Date
"Spencer! You can't keep freezing your gym socks," Carly said, pulling two frozen socks out of the freezer.
"But they feel so cool and refreshing when I work out!" Spencer replied.
"You don't work out!"
"I could if I wanted to!"
Suddenly there was a knock at the Shay's door and Freddie came in.
"Hey," he said, sounding distracted about something. He sat down on the couch next to Spencer.
"What's up?" Carly asked.
"Nothing," Freddie sighed.
"Wow, some sigh for a guy who has nothing wrong," Spencer said.
"It's just…well, Sam and I broke up like, six months ago, right?" Freddie stated.
"Yeah," Carly nodded. "So?"
"Well, while we were dating," Freddie explained. "I had decided I wanted to have this big, awesome, over-the-top date for her."
"Did you ever get to do it?" Spencer asked. "Before you two, you know, broke up?"
"No," Freddie replied. "But I had it all planned out. We were going to go to the all-you-can-eat steak buffet at Mr. Bibby's, then I was going to take her to her favorite ice cream place, you know, the one that gives you insanely huge portions. And then we were going to go that big fight she's been dying to see with that one guy with the metal foot-"
"Linton the Limper?" Spencer asked.
"Yeah, him," Freddie said.
"But that fight's this weekend," Spencer said.
"Yeah, Sam's been talking about it for weeks now," Carly said. "She's really torn up that they sold out of tickets months ago."
"I know," Freddie sighed. "Which is the problem…See, I was so excited about this big date that I went ahead and bought the tickets for the fight all the way back when we were still dating. And they finally came in the mail today, and well, me and Sam obviously aren't a couple anymore, so now I really don't know what to do with them." He pulled two tickets out of his pocket. "I was so excited when I ordered them, but now it's just depressing to have them."
"You could always sell them," Spencer offered.
"Nah, to do that I'd have to go to the arena and stand out there until someone buys them off me," Freddie said. "And we both know that I'd be the first one to get ripped off out there."
"Yeah, that's very true," Spencer said.
Carly rolled her eyes. "Well if you already bought the tickets," she told Freddie. "Why don't you just take Sam anyway? I mean, she really wants to go to this fight, and you guys are still friends. Just go and have fun together."
"The seats I got us are in this couple's section, Carls," Freddie muttered.
"Couple's section?" Carly repeated. "They have a couple's section at a fighting arena?"
"Apparently it's a hot date spot," Freddie told her.
"I'm gonna go with Carly on this one, dude," Spencer said. "Just go with Sam as friends anyway. No use wasting those tickets." He got to his feet. "Now then, Carly, my socks, if you'd please. I'm gonna go work out."
"You mean you're gonna go run down the street and then take a bus to Amazing Glaze?" Carly said knowingly.
"…Maybe," Spencer said lamely, grabbing his socks and heading out the door.
….
Later that day, Freddie headed up to the iCarly studio where he knew Sam was pretending to do her homework.
"Hey," he said, letting himself into the studio.
"Yo, what's up Benson?" Sam asked, pulling her earbuds out of her ear.
"I thought you were up here studying for our math test tomorrow," Freddie grinned, picking up Sam's closed textbook.
"I thought about it, but then I decided it was stupid, so I'm jamming out to my music instead," Sam said simply.
"Of course," Freddie smiled. "Anyway, what are you doing this Friday night?"
"Nothing," Sam said bitterly. "Since I couldn't find a ticket to that big Linton the Limper fight."
"About that, actually," Freddie said, pulling the tickets out of his pocket. "You wanna go?"
"What?" Sam exclaimed, grabbing the tickets from him. "You have tickets to this? Dude, I'm crazy for saying this, but you rock!"
"Wow, a compliment from Sam Puckett," Freddie chuckled.
"Wait a minute," Sam frowned, looking closer at the tickets. "How come these are for the couple's section."
"Oh," Freddie said, feeling his face reddening. "See, I-I sort of got us these tickets back when were dating. I had this whole big night planned for us, but, um, we-we sort of broke up."
"You were gonna bring me here?" Sam asked softly. "These tickets must've cost a fortune though."
"I just really wanted us to have an over-the-top date night," Freddie said.
Sam didn't reply.
"But listen," Freddie said quickly. "If you think it will be too uncomfortable, I'll just give you both the tickets. You can call up one of your old juvie buddies or something to go with-"
"Hey, we're both mature, right?" Sam cut him off.
"Well you did just throw a bunch of water balloons at Ms. Briggs yesterday, but sure," Freddie said.
"Then we can handle hanging out at a fight as friends," Sam told him. "Just because a guy and a girl go to a fight together doesn't mean it has to be a date. We can make it an anti-date."
"An anti-date?" Freddie repeated.
"Sure," Sam told him. "We'll do the everything opposite as we would normally do on a date. No dressing up, no romantic little comments to each other, no holding the door open for me-"
"Oh, I get it," Freddie grinned. "And I won't pick you up, I'll just meet you here, and we'll each pay for our own food there."
"Well, let's not get carried away with the whole 'paying for ourselves' thing," Sam said. "But yeah, that's the general idea."
Freddie laughed. "That could work. So then, do we have ourselves and anti-date for Friday then?"
Sam chuckled. "Yeah, we do."
…
"So you two really couldn't go out as friends?" Carly asked as shook her hair, making it rather unruly. "You had to go and make this an anti-date?"
"Yeah," Sam nodded, pulling on an old pair of sneakers. "This way it's officially not a date. I don't want any confusion."
"Okay, but are you really wearing that to this anti-date?" Carly asked, staring at Sam's outfit. The blonde was wearing an old T-shirt and jeans with holes in them, along with a pair of muddy sneakers.
"Yeah, on a date, you usually get dressed up," Sam explained. "But since this is an anti-date, I don't have to."
"But-But, ugh, never mind," Carly conceded.
There was a knock at the door and Freddie let himself into the apartment. He was dressed just as poorly as Sam, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a ratty jacket.
"You guys look like hobos!" Carly exclaimed.
"Not like we're going on a date, right?" Freddie asked. "Because that's the point."
"But didn't you say you were going to a restaurant to get dinner before the fight?" Carly asked.
"Yeah, so?" Sam shrugged.
"But you can't-" Carly began, but she shook her head. "I give up. Go ahead, make a mockery out of the fashion world."
"Okay then," Freddie said.
"Later, Carls," Sam said as her and Freddie headed out of the apartment.
"We'd better hurry," Freddie said, looking at his watch as the two headed down to the lobby. "The bus is going to be out front any minute."
"A bus?" Sam grinned. "Nice. Very undate-like."
"Only the worst for us tonight," Freddie smiled.
The two arrived outside just as the city bus was pulling up.
It was a very non-romantic ride. The bus was extremely packed, and Sam and Freddie got stuck sitting next to a woman who smelled strongly of old cheese and garlic. They were relieved when they were finally able to get off at Mr. Bibby's all-you-can-eat steak buffet.
"See, now if this was a date," Freddie said as him and Sam sat down at their table. "I probably would've told you five times by now how nice you look tonight."
"Yeah, you were always dishing out the cheesy compliments," Sam nodded. "And if this was a date, I probably would've said that I like you jacket or something."
Freddie chuckled, and hoped Sam didn't notice how much he, for some reason, had to bite his tongue to keep from really telling Sam how beautiful she looked right now, despite her outfit and purposely-messed-up hair.
Sam busied herself by digging into her first of many sirloins, trying hard not to stare at Freddie's muscular arms, which his thin jacket was not doing a very good job of covering up.
After their dinner, Sam and Freddie walked across the street to Sam's favorite ice cream parlor.
"You really had some date planned for us back then, huh?" Sam said to Freddie as they ordered their deserts.
"Yeah, I did," Freddie nodded, trying not to sound to depressed about the fact that they never got to do this while they were a couple. "But hey, it's just as cool as an anti-date, isn't it?"
"Definitely," Sam grinned.
They got their desert and sat down at a small table outside the shop.
"I can't wait to get to that fight," Sam said, shoveling her chocolate-fudge delight into her mouth. "I bet it goes down in the top ten MMA fights of all time."
Freddie chuckled. "You know your mouth is covered in chocolate ice cream?"
"Huh? Oh," Sam said, grabbing a napkin and wiping off her lips, and Freddie couldn't help but gaze longingly at those lips, which still had a hint of chocolate on them.
"Hey, I bet if this was a date, you would've pulled that super old move where you tell me I have something on my lips and then kiss me," Sam said, tossing the napkin into the trash.
Freddie grinned. "Probably…what a lame line."
"Right?" Sam laughed.
The two were silent for a minute.
"I mean…it probably would've worked," Freddie muttered, finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah, probably," Sam said, showing a small smile. "Hey, you remember that one time when I won that sweepstakes Carly entered me in from one of her makeup magazines and I won that huge set of flavored lip gloss?"
"Oh yeah," Freddie nodded, smiling at the memory. "And we spent the entire day at your place testing to see if I could tell which flavor you put on by kissing you."
"You were pretty good at that, Benson," Sam admitted. "The only flavor you wound up missing was the dragon fruit one."
"Hey, I got it on the second try," Freddie smirked.
The two laughed, but then fell silent again.
"But, um, since this is an anti-date, the-the napkin was just fine," Sam spoke up.
"Yeah, um, it-it was," Freddie nodded. He looked at his watch. "So we should be going…got to be at the arena by eight for the fight."
"Oh, right," Sam said quickly. "Let's go then."
…
"This really must be a big fight!" Freddie said loudly as him and Sam made their way through the crowd at the arena, heading towards their seats in the couple's section. "This place is packed!"
"Of course it is! Linton the Limper's the most popular fighter in the MMA!" Sam yelled over the noise of the crowd.
"I think these are our seats," Freddie said, pointing to two empty chairs. They were surrounded by couples that didn't seem to have anything against public displays of affection.
"I'll try not to gag over everyone swapping spit around us," Sam said, cringing at the couple in front of them.
"Gross, right?" Freddie said, trying to ignore the feeling of envy he felt towards all the couples at this moment.
"Totally, they're probably more interested in each others lips than watching the fight," Sam said, trying hard not to think that if her and Freddie had stayed together long enough to be coming here as a couple tonight that they would be doing the same thing right now.
"Yeah, I'm so glad we came here as an anti-date," Freddie nodded. "Because if we were on a real date, we'd probably be so distracted that we wouldn't have even noticed, um…that guy over there with the three thumbs."
"Oh, wow, that-that would've been a real shame if we missed that all because we were making out," Sam said. She stretched her legs out in front of her. "And we wouldn't have gotten to enjoy all this leg room either because we'd be practically on top of each other."
"So uncomfortable," Freddie quickly agreed. "I mean, my-my arms probably would've been around you."
"My head probably would've been on your shoulder," Sam said.
"Our legs would be touching," Freddie added.
"And our faces would've been really close together," Sam said.
"Like-Like this," Freddie said shakily, suddenly realizing that him and Sam had moved a lot closer together in the last few minutes.
"Yeah," Sam whispered, staring into Freddie's eyes, suddenly unaware of what was happening. "Like this."
And then, both of them finally unable to hold back any longer, they closed the small gap of space between their lips, kissing for the first time in months. Freddie quickly pulled Sam closer, still not taking his lips off hers, and Sam laced her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss that she had been trying so hard to convince herself for the past six months that she didn't want.
At last they broke apart, both of them breathing heavily.
"This isn't an anti-date anymore, is it?" Sam asked, catching her breath.
"I don't think I can take anymore of that," Freddie admitted.
"It was so dumb," Sam agreed.
"Almost as dumb as breaking up in the first place," Freddie said.
"Nothing could've been dumber than that," Sam said.
"True," Freddie said as Sam crashed her lips back into his. "So, so true."
