Chapter 21

Shay Apartment

Seattle, WA

Monday, June 20, 2011

It was a bright Monday morning of the last week of school with Thursday being the last day of school with an early one hour release, but at the moment Carly didn't care as she laid her head on her folded arm and on her side to watch Freddie's peaceful face as he slept. He had held her throughout the night just as he promised just as he had the previous night. Anytime she stirred or couldn't get comfortable, he'd pull her close and whisper that everything was okay and she'd fall right back to peaceful slumber.

Was this the sight that Cat woke up to last week? crossed her mind.

Freddie spending the night at Cat's was just a given, but it was never mentioned where he slept last week or last month after she stormed off to leave him with the redhead. She couldn't keep the idea out of her mind that the pair had slept in the same bed. She shuddered at the thought of how far they had gone after Cat's prom. She knew she didn't have any right to be jealous of the fact if they had done… like the horses… she knew she didn't have the right to be his first… but she couldn't help as the regret and jealousy seemed to fill her chest as she continued to watch her brown eye boy. But he's not mine anymore… I never claimed him and now…

Maybe it was out of jealousy or fear, but she couldn't resist, so she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and he stirred slightly. A brief smile formed on his lips then he settled back to sleep. She would have preferred to stay like this as long as she could, but unfortunately, nature called, so she had to roll out of bed and not disturb him.

The brunette held on to the wooden handrail of the stairs as she took one careful step at a time down until she reached the first floor of the apartment. She gave a passing glance towards the messy couch and coffee table where she assumed that Sam had spent the night. She didn't see the blonde anywhere, so she just assumed that she was in the hall bathroom next to Spencer's room.

Carly walked over and took a seat in the red bar stool and brought up a window on the computer to go online since she hadn't had a chance yesterday. She couldn't understand why Freddie and Sam kept distracting her with videos and games for the rest of the night after waking up and eating dinner. She brushed that to the side as she quickly checked her emails and read through the ones checking up on her: a long one from her father, one from her Uncle Barry about taking care of herself, and one from her Godmother Ruby telling her she'd fly up if she needed her. All the concern was touching and brought a smile to her face. She took several more minutes to send some replies that she was alright and would talk to them later. She then brought up SplashFace to see the latest funny videos because she needed a good laugh. She desperately wanted to continue lightening the seriousness that had fallen on her shoulders.

Her eyebrows furled when she saw one of the top videos of the day titled 'Seddie Kiss' and noticed how many views it had received especially after it showed that it was just posted yesterday real early in the morning. What struck her as even stranger is that the preview thumbnail showed Freddie and Sam in the same shirts they were wearing at the lock-in.

Those two things peaked her interest, so she clicked on the thumbnail. It only took a few seconds to come up and buffer before it began playing. She blinked as she realized that they were wearing Saturday night's shirts and it looked like the outside quad area of the school. She watched in stunned silence as she watched what happened next: Sam was kissing Freddie.

"Oh my God," Carly whispered looking at the video. She blinked as the events of two midnights ago flashed to the forefront of her mind:

She was looking out the window at Freddie attempting to convince Sam that she didn't need to hide her feelings. The next moment she was watching Sam grab Freddie by the shoulders and pull him into a kiss. Carly blinked as she watched the scene unfold: Freddie took a step back and shouted something to Sam that she couldn't hear. The next moment he turned and stormed towards the door back to the classroom. She turned and looked to him as soon as he entered. He glanced to her then back out the door towards Sam then back to her. That look… the look he was giving her terrified her as it looked as if it could kill her if it had the power to do such a thing.

She finally found her voice and tried denying knowing anything Sam plan on doing, but he wouldn't listen. He shouted at her: "Bullshit! I gave you your chance and this is what you do? Fool me into letting you back into my life so you could plunge the knife deeper? I love you and this is what you do to me! Try to sabotage my relationship with Cat!" There was so much anger in his voice that it terrified her. "You didn't know my ass! This is nothing but a setup from the start by the two of you to get Cat to break up with me, lose my real friends in L.A. and get me back on your damn leash because I wouldn't have anyone left. You probably just recorded the whole damn thing with your PearPhone and plan to email it to Cat anonymously showing that I'm cheating on her while I'm Seattle… like Steven cheated on you when he was in L.A. Well to Hell with Sam and to Hell with you, because I'm done with all this bullshit!"

Her breath became shorter as she desperately tried to figure out something to say that would convince him that she was telling the truth and she didn't do any of the things she was accusing her of doing. She reached up and grabbed at her chest and then…

Carly covered her mouth with both of her hands and her eyelids opened wide. She let out a slow breath and whispered, "Oh my God… It really happened. All of it…"

"Hey Carls—" the familiar voice of Sam called out from behind her.

The brunette turned on the stool and looked to the blonde with a panic look as she was cutting through the living room to reach the web-hostess. She uttered the first words that came to mind, "You really kissed Freddie!"

"Ah—" Sam started and blinked in surprise at the outburst. She slowly whispered out, "I did what?"

"I saw the video!" she shouted as she pointed to the computer monitor. "It wasn't a nightmare. I didn't have an asthma attack from the smoke in the box I had it because of what happened between me and Freddie after you kissed him."

Sam gently spoke, "Carly—"

She jumped out of her seat and stalked towards the blonde with her anger flashing across her eyes, "It really happened! Do you know what this means? You kissed Freddie knowing he's with Cat! He thinks we set him up! You know how fragile our friendship is right now and you do this?"

Sam raised her hands and calmly spoke, "Carly, you need to calm down."

"Calm down! You've sabotaged my friendship with him just so mama could win! It wasn't a contest between you! He thinks I helped you try to break them up! Do you know he told me after you kissed him? He told me to go to Hell and doesn't want anything to do with me!"

Sam took in a breath at hearing that… now she was getting an idea of why Freddie was so mad. He had said that to Carly and it must have cut into him pretty deep.

Carly let out a breath and started pacing back and forth in front of Sam. She started nibbling on her left thumb nail and started mumbling, "One more screw up and I would lose him. That's what we agreed to after he got back from L.A. the first time. If I messed up then our friendship was done and now it's over. I know the truth and now he doesn't have to pretend anymore—"

"He's not pretending."

She turned sharply and looked directly into Sam's eyes. "Of course he is! He hates me now! He only did it because he felt guilty for thinking he caused it. It wasn't his fault." Her breath was becoming shorter and she could feel her heart bouncing off of her ribcage. She didn't care and pushed on, "He thinks I betrayed him. Did you see the look in his eyes? He was so mad at what had happened, but he was so hurt that he thought I would do that to him… all because you had to kiss him!"

Sam frowned and stared back at her friend. "I don't care if he's mad, I don't care how hurt he is and I'm not sorry."

Carly laughed out dismissively. "You will never take responsibility for what you do."

Sam squared her shoulders and looked towards her brunette friend. "Actually I am. I admit I did it, but I'm not sorry for it and I'm not going to apologize to anyone for it including you. I did try to break them up. The only thing I'm sorry about is that it apparently didn't work. Cat saw the video and didn't believe it and the rest of them in L.A. don't believe it either."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Why? Why did you do it? Do you like Freddie?"

Sam laughed loudly and shook her head as if Carly had told the funniest joke she had ever heard. She had to wipe a tear that formed under and eye before she continued, "Oh God no, I still hate the boy, he's just becoming tolerable and maybe a little likeable now that he's grown a spine, but I don't like him that way."

Carly's mouth just gapped open as she tried to process what Sam was telling her. She finally found her voice and asked, "Then why?"

Sam released a breath and gave her a warm smile. "To get Cat out of the picture for you."

Carly took a step towards Sam. "What?"

"Carls…" She tilted her head to the side and spoke in a soft voice. "You fell for the nub over the last month. You finally fell in love with him… for real this time. Yeah, you and I've been fighting about whether Freddie or me should be your best friend, but I finally realized after he said he was going to go to L.A. for the summer and you were so down about it that I didn't have to be afraid of being beaten out of being your best friend, because Freddie and I weren't competing for the same thing. You really want him to be yours and no one else's and if mama had to kiss the nub to help make that happen then I think that's the least I could do for my best friend. Mama does play to win… to win for you."

Carly took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and studied her friend with confused eyes. "But…" She sighed and her shoulders slumped as she felt defeated. "I've already lost him to her…"

Sam chuckled once more before speaking, "You're Carly Taylor Shay and you are the love of his life. You really think she can beat you for his heart?"

Carly shook her head and looked to the floor. "No, he hates me—"

Sam walked over and gently took the girl by the shoulders. Carly took a few seconds to find the courage to look up at her friend's blue eyes. "Freddie would not leave your side last night or the night you were in the hospital and would have pounded anyone silly if they tried to stop him and that includes Spencer. Freddie didn't do that out of guilt, he did it because he loves you. He only hates one person and that's me because he blames me for setting it up to make it look like you betrayed him. He's quite mad at me for that." She snorted out with a smirk, "He even told me once you were back on your feet that I could go to Hell."

Carly lowered her head and whispered, "He told me to go to Hell too."

Sam gave her a sad smile. "That's only because of what it looked like, but he doesn't mean it. You said he was hurt when he said it… how many stupid things have we said when we're hurt… like that night in L.A. when you told him that he never loved you."

Now that was a knife plunged into her own heart. She knew she'd regret saying those words to him for the rest of her life. Carly looked up as the blonde haired troublemaker continued, "He's given you the chance, maybe you should give the nub the same consideration? If you had heard what he told Spencer about how much he still loves you when Spencer didn't want Freddie to spend the night… you wouldn't have any doubts about his love for you… I certainly don't anymore."

Carly closed her mouth softly and just stared at her friend while she processed all that had been exchanged between them and what happened Saturday into Sunday morning. She was about to speak when the pair heard a loud yawn coming from the stairs. They turned their heads to see the brown eye teenager scratched the back of his head as he made his way down the stairs.

Once he spotted Carly, he gave a huge grin towards her, but he immediately lost it when he saw Carly's fearful look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Author's Note: I guess we now know why Sam did what she did. See you on Thursday.