AN: So I went to pride at the weekend and lived out my own fanfiction and y/n life for like four days and now I'm sadly back to reality, but here's the next chapter for you aha. Let's cue Melanie.

Chapter Two

Sam couldn't help but think as she sat at the airport, waiting for her sister to arrive. Spencer was still fixing up her motorbike, so she had no choice but to borrow his red truck. Melanie's flight was running late, giving Sam some more time to not only prepare herself for the girly girl she had to call her twin sister but also for the lock-in, which was taking place tomorrow night. She had to figure out what she was feeling towards Freddie, a guy who had a girlfriend who he clearly liked very much before she made a total fool of herself – she couldn't go kissing him again and locking herself in another mental hospital. Or even the same one. She did wonder if Troubled Waters would take her back if she explained the severity of the situation.

She couldn't be the only one of the two thinking that a few nights ago, there was something between them. They couldn't just be friends with that kind of tension present in the room. There was Annabelle, but that didn't mean Freddie didn't still have some feelings. There had to be some feelings somewhere, right? Or the mood in the studio wouldn't have been that intense that night.

"Sam!"

With the smallest of groans, Sam forced herself to her feet and allowed her sister to cling to her, almost knocking her over as she threw all the weight towards Sam. Once Melanie was done making up for the three years of missing hugs, she followed Sam to the truck, loaded her own bags in and joined her twin in the front. Her seatbelt locked with a loud "click."

"Sammy, how have you been?"

"Don't call me that," Sam told her with a hum.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought—"

"You thought wrong."

Melanie sighed. "Oh, come on. I thought we'd sorted this. I don't want you to be mad at me forever. I'm sorry I kissed him."

Sam scoffed, reversing out of the tight parking space she had trapped herself in. She didn't spare her sister a glance. "You really think this is because you kissed a dork? No, Melanie, not at all. I couldn't care less who you kiss. Marry the dude, I wouldn't care."

"Okay, that's a load of bull," Melanie said. "And you know it. You've been whipped for the boy since the eighth grade."

"Don't say it aloud!"

"Sammy—" Sam glared at her. "Sam," she corrected, "you can pretend not to care, but Carly and I both know—"

"Oh, god, you spoke to Carly about this."

"We know how you feel about him."

"He has a girlfriend, Melanie!" Sam yelled, exasperated. She was exhausted after trying to tidy her and Melanie's shared room at two am when she couldn't sleep. That was obviously a huge mistake, as she needed to sleep before staying up all night tomorrow night. "Even if I liked him, which I don't, he has a girlfriend." However, with the information that Carly knew, she did wonder if that was the real reason Carly had locked them together in the studio. "Anyway, all of this doesn't matter because that's not the reason I'm mad at you."

"Then what is?" Melanie practically pleaded. "Please? I came home early for you, Sammy. I want to be here for your last few months of senior year instead of finishing my own because I want to make up for lost time."

"Oh, hell, no. Please don't tell me you're enrolling at Ridgeway."

Melanie couldn't help but laugh, playing with her pearl necklace nervously with one hand while she tapped on the dashboard with her other hand's long and well-manicured nails – her roommate was amazing at anything beauty related. "Aha, you wish, Sammy. No, I'm completing the rest of my senior year online. Being away from home was getting to me."

"You've been there for twelve years."

"And? I missed my mom and sister, okay?"

Sam just shrugged, not fully believing her sister's words. "You know that you're alone tomorrow night, right? I hope mom told you. I'm at some lock-in at school and the project is worth, like, a lot of my GPA or something like that. Can't say I wasn't listening in that long ass assembly."

"Sam!" Melanie scolded. "You don't have long left. You really should pay attention."

"Eh, I'm just glad I got out of there alive."

It wasn't long till the two pulled up at the Puckett house. Melanie asked if Sam was coming inside, but she made some vague excuse that she had to return Spencer's truck, and she drove off before her sister could protest. When she got back to the Bushwell Plaza, she entered the Shays' apartment and threw the keys to his truck at Spencer, who was busy trying to do something motorbike-y in the kitchen. Carly, upon hearing the door close, squealed and ran downstairs happily. "Melan—oh, where's Melanie?"

Sam scoffed from her place at the fridge as she hunted for a root beer. "Nice to see you too, Shay. She's at home. Didn't feel like spending an extra ten minutes in a compact space with her."

"You're evil," Carly told her, to which she grinned and said back a simple "I know." Carly soon left the apartment, eager to meet up with the other twin, who was polite enough not to stop by whenever she wanted and eat all of their food.

Spencer looked at Sam. "Melanie's here? You should've told me. I would've made spaghetti tacos."

"God, why, all of a sudden, are the topics of my twin sister and Freddie's new girlfriend so interesting?" Sam snapped, slamming the fridge door, causing Spencer to wince. "Mel's been alive seventeen years, and they've been dating for, like, two months. Why does everything have to be talked about like it's front page on the newspaper material? My sister and a girl none of us really know are not suddenly centrefold and TV interview worthy."

Spencer, taken aback by the girl's sudden rant, just blinked. "So, uh, no tacos?"

.

After Carly had practically abandoned her, feeling Melanie to be more important, Sam ventured next door to Freddie's, hoping some time with him and his dorky ways would iron out her thinking and make her realise that there was no way in a hundred years that she liked him again because he was way too…normal. Crazy was at work because she knew she would've already heard some kind of yelling coming from that apartment if she were home, so she opened the door, not surprised that it was left unlocked.

"Sam, my god, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Freddie complained, a hand on his racing heart, as he sat on the couch in front of the TV. A historical documentary was playing in the background as he continued to type away on his laptop. "Haven't you heard of knocking?" he asked, not again looking up at her.

"Nope," Sam said simply. "Shouldn't have left the door open then. What would mommy do if she knew, hm?" she teased. "Her precious Freddiekins could've been killed – or worse, still alive." She grinned, and Freddie rolled his eyes, secretly finding it very funny. She plopped down beside him and took control of the remote, finding reruns of Girly Cow on one of the only channels his mother had unlocked. "How old does she think you are, seven?"

"More like five," Freddie inputted with a jokey smile. He put his laptop to the side, closing the lid. "Anyway," he started, watching Sam take full advantage of the newfound space by putting her legs across his lap. He chuckled at the action, sitting back against the sofa. "What brings you here? Did Carly run out of food? You know I only have tofu here, right?"

"You must starve," Sam said, feigning sadness. "And no, actually. Just wanted to spend some time with you."

Freddie's jaw dropped. "S-Sorry, what?"

"You heard me."

He mockingly held his phone out on the camera app. "Sorry, can you say that again, so I have record of it existing?"

Sam swatted his phone away, smiling nonetheless. "You're such a dork. I'm allowed to spend time with you if I want to. Weren't you just saying a few days ago in the studio how much of a good friend I am to you—?"

"I didn't quite say that, but yes."

"Oh, Freddie, if you're in love with me, just say—" Sam teased, using his past words against him. He rolled his eyes at her and gave her a stunning smile, which almost made her admit to loving him. She knew, though, that the last time she did that, it wasn't enough to save their relationship and they still broke up that night. An hour and half later, but broken up nonetheless. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"What we had…was it real?"

He frowned. "What's brought this on?"

"I just, please answer me."

"Well, yeah, of course it was real – at least, it felt very real to me." He looked at her. "What about you? Did you feel it was real?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then, it was real."

"You said I could ask anything, didn't you?"

"I guess I did," Freddie said, before shaking off the previous conversation topic off. He had spent months of his life trying to get over Sam and he was only now just managing it with his hot and sweet girlfriend, so he refused to put himself back in that endless loop of liking her. "Haven't we seen this episode, like, fifty times? Hey, I think I still have a really good movie downloaded if you want to watch it? Horror – right down your street."

Sam grinned, shrugged her shoulders, and handed the remote over to him, playing off her excitement. Freddie watching a horror movie voluntarily. What had happened? "No longer scared of the dark then, Benson?"

"Oh, shut it, Puckett," he grinned.

The movie was scary, Freddie had to admit, so whenever there seemed to be a bit too much gore, he'd leave the room for the bathroom or turn his back to it and make more popcorn. Sam didn't mind that the popcorn kept coming, so she excused his behaviour and just grinned, watching the zombie bite into the human with a loud scream. When it ended an hour later, she joined Freddie in the kitchen with the four empty bowls. His eyes widened. "You ate all of it?"

"Um, yes, why are you surprised?"

With a laugh, Freddie left for his bedroom, ripped the room apart in search of his tie. Sam stood, amused, at the door. Though, for the first time, she realised how his room had changed since last year when she regularly hung out in there while Mrs B was at work – it lacked the huge Galaxy Wars figurines and posters, but instead consisted of a few personal touches, like cluttered pencil pots and picture frames, a blue accent wall behind the bed contrasting with the white walls. There was one, however, Galaxy Wars poster above his desk, which made Sam smile. Above the bed, replacing the original poster that was there for god knows how long as Sam just remembered the corners were bent and unkept, was a large multi-picture frame. She could see a picture of her and Carly in the centre, with a picture of Spencer and Freddie posing with the former's latest sculpture, and then a picture on the left of him and Sam. Sam smiled at that, remembering when the photo had been taken. It was last year and only a few days before they broke up – Sam was laying asleep on the studio floor with Freddie laying with his head in the crook of her arm; Carly had snapped a picture when she thought they were both asleep, but Freddie slowly opened his eyes after hearing the quiet "flash" and insisted that Carly sent it to him or he'd tell Sam. Somehow, though, the blonde had managed to find out about it but she wasn't mad, just smiled at the memory and went back to her bucket of chicken.

"What happened to your dork stuff?"

"Annabelle doesn't like it," Freddie said nonchalantly, eventually finding his tie under the bed. "Doesn't really bother me. My room looks so much bigger without all the posters and figurines anyway, aha."

"Yes, but it doesn't look like yours," Sam told him. "Apart from that one poster. Did it really have to be of the Red Skynauts? Those things are freaky with the big heads."

"Freaky?" Freddie laughed. "You just made me watch a movie about zombies dissecting humans! I don't think you're one to talk about your definition of freaky."

"Hey, you downloaded the movie."

"Yes, because the cover had a picture of a guy and a zombie getting married!"

"That did happen," Sam reasoned. "You just went for your fourteenth bathroom break in the first half an hour."

"Aww, damn, I missed it?" Freddie asked, feigning disappointment. Sam rolled her eyes at him and lightly shoved him onto the bed – she sat down next to him and reached for his tie which was discarded at the end of the bed. She undid the current knot and waved her hand, hinting for him to come closer. "You're not going to strangle me to death, are you?"

Sam scoffed mockingly, a hand on her heart, acting hurt. "How dare you assume that, Fredward. I am going to help you do up your tie, so mommy's little boy doesn't strangle himself." He glared at her. "Plus, last time you did your own tie, the second-hand embarrassment was off the scale. It looked like a kid had done it."

So, he allowed her to do it, wincing when her fingers lightly brushed his neck and chin. She nodded satisfied at her work and stood up. "Right, well, now that I've saved you from embarrassment, I'm going to shoot off. I'm guessing by the attire, you're going for some hot date, so I'm going to leave you to it before your girlfriend turns up at the door and gets the wrong idea."

"Sam, I—" he was cut off by the faint knocking at the door. He sighed – again, he had been too late to tell her. He watched as she jogged off towards the door, greeted his girlfriend, and let her in as she let herself out. There she was, walking out of his life again.