Irritation

"So see, then I figured out if I just adjusted the white balance and recalibrated the microphone system, the problem would be solved," Freddie said proudly as the trio sat at their usual table in the Groovy Smoothie.

"Wow, um, good job," Carly said politely, pulling on a smile even though she had been hopelessly bored throughout the entire tale.

"Yeah, your nubby tech skills really saved the day, didn't they?" Sam smirked, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "What would the AV club have done without an adjusted white balance?"

"You know, keep up the snide remarks about the white balance and I may conveniently forget to adjust for you during iCarly," Freddie snapped. "We'll see who's laughing with magenta skin!"

"Big threats coming from an AV doof," Sam said.

"Hey! The AV club is the sixth largest club at Ridgeway High School!" Freddie defended.

"I swear, it's like we're back in the eight grade," Carly sighed, massaging her temples. "In case you two have forgotten, we're seniors now. Must you still argue like children? I mean come on! You two even dated."

"Ugh, don't bring that up," Sam moaned. "I'm still not fully recovered."

"Yeah, I was close to blocking that out, Carls," Freddie cringed.

"Unbelievable," Carly sighed, sipping the last of her smoothie. "I've never seen two people who have been friends for most of their lives act like such-such hooligans."

"Hey, there's only one hooligan at this table," Freddie said. "And she's sucking down her fourth smoothie. You know, Sam, you still owe me ten bucks from the pizza we all ordered last night. How can you afford to buy so many smoothies when you claimed you had no money?"

"I can't afford them," Sam said simply. She pulled Freddie's wallet out of her pocket and tossed it to him. "You, on the other hand…"

"You stole my wallet?" Freddie exclaimed indignantly.

"Just be happy she actually gave it back this time," Carly said.

"She stole fifty bucks!"

"Tough," Sam said, standing up and finishing her last smoothie. "Now come on, there's an MMA fight starting in ten minutes that I'm not about to miss."

"You can't just steal people's wallets, Sam," Freddie fumed as the teens walked out of the Groovy Smoothie. "I can file charges!"

"No you can't," Sam said, walking down the sidewalk. "Now move it! If I miss this fight because of you, Fredgrab…"

"If you're so worried about missing the fight, just call Spencer and ask him to record the start of it for you," Carly suggested.

"Nah, it's just not the same," Sam said, looking back at her best friend as she approached an intersection. "You don't get the same suspense that you do watching it live. It's like you're-"

"Sam!" Freddie suddenly shouting, rushing over to her and pulling her back just as she was about to cross into the intersection.

"What are you-" Sam began, but then she saw a large ice cream truck speed past, narrowly avoiding hitting her. Had Freddie not pulled her back, it would've…

Freddie, who had sped to catch up to Sam right before he grabbed her, lost his balance just as he pulled Sam back onto the sidewalk, causing him to fall, hard, into the street.

Thankfully, the ice cream truck had just passed, and Freddie wasn't hit. Still, though, he hit the street with much force.

"Freddie!" Carly and Sam yelled out as they ran over to him.

"Are you okay?" Carly gasped, kneeling down next to him.

"Ow!" Freddie winced, massaging his shoulder. He had ripped the sleeve of his shirt and the girls could see that he had a pretty serious wound.

"Dude! You could've gotten hit!" Sam cried. "What were you thinking?"

"We need to get you cleaned up," Carly said as her and Sam helped Freddie to his feet. "That cut on your shoulder looks real bad…Oh! And you hit your head too! Maybe we should take you to the emergency room-"

"No," Freddie said quickly, still cringing in pain as he limped back onto the sidewalk. "No, that will just worry my mom. I don't think anything broke…I'll just get her first aid kit and take care of it."

"Are you sure?" Carly asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Freddie said, trying not to look at the blood running down his arm.

"Okay, well, let's get you back home then," Carly said, helping Freddie start walking. "You need to sit down."

Sam said nothing as she followed behind the two. She couldn't believe it…

Freddie Benson had just saved her life.

…..

"Don't use that stuff!"

"Freddie, I have to!" Carly said. "Do you want to get an infection?"

"But that stuff stings," Freddie moaned.

"You are eighteen years old," Carly said, rolling her eyes as she held up a bottle of antibacterial spray. "You're telling me you can't handle some boo-boo spray?"

"No one likes that stuff!" Freddie argued.

Carly sighed and turned to Sam, who was sitting silently at the Shay's kitchen table, watching the scene.

"Sam, can you help me out here?" Carly asked.

"Um…okay," Sam said, walking over to the two. She took a deep breath and tried to tell herself that the weird feeling that was taking over the pit of her stomach was from the shock of almost getting run over, not from the fact that Freddie had been sitting in the kitchen shirtless for the past half-hour while Carly tended to his injuries.

"Tell me about that dumb white balance thing again," Sam said to Freddie.

"What?" Freddie frowned.

"Come on, you're always so willing to talk about it," Sam said. "So talk."

"Well, um, it's a pretty important feature on most cameras that makes sure that things show up the right color in pictures and videos," Freddie began, still giving Sam a weird look. "See, it takes into account light temperature and-ow!"

While he had been distracted talking to Sam, Carly took the opportunity to spray the boo-boo spray all over Freddie's arm.

"See, not that bad," Carly said, satisfied.

"Um, very bad!" Freddie cried.

"I'm going to grab some more bandages from the bathroom," Carly said, ignoring Carly's comment. "And then I think it might be a good idea for us to try and figure out a way for us to cover up that bump on your head before your mom sees and flips out."

"Good idea," Freddie said as Carly headed out of the kitchen, leaving Sam and him alone.

"So," Freddie said, clearing his throat. "I-I guess you wound up missing your fight…"

"Whatever, I bet it wasn't even that good," Sam mumbled.

"But you said-"

"Hey, so, um," Sam said awkwardly. "Thanks…I guess. For, you know, saving me."

"Oh, no-no problem," Freddie said.

Sam looked up at him. "Why'd you do it though?"

Freddie gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Why'd you save me?" Sam asked. "Look at you, you got hurt pretty bad."

"Well what was I supposed to do?" Freddie frowned. "Just let you get hit by that ice cream truck?"

Sam shrugged. "I just never thought you'd rush to save me like that. Carly was one thing…"

"Why's me saving Carly three years ago so different from me saving you now?" Freddie asked.

"Well, you know…because it's me," Sam said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We're Sam and Freddie. We annoy each other and throw insults. We don't save each other!"

"Would you have let the ice cream truck hit me?" Freddie questioned.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Well no, I guess not, but-"

"Hey, you and I both know that no matter how much we annoy each other, we're still friends," Freddie said, giving her his signature smirk. "At then end of the day…I'd save you from any ice cream truck that was about to run you over."

Sam gave him a small smile. "Right back at you, nub."

She picked up the boo-boo spray Carly had left on the counter and sprayed it on Freddie's wound.

"Ow!" Freddie yelled.

"Hmm, I like this stuff," Sam said, looking down at the bottle approvingly. "I'll have to hang onto it…"

…..

Two weeks had passed since Freddie had saved Sam. Most of his injuries had heeled, though not before his mom noticed them. Freddie told her that he had fell coming back from the puzzle shop, but that didn't stop her from ordering him to bed rest for three whole days.

"I like this movie, it has everything," Carly said one afternoon as the three teens sat on the Shay's couch. "Hot guys, funny jokes, hot guys…"

"Yeah, everything you could ever want in a movie," Freddie said less-than-enthusiastically. "Can't we watch something else?"

"Seriously, hot guys can only do so much for this lame movie," Sam said. She got to her feet. "I need food. You want anything, Carls?"

"No, I'm good," Carly replied, not taking her eyes off the television.

Sam shook her head and was about to head into the kitchen when suddenly she turned back around.

"Um, do-do you want anything, Freddie?"

"Huh?" Freddie said, caught off guard. Sam never offered to get him anything.

"Do you want anything?" she repeated.

"Oh, um, a soda would be nice," Freddie said.

"Okay, well…I'll get you one," Sam said lamely.
She headed to the kitchen, mentally kicking herself for her behavior.

Ever since Freddie had saved her life, she couldn't help herself from being…nice to the boy. She knew what was going on, though. It was the same thing that happened with Carly and Freddie; the hero complex. She liked what Freddie did for her, she didn't like Freddie himself. Not that way at least. Still though, she was ready for the phase to pass. The butterflies in her stomach and sweaty palms were beginning to irritate her.

"I wonder if there's a sequel for this movie," Carly said, coming into the kitchen with Sam.

"I thought you were watching," Sam said, grabbing a soda from the fridge.

"DVD player broke," Carly replied, nodding back over to the living room, where Freddie was busily toying around with the device.

"Ah," Sam said. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and bit into it. "Hey, um, Carly?"

"What's up?" Carly asked.

"You remember when Freddie saved you from the taco truck?"

"Sure," Carly nodded. "Why?"

"Well, um, how long did you have that hero thing going?" Sam questioned. "You know, where you thought you loved Freddie because he saved you, but you actually loved what he did for you?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe a week?" Carly said. "Wow…I haven't thought about that in awhile."

"Okay, a week," Sam said softly, more to herself. More than a week had already passed, but maybe she was just slower with this than Carly was.

"Yeah, thinking back, though, I guess I should've realized I didn't actually like Freddie," Carly said. "I mean how awkward was that?"

"Yeah, real awkward," Sam mumbled.

"Besides, we didn't have that romantic connection that I've gotten with other guys," Carly said. "Like Griffin…even if that was short lived."

"What are you talking about?" Sam frowned.

"I was just so goo-goo eyed that he saved me that I didn't realize what was missing," Carly explained. "I didn't get those butterflies in my stomach, I didn't feel my heart race, and when we kissed…nothing."

"Well maybe you did feel those things but you just forgot about them!" Sam said, almost defensively.

"No…I don't think so," Carly replied, giving her a weird look. "Um, are you okay, Sam? You look sort of-"

"Well, I can't fix this," Freddie announced, joining the girls in the kitchen. "Real shame."

"You probably barely tried," Carly said, giving him a knowing look.

"I turned it off and on again," Freddie said. "That's all I've got."

"Says the guy who took apart an entire computer and put it back together just for fun," Carly said. Just then, her phone buzzed.

"Who texted?" Sam asked.

"Spencer," Carly sighed. "He locked his car keys in his car again…I've got to go run his spare set over."

"Isn't this the third time he's done that this month?" Freddie asked.

"Your point? It's Spencer," Carly said. She grabbed her jacket from the coat rack and hurried out the front door.

Sam looked down at her feet. She really didn't want to be alone with Freddie right now…

"You have any other DVDs you wanna watch?" Freddie asked her.

"I thought you said you couldn't fix the DVD player," Sam said.

"I may have just said that to get out of watching another second of that horrible movie," Freddie said, his eyes twinkling.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, I guess we could-" Suddenly she caught herself. Watching a movie with Freddie right now probably wouldn't be a smart move. Who knew what she would wind up doing now that Carly had left.

"Um, actually, I don't feel like a movie right now," Sam said.

"Okay," Freddie shrugged. "Well, do you want to-"

"I think I'm just gonna go home," Sam said quickly, grabbing her bag. "I forgot to feed Frothy…"

"Sam," Freddie said as she started towards the door. "Sam…are you okay?"

"What?" Sam said, trying to laugh his comment off. "Duh, of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Look, I think I know what this is about," Freddie said.

"What what's about?" Sam said, crossing her arms.

"Ever since the whole incident with the ice cream truck, you've been, well, nicer to me," Freddie said. "You've barely insulted me, you haven't hit me, and you've actually paid me back all the money you owed me."

"So?" Sam snapped.

"So," Freddie said calmly. "I remember the last time you suddenly became all nice to me."

Sam played with the hem of her shirt nervously. Was he talking about the lock-in?

"Get over yourself," she said with as much conviction as she could muster. "It's not like that this time…Look," she sighed. "You should remember how this chiz goes down from the last time. You saved my life, clearly hanging around with Carly has made her hero fascination rub off a little on me, so anything that I may or may not be feeling towards you right now is just because I sort of liked how you didn't let me get flattened by that ice cream truck. They're not real feelings so don't start thinking I've lost my mind again, got it, Benson? Because I haven't."

Freddie blinked as Sam finished her ran. The two were silent for a moment.

"Well then," Freddie finally said. "I-Okay."

"Okay," Sam echoed. She turned back to the door. "Now I'm outta here for real. Tell Carly-"

"So I guess if you haven't lost your mind this time," Freddie cut her off. "I guess that means…I have."

Sam spun back around. "What?"

"Look, you-you aren't the only one who has been dealing with weird feelings since the ice cream truck thing," Freddie said slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, though her voice was softer this time.

"Sam, when I pulled you back from the truck," Freddie sighed. "I-I realized how close I was to losing you. For good. And that scared me, not just because I was about to lose one of my best friends, but because I would've never gotten a chance to-to…I guess what I'm trying to say is that I realized how much you mean to me, and that if anything happened to you…I would've been devastated. I-I didn't feel this way after I saved Carly. I'm glad I saved her, but…it wasn't the same."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Alright, listen nub. I'm not good at reading into big speeches. What are you saying? Because all your stupid words just confused the chiz out of me and-"

She was interrupted as Freddie pressed his lips onto hers, kissing her for the first time in over a year. She quickly responded to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.

The two stayed that way for several moments until both of them finally broke apart to catch their breath.

"Did you understand that?" Freddie asked.

Sam smirked. "I think I got the message."