Ski
"Hey Spencer," Freddie said brightly, letting himself into the Shay's apartment.
"What's up, Freddo?" Spencer greeted him, looking up from the sculpture he was working on.
"What's that?" Freddie asked, looking at Spencer's work.
"No idea," Spencer said.
"So then how are you going to sell it?" Freddie frowned.
"That's the beauty of it; I already have!" Spencer grinned. "See, I met this dude at the Armenian Deli who I started chatting up about Seattle duck problem, and it turns out his granddaughter's sister-in-law's boyfriend's uncle's step niece is having a birthday party soon and she's a big fan of abstract art. So he paid me four hundred dollars to make her an abstract sculpture. I call it: The Sculpture of Many Colors and Odors."
"Odors?" Freddie repeated.
"Yeah, it's scented too!" Spencer said excitedly. "Go on, sniff my sculpture!"
"I'll pass," Freddie chuckled. "Hey, are Carly and Sam upstairs though? We need to get some things ready for iCarly."
"Yeah, they're both up there," Spencer nodded.
"Cool, thanks!" Freddie said, hurrying upstairs. He reached the hallway that led right to the iCarly studio, and was just about to go inside, when he heard Carly and Sam's voice's drifting out through the half-open door.
"You need to talk to him, Sam," Carly said firmly, and Freddie stopped in his tracks.
"I know," Sam sighed. "But you know it's going to be hard."
"Freddie can handle it; he's a big boy," Carly reasoned.
What can I handle? Freddie frowned, wondering what Carly and his girlfriend could possibly be talking about.
"I know but still," Sam said.
"Well do you want this or not?" Carly asked.
"Of course I do! But it doesn't make this part anymore easy," Sam mumbled.
Doesn't make what easy? Freddie asked himself, holding his breath to make sure he heard every word the two girls were saying.
"Well it's what's going to be best for you and Freddie," Carly said. "Even if it is a little awkward at first. I mean, it's what you have to do."
I don't like the sound of this, Freddie thought.
"Yeah, you're right," Sam said. "But I just wish there was another way."
"It will be worth it in the end," Carly assured her. "Your relationship with Freddie isn't what it used to be. Both of you have grown up a lot since you began dating. It's natural for this sort of thing to come up, and everyone just needs to learn to live with it. And that includes-"
"Alright," Sam conceded. "I-I'll talk to him tomorrow."
Wait a minute…Freddie thought slowly to himself, his eyes widening. It almost sounds like…Is she…Is she talking about breaking up with me? Oh man…No! No! I don't want that!
But the more he thought about what he had just heard, the more sense it made. Carly was obviously trying to get Sam to bring up an uncomfortable issue with him, Carly said that their relationship wasn't what it used to be…
She's going to break up with me, Freddie concluded sadly to himself, feeling as if the entire world around him was shattering. And then quickly, so that Sam and Carly wouldn't know he had heard them, he raced back out of the hall and downstairs.
"It won't be that bad," Carly continued, sitting down next to her best friend on a beanbag chair. "And like I said, it's gonna be so worth it! Think about it, a ski trip with your boyfriend!"
"If he can convince him mom once I tell him about it," Sam reminded her. "Which is never going to happen."
"Oh, you never know, Mrs. Benson could surprise you," Carly said. "I told you, you and Freddie aren't the same couple you used to be. You guys are so much closer now, she should realize that and let him go with you."
"Yeah, otherwise I'm gonna be stuck up at that ski lodge with my mom and her boyfriend," Sam shuddered.
….
"Wait, how do you know Sam's gonna dump you?" Gibby frowned as him and Freddie sat down at the Groovy Smoothie later that day.
"For the millionth time, I heard her talking to Carly about it!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Okay, easy there, just trying to keep my facts straight," Gibby said, scribbling something down in a notepad.
"What are you writing down?" Freddie asked.
"Oh, well, I started writing a journal," Gibby said. "So I like to make sure I get down every detail of my day so that way in two hundred years, when the people are craving more Gibby, but can't have me because I'm dead, they can still experience my thrilling life!"
"Don't write about my relationship problems in your journal!" Freddie yelled.
"Fine," Gibby shrugged. "I'll just write about your snippy attitude."
"Will you help me or not?" Freddie moaned.
"Dude, come on, if Sam's going to break up with you, all you have to do is make sure that doesn't happen," Gibby said, rolling his eyes. "Duh."
"Really? Well that's helpful, because I was planning on dressing up like a sugar plum fairy!"
"Well I don't see what that would do, but if you want to borrow some sparkly tights-"
"Gibby!"
"Alright," Gibby said. "Well why do you think Sam's breaking up with you?"
"I-I don't know," Freddie said truthfully. "I thought our relationship was fine. Great, even."
"Maybe it's because of your tacky shirts," Gibby suggested, adjusting the collar of his Hawaiian flower print shirt. "The way your pronounce 'during', your weird hair, your unsymmetrical eyebrows, your-"
"Are you done?" Freddie snapped.
"Almost," Gibby said. "Your abnormal head shape, your dandruff problem-"
"I don't have a dandruff problem!"
"Hey, don't get all defensive with me," Gibby said. "I'm not the one breaking up with you."
"But what do I do?" Freddie asked. "I don't want to break up with Sam! I can't go back to being single and alone!"
"Hey," Gibby grinned, putting an arm around Freddie's shoulders. "Don't worry about it. You're in good hands. Let Gibby take care of everything."
…..
"I'm not sure about this," Freddie said as him and Gibby walked into the school the next morning.
"Come on, have I ever steered you wrong?" Gibby pointed out.
"Where would you like me to begin?"
"Dude, trust me, there's no way Sam's going to dump you if you just stick to our plan," Gibby said. "Now look, there she is with Carly over by their lockers. Go get her!"
"Alright," Freddie said, taking a deep breath.
He slowly walked over towards the girls, who were talking and laughing as they put books into their lockers.
"H-Hey!" Freddie said, pulling on the biggest grin he could muster.
"Hey, Freddie," Carly smiled.
"Hey, Fredbug," Sam said, turning to her boyfriend, "Listen, I need to-Whoa! Is that cologne you're wearing?"
"Yeah," Freddie nodded, trying not to choke over the fumes of the cologne he had borrowed from Gibby. "You like it?"
"I'll let you know when my nose starts working again," Sam coughed.
"Um, I'll leave you two to…talk," Carly said, closing her locker and walking off, leaving the couple alone.
"Right," Sam said, still dizzy over the sent of the cologne. "Anyway, baby, I-"
"Wait!" Freddie said, digging in his backpack and pulling out a large bouquet of flowers. "These are for you."
"Aw, you bought me flowers?" Sam smiled.
"These aren't just flowers," Freddie grinned, reaching over to the bouquet and pressing a button that Sam just noticed on one of the leaves. Loud music began blaring from the flowers, causing everyone within twenty feet of the couple to look over and stare. "They're musical flowers!"
"Oh, that-that's…new," Sam said, her cheeks reddening as she noticed just how many people were staring at them. "Now how do you get them to stop?"
"You can't stop the music of love-"
"Freddie!"
"Okay, okay," Freddie said quickly, pushing the button again.
"Why'd you get me musical-" Sam began.
"Are you from Tennessee?" Freddie interrupted her.
"What?"
"Because you're the only ten I see," Freddie said. "Get it?"
"What's wrong with you?" Sam frowned.
"Did it hurt?" Freddie asked, now visibly sweating.
"Huh?"
"When-When you fell from-"
"Okay, what is going on?" Sam demanded. "Why are you soaked in cologne, giving me weird flowers and pulling the lamest, cheesiest pick-up lines of all time?"
"I-I-" Freddie stuttered.
Oh forget it, he surrendered. I should've never listened to Gibby with all this.
"Look, Sam," he sighed. "I-I just couldn't give us up without putting in some effort to keep us going."
"Give us up?" Sam repeated. "Why would we-"
"I just love you so much, which is going to make me seem even more pathetic in a few more minutes, once you break up with me," Freddie continued.
Sam's eyes widened.
"But when I found out that you wanted this, I-I felt heartbroken, and-"
"Wait a minute," Sam said. "You think I'm breaking up with you? Why?"
"You don't have to try and protect me anymore," Freddie said heavily. "I heard you and Carly yesterday in the studio talking about it."
"Oh, baby, I wasn't-"
"And-And I realize that the tighter I hold onto you, the harder you're going to pull away," Freddie went on. "And that I need to let you go. I really do get that. But I just need to know if there's anything-"
"Freddie! I'm not breaking up with you!" Sam blurted out.
Freddie blinked. "What? You-You're not?"
"No," Sam grinned. "I'm not."
"Well then," Freddie said, taking this news in. "That-that's fantastic!" He threw his arms around his girlfriend and placed a deep kiss on her lips.
"Is that why you're acting like a complete loser with the cologne and pick-up lines?" Sam asked.
"Well when I thought you were gonna dump me, I panicked!" Freddie defended. "I went to Gibby and-"
"Gibby?" Sam laughed. "Man, you must've been desperate."
"Tell me about it," Freddie mumbled. "But, wait a minute. If you aren't going to break up with me…then what's the big thing you need to talk to me about?"
"Well," Sam said slowly. "My-My mom's dating this dude that owns a timeshare at a ski lodge. We're going down to Colorado next week to stay there, and-and she said that I could invite you to come…if you want. I just think that it'd be a lot of fun, especially since our relationship is going so great."
"That's what you wanted to talk to me about?" Freddie smiled. "Baby! Of course I want to go with you! A trip to a ski lodge with my beautiful girlfriend? I couldn't think of anything I'd want to do more! Why would you think this would be awkward and hard to bring up?"
"It wasn't you I was worried about convincing to go," Sam said. "You do realize who your mother is, right?"
"Oh," Freddie said, his smile faltering. "Right…I have to ask my crazy, over-protective mother. Well, that's gonna go well."
"Well, Carly said she might surprise you," Sam said. "But I wouldn't hold out for that. Or maybe Spencer can talk to her? Or I can clean my mom up and your mom can talk with her since she'll be there with us."
"I promise," Freddie said, leaning down to kiss her again. "That I will try as hard as I can to get her to agree, okay?"
"Okay," Sam smiled. "Maybe you can threaten to stop going to your mother-son Pilates classes."
"You know about those?!"
"You can't hide things from Mama," Sam smirked.
"I should've know," Freddie chuckled. He put his arm around her. "Hey…I'm glad you didn't break up with me."
Sam squeezed his hand. "You don't have to worry about that, baby. You've sort of grown on me."
