Wipe
"I can't believe we've been dating for six months," Freddie smiled as him and Sam sat on his couch. "Six amazing, perfect months."
"And I can't believe you're still using those corny lines," Sam said, though she was blushing as Freddie kissed the tip of her nose. "Hey, what are we gonna do tonight? I mean, not that I've minded the past hour we've spent making out, but don't couples usually do something big on their six month anniversary?"
"I was thinking we could stay in and have a nice, relaxing evening," Freddie replied. "I bough all the ingredients I need to make the best chicken Parmesan, and I spent all morning making a cake for us. That way we can spend more time doing this…"
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately.
"Hmm," Sam smirked when they pulled apart. "I guess we would get some awkward stares if we did that in public all night. But, um…you-you said your mom was working late, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Freddie nodded.
"Because she hates me."
"Sam, she does not hate you," Freddie told her.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe she dislikes you a little bit. That's just because she's a little jealous of the fact that I spend so much of my time with you now. It's a normal mom thing."
"No, she just hates me," Sam said. "I can't even hold your hand around her without her calling me a skunk bag or something, she rips on me for not being 'proper' all of the time and she always sprays me with that gross sanitizing chiz and she-"
"Alright, alright," Freddie sighed. "I get it. But Sam, she's working until two in the morning at the hospital. She's not going to ruin this night for us."
"Okay," Sam smiled, lacing her arms around his neck again.
The two deepened the kiss and were soon quite oblivious to anything happening around them. So when the apartment door opened and Marissa Benson stepped in, neither of them noticed until she let out a shrill scream.
"Ah! Get off of my precious baby, you delinquent!" She ran over to Sam and Freddie and pulled Freddie away from Sam.
"Mom!" Freddie exclaimed. "What are you doing? I thought you were working until two!"
"There was a mistake in the schedule," Marissa said. "And thank goodness there was! I can't believe this hooligan talked you into turning our home into a-a-"
"Mom, I invited Sam over!" Freddie said.
"Here, wipe off your lips with these disinfectant wipes," Marissa said, ignoring her son's comment as she pulled a container out of her purse. She glared over at Sam. "You don't know what sort of germs and bacteria she's breeding."
"Mom!" Freddie yelled.
"I still can't see why you insist on being around someone so…disgusting," Marissa cringed as she furiously wiped Freddie's face. "You could have much better choices, you're such a handsome boy. Or better yet you could date nobody and spend more time with me-"
"But I choose Sam," Freddie said firmly, looking over at his girlfriend who was staring down at her lap. "Because I love her and-"
"But she's not good enough for you!" Marissa cried. "She's just ruining you and making you-"
But before she could finish, Sam jumped off the couch and darted out the door.
"Sam!" Freddie yelled, quickly getting to his feet. He ducked his mom's wipes and ran after her.
She was leaning against Carly's door, and her eyes looked red, as though she was holding back tears.
"Baby, I'm so sorry," Freddie said. "I swear, I didn't think she'd be back."
"I told you she hated me!" Sam said shakily.
"Look, let's just forget about her," Freddie said. "We'll go out to dinner and-"
"Freddie!" they heard Marissa yelling from inside the apartment. "Get back in here so I can finish disinfecting you from all the filth that gutter girl got all over you!"
Sam looked down at her feet. "Freddie, I can't take this anymore."'
"I'll talk to her," Freddie said.
"It won't make a difference!" Sam said. "She's never going to like me and she's never going to be okay with you dating me! She's never going to stop this and I don't want to deal with it anymore; I can't stand that my boyfriend's mom has such a huge problem with me that she thinks I'm destroying her son!"
"Sam…" Freddie said softly. "What-What are you-"
"I'm sorry, but…maybe we should just give her what she wants," Sam said, a tear falling down her cheek. "She'll finally leave you alone and-and it will be the best for everyone."
"No," Freddie said, not believing what he was hearing. "Sam, I don't want us to break up over my mom's behavior!"
"If we stay together, things are just going to get really bad between you guys," Sam mumbled.
"But Sam!" Freddie said, feeling as though he had just been punched in the stomach. "I love you!"
"I love you too," Sam whispered, not meeting his gaze. "But…we just aren't going to work out with your mom so against us."
"But-But-" Freddie said weakly. But Sam had turned around and went into the Shay's apartment, leaving him all alone in the hallway.
Did we just break up? Freddie thought, a cold wave of grief rushing through his body.
He didn't want to not have Sam in his life; he was in love with her!
His legs feeling numb, Freddie slowly turned and walked back into his own apartment.
"I have a tick bath all ready for you," Marissa said sternly. "While you're in there I'm going to have to steam the couch and-"
"I'm not taking a tick bath!" Freddie yelled, feeling angrier than he could ever remember.
Marissa's eyes widened in shock.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" he continued, his face turning red. "You messed up the single greatest thing in my life!"
"Freddie!" Marissa gasped. "What are you-"
"Sam just broke up with me because of you!" Freddie cried. "Because of the way you treated her! Because of the way you always make her feel terrible about herself when she doesn't even do anything to you! I love her, and you still can't respect her enough to even say one nice thing about her! You don't even care about what she means to me, your son!"
"Freddie, I-"
"I'm never going to forgive you for this," Freddie said coldly. "Ever."
And with that he stormed into his room, slamming the door hard behind him.
….
The next day, Sam woke up on the Shay's couch feeling as though a huge part of her was missing. She still couldn't believe she had broken up with Freddie; it was the hardest thing she had ever done. But she knew if they stayed together, Mrs. Benson wouldn't give either of them a moment's peace until the ended it.
So she had.
"Hey," she heard Carly said gently from the kitchen, coming over with a large plate of eggs and bacon. "You feeling any better?"
Sam had of course told Carly everything, and Carly had been doing her duty of a best friend during this dilemma most magnificently.
"Not really," Sam admitted, taking the plate but not eating.
"Sam, I'm sure you and Freddie will work things out," Carly said. "I mean he's not going to live with his mom forever. Next year when he move out for college maybe things will be easier for you guys."
"Carly, his mom is never going to like me," Sam sighed. "The woman's never even going to be able to tolerate me. If I stay with Freddie it's only going to wreck things between him and his mom and I don't want him to do that."
"But he loves you," Carly said.
"I love him too," Sam said softly. "And that's why I broke up with him."
….
Later that afternoon, Sam, Carly and Spencer were sitting out in the Shay's living room, watching T.V.
"Okay, this movie is probably the most terrifying thing I've seen in my whole life," Spencer said, flinching as a particularly scary scene flashed on the screen.
"Yeah," Sam said, lacking her usual enthusiasm for gory films. Carly gave her a sympathetic smile; she knew she was still hung up over the prior day's events.
"Why don't I got make us more popcorn?" Carly suggested. "And then we can-"
But just then there was a knock at the door and a second later Mrs. Benson herself stepped into the apartment.
"Hello," she said curtly to the three on the couch.
"Um…what-what are you doing here, Mrs. Benson?" Spencer asked, confused, since he had heard all about what happened the day before.
"Yeah, Freddie's not here," Carly said somewhat defensively.
"I would like," Marissa began, looking very strained. "I would like to…I would like to talk to…her."
She pointed at Sam.
"Me?" Sam frowned.
"Y-Yes," Marissa managed through her clenched teeth.
"Um…Sam?" Carly whispered to her best friend. "Are you okay with this?"
"Er, I-I guess," Sam said reluctantly.
"Well…alright," Carly said, getting to her feet. "Come on, Spence, let's go upstairs."
"But we're gonna miss the good stuff!" Spencer whined.
"Let's go," Carly said, rolling her eyes as she grabbed her brother's arm and dragged him up the steps.
Once they had left, Sam looked up at Mrs. Benson, not knowing what to expect.
"So," Marissa began, somewhat awkwardly. "You and my Freddie have…decoupled?"
"Um, well, yeah," Sam nodded. "Isn't that what you wanted for him?"
"Yes," Marissa said. "Or….I did. Until I saw what it did to him."
"Is he okay?" Sam asked, concerned.
"He's been moping in his room ever since you left yesterday," Marissa sighed. "He wouldn't even come out for my special tofu casserole!"
"Yeah, shocker," Sam mumbled under her breath."
"He's been depressed all day and won't do anything except look through old photographs of the two of you," Marissa continued, shaking her head. "I've tried everything! I've unlocked all the T.V. channels, even that horrible nature channel, I've offered to extend his bedtime and I even promised to let him start picking out his own underwear, but nothing's working! He only wants…" she let out a heavy sigh. "He only wants you."
Sam said nothing.
"As much as I want to believe that Freddie can be happy staying with me for the rest of his life, I realize now that-that he's the happiest when he's around you," Marissa said. "And I suppose that is what every mother wants for her son…even if it does kill her. So, for the sake of Freddie, I am, well…sorry for the things I've said to you in the past that may have been perceived in a less-than-positive way."
Ha, it looked like she just had to swallow live worms, Sam thought gleefully to herself.
"So I'm asking you now to please go and work things out with Freddie," Marissa said. "If you're the girl he says makes him feel happy, then…then I would…like for you two to be together."
Sam looked at her. "So you're not going to try and get him to break up with me anymore?"
"No, I suppose there's no use in that," Marissa sighed.
"And you're not going to spray that sanitizing chiz on me when I'm over at your place anymore?"
"N-No…"
"And you won't call me a horrible, delinquent gutter girl anymore?"
"No, I won't do any of that stuff anymore," Marissa groaned. "I'm sorry for all that. Just-Just go over and fix my Freddie! Please?"
Sam nodded. "Alright, I'll go. For Freddie."
"Thank you," Marissa said, still looking as though she had swallowed something sour.
Sam headed across the hall, still a little shocked at what had just happened. That had to have been really hard for Mrs. Benson, and while she did appreciate the gesture, she knew there was never any way the two of them would be close. At least for now, anyway. But she was concerned about Freddie. How bad was he to have his mother begging her to get back together with him?
Sam stepped into the apartment and went straight back to Freddie's room, knocking softly before pushing the door open.
Freddie was laying on his bed, still in his pajamas, eating a pint of ice cream as he scrolled through his Pearpad, looking through all of his and Sam's pictures. He didn't even look up when Sam cam in.
"Jeez, glad to see I'm the better looking half of this break-up," Sam said, causing his head to snap up.
"Sam!" he said, surprised. "What-What are you doing here."
"Your mom was right, you do look pathetic," Sam said, sitting down next to him on the bed.
"My mom?" Freddie frowned. "What were you doing talking to her?"
"She came over and found me at Carly's," Sam explained. "She-She wanted to talk to me."
"Aw man, did she say more awful things to you?" Freddie moaned. "Sam, I'm so sorry. I-I can't even blame you for yesterday; you don't deserve to be treated that way by her and I swear, when she gets home, I'm-"
"She didn't say anything bad to me," Sam told him. "She actually…she apologized to me."
"Apologized?" Freddie repeated. "Are you-Are you serious?"
"I still have goose bumps from it," Sam nodded. "She-She told me she was sorry for how she's been treating me since we've started going out and that she wanted us to get back together. Because she said I made you happier than she's ever seen you."
"She said that?"
"Yeah," Sam said softly. "And she said she'd never treat me that way again."
"Unbelievable," Freddie said.
"I mean you are looking pretty lousy without me, nub," Sam smirked. "Ice cream, pajamas and pictures of us? Have a little pride."
"I missed you," Freddie said simply. "I told you before, I love you."
"Yeah," Sam smiled, scooting closer to him. "I love you too. I mean ever though we've been broken up for less than twenty-four hours, I've kind of been going out of my mind missing you also."
"So-So with my mom promising to be, well, decent, towards you…does that mean that we're-are we-"
Sam leaned forward and kissed him. "That answer your question?"
"Oh thank God," Freddie said, wrapping his arms around her. "Because I think I was this close to going insane without you."
"Easy there, Fredweirdo," Sam laughed, hugging him back.
"Sorry," Freddie said, releasing her.
"Hey, you know," Sam said thoughtfully. "We never did get to celebrate our anniversary last night…"
"Yeah, you're right," Freddie said. "Us temporarily breaking up kind of put a damper in everything."
"Six months is a pretty important anniversary," Sam continued. "It would be a shame to waste it…"
"You wanna go out now and make up for last night's disaster?" Freddie grinned.
"Let's roll, baby," Sam said cheerfully, giving him another kiss before getting to her feet.
