This chapter and the next are a little short both in length and on plot. They're more about establishing the headspaces Sam and Freddie are in.
Gibby tempted them with dessert, but Freddie said "No, we're going somewhere else for that." She looked at him curiously and shrugged at Gibby. For tonight, at least, Freddie was calling the tune. And she kind of liked it, truth be told. To give up some of the tough control, with which she ran her life. To give it up, but know that she could take it back if need be. But also to know that it probably would not need be because...
She thought about what he had asked her in the car.
Do you trust me?
He wasn't to know she'd been thinking about that, of course. It wasn't quite the reflexive response it might have once been.
But when she looked into her heart, she found that indeed, she trusted Freddie. After all the years, so many of them, it seemed, too far away from each other, he was still the boy who would never hurt her.
The boy who would never hurt her then took her to a place where he had once hurt her terribly.
So long, long between mirages
I knew you'd find me drinking
He didn't make her wear the mask for this part, and she soon realized where they were going.
"The good old Groovy Smoothie!" She said over the rock radio he'd turned on. She didn't wait for him to open the door, jumping out and slamming it shut as soon as the car rolled to a full stop. She threw open the door of the Smoothie and took a deep breath to call "Hey T-Bo! Guess who's back? Get ready to -"
But she stopped before she said a word.
It must've been a quiet night, because those were the only nights T-Bo allowed dancing. The radio must've been tuned to the same station; a blonde boy and a girl with raven – black hair were slowly swaying, perhaps a little slower than the song, holding close and pressed up against each other.
And the memory hit Sam like a taco truck.
...
Tell those men with horses for hearts
That their jibes don't make me bleed
They only make me feel like shrinking
...
The night the viewer girl had flirted with Freddie over video chat, Melanie had texted Sam the word "Bell" almost as soon as iCarly ended, Sam and her sister had a rule, and a code: If Sam texted the word "Cracker" or Melanie the word "Bell" before their bedtime, it meant: Stay up, I'll be calling. Their set time was midnight for Sam, which was three AM for Melanie, so they only used it when they had something important to discuss.
"Sam?"
"Yeah, Mel?"
"I saw that, y'know."
"Saw what, Melanie?"
"Don't 'Saw what, Melanie' me, Samantha."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the panic look that passed across your face when that girl said the guy who does your tech is cute. No one else would've seen it, but ah ha, Twin Telepathy!"
Sam rolled her eyes. Of the two of them, Melanie had always been more interested in the idea that just because they looked the same, they were psychically or supernaturally connected in some way. When Sam got stung by a bee, Melanie insisted that her foot hurt. Until Sam got strong enough to push her away, Melanie wouldn't let her open her Christmas or birthday presents unless she made a couple of guesses first.
"I can read your mind even through a monitor screen. She's right, by the way."
"Right about what?"
"Your tech guy is cute."
"Okay Mel, you've really lost it this time. You're wrong in at least three places: There was no look on my face except malevolence, he's not cute and I'm not even convinced he's a guy."
"But -"
"But nothing! I hate that annoying little doof. If Carly didn't keep telling me we needed him for the show, I'd hook his underpants to a bungee cord and push him off the top of Carly's building."
So deep, deep without a meaning
I knew you'd find me leaving
Tell those friends with cameras for eyes
That their hands don't make me hang
They only make me feel like breathing
In an unguarded moment
...
"Tell him!" Carly urged.
Sam controlled her nausea, took a couple of breaths and reluctantly said "Freddie...you're just as important to iCarly as we are."
He leaned slightly. For a split -second she was almost as panicked as Melanie had thought she was the other night. Then she got her bearings, and stepped forward into a hug. This oughta keep Carly from telling me I'm too mean to him for a couple of weeks. Maybe it'll shut him up too.
The hug only lasted a few seconds but in the spark of the moment, she started to feel a little something deep inside. It felt good to be -
All her alarms went off, and she gripped the waist of his boxers and tried to pull them over his head.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter. The song is Unguarded Moment by The Church.