Chapter 14 - Flashing back to August-September, 2014
Last time: Valerie had made contact with Freddie to apologize for the way she treated him in middle school. Freddie had hatched a plan in his own head to get her back for the way she abused him and his feelings for her all those years ago.
For several weeks Freddie worked his charms on Valerie, all the while being careful not to ever give her too much insight into his own life. What information she had was vague and random, exactly what he wanted her to know. By their third date, he had plans to seal his deal soon and it seemed with her attitude this would not be a problem.
He couldn't keep up the charade of dating her much longer and there was an ever increasing amount of guilt about what he was planning to do. If he didn't soon do what he had planned, he may never have the courage to pull it off. It was literally now or never.
Valerie, like him, still lived at home and he would always pick her up at the front door just like a proper date, being careful to never take her around to his home. Her parents weren't around much which allowed her a lot of freedoms not usually afforded to a girl who lived with her parents, but she was about to leave for her second year of college and they left her alone more than not. There was no one to ask questions when he picked her up and absolutely no limits as to what she could do when they were alone.
On the way back from their dinner she made a proposal. "So, did you want to maybe come in when we get back to my place again?" She was completely taken in by his charms and had no clue he was running a long con on her. He was so sincere and honest, there was no denying the way she felt about him and certainly no turning back in her mind.
"Well, that depends on what you had in mind." He teased as he kissed her neck. "You aren't planning on taking advantage of me are you?"
"Mayybee." She teased and giggled at his touch. "What if I said it involves a long night."
"Hmm. That's an interesting proposal. But I didn't pack a bag. I wouldn't have anything to sleep in."
She, of course, teased back with a kiss. "How about your socks? Nothing but your socks." She proposed.
Valerie knew she would have the whole house to herself for the weekend and after some making out in the living room, the couple soon found their way to her bedroom. Right there on the bed where she spent nearly every night growing up is where it happened. He was glad she insisted the lights be off because he surely wouldn't have been able to stand looking around the room filled with mementos of her childhood given what he was doing to her. And planning to do tomorrow.
The next morning, Freddie woke a little later than usual. He managed to get out from under the girl who had so expertly latched herself onto him and began to gather his clothes off her bedroom floor. A 'walk of shame' was forthcoming, thank goodness there was no one else in her house.
Valerie stirred and noticed his absence. "Freddie. What's the rush? I thought you said you had the day off. I was thinking we could maybe head out and get some breakfast."
"Oh, um, I need to get home. I might be starting my second year of college but if I'm not home when my mom gets back from work she'll go into orbit." Doing what he planned made him feel sick to his stomach, even more so than what he had already done, but he was going to do it anyway. He should confess his intentions and let her know she was just a toy to him, but he couldn't bring himself to say the words. "Listen I, um . . . really need to go."
"Call me later. Maybe we can get together Sunday or something. My folks are gone all weekend. For round two?" She giggled with a flirt, dropping the sheet and exposing the goods to him. "Or would it be three?"
"Right. I'll call. See ya later, then." He couldn't look her in the eyes even though she had jumped off the bed and tried to put her arms around him.
Her next statement made his guts churn for hours after she said it. "Thank you for being gentle with me. You made my first time special. I'm glad I waited, Freddie. I'll never forget you and what we shared."
"Yep." He barely left her hug him and shifted so he was kissing her forehead. "Later, Val." He left before the guilt ate him up any more.
It took her nearly a week to accept that Freddie wasn't going to call her. He blocked her number with an app, transferring calls to a voice mailbox that he never even listened to. Texts were no longer returned and she had no idea how else to reach him. Thinking back, she was never really told exactly where he lived or even worked. All she knew was he went to college locally but there were several schools near by. He did a proper job of covering his tracks, like he was trained by a spy to avoid revealing too much. In a city the size of Seattle, short of hiring a private investigator, she would have a terrible time finding him if he didn't want to be found.
In his mind, doing what he did to her was payback for using his heart when they were kids. Trying to lure him away from iCarly and his two friends by pretending to be his girlfriend when she had no true interest in him. How he fell for her scheme and how she even tried to take Sam away from iCarly had haunted him for years. Now he finally gave her the comeuppance she deserved. All actions have consequences. That was a lesson he had no clue he would learn for himself before long.
End of flashback
Carly couldn't believe what he had just told her. she simply looked at him mouth agape. Sure, she wasn't fond of Valerie. No doubt there was a time when she wished there was something nasty she could do to the failed web show hostess other than a flat-screen TV falling on her head, but this, this was so far beyond simple retribution it wasn't funny. And for him to lie in her bed, lying to the girl, telling in unspoken words that he cared for her when he was just using her, was simply unbelievable.
Freddie noticed how she looked at him and tried to change the subject. He began to tell her about how he ran into Melanie not long after the Valerie incident.
Another flashback to the week right after the Valerie incident
Freddie had stopped at a small deli near the computer store where he worked on his lunch break. This was his last week of working full time before classes started again for sophomore year. He was avoiding his usual haunts such as Groovy Smoothie to lessen the chances of running into Valerie. He knew that in another week she would be leaving for college out of state and that he would no longer need to be so cautious with his movements. With any luck, he'd never see her again.
There, sitting with her back to the door, he saw a blonde that gave him flashbacks. In the time since they had last seen each other, Melanie had left her hair go back to its natural color and today hadn't bothered to style it as she usually did. She could easily have been mistaken for Sam except for her clothes.
After verifying for himself by seeing her pink, glittery phone and stylish purse sitting on the table in front of her, that this was indeed Melanie, the boy summoned his courage. He wasn't even sure if he should, but he approached her anyway. After all, they had been friends before and did occasionally text or email each other even since their breakup.
"Melanie. Hey." He smiled at her.
"Oh, Freddie!" She jumped up to hug him. "How have you been?" It was as if they had never dated and broke up. "It's been so long. What are you doing here?"
"I come here for lunch sometimes. I work just up the street." At her silent instruction, he sat down with her and continued. "I'm good. Excited to start sophomore year. Since I did a couple of summer classes, I even got to choose some of my courses this semester."
"You know, I've been meaning to get in touch with you. I was hoping that over the summer we could spend some time together. But I guess summer is almost over now."
He simply shook his head. "Nothing stopping us, really. We could always do something. Not like we're three states away or anything. When do you go back to class?"
"Well, see I am actually transferring to a college out near where my boarding school was. They offer scholarships to girls who went to my high school and I qualified, so I'll be heading back east in two weeks."
"I guess that still gives us two weeks, then." He grinned at her. "So what have you been doing this summer?"
"I got a part time job and as much as it seems hard to believe my mom has actually been acting a bit motherly, so we've kinda been doing some stuff together. But she's over in Olympia visiting her brother who just got out on parole right now."
"Wow, that is hard to believe." He smirked. "Not the part about your uncle, but your mom and all."
"Well, she went through a pretty bad breakup and it was right about the time we, uh, stopped seeing each other so we sort of bonded over griping about guys and I guess we're sort of friends now."
"I guess that's good to hear." He wasn't really sure what to say. "What did you have in mind if we were to do anything together?"
Melanie was unsure how to even answer him. Not like they hadn't been pretty close when they dated but she didn't want come right out and tell him what she really wanted. "I don't know, maybe just see a movie or go out to eat, something simple. Or hang out at one of our houses like old times."
"That sounds good. You want to do something this evening?" He asked. "I was just gonna drop in to see what Spencer's been doing and hang out with him."
"No. Go ahead and spend some time with Spencer. It's OK, we can do something tomorrow if you're free."
"Seriously, it's alright. I'd rather do something with you. Spencer will be here in two weeks, and you'll be at school. Besides, you're prettier." He tried to flirt and compliment her the way he knew she liked. She picked up on it and blushed.
Without finding any good movies to see in a theater and after eating at the local Chinese buffet, Melanie and Freddie made their way back to his place to try to watch something in his room. They passed Marissa in the lobby, who was on her way to work. She was surprised and happy to see her son back with Melanie. She liked Melanie and even though the breakup had hurt her son, she knew they were good together.
The following evening was spent the same way, only with a home cooked dinner made by Freddie instead of going anywhere. It began to get late and before either of them knew what happened, it was nearly one in the morning. Not wanting to be too forward but knowing that his mom wasn't due back until after noon the next day, Freddie simply made a suggestion.
"Did you want to just stay, or would you like me to take you home, Mels?"
The sleepy girl yawned and stretched. "I might as well just stay. My mom knows I'm with you, so she's probably even expecting me to. I'll need something to sleep in, though."
Without even searching hard, he pulled out clothes for her to wear overnight just like when they were together before. "You want to . . . ?" He motioned for the bathroom door when she began to remove her shirt, avoiding looking her way.
"Why?" She shrugged. "Not like there's anything here you've never seen before. Or kissed. Well, except this tattoo."
"What?" He gasped and began to look directly at her.
"Made you look!" She laughed, unhooking her bra. "Sam's right, you are gullible."
"Ha ha!" He replied dryly. "I just couldn't picture you with body art given the way you feel about needles. And your mom's ink."
"I had to do something, you weren't even looking at me. It's not like we don't both know where this night is going to lead." With that the topless girl put her arms around his neck and stretched up to kiss him. "Or at least where I hope it leads."
"Ummmm . . . " He couldn't think up a witty comeback to save his life, when their kiss broke.
"Freddie. I missed you. We've only got a couple of weeks. Let's make the most of it." With that, he leaned down and pressed his lips gently to hers again.
For every bit of those two weeks, Freddie and Melanie were as close as ever. To anyone else they were just hanging out acting like friends, but behind closed doors they were back to doing everything they had done before and even a little more.
When it was time for Melanie to leave for college, they agreed there were no strings attached and things would go back to the way they always were. They were friends, and their friendship included some very good benefits. When she retuned home, they might try to be a couple again. For a couple of weeks they sent texts and called several times but as they both got busier with their class load, the contacts got less and less frequent and within a month they stopped nearly altogether.
By Thanksgiving, there was no contact between them except for a text here and there and eventually, even that stopped.
