends. It used to really worry me.
"Even if she does like him, there's no need for you to be so bitter to Jeff. Sam can take care of herself. And she really seems to be happy around him. Please try to be nice to him. For me?" I added gently. I didn't expect what he said next.
"You know, that stopped working, like two years ago."
My jaw dropped.
"Y-You mean you don't like me like that anymore?"
He shrugged.
"I guess not. I mean, you're a great friend, don't get me wrong, but when I really think about why I liked you in the first place, it wasn't about anything genuine. I liked that you were nice to me. That you cared about me. It was true friendship all along."
I almost explode with happiness. Freddie's finally over me!
Now I don't have to worry about hurting his feelings, putting him down. I can just be his friend, without having to put up with his one-sided feelings.
I beam at him. "Wow, Freddie! You know, I bet there's someone out there for you. Someone who will match you, who will meet your needs. Someone real."
Now he smiles, if not a little sadly. I wonder what's up with that?
"Do you really think so?" He sighs. "I'm really sorry, you know...for putting pressure on you even after you already rejected me. You didn't deserve that."
I start to smile and then I pull him into a tight hug. I release him quickly to see that his sad look had slightly disappeared.
Then without another word, we head up to the iCarly studio together for the first time as nothing but friends with no walls between us.
A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter from Carly's point of view. I personally find I'm best at getting inside Freddie's head (even though I'm a girl...weird...). Anyway, I put a little bit of Creddie in there. I really do not support the Creddie romantic relationship, but that friendship scene is really important to me. There's your dose of Creddie, for those of you who like that pairing. There is a lot of Creddie friendship in this story, and writing those scenes are fun. Review, please!
