AN-This chapter is a sequel to chapter 456, where Sam beats up the guy who gave iCarly a virus when Freddie was in trouble, even after he said she didn't care about him.
Also, I'm loving all the requests I've been getting! If you have any at all, please send them to me!
…
Carrot
Carly nervously paced back in forth in her kitchen, nibbling on carrots covered in whipped cream; her favorite snack for when she was feeling anxious.
"Whoa, what's up with you?" Spencer asked, coming out of his bedroom.
"Freddie's meeting up with the guy who gave our site a virus today," Carly explained. "And I'm just worried that this guy is gonna wind up being a little rougher than Freddie suspects."
"Wait…Freddie went to go meet some weird guy on the Internet by himself?" Spencer frowned. "That's really dangerous! Why would he do something like that?"
"He says that computer nerds like them have some sort of mutual respect for each other," Carly sighed. "I just hope he's right."
And then, right on cue, Freddie opened the door and let himself in.
"Are you okay?" Carly asked at once, rushing over to him. "Did you get that guy to fix our site?"
"I'm fine, Carls," Freddie assured her. "And iCarly is virus-free once again."
"That's great!" Carly smiled. "I was pretty worried, actually, that the guy was gonna give you a hard time. I guess you were right about him, though."
"Er, actually…I was wrong. He-He was sort of a jerk," Freddie explained. "He didn't want to meet up with me to fix the virus. He just wanted to give me a hard time."
"But-But you said the virus was gone now," Carly pointed out.
"It is," Freddie said. "But, well…that's only because Sam showed up and made the guy tell me how to get rid of it."
"Sam showed up?" Carly said, surprised.
"I know, weird," Freddie nodded. "But the important thing is iCarly is now up and running."
"So where is Sam?" Carly asked. "Did she come over with you? Now that iCarly is back up, we should start making up for lost time and get some new stuff up for our viewers."
Freddie's face suddenly fell. "No, she didn't come over here with me…actually, she seemed kind of…off after everything."
"Off?" Carly repeated.
"Yeah," Freddie said. "You see, the guy was stupid enough to push Sam before she gave the guy what he deserved. And so after he ran out crying, I asked her if she was okay and told her how great she was with the jerk, and she said…she told me not to pretend I cared about her when I seemed so sure she didn't care about me."
Carly gave him a strange look. "She said that?"
"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "Is everything okay with her? Do you know what she meant by that?"
"No," Carly said. "But I'll talk to her tonight and see if I can get anything out of her. In the meantime, we need to get her and Gibby over here so we can start filming and-"
Before she could finish her sentence, though, the front door opened again and Sam came in.
"Hey," she said brightly to Carly, not even glancing in Freddie's direction.
"Perfect timing, I was just about to text you," Carly said.
"Yeah, I figured we'd be doing some iCarly chiz now that we can broadcast again," Sam said. "I just saw Gib down in the lobby. He was doing something to Lewbert's potted cactus, but then he said he'd be right up."
"What was he doing?" Carly frowned.
"I did not want to know."
"Well, I'm gonna go grab that box of props out of my room, and you two can meet me in the studio," Carly said. "There's ham in the fridge, Sam."
"On it!" Sam replied, starting towards the fridge as Carly headed upstairs.
Freddie watched her, confused by her change in behavior since they left the diner.
"Hey," Freddie said as Sam grabbed the plate of ham from the fridge. "Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Sam asked simply, not even bothering to look up at him.
"Well because you seemed upset when you left the diner," Freddie said. "How's your arm? My mom has that huge first aid kit across the hall if you need it."
"I don't," Sam said. "It was barely a scratch."
"It was bleeding pretty badly."
"I'm fine!" Sam snapped.
"Okay, what is with you?" Freddie asked.
Sam shook her head. "Nothing," she mumbled as she grabbed the ham plate and headed upstairs without saying another word to him.
…..
The teens spent the entire afternoon filming for their web show. And though Sam seemed just as energetic and spunky as she always did for iCarly, Freddie noticed that whenever she would look at him, her eyes would grow cold.
What's going on? Freddie asked himself as he continued to film the girls. Sam's never exactly Mother Teresa around me, but this is kind of harsh, even for her.
"Alright, well I think we have enough done for tonight," Carly said as her and Sam finished their latest installment of the Idiot Farm Girl. "I think by tomorrow night we should be able to do the show. We'll have to do some serious tweeting since it won't be on our normal night, but I think we owe it to our fans. You guys all good with that?"
"Yeah, I can do the show tomorrow," Sam nodded.
"Works for me," Freddie said.
"Fine," Gibby sighed. "I guess this will be another week I don't get to go to my yoga class!"
"Carly!" the suddenly heard Spencer yell from downstairs. "Carly! I need help!"
"With what?" Carly called down.
"I'm stuck to the table again!"
"Ugh!" Carly moaned, rolling her eyes. "I swear, the dude can get stuck to anything. I better help him up."
"You need help?" Freddie asked.
"Nah, I've done this way too many times before," Carly said. "All I need is some cooking oil and a spatula."
"Poor spatula," Sam cringed.
"Well, since I'm missing yoga, I better go home and call my carpool to tell them I can't make it," Gibby said, following Carly out of the studio. "You know…I really could've used some inner peace this week. My mom told Guppy he didn't have to take his 'special vitamins' anymore and now the kid's jumping all over the place!"
Once him and Carly left, Sam and Freddie were left alone.
"We got some great footage today," Freddie said, attempting to start up a conversation. "I'm sure it will make up for us being off the web for so long."
"Yeah…real funny stuff," Sam said coolly, looking down at her phone.
"Hey, while Carly unsticks Spencer, why don't we run down to the Groovy Smoothie and grab some smoothies to celebrate?" Freddie asked. "My treat. You did sort of get that guy to tell me how to get rid of the virus, after all."
"No thanks," Sam said. "I don't want a smoothie."
Freddie frowned. "You don't want a free smoothie?"
"Nope," Sam replied.
"Okay, Puckett, that's it!" Freddie said, setting his camera down as he stepped over to her. "Something's clearly going on! I mean you blow me off at the diner, you barely even talked to me all during rehearsal and now you're refusing smoothies? Are you mad at me or something?"
"I'm not mad at you," Sam said simply. "You keep saying I don't care about you, so this is it. This is me not caring about you."
"Huh?" Freddie said, confused. "What do you mean?"
"I mean if you're gonna keep thinking that after everything, after seven years of friendship and even a month of us dating that I don't care about you, then I'm not gonna waste my time caring at all," Sam said firmly. She turned to leave, but Freddie stopped her.
"Sam, wait, I-Why do you think I don't think you care about me?" Freddie asked.
"You've said it," Sam replied. "A lot. Even just the other day, you said I wouldn't have cared if you got beaten up by that virus guy! You said it when we were trapped at Nora's house, too! And you say it when we're just hanging out, or when we're doing iCarly, or-or whenever!"
Freddie blinked. "But-But Sam," he said softly. "I-I don't actually mean it when I say that. I'm just saying things in the heat of the moment! You know people say things they don't mean all the time."
"Do they?" Sam said, looking at her feet. "So was what you said that night in the elevator…when you said you love me…was that just in the heat of the moment too?"
"No!" Freddie said at once. "No, I-I meant that. But-"
"How am I supposed to know what you mean and what you don't mean then?" Sam asked softly.
And with that, she left the studio, and Freddie was too flabbergasted by what she had said to even stop her.
