It was a little after midnight, and Sam climbed the steps to get to her, Carly and Melanie's apartment. Freddie and her had gone to the movies to see the newest Mackie Ran movie, upon Sam's request, and then went to get some ice cream at Pink Bunny. Normally, Freddie would've walked Sam up to her place, as he did every other date, but his mother had mental breakdowns whenever her son stayed out past eleven, so Sam told him to floor his way home before Mrs. Benson called the secret service. Again.
Pulling her key out of her jeans pocket, Sam unlocked the door and let herself in.
"Hey," she said to her sister, who was sitting on the couch watching some romantic comedy. "Where's Carls?"
"She's spending the night at Spencer's; she wanted to help transform her old room into the baby's."
"What? The baby's not due for another seven and a half months, why is she worrying about this now?"
Melanie shrugged. "You know Carly. So how was your date?"
"Fine. I may not be allowed back to Pink Bunny for awhile, but other than that…"
Melanie rolled her eyes. "I don't know how we can be related."
"Eh, I try not to think about that too much," Sam replied, plopping down next to her. "So which dumb movie is this?"
"It's 500 Dresses, and it's really good. You missed the best part, though, and now it's almost over."
"I'll live," Sam mumbled. "Anyway, I thought Riley was coming over."
"He did. He left about an hour ago. We broke up, by the way."
"Oh," Sam said uncertainly. "I'm…sorry?"
"It's fine," Melanie laughed. "We ended everything on great terms. We're still going to be friends and all. We just didn't think that we were compatible as boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. Besides, there's this other boy, Dylan, in my Calculus class at school, who I think kind of likes me. And he's really cute."
"I don't trust your rating of 'cute'," Sam told her. "I still remember back in first grade when you said that Hinkey Williams was cute."
"Hinkey was cute," Melanie defended. "And even you would say that Dylan is cute. Here, see for yourself." She pulled out her cell phone and flipped to a picture of a smiling dark-haired young man with sun-kissed skin. Sam grinned. "Wow, for once you picked a guy that doesn't make me want to hurl."
"Well you can meet him tomorrow. He's coming over to study."
"Tell him not to wear a shirt," Sam said, still staring at the phone.
"Right," Melanie said. "Anyway, you want to do something? We've got the whole place to ourselves."
"We could-" Sam started.
"Nothing illegal."
"Why? I'm bored. I can't think of any legal ways to entertain myself."
"We could play Jenga?"
Sam looked at her sister. "You still have that game?"
"Of course. It was our favorite thing in the world to do when we were little."
"Yeah, I remember," Sam said, shocked that her sister would save the game all these years. "We used to sneak out of bed every night and play until morning. Granted, I usually won…"
"When did you ever win? I beat you every time! And then you would get mad and build up the tower just to knock it down again!"
"Go get the game!" Sam demanded. "We'll just see."
...
"Okay, now I think I'm supposed to let the sauce just simmer there," Carly said, watching the bubbly red tomato sauce in her pan. "What does the recipe say to add next Sam? Sam!"
"Wha-?" the blonde jumped, starting awake.
"You're supposed to be reading me that spaghetti recipe," Carly sighed.
"Why are you so tired anyway?" Freddie asked from the table, where he was typing a paper.
"Because her and Melanie stayed up until eight this morning playing that game with the falling blocks," Carly told him.
"Jenga," Sam yawned. "And I won."
"Yes, congratulations," Carly laughed. "Now read!"
"Okay, okay. Add half a teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of garlic salt and then add the meatballs."
"Carly, something on the stove is boiling over," Freddie said to the brunette.
"Ah! My noodles!" Carly exclaimed, running over to the pot and lowering the heat.
"And this is why we don't cook," Sam said.
"Well we can't keep living on take-out," Carly replied.
"Maybe you can't."
"Besides, you actually know how to cook, Sam. You're just too lazy."
"It's true," Freddie nodded. "The girl does make a mean pork stir-fry."
"You need any help Carly?" Melanie asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Nah. I'm pretty much done. Wow, you look nice."
"Thanks," Melanie replied, smoothing down her light pink dress. "You think Dylan will like it?"
"Sure," Carly smiled. "When's he coming, anyway?"
"Any minute now."
As if planned, there was a knock at the door. Melanie hurried off to answer it, and a minute later came back with Dylan.
"Dylan, this is my sister Sam, and our friend Carly," Melanie introduced him. "And that's Freddie, Sam's boyfriend."
"Hey," Dylan greeted them.
Carly and Sam mumbled an incoherent 'hello' and continued to stare at the attractive male in front of them.
Freddie frowned, but said nothing.
"Well, we're going to go start studying out on the balcony," Melanie said. "Come on, Dylan."
"It was great meeting you all," he said politely, following Melanie out.
"Oh my God!" Carly squealed once they left. "Sam, you were right, he's gorgeous!"
"Isn't he? Did you see his hair? It's so-"
"I'm sitting right here," Freddie said loudly.
"Eh, relax Freddifer," Sam said. "You're still better looking."
"Thank you," he said, satisfied.
"Maybe to you," Carly said, craning her neck to try to get a look at Dylan out on the balcony. "Oh, his biceps are so perfect!"
…
Dylan left the apartment at a little past ten.
"So, are you guys a couple?" Carly asked as soon as Dylan left.
"Not quite yet," Melanie admitted. "We're just casual right now. He invited me over to his place to study tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. But he did tell me I looked pretty tonight!"
"Aw," Carly grinned. Then she sighed. "Man, I really need a boyfriend."
"Well you rejected that one guy who asked you out last week," Sam pointed out.
"Yes," Carly said. "Because he wanted to know if he could take a strand of my hair to use for DNA processing!"
…
It was Friday night, and Sam was at Freddie's apartment. Mrs. Benson was co-hosting a seminar about hygiene-related illnesses at a nearby hotel, and wouldn't be back for at least three more hours, so the couple decided to take advantage of this time alone.
"You're getting better at this," Sam laughed between Freddie's kisses, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Lots of practice," Freddie grinned, as he continued to kiss his blonde girlfriend passionately.
"Hey," Sam said suddenly, pulling away. "I just remembered. I'm supposed to send in my paper for my writing class by eight, and it's," she looked at her phone. "Already seven fifty."
"No worries," Freddie said. "You can use my laptop. Wait, you did remember to save it on that USB I gave you though, right?"
"Yes," Sam replied, pulling the shiny purple USB that Freddie had bought for her out of her pocket.
"You see, I told you that would come in handy," Freddie said happily, handing Sam his laptop.
"Just go get me some soda," Sam told him.
"What? Can't admit I was right?" he asked smugly, walking over to his fridge and pulling out an organic soda substitute that his mom had gotten from the health store.
"What is this?" Sam asked, staring at the healthy label of the can Freddie handed to her. "Organic soda? Only a complete freak would drink this?"
"My mom thinks that regular soda leads to death or something along those lines," Freddie sighed.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
"Who's that?" Sam asked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Freddie said. "I'm supposed to tutor Heather tonight."
"That blonde chick?"
"You're blonde too," Freddie pointed out. "So you saying 'blonde chick' is kind of-"
"Yeah, yeah. Why are you tutoring her here? Why not just go to the library?"
"The campus's library has really slow Internet connection," Freddie explained. "Wait, I thought you said you were okay with me tutoring her."
"I am," Sam said.
"You're welcome to stay."
"I think I will," Sam nodded.
Freddie walked over to the door and let in Heather.
"Hey Freddie," she said brightly, walking into the room. "Nice apartment."
"Thanks," Freddie said. "Well, Sam, this is Heather. Heather, that's Sam."
"I know who she is," Heather replied, smiling. "I told you I loved iCarly." She turned to Sam. "You are probably the funniest person I've ever seen. I loved all those pranks you came up with for that Messin' With Lewbert bit."
"Thanks," she said, staring at the tall blonde-haired girl, wearing a rather tight pair of jeans and a pink tank top.
"And when you two finally announced that you were a couple," she continued. "Me and my sister screamed from happiness. We were rooting for you two all along."
She set her laptop down on the coffee table next to Sam's unopened beverage.
"Oh, is that that organic soda? I love that stuff!"
"Of course you do," Sam smirked.