A/N: Reworked yet another chapter... I am hoping that you like the changes... I felt like it needed tidying up.

Enjoy.

INFAMOUS

Chapter 3: Coincidental Meeting

They had sat down at the front bar over an hour ago. And they hadn't really moved since then.

Freddie and Eric were on their third drink for that evening. They had had their dinner already, but were just sitting and chatting - almost like they were best friends. Freddie wasn't sure what type of an influence this guy would have if they became friends, let alone best friends.

Nonetheless, it was a fairly buzzing atmosphere in Schooshy's.

"Hey Eric, can I ask you something personal," asked Freddie.

"Yeah, sure. Go for it." Eric replied, taking a gulp of beer. "I ain't got nothin' to hide."

"Right... well... it's about your "thing" with Angela."

"What thing?"

Yes, Eric was completely oblivious to the whole him loving Angela but Angela practically wanting to murder him every time he came up to her for one reason or another. Freddie winced at his lack of knowing and looked down at his half-full glass in front of him.

"Never mind."

Freddie sat there and wondered if there was any point telling Eric that Angela hated his guts, but he didn't have the heart to say anything mean. Eric just smirked and swiveled around and around on the bar chair, like a little kid playing on those computer chairs that spin around.

Until he stopped and let out a huge gasp, almost sending himself in a coughing fit. But managed to calm himself down. His mouth dropped open as he nudged the young man next to him who turned to see what he was looking at. Freddie, upon seeing who Eric was seeing, did a spit-take of beer.

"Wow," said Eric, dreamily. "She's even a stunning creature in person."

"What is she even doing here?" Freddie asked partly to his companion and partly to himself.

Eric slammed his beer glass down on the counter and slapped Freddie's arm. He winced. "Don't tell me you personally know that absolute work of artistic perfection?"

Freddie nodded and immediately turned around to face the bartender, who wasn't impressed to clean up the remains of Freddie's spit-take he'd done moments earlier. Eric turns around too and studies Freddie carefully, the two of them speak in hushed tones.

"Dude, you need to go over there and talk to her," hisses Eric.

"No, bad idea. We... have history," whispers Freddie. "She'll probably throw her drink in my face or something."

"But-"

"No."

"Aww."

He carefully looked over his shoulder and saw the young woman chatting and laughing to a group of people who were sitting with her. He wondered how she knew those people, and he wondered if he should go over and say 'hello' to her, just to be polite. The moment the blonde haired beauty looked up, Freddie gasped and turned back around pretending he hadn't been staring at her for that whole time.

"What?"

"She looked at me." Eric started to turn around and look at her. "Don't look!"

"Bro, she's a freaking Goddess."

Freddie sighed. It was weird that Eric seemed to know her from somewhere. Maybe he'd been one of those background people that go to your high school but you don't exactly know that they are there. Did Eric go to Ridgeway High with all three of them? And then there was his missing last name too.

He didn't really know what to think.

Eric continuously nudged Freddie's ribs with his elbow, in an annoying kind of way as if to say: "go and talk to her, man". But this just made Freddie more stubborn and less likely to approach the girl. Why was this such a huge deal anyway?

"You said you two have history?" Eric questioned, suddenly.

"Yeah," he replied.

"As in... romantic history?"

Freddie simply stared at Eric not giving very much away, and the other guy's eyes went wider than saucers.

Eric gave Freddie a shove, almost pushing him out of the seat. "Dude! You have to go over there and talk to her! The humanity of men depends on it!"

"You're being slightly over dramat-"

"Listen. You're a good-looking guy, you once dated, it's just a random meeting... but this is Samantha Puckett we're talking about."

Firstly, Freddie was taken completely by surprise at this compliment, especially from a guy. It was also kind of out of the blue. Secondly... he knew the girl by name which kind of creeped him out a bit. But Eric continued shoving him, or attempting to shove him off the bar stool, but Freddie gritted his teeth and stayed put.

There was no way that Sam would want him to disturb... whatever it was that she was doing with her bunch of friends. He assumed they were friends, anyway. You could never tell with Sam.

"Hey Sam, so there's this kind of dorky but cute guy checking you out," Rosalie mutters to me, under her breath.

She immediately looked over to the bar and caught a glimpse of the specimen she was referring to. Oh my God, thought Sam. Oh. My. Freaking. God. She regained composure, excused herself from her friends at the table and walked right up to the "dorky but cute guy" and his "red-spiky haired friend".

"Hello Freddie, long time no see," she says, in a quiet voice. She didn't want any unnecessary attention drawn to either her or Freddie.

"Samantha Puckett," says the other dude.

"Dude I haven't met before until now," greets the blonde. Freddie chuckles.

"I can't believe it! We meet face-to-face at last. I am such a fan."

"You watch soap operas?" Sam asks him, with one raised eyebrow.

"Ye- I mean... uhh no!" Eric says, stumbling over his words. "You're incredibly hot!" With that, he jumps off the bar stool and runs off, leaving the two of them to talk.

Freddie shakes his head at his friend's antics and stands up. Sam notices he's grown taller, if that was possible. They share a brief and somewhat awkward hug. The girl breathes in and immediately is taken back five years. The scent of soap and cinnamon brings their memories together flooding back.

"Wow, I'm assuming you have achieved your dream," said Freddie.

"Don't sound so impressed, Benson. Oh yeah, and why are you in New York anyway?" Sam asked, looking at him curiously.

"Well I-"

"Sammy! My little wallflower," booms a deep, manly voice from over by the entrance.

Sam winces at the loudness, but turns and faces the source of the noise. Freddie notices a handsome man wander into Schooshy's and scoop Sam up into his arms. That was a little bit too cheesy for his liking, or for anyone's liking really. He felt his stomach drop as the two of them shared a big hug, and he saw Sam smile brightly as she giggled.

Whoa, he thought. Did Sam have a...

"Chris, what are you doing here right now? You told me you had stuff to do at work."

"Nah, well yeah," replied the man, putting Sam down again. "But I came here to tell you I'll be working late."

Sam's face fell. Freddie felt his fists clench.

"Again?! That's the third time this week!"

Third time, thought Freddie. Why was Sam even going out with such a guy? He seemed like a douchebag to him, not that he'd say that out loud to her of course. It would make him sound jealous, weak and wimpy. The last thing he wanted to be, to Sam, was a wimp. No, sir.

"Sorry, babe. But it can't be helped. You know work comes before play." He slapped her on the butt, playfully. Sam glared at him. "You love it."

The man smirked, winked at her and then left a bewildered Freddie and a disappointed Sam at Schooshy's. Freddie unclenched his fists and wanted to comfort Sam so badly, but then thought better of it. Sam sighed, turned to the bar and ordered a drink. She honestly didn't know why they were still dating.

She purposely avoided all eye-contact with Freddie, because she knew that a whole lot of spiteful comments would be coming her way. Maybe. Just to be safe, she focused her eyes on the counter.

"Yes, I have a boyfriend. His name is Christopher Wolffe. We sometimes live together in my apartment." Sam says, very blankly.

"He seems... nice," replies Freddie, off-handedly.

"Oh shut-up Freddie! I know what you're thinking! 'he's a jerk, he's self-centered, he's an idiot, he's..."

"Actually. I'm not thinking that. You are."

Finally Sam faces Freddie. Her eyes meet his, and his meet hers. There is a split-moment where both of them didn't want to look away. Freddie had always been a smart one for figuring out why things happened. Sam had always been quick to jump in and do things without taking in the consequences.

She knew, instantly, that Freddie was right. It annoyed her to admit that, but... what else was she to believe?

"Why are you with him, if he makes you unhappy?" Freddie blurts out suddenly. Sam's eyes widen, as though in shock. "Sorry. None of my business."

"No, it's okay," she sighs softly and looks down at her new drink. "I thought I loved him. And I think a small part of me still does. But sometimes, like now, he makes me so mad! I could just…"

Sam lets out a growl under her breath. Freddie hears this and smirks a bit. It reminded him of when she got jealous over his date with Valerie that one time, every time he'd talk about it with her and Carly, she'd growl. Just like she way doing now.

There's a bit of a long pause. The two of them sit next to each other, not talking, not even looking at each other. Just being together, silently, at a bar. Until Freddie had an idea.

"Hey, why don't we go to dinner tomorrow," he suggests. "We haven't seen each other in so long, and I feel like there is so much we need to talk about."

Sam looked at Freddie, and her mouth gaped like a gold-fish. She felt a lot of thoughts go flying through her mind all at once. What was there to say?

"Oh Freddie, I... I think..."

"It's not a date or anything," he added on, quickly. Sam looks at him and smiles. His heart skips a beat. "J-Just a catch-up. You know."

"I'd really love that, Freddie," she replies, and grabs a pen and a spare coaster and quickly scribbles something on it. "That's my address. And cell phone number."

"Great. I'll come by and pick you up at seven thirty. Is that okay?"

"Sure, no prob."

There's a sudden ring tone type of sound and Sam checks her phone quickly. Freddie watches and she gasps suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Freddie asks.

"It's my boss. I have to go. It was great seeing you again."

Without thinking, the girl stands up and leans over to kiss his cheek suddenly. Like it was an old habit that was hard to break. Freddie is completely taken aback by this gesture. Sam doesn't really know what she was thinking at the time either. The awkward ensues, that is until Eric wanders back over to where they were sitting in the awkward silence.

"Whoa, you can legit feel the awkward!" Eric laughs, and slaps Freddie's back.

"I'll see you tomorrow night, Freddie," said Sam, feeling a bit flustered.

With that she goes over to the table of friends, speaks to the other girl sitting there and they both take their belongings and leave the bar.

Freddie looks as she walks right out and can't help himself but grin. He wasn't going on a date with Sam, but a catch-up dinner was the next best thing. It wasn't long before Eric was jumping on him with interrogative questions, all to do with Sam. Freddie couldn't answer all of them, there were just too many all at once. Eventually, he had to tell Eric about the plan for tomorrow evening. Eric jumped up and down excitedly. Freddie stared at the guy weirdly.

"You are officially my God, Fred-man. Like, totally for real. Samantha Puckett is the sexiest soap star to exist!"

"Soap star?" Freddie looked at his friend.

"Dude! Yes! She works in the Infamous Studio. I thought you would know that, since you know her and all."

Eric rolled his eyes at Freddie's lack of knowledge.

Maybe he had been living under a rock or something. Or the bus trip actually transported them to a parallel universe where nothing made any sense. Then again, he hadn't seen her in five whole years, and she was coming to New York to follow her famous actor dream.

It clicked.

"Do you mean that ... Sam is... and Mike is... Whoa!" Freddie gasped in surprise.

"Exactly dude," replied Eric, downing the last of his tenth beer. "Exactly."

Sam was literally speechless. But it was alright because Rosalie was jumping on her with interrogative questions about the "mystery guy" at the bar. The girl totally forgot that Rosalie had no clue about the history that she and Freddie had shared. It was just something that never was spoken about.

Rosalie danced around Sam as they made their way to where Mike was.

"Quit it," groaned Sam.

"Not until you tell me about this guy at the bar," insisted the brunette, glaring at her. "He looked pretty darn cute, in dorky sort of way.

Sam's stomach twisted into a knot, and she spilled her guts to Rosalie, who at the end clapped happily and hugged her friend. It was times like these that made Sam miss Carly all the more. I wonder what she is doing, thought the blonde. They kept walking and talking.

"So this Freddie dude asked you out?"

"Not a date though," she said, rather quickly. "Just a catch-up."

"Sure," smirked the other girl. "A "catch-up"... code for "I miss you. I still love you. Let's go back to how things were...". Trust me, I have been there before."

"You're wrong!"

But was it Rosalie that she was convincing? Or herself?