Hey guys :D Thanks for all the reviews! They were great to read. Glad you liked it!

Carly moped into Ridgeway Monday morning. Her and Sam's weekend had brightened her mood, but her joy had only lasted so long. After the carefree night Sam and Carly had shared after their carnival plan had failed, the two had also decided to not let the 'Freddie Situation' bother them Sunday either. But once Sam had left to go home on Sunday, Carly was left alone…and when she was alone she started thinking again of Freddie.

The brunette pushed a piece of hair away from her face as she continued walking. She quickly placed her things in her locker and, in another attempt to regain her friend, began looking for Freddie.

Carly started off checking by his locker. She came up with nothing. She then continued her search by the AV Club room, followed by the office, the gym, and Freddie's first hour. The brunette couldn't find him in any of his usual spots…at least the ones she always found him at when she looked for her best guy friend every morning back when they were two peas in a pod.

The teenager shook her head in disappointment and then decided she'd talk to him later. Carly made her way back to her locker to find Sam, who she hadn't seen yet that morning, but was halted when she bumped into a familiar face.

"Oh, hey Carly." Gibby said with a smile.

"Hey Gibbs. How are things?"

"Can't complain too much. I mean it's not like my peanut butter is jumbled up with my sun block or anything."

Carly's brow furrowed in confusion "You really need to stop hanging out with Ruben. You're starting to sound just like him." she didn't even bother to try to decode what Gibby had meant.

"Ummm right." the chubby boy said slowly. It was quiet for a moment before he then questioned "So, did you and Freddie and Sam work everything out?"

Carly forced a smile "No, not yet. But thank you for Saturday. I can't remember if I said so or not."

Gibby waved off her comment "I don't deserve a thank you. Freddie got away before you guys settled everything because of me."

"Don't worry about it. If he was willing to forgive us he would have. You letting him go wasn't the problem."

"Still, I'm sorry I did."

Carly just smiled lightly rather than saying anything back.

The two didn't speak for a few moments so Gibby decided he would go. He gave a short wave goodbye and then turned.

Carly returned the gesture, but then hastily grabbed Gibby's arm and pulled him back, remembering what she was doing before she ran into Gibby.

"Have you seen Freddie this morning? I need to…" Carly trailed off but Gibby filled the gap in her sentence.

"Talk to him?"

Carly hesitated "Uh, sure. Something like that."

"Yeah, I saw him heading toward the lunch room about five minutes ago with Shane."

Carly froze momentarily. She remembered Shane. He was the guy both her and Sam fell all over about a year ago and went so crazy in a competition to win his heart they drove him to fall down an elevator shaft. He'd come back to Ridgeway a few months ago after healing from the accident, but put up his very best effort to steer clear of both iCarly hosts.

"Thanks." Carly said. And then quickly made her way to the cafeteria. She wasn't too thrilled about seeing Shane because he now was either very afraid of her or hated her.

She entered the lunch room and glanced around until her eyes fell upon two boys. One with short brown hair and a plaid blue shirt. Freddie was leaning against the white wall across the cafeteria, talking to Shane. The vending machines next to them.

Carly did a double take when she saw Shane. His sandy brown hair had grown out a little bit and he had gained quite a bit of muscle. He wasn't so much cute anymore, he in fact had now developed into 'hot'. He stood across from Freddie. They were engaged in conversation.

Carly wondered for a moment if she should approach, but decided to after a minute or two of contemplating that she would.

The brunette began walking slowly over. She was coming up from Shane and Freddie's side.

As she drew close to the two boys she began to pick up on their conversation.

"Hey," Freddie began, looking down and into his bag rather than ahead "You're still coming to my house later tonight to finish installing the eight cord three gigahertz server, right?"

Shane paused "Umm…I dunno. You're still part of iCrazy right? I don't want to deal with those two."

Freddie looked up, his eyes missing Carly who was now standing next to the vending machines, leaning against one waiting for one of the boys that were standing a few feet away to notice her.

"Actually we aren't friends anymore. I got tired of Sam treating me like a live punching bag and Carly doing nothing about it."

It stung Carly a bit to hear that, but she didn't say anything.

"Oh. I thought the rumors about you guys splitting were fake…but cool, cool. But can we meet at my house instead? I never want to see the Bushwell Plaza elevator ever again. Plus, the last time I was over there your mom practically shoved a cucumber down my throat."

Freddie smiled. How can he be so rude to me and Sam but so nice to everyone else? Carly thought.

Freddie began talking again, agreeing to meet at Shane's house, but Carly, still unnoticed, decided it was time to make herself known.

She walked forward and lightly cleared her throat. Looking at Shane she said "Can I talk to Freddie for a minute?"

Shane's eyes went wide when he saw who was talking to him. He was a bit afraid of what she could do.

He quickly looked over to Freddie, who had a bored/annoyed look on his face now, and said hastily "See ya later Freddie." before quickly turning around and hightailing it away form Carly.

Freddie sighed, eyeing Shane as he left, then turned to glare at Carly "You got me alone. What do you want."

Carly hadn't really thought what she would say to him. She just made up he mind to talk to him this morning.

"Um…I uh…" she trailed off, unable to form proper words.

Freddie let out an aggravated sigh "Look Carly, I don't have time for this." he then made a move to leave promptly.

"No, Freddie, wait!" Carly called as she grabbed for his arm and with surprising force pulled him back so he was standing really close to her.

Freddie was so close to Carly at the moment he had to look down to talk to her "What?" he snarled coldly.

Carly struggled for words, wondering if she should ask first. I mean he'd said last week he no longer liked Carly but she didn't know if he'd only said that because he'd ditched them shortly before that or if it was true. She'd thought about if she should go through with this all last night. She didn't know if it was a valid way to get Freddie back or not, but showing him she cared had to do something right?

"Look, if you're just going to stand there then you can do it without me here." the boy snapped, once more moving to leave.

"No, Freddie! I-"

"What Carly? What?" ice coated these words.

Carly opened her mouth, staring into Freddie's angry eyes, but when no words came out, she decided on a whim to just go for it.

Carly leaned forward in a last desperate attempt, pressing her lips to Freddie's. She let go of his arm and moved her hands to his hair, pulling him closer. She got a reaction from Freddie, but it was minimal. Carly didn't know if that was good or bad.

After a few moments, Carly pulled away. She first looked at Freddie's face. She wanted to know what he thought of her kissing him.

Freddie's face was a mix of anger, confusion, and thought. Carly had no idea what was going through his head.

"Carly." Freddie said flatly.

"Yeah?" Carly's hope rose slightly. Was he going to tell her good news?

"Don't kiss me." his tone was emotionless.

Carly's heart sank "But Freddie," Carly said, the desperation clear in her voice "I just thought that-"

"I know what you thought!" Freddie snapped "And un-think it! Toying with emotions I don't have for you isn't going to get me back! You don't even like me anyway!"

Carly couldn't deny that statement. She didn't like Freddie, she just hoped letting him know she cared in any way would work.

"Freddie…I just…I…" Carly said, unable to form a sentence describing her thoughts.

"What will it take for you to realize we are over? Our friendship is done. The sooner you get it through your head the better our lives will be from here on out."

Carly stood there paralyzed from the rejection. And the fact Freddie didn't seem to care hurt worse.

He just walked away, leaving Carly behind believing he didn't care at all. But when she looked down in sadness she didn't see him stop, turn halfway around and glance at her with a sympathetic look, before he shook his head in confusion and kept on walking.

Carly trudged up the stairs of Bushwell Plaza as she made her way up to her apartment on the eighth floor.

As she approached her front door, she pulled her keys out of her bag. Their jingling was he only sound heard in the deathly quiet hallway.

The brunette motioned to slide her keys into the key hole, but she retracted her arm centimeters before she completed her set task.

She let her arm drop as she let out a hard and desperate sigh. She needed a minute to herself before she went inside. She hadn't had one in a while.

Ever since Spencer had found out about Freddie he was spending nearly all his time with Carly to try and keep her mind off things. And Carly's normal stressor relief was out. Taking long showers to help clear her head wasn't an option. She knew that if she took the really long showers Spencer would know how depressed she really and truly was. And since Spencer was trying so hard to keep her happy she didn't want to basically scream to him "Your attempts at making me feel better haven't worked. You are a failure." Carly was at least putting up the effort to seem somewhat cheery around Spencer.

The girl let her weight fall into the wall as she slid downward onto the floor. Carly curled up in the fetal position and hid her eyes in her arms that rested on her knees.

The realization of her life was truly hitting her now. She felt as if all hope was lost. Carly had tried everything she could think of, and it hadn't worked. Freddie still wasn't forgiving her, and he didn't look like he planned to.

Carly let it all out. She let her tears fall. The heat of them running down her face and soaking into her clothes. She felt as if a doctor had viciously hacked out a piece of her and sent her on her way without any medication to numb the pain.

Freddie had basically done just that. He'd ripped out her heart and stomped on it. And what was worse is he didn't even seem to care that she was miserable. Did their friendship really mean so little to him that he could see her this hurt and be un-phased?

Carly wished she could go back. Go back to the beginning when they were all just becoming friends. Before iCarly had even started. She would have done everything differently. She would have said something every time Sam snapped a nasty comment. And would have helped Freddie out of one of his and Sam's smack downs rather than standing on the sidelines and watching with a smile on her face. She would have made an effort to realize how much the torment Sam forced upon him wasn't all fun and games. She just would have changed it all.

Carly sucked in a hard breath, attempting to stop crying. She couldn't walk into her apartment like this. Spencer would be sick with worry and all her work of faking happiness would go to waste.

She needed to close out the world. So she reached for her Pear Pod and went to a song that always seemed to calm her down.

The tears continued to fall for the next couple minutes as she consoled herself and swallowed her emotions. And soon enough her eyes were dry.

Carly lifted her head and put her Pear Pod back. She stood up and continued to lean against the wall. She had to give her eyes a few minutes to un-reden and become less puffy otherwise it would give away she had been crying.

Carly breathed in deeply and collected herself after she was sure her eyes were back to normal. She forced a smile and a look of joy to her face and then as she had intended almost a half hour ago walked into her apartment, seemingly unaffected by what Freddie had done to her.

Freddie kicked his bedroom door shut in frustration. He was almost at his breaking point. He couldn't take it anymore.

The boy fell backwards onto his bed and picked up a pillow. He put the pillow over his face and screamed. He was so confused he didn't know what to do with himself.

Freddie flashed back to moments ago when he was in the hallway;

Freddie walked up the steps that led to floor eight. He wanted to get home so he could try to unblock his head before he went to Shane's house.

But as he strode onto floor eight, he froze from what he saw.

Carly. She was curled up into a ball and sobbing. She had her earbuds in and was listening to music as if to make the world around her disappear as she wallowed in her depression.

If hearts made a sound when they broke, a loud crack would have rocked through the whole building at that exact point from Freddie's chest.

He mentally beat himself up. This was because of him. Carly broken and shattered to the point where she was crying in a hallway was all due to Freddie.

Freddie's heart screamed at him to sit right next to Carly and hold her in his arms as he comforted her and begged for forgiveness from his insanely retarded actions. He just wanted to make it all better because he still loved Carly. She was practically his sister and he nearly tore in two seeing her like this. And it killed him more to know it was his fault.

But Freddie's head was holding him back. It was saying that this needed to be done to get respect. Freddie had asked Sam time and time again to cool it with the beatings, and it hadn't worked. They needed a good kick in the gut if anything was going to change.

Freddie didn't know what to do. He didn't know if he should listen to his heart and go back to be treated like a walking punching bag, or to continue to try to get respect as he watched Carly's heart being cut into millions of pieces.

Then something occurred to Freddie. Where was Sam? Where was Sam being hurt? Where was Sam caring he was gone? Where was Sam realizeing what a demon she could be? Where was Sam when her best friend needed someone to comfort her?

Freddie grew slightly angry as he realized he probably was putting Carly through this hell for nothing. Both Carly and Sam needed to get Freddie's message before anything was going to change. If all that changed was Carly telling Sam to stop each time she did something mean to Freddie, it would be the same as before. Sam wouldn't listen. She never did. Sam did what Sam wanted. And if Sam didn't get the message then there was no respect to be gained on Freddie's part.

He had to keep shutting Carly out. He had to. If he didn't nothing would work. He would shut Sam out as well but it's hard to shut someone out when they are never around to be shut out. Sam hadn't once tried to get Freddie's forgiveness. So he'd hoped that when Sam saw what it was doing to Carly that she'd actually dig into her heart and try to be nice. If not for her and Freddie's friendship, then for the sake of her best friend.

Well, if Sam wasn't going to be there for Carly, then he was.

Freddie took a step forward toward Carly, then halted.

He couldn't do this. Not yet at least. He had to keep it up for just a little bit longer.

So the boy entered his apartment, and since Carly hadn't heard him because of her music, she never even knew he was there.

Freddie yelled into his pillow again. He didn't think he could hurt Carly anymore. He still cared about their friendship and her as much as he did before. And he wondered if keeping up the jerk act would even do any good if Sam wasn't even getting the point.

Freddie sighed. Sam. He wondered if she was even affected by this whole thing. She seemed like her life was just as it was before the fight, and hadn't put forth any effort to try to get Freddie back on her own. She didn't even seem phased by Carly's pain…but that might be because she wanted to be strong. Sam never liked being weak. But Freddie honestly had no idea what was going on in that blonde's head. And he had no idea if what he was doing was even worth it.

Freddie felt as if his world had spiraled out of control all in an effort to be picked on a little less.

Freddie's chest tightened. Okay, so it was about a little bit more than respect and having less bruises.

He was just sick of being rejected. Especially by the girls he liked.

For years Freddie followed Carly around like an obsessed puppy, hoping and praying that after the six thousand no's Freddie would eventually get a yes. He got one after he'd saved Carly's life, but he turned out to be 'just bacon' in the end. He didn't know when he lost interest in Carly. But he just noticed one day he only saw her as a friend. A sister.

He didn't know when he fell for Sam either. He also didn't know why. She was constantly tormenting him and hurting him, but something happened in between the wedgies and the name calling. Maybe it was because she was beautiful. In some ways she was prettier than Carly, but then again Carly had her moments too. Or maybe it was because when Sam wanted to she could be really sweet and a good friend.

Either way, no matter the reason, Freddie still liked her, and just wanted some acceptance.

He thought it was him. Maybe he was an annoying nub who asked for everything Sam gave him. That's why the day he exploded and dropped them he was acting nice. He wasn't trying to be annoying. He was acting as is everything Sam did was okay and hoped if she got her way she'd realize he wasn't so bad.

But then in a stupid move, he overreacted when Sam picked a fight over his father, and just decided to cut them both out of his life. Sure, his dad was a really touchy subject, but he could have gotten mad, and then made up with them the next day.

But he didn't. He decided to make the girls realize how much he means to them and then they would accept him for who he was…mostly Sam.

But it now looked as if that plan was crumbling beneath his feet since Sam didn't even seem to care Freddie had up and left. She just allowed his absence, and didn't blink and eye in objection. Freddie had held it together at first. Acting like he was genuinely mad, but now each time he hurt Carly he was beginning to show how sorry how was for it.

Freddie's real problem was what his next move would be. Would he go back to his friends, tell them he was stupid for doing what he did, and have everything be just like before? Allowing the girl he cared about to openly say how much she's irritated by his existence and beat him up because he has an 'ugly face' in her words? Or would he hold out longer hanging by the thread of possibility that this could still work and Sam would get it through her thick skull?

Freddie didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore.

Wow…this chapter was beyond difficult for me to get right…and I'm not even sure if I did. It took me days to figure out the right way to explain why Freddie is doing what he's doing and I hope I was clear enough. I'm not sure on how else to say it. I even wrote this entire chapter out and threw it away because I hated how it sounded so much. The only thing of my first version of this that survived to THIS version was the first paragraph used to open the chapter. I just have no idea how I did on this so if you could let me know how I did I'd appreciate it :)

Also, I hope you don't hate me for having Carly kiss Freddie…the way I see it is that she had run out of ideas so in one last desperate action she hoped it might work. It just seemed necessary.

And sorry for no Sam in this chapter…but no worries. I've got plans for her in the next one ;) hmm…that sounds a bit menacing…or is that just me?

P.S.- I realize it took me a while to get this up but I hope you understand because I wanted to make this right and understandable for you guys. I hope the wait did its justice and you all get Freddie's feelings.