Chapter 10

A bit later after watching the video, Carly suggested that the teens head downstairs and hang out in her room. The others quickly agreed, though Tori was somewhat apprehensive at how easily Freddie had agreed, indicating that he was often in another girl's bedroom, even if that girl was his best friend.

However, once the singer walked into Carly's room, she was blown away. Tori exclaimed, "Wow, this is the most awesome room ever!" She was impressed by the water table with boats and the gummy bear chandelier. What most impressed her was what looked like a closet, with a touch screen pad next to it.

Tori walked towards the closet and asked, "Hey, what's this?"

Carly smiled, responding, "Oh, it's a motorized closet with a touchpad clothing selector. I just push a few buttons, and voila!" As she pushed the buttons, the clothes in the wardrobe rotated, and the closet opened, offering a selection of clothes. She added with a bit of pride, "Freddie designed it for me!"

Tori casually placed a hand on Freddie's shoulder and raised an eyebrow, asking, "Oh he did?"

Freddie felt the girl's questioning gaze, and explained, "Yeah, I did." He continued, "A while ago, Spencer made a gummy bear lamp that burned down Carly's old room. We got a bunch of insurance money from a valuable watch, and we all worked together to make a whole new room for Carly!"

Tori was actually pretty impressed that the boy had worked so hard to redesign his best friend's room, and she was especially impressed by his handiwork on the closest, praising, "Wow, Freddie, that's sooo cool! Hey, can you make me one of those?"

The boy laughed and responded, "Sure, but it'll cost you a few thousand bucks."

The singer smiled and shrugged, "Oh well, it was worth a shot."

Meanwhile, Carly crossed her arms and glowered at the floor. She had tried to make Tori a little bit jealous, but it had only made Tori like Freddie even more.

Sam noticed Carly's expression and walked up close to her. Making sure the happy couple was out of earshot, the blonde observed, "You're gonna have to try a lot harder to make that chick jealous."

Carly tersely replied, "I know!"

Meanwhile, Freddie asked Tori, "Wanna see another cool thing?" When she nodded, the boy told her to sit down on the chaise longue in front of the water table. The girl stared in wonder at the many boats in the tank, and then looked up and saw Freddie return with a captain's hat and a remote control.

Freddie sat down right next to her on the chaise, their arms and legs touching. He smiled at the girl, gently placing the captain's hat on her head. He took a bit of extra time adjusting the hat, and also took the opportunity to stroke her hair a bit, causing both of them to blush. Tori giggled in response, and her mind drifted back to when she thought "Captain Obvious" was "Catherine Obvious." She felt herself relax as Freddie played with her hair.

The boy gave Tori a wide grin, inquiring, "Does Captain Vega want to drive the little boat?"

The girl laughed, "She sure would!" Freddie showed her how to use the remote control, making sure to hold his hands over hers for as long as possible. Tori giggled, nudging the boy's shoulder once she was ready to drive the boat by herself.

Tori quickly became proficient at driving the boat around the table. Freddie contented himself with gazing at her beautiful face and reveled in her excitement.

The singer was having a lot of fun being right next to Freddie and playing with the boat. Tori had found the boy really cute when he was putting on the captain's hat and helping her drive the boat. Now, she paused her driving to meet Freddie's gaze. The boy blushed a bit, having been caught staring, but continued gazing into her eyes.

This time, Freddie made the first move. He slowly leaned forward and captured the girl's lips in a kiss, while holding her waist with one hand. Tori quickly started kissing back, placing a hand on his shoulder, and gently squeezing Freddie's free hand with her other hand.

This was the couple's first extended kiss during this visit, and both had greatly missed this aspect of their relationship during the past fortnight. Tori decided to be bold, asking for entrance with her tongue. Freddie readily accepted, and soon the couple was engaging in a passionate French kiss.

Watching the pair making out in her own room made Carly want to throw up. Sam placed herself in front of the distraught girl and shouted, "Hey, Frednub, if you're gonna make out with your girlfriend, get your own room!"

Freddie and Tori quickly pulled apart, blushing and saying "Sorry" in unison. Freddie continued, "We got a bit carried away, but we haven't seen each other in two weeks."

Sam irritably continued, "Whatever dude, neither of us wants to watch that."

Tori replied in a conciliatory tone, "All right, we'll try to control ourselves. But it is pretty hard to keep my hands off this adorable nerd!" Freddie blushed at her compliment, while Sam rolled her eyes, and Carly continued to fight tears.

The singer changed topics, "So, Freddie told me that your school is doing a lock-in where you guys work on final projects. What are you guys doing?"

Carly composed herself a bit, calmly replying, "I'm working with Spencer and Gibby. We're making a sensory stimulus chamber to test a bunch of stimuli on Spencer."

Tori furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, asking, "What kinds of stimuli?"

Carly admitted in a smaller voice, "We're going to use increasingly irritating stimuli."

Tori finally understood, raising an eyebrow and proclaiming, "So you're basically going to torture him."

Sam chuckled, replying, "Pretty much."

Freddie wondered, "Hey, Sam, what project are you going to do?"

The blonde answered, "I'll probably join Carly's project. Torturing Spencer sounds more fun than joining yours and watching your lame attempts are flirting."

The boy retorted, "My flirting is not lame!"

Tori grabbed his hand and rubbed it soothingly, whispering, "Don't listen to her." This immediately caused the boy to relax and to lean even closer to the singer.

Carly and Sam were a bit surprised to see the girl relax him so quickly. Carly realized that this was yet another reason why Tori was so good for Freddie.

Carly then suggested, "Hey, you guys wanna go to Groovy Smoothie?"

Freddie checked the time, and shook his head, "Oh, man! Sorry, Carly. Tori and I need to get ready for our date."

Tori exclaimed, "Oh, that's right! Let's go get ready." She took off the captain's hat, grabbed Freddie's hand, and began pulling him out of the room. As the couple left, Tori shouted, "Bye Carly, bye Sam!"

Freddie added, "We'll see you guys later!"

Carly was shocked at being dismissed and deserted so quickly and finally unleashed the tears she had been holding back. Sam guided her to the ice cream sandwich loveseat and held her as she cried. The blonde told her, "That dork isn't worth your tears."

Carly was tired of Sam always putting Freddie down and thinking it would comfort her. She jumped out of Sam's arms and snapped, "Yes, he is! Why do you always have to be so mean to him? Freddie was the best boyfriend I've ever had, and you ruined it with your stupid foreign bacon theory. This is all your fault!"

Sam was also exasperated at Carly. She yelled, "My fault? I didn't make Freddie break up with you and it's not my fault that you didn't ask him out after his casts came off! It's also not my fault that you decided to go after Adam and Steven instead!"

Carly felt slapped in the face, but as she considered her best friend's accusations, she realized that she was partly to blame for driving Freddie into Tori's arms. She sat back down on the ice cream seat and tearfully wondered, "What am I going to do now?"

Sam felt a little guilty for making her friend cry even more, and tried to comfort her, "You can wait for them to break up. There's no way those two can keep a long distance relationship going for very long."

Carly aired her doubts, "I don't think so, Sam. Did you not see how they were looking at each other? They're completely in love!"

Sam sighed, and responded, "Well, then you're gonna have to deal with it, like how Freddie had to watch you date a bunch of boys. Ha, he probably cried himself to sleep almost every night!"

Carly fumed, "You know, telling me that I made one of my best friends miserable for years isn't actually making me feel better."

Sam shrugged, "I can't help it."

Carly sighed and wondered if Freddie did indeed feel as horrible as she was feeling. She had always hated constantly turning Freddie down, seeing his brown eyes dim a little every single time. But after a while, she had gotten used to it, and stopped thinking about it so much. Now she was in his shoes and she didn't like it.

Tori had pulled Freddie into the hallways between the apartments. She asked the boy, "So, where are we going for our date? How should I dress?"

Freddie answered, "We're going to this Italian place called Pini's. They have the best lasagna! I don't think we need to dress up too much."

The singer responded excitedly, "Great! I'll go get ready, and then we can go on our first date!"

The tech producer chuckled, nervously asking, "Okay. Once we're both ready, can we meet across the hall? I just don't want my mom to bother us too much."

Tori smiled at him, "Sure, that's fine. I'll meet you there."

The pair then walked into Freddie's apartment and split up into their respective rooms to get ready.

Freddie felt a bit nervous, as he'd actually not been on a date for some time. He decided to wear a simple dress shirt and pants. As he prepared, he also went back over the events of the past few hours and remembered that Carly looked a bit sad whenever he interacted with Tori. The boy expected to finish getting ready before the singer, so he hoped he could at least quickly check up on Carly before he left on his date.

Meanwhile, Tori was also feeling very nervous. She decided to take a shower, since she hadn't done so since arriving in Seattle earlier in the day. The singer was looking forward to this date, and she planned for them to get to know each other even more and hopefully officially become girlfriend and boyfriend.

Tori thought about Freddie's interactions with his female friends and decided that she wouldn't have to worry too much about them; it was clear that Freddie cared a lot about Carly, and even a little bit about Sam, but there didn't seem to be any romantic feelings on his part. The girl was a bit surprised that Freddie tolerated the blonde's insults, but she figured that their relationship was somewhat like her and Jade's, though apparently with more physical abuse.

Once she finished showering, Tori decided to wear a red dress for her date with Freddie. As she continued getting ready, she saw a text from the boy informing her that he was ready and across the hall, so she left for Carly's apartment.

Freddie had finished getting ready pretty quickly, and so he walked into Carly's living room to wait for his date. He saw the girls sitting on the couch, and nervously asked, "Hey guys, how do I look?"

Sam smirked, and began, "Well…"

Carly cut her off, "Sam!" She then got up and walked over to Freddie, and smiled at him, "You look really handsome! Tori's a very lucky girl." She then ran her hands over his shirt, "adjusting" it.

Freddie blushed a bit at the girl's praise and her touching, and inquired, "Carly, what are you doing?"

Carly then realized what she'd been doing and quickly stepped back, blushing as well, and uttered, "Sorry, Freddie." In truth, she had wanted to be physically close to him, but she didn't realize that the boy would not be as receptive to this as he'd been in the past.

Freddie then gently asked the girl, "Hey, Carls, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She nodded, "Sure, what is it?"

The two teens moved into the kitchen to get some privacy, away from Sam. Freddie then began, "I noticed that you looked pretty sad earlier today when we were hanging out. What's going on?"

Carly sighed and looked at her friend with sad eyes that broke his heart, "It's no big deal, but it's really hard for me to watch you and Tori together."

Freddie asked with some confusion, "But I thought you were happy for me?"

She nodded, "I am! But I guess I wish I still had a boyfriend."

Freddie smiled and reassured his best friend, "I'm sure you'll find one soon, especially now that everyone knows you're available!"

Carly returned the smile, "Thanks, Freddie!" But she knew that finding another boy to date would not really make her happy again.

Soon after, Tori walked into the apartment, exclaiming, "Hey, Freddie, you ready?" She saw Freddie standing with Carly and wondered what they were talking about.

Freddie turned around and took in the sight of his date. He walked up to Tori, blushing, and stammered, "Wow Tori, you look so gorgeous in that dress!"

The singer giggled a bit, then extended her arm in front of her, asking, "May I escort the handsome boy?"

The boy responded by linking his arm in hers, "You may!"

At the same time, Carly returned from the kitchen, approaching the couple and smiling, "Wow, you look great, Tori! Have fun on your date, you two!"

Freddie responded for the couple, "Thanks! We should be back in a few hours." He and Tori waved goodbye to Carly and Sam and walked out of the apartment arm-in-arm. Both of them were excited for their first date and knew that it could be the turning point in their relationship.