A Best Friend's Greed

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly, isn't it great? Now read!

A/N: They are 14 in this chapter. By the way, Stephanie is NOT an OC; she is in the Jake episode and never talks in it. However, she is actually considered Jake's girlfriend.


Chapter 12 (Renewal of Friendship)

"So, Freddie…Uh…" Jake shifted his eyes to the side and silently gulped. "Hey, don't worry, if you like Carly, I'm backing off! Honest, I really mean it this time, I promise I won't do anything. Besides, I think I may like another girl, I won't-"

"Jake." Jake instantly silenced himself, Freddie lifted the recorder and held it toward him. "Take this."

"Okay, but what is it?" Jake asked as he took the recorder from Freddie's hand. Freddie sighed and glanced to the side, he knew nobody else was around, so he was fine.

"It's your real singing, Jake." Jake raised his eyebrow and looked at Freddie, he had a solemn look on his face while keeping his arms crossed. "Jake, your singing wasn't very good, so I tampered with your voice. The girls told me that they didn't want to tell you, that it would be devastating, but you deserve to know the truth. Plus, I think your grandmother will love that voice right there more than the fake and tampered up version."

"You mean…" Jake pressed play and he heard his horrible, off-key singing voice, his jaw tightened and he swiftly stopped the tape. "So my singing is still really bad."

"Sam has a father that teaches singing lessons and I'm sure he'll help you out if you want him to." Jake couldn't believe that Freddie actually helped him and was being honest, furthermore, he was shocked to know his voice still sounded like crap. "Don't worry Jake, you sound much better than when you were eight. These things get better as time goes by, and a singing teacher really helps speed it all up."

"Freddie…thanks, I mean it, thank you so much for telling me this." Freddie shrugged and crossed his arms over, both of the boys thought the other probably still bore a grudge against the other. All they needed to do was tear down that wall. Freddie glanced to the side and frowned, he must have thought he was so stupid for thinking that Jake had stolen his crush so long ago, and the same thing happened to him that happened to Jake.

"Jake, I'm sorry that you saw what you did. Believe me though, Carly and I are not together, and I did not want that nose kiss to happen." Jake raised his eyebrow and Freddie let out a sigh. "Truth be told, the girls were trying to convince me to tamper with your voice and I was already in the process of wanting to do that. I actually was thinking of Sam when I asked for the kiss, I was looking at Sam and I felt as though I was talking to her. Then when I realized that I was still talking to Carly, it was too late. So I went back inside and that's where I tampered around with your voice, but I had wanted to tell you, yet the girls, mostly Carly, didn't want me to."

"You mean…You didn't really intend for her to kiss you?"

"That's correct, I suppose I can trust you to stay away from Sam? I say this because Sam is the one that I'm falling in love with. I don't need any trouble there."

"Believe me, Freddie, I will stay out of your way!"

"You don't have to do that, I get the feeling that the same thing happened to me that happened to you." Jake raised his eyebrow and Freddie continued. "You had a crush on Carly, and then she kissed me, you saw it and assumed we were together."

"Yeah, but back then, I didn't want to get involved with Stephanie, you were the one that liked her and I was just being a best friend by staying away from her. In fact, it was…" Jake stopped talking and Freddie raised his eyebrow, Jake wasn't sure it would be appropriate to talk about the things Jonah said and did over the years or about how Jonah was the one that made Stephanie kiss him. Jake wanted to build the friendship back to trust, then when he was sure Freddie would actually believe him when he mentioned Jonah, that's when he'd say some of the strange occurrences.

"Well Jake, what do you think is going to happen now?" Jake shrugged and crossed his arms over.

"I was kind of hoping that maybe we could start over again, and probably try to be friends."

"Yeah, that sounds fine by me, oh and what's going on with you and Stephanie these days?" Jake's mouth fell and he glanced around nervously, Freddie sighed and smiled at him. "Trust me, I don't care that you may like her now, in fact, it wouldn't even bother me. Besides…my eyes are already set on a girl that means the world to me right now."

"Yeah, well I don't know what's going to happen, I mean Stephanie and I have only been friends up until this point. We kind of just kissed and I don't really know what to make of it, I mean, maybe we were kind of pressured into it or something, but regardless of anything that happened, we still kissed."

"Cool, so how was it, did you feel anything at all?" Jake thought for a brief second and then nodded his head, Freddie smirked and patted Jake's back. "Well, I think it's about time you get into a serious relationship. Or is it that you're still unsure of how you feel about her?"

"Well, there was that guilt at first, the guilt of what happened back in the past."

"The past is past, Jake. There comes a time, I guess, in everyone's life when they must come to terms with what has happened in the past and move on. I'm going to forget about what happened when we were eight, especially since we were young, naïve and I had absolutely no clue that what happened that day was not what I thought." Jake smiled and closed his eyes, he was sure this was one of the greatest days of his life, he had his friend back.

"So, you don't care if I date her?"

"Why should I?"

"I don't know…but can I ask you something?" Jake glanced at the recording and looked at Freddie. "When I show this to my family, and Stephanie, would you be there with me? You know, just in case something went wrong?"

"Of course I will, I don't intend on telling Carly and Sam about our friendship just yet, by the way. I don't know just how well they would take the news, but I think when I do talk to them, you should probably be there to increase the shock factor." Freddie smirked and Jake let out a small laugh. "Now, all I want to do is get Sam to like me, and Carly made this stupid plan a little while ago that I should constantly say I loved Carly in order to make Sam jealous."

"How is that plan going?" Freddie narrowed his eyes and groaned as he rubbed his forehead.

"Horrible! I think she may start detesting me, and I'm pretty much going to stop declaring my love for Carly because I don't have any feelings for her. It's starting to creep me out too, I just can't stand it much longer."

"Yeah, maybe you should stop, I mean you guys are probably great friends, right?"

"Yeah, after what happened with us, Sam kind of brought me back to reality, I suppose. She's been a great friend and I guess I've been attracted to her all this time."

"Maybe you'll get her to like you eventually, unless she already does, you never know." Jake shrugged and Freddie rubbed his chin.

"Yeah, but girls, they're definitely tough to understand. One second they seem all happy about something, then they're sad about another thing, then they get angry, and then they are happy again! It's like the cycle is one of those never-ending type things." Jake nodded in understanding and looked at his watch, his eyes widened and he looked quickly at Freddie.

"Hey, we're going to be late to our classes!"

"Oh damn, you're right…okay, so meet me around here after school and we'll take this recording over to your Grandmother's place, okay?"

"Yeah sure, I'll see you then dude." Freddie nodded and shook Jake's hand before parting, they went in opposite directions to their classes.

What they did not see was Jonah, he was hiding behind a wall and listening to the conversation, he let out a sigh and crossed his arms. "I thought I would always have Jake to myself as my best friend, and Freddie gave me more attention over the years because Jake was out of the picture. Now they're friends again, why? Why can't I be like Freddie, he's got everything! He's got Sam, he's got Jake, he's got a great mother and great friends, he has that project, even his father is great and he doesn't know it!"


Looks like they're friends again, the next chapter will be up soon!