Sam is completely sick of Freddie's lying ways by Wednesday, the third day she walks home with him from school. She's starting to think Carly is pranking her.
"…so then I plugged it in the USB port and dragged the My Documents shortcut into the F: drive and it worked fine," Freddie rambles on about the A/V club as Sam dies of boredom. "But when I tested it on a different computer, it just opened up that computer's documents. So I explained to the rest of the guys that-"
"Freddie," Sam seethes. "Shut. Up."
Freddie looks stunned for a second, but gets over it. "No need to be rude, demonhair."
Sam takes a deep breath and tries to count to ten. She gets to two and loses it. She pins him against the nearest building's wall and screams, "LOOK MAN. JUST ADMIT IT ALREADY AND I WON'T BEAT YOU INTO A PULP."
His eye twitches. "Uh, what?"
"YOUUU," she says slowly, poking him in the shoulder. "LIIIIKE… MEEE…"
"What?" He swallows.
Sam hits herself in the forehead and lets go of him. "Anghhh. …Carly told me, okay!?" she admits harshly.
Freddie's eyes widen as he realizes everything. "Uh…" He makes a break for it and runs away. He gets about six feet before Sam catches up and has him in a headlock.
"I'm sorry!" he shrieks. "Just let me go!"
Sam smiles evilly. "Just so you know," she whispers into his ear menacingly. "I will never, ever-" She stops. "Ever…" She stops again and looks at his face, which is extremely embarrassed and betrayed, looking like he wants to die.
"I can't do it," she finally says, and lets go of his head, sliding down onto the sidewalk, stunned.
He straightens his collar, his face blood red with humiliation, and seems to debate for a minute. Then he crouches down next to her, but carefully not close. "Do what?"
"Shoot you down," she says brutally without looking at him. "I can't do it."
"It's not like you've had much trouble before," Freddie points out.
"I know," she says. "You're too pitiful now, though."
"Gee," he says.
"I've been trying all week to get you to admit it." She picks at her nail.
Freddie takes a deep breath. "I noticed."
Tension.
"I, uh, didn't want you to find out like that," he finally ventures. "I… didn't want you to find out at all, actually."
"Yeah, I can understand that." Sam looks at him and he looks away.
"Um… I suppose you don't want anyone finding out," he continues. "I don't really either, I won't mention it again." He stands up and takes a couple steps backward. "I'll stop, uh, or whatever."
Sam thinks that it's pretty ironic that Freddie has agreed to leave her alone mere seconds after she came to terms with the fact that she kinda likes him.
"Um, I'm sorry," Freddie continues. "For, I don't know, taking up your time."
Sam blinks. "What?"
"Bye," he says and turns around, starting the walk back to his apartment.
Sam feels like she just stepped on a puppy.
"Fredward," she calls after him in a whiny voice. He turns, barely, adjusting the strap on his book bag. He looks like he's itching to just run out of her sight.
She thinks of all the movies she's watched and reflects that now is the time to run up, say a cheesy line, and kiss him. Then they can walk back to the apartments hand in hand, laughing and talking as the credits roll and whatever song that was number one on iTunes last month will start playing.
Sam also reflects that she really hates those type of movies.
"So, what?" she asks loudly as Freddie shuffles his feet awkwardly. "You're just giving up?"
Freddie glares, which is nothing new, but it's different at the same time. "I get it." He turns around again. "I'm a wimp, or whatever."
Sam stands up. "Why are you giving up?"
He keeps walking.
She follows him. "You didn't exactly give up on Carly the first time she rejected you."
He walks straight ahead, eyes still and not even glancing at her.
"You're Freddie!" she says, poking him in the stomach. "You don't give up! You never give up! You don't even know what 'a lost cause' means! You-"
"Why do you care?" Freddie yells, grabbing her shoulders and shaking them. A man on his cell phone walking by gives them a strange look, but they don't notice.
She looks at him but can't conjure words to express what she's feeling. They stand like that for at least a minute as people getting off of work hurry home around them; it's embarrassing and awkward and it's killing him and even her a little to be there, but they stand their ground.
"When you liked Carly," Sam finally starts out slowly, "It was annoying and everything, but I kept imagining, like, what I would do if I were her. I thought that I would be able to shoot you down better than she could, so that you'd never bother me, or her, or whatever again." She looks at Freddie and hopes he's understanding her. His eyebrows are raised and he doesn't look like he is. "Oh, and on a kinda related note, now the opportunity comes up, more or less, and I just can't do it! If I close my eyes I can think of forty humiliating ways to do it, but now, like, actually looking you in the face, my brain, it just… nothing! Thanks a lot!"
"Because I'm too pathetic," Freddie supplies sarcastically, quoting her earlier.
"Sure," she says, and regrets rambling. "But, anyway, I dunno, maybe I wasn't jealous of her position to easily torment you, maybe I was jealous of the fact that someone even liked her enough to not take no for an answer."
Freddie glances briefly to his left and back to Sam again, confused. "Um… so are you saying… yes?"
Sam scratches her ear and ignores the lady trying to get past her. "I'm saying," she says, "I don't think you like me that much in the first place."
He contemplates this. "This could be true," he says slowly, not looking like he means it.
"Could be?" Sam repeats. "I didn't even say no and you gave up."
Freddie looks like he really, really wants to argue, but he just rolls his eyes. "So you're not saying no and you're not saying yes," he checks.
"Pretty much," she agrees awkwardly.
"What if," he proposes, "we just… try out some 'relationship' stuff and see if it feels weird. Like, we don't have to commit or anything," he says, knowing Sam doesn't really like to commit, "just, y'know...?" Freddie scratches his neck self-consciously.
Sam isn't sure she's ready for that, especially with Freddie. "It'll feel weird," she says with utmost sincerity. "No."
He kisses her in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Did that feel weird?" Freddie asks with a somewhat strained straight face.
"It was nauseating." She smirks, grabs his hand, and starts the walk back with him. He follows, stumbling, a bit stunned.
aw, you guysssss. i had like seven more favs again after a day. ^^
anyway, this didn't turn out exactly the way i hoped, but it's alright.
i also do realize that at first sam's all 'i don't wanna go up, say a cheesy line, kiss him, and walk back hand in hand,' and that's, um, kinda what ended up happening, but idk. there's a reason *cough excuse cough* like irony or something... ugh i'm zonked out on painkillers cuz i hit myself on the mouth with a neon orange flashlight while i was trying to be all cool and flipping it in the air but then my braces cut open the inside of my mouth and i started spitting blood and LONG STORY SHORT I AM IN PAIN.
okay. the next and final chapter is my favorite. :) i'll probably have it up by tomorrow if i survive the mother's day brunch my mom wants to take me to. D:
