Capacity
"So I still don't get it," Carly said as her, Sam, Freddie and Gibby all sat around their usual table at the Groovy Smoothie. "Why would anybody pay to have live rats lick their face?"
"I dunno, apparently the rat saliva gets rid of wrinkles," Sam shrugged. "And the chick that was talking in that show definitely needed to get some work done, so she had nothing to lose trying it out."
"What kind of shows do you watch?" Freddie frowned.
"Good ones!" Sam snapped.
"Well, I don't care how wrinkly my face ever gets," Carly shuddered. "I'm never letting rats lick my face."
"Good thing I won't ever have that problem," Gibby said. "Wanna know why?"
"No," Sam said at once. "Anyway, I had this crazy dream last night about a vat of gravy and my mom's rash that looks like Mount Rushmore. So I was a petting zoo, and-"
"It's because I moisturize twice a day," Gibby said, cutting Sam off. "I use this fancy lotion that has-"
"Gibby!" Sam snapped. "Nobody cares what you put on your face! And what did I tell you about interrupting me when I'm-"
"Sam!" Carly suddenly gasped, nearly dripping her smoothie. "Cute boy!"
"Where?" Sam exclaimed, quickly turning around.
"Ten o'clock!" Carly whispered.
"That dude in the red sweatshirt?" Sam asked, staring at a tall, blonde boy at the counter.
"Uh-huh," Carly grinned.
"Wow, Carls, nice spot," Sam said. "He is a real handsome hunk of boy."
Freddie slouched down in his seat, trying not to think about a time less than a month ago when Sam would've been calling him that.
"Right?" Carly nodded. "He looks like a combination of that dude from the mouthwash commercials and the stock boy at Hey Food."
"The one with the dimples?" Sam asked.
"Oh yeah," Carly smiled dreamily.
"Can we stop ogling people now?" Freddie asked, rolling his eyes.
"We were not ogling him," Carly defended him. "Just pointing out his best features."
"Carls, on that boy, all his features are his best features," Sam smirked.
"Anyway," Freddie said, determined to change the subject. "My mom's out of town this weekend. Her aunt just got new carpeting and the two of them are going to comb through it looking for ticks, so I got the place to myself. How about we switch things up and all hang out there tonight? I got all the channels unlocked."
"Can't," Gibby said. "I have plans."
"Doing what?" Sam scoffed.
"Well I'm-"
"Oops, don't care," Sam said.
"Well, we'll hang out with you tonight," Carly told Freddie. "That works out perfectly, actually. Spencer finally got his book club ladies to let him back in so they're all going to be at our place tonight and-"
"Excuse me," came a voice behind the girls suddenly. Sam and Carly turned around to see the boy in the red sweatshirt standing there with two smoothies in his hand. "I hope you don't mind, but I spotted you two when I came in and I just couldn't believe the two most beautiful girls in Seattle were together in the same place."
Carly and Sam exchanged quick smiles before looking back up at the boy.
"The most beautiful girls in Seattle?" Carly repeated, flipping her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously.
"That's what I said," the boy grinned back.
"Those smoothies for us?" Sam asked.
"Yes they are," he nodded, handing the girls the beverages. "I figured you two could use some Strawberry Splats to quench your thirsts on this hot day."
"They already have smoothies!" Freddie pointed out.
"Shut it, Fredbag!" Sam hissed as her and Carly quickly pushed their old smoothies out of the way, sending them spilling onto Freddie's lap.
"Ohhh….that's cold," Freddie said, shifting uncomfortably as he grabbed a handful of napkins.
"Thanks, I've been craving a smoothie," Carly smiled as she accepted the drink from the boy. "Hey, what's your name?"
"I'm Luke," the boy replied. "And may I ask you lovely ladies what your names are?"
"Ugh!" Freddie said loudly, causing Sam and Carly to glare at him.
"I'm Carly," Carly said, turning back to Luke.
"And I'm Sam," Sam nodded at him, sipping her smoothie.
"And I'm Freddie," Freddie said. "And now that we're all introduced, how about you go off back where you came from Luke."
"Ignore our friend, he doesn't speak English," Sam said quickly.
"What?" Freddie sputtered. "Of course I-"
"So Luke," Carly said, cutting him off. "What brings you to the Groovy Smoothie?"
"Oh, I just needed to grab something to fill me up before my big baseball game," Luke said. "Hey! I know! Why don't you two come and watch it? It starts in an hour. And then after we could all go out for pizza."
"Baseball? I love baseball," Sam said.
"You do not!" Freddie said. "You've always said it's a dead sport with no violence and-"
"Do you want another smoothie on your lap?" Sam hissed under her breath.
"We'd love to watch your baseball game," Carly told Luke. "It sounds like a lot of fun."
"Great," Luke said. "We'd have to go now, though. The seats are going to fill up fast since it is a playoff game."
"Great, let's go!" Sam said as her and Carly jumped to their feet.
"Wait! What about our plans?" Freddie said indignantly. "We were all going to hang out at my place and-"
"We will later," Carly said hurriedly, grabbing her purse. "You can just hang with Gibby tonight."
"Hey!" Gibby said. "I told you all I had plans tonight."
"Yeah, yeah, noise, noise," Sam said. "Who cares what you two do. We'll see you around, Gibby, Fredgut."
"But you guys-" Freddie started, but Carly and Sam had already turned and were heading out of the restaurant with Luke.
"Unbelievable!" Freddie said. "Did you see that? They totally ditched me for Pretty Boy Luke!"
"You know," Gibby said. "It's refreshing having Sam back to saying my actual name. Now that you two have broken up she only manipulates 'Freddie'."
"Well glad to be of service!" Freddie snapped, angrily sipping his smoothie. "I can't believe this…You know what? I could believe it from Carly. She's always been boy crazy! But Sam? What was that about? Since when does she run off with guys to watch baseball?"
"Maybe she likes Luke," Gibby shrugged.
"Maybe she likes-She met him five minutes ago!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Hey, you think T-Bo has anymore of those figs he was selling yesterday?" Gibby asked. "They were a little ripe but they were still-"
"And who goes out for pizza after a baseball game?" Freddie scoffed. "Sam has a strict policy regarding post-sporting events meals. It's either wings or ribs. Not pizza."
"Dude, just drop it," Gibby said. "I get it. You're upset that Sam's back out in the dating game while you're still moping over your break-up-"
"Moping?" Freddie repeated. "No, no, no. I am not moping."
"Is there a new word for it then?" Gibby frowned. "Man! I always miss these things!"
"Look," Freddie said. "Yes, Sam and I broke up, but that has nothing to do with this! I don't care that she's out gallivanting with some dude she barely knows while I'm going to be stuck in an empty apartment tonight. In fact…it's great! Yeah, because that just means this Luke guy is going to have to be the one to deal with Sam and all her crazy antics."
Gibby sighed. "Alright, I can't deal with your mopiness bringing the mood down. You're worse than the girl who got pushed down the stairs on my soap opera. How about…I guess you can…I guess I can bring you to hang out tonight."
"I don't know," Freddie said. "I don't really feel like hanging out with your cat watch musicals again."
"Come on, he really enjoyed that!" Gibby said. "He stopped throwing up fur balls! But that's not what I'm talking about. You can come with me to meet girls!"
Freddie, who had been taking a sip of his smoothie, spit out the beverage in shock. "What? Since when do you meet girls?"
"Wow," Gibby said coldly, crossing his arms. "That's pretty big talk coming from a guy who's moping over his ex-girlfriend still."
"Alright, can we stop saying 'mope'?" Freddie sighed.
"So you in or not?" Gibby asked. "It will be fun! And it will get your mind off of Sam!"
"My mind isn't on Sam!" Freddie said loudly.
"Then what are you thinking about right now?"
"I-I'm thinking about…I'm thinking about…fine!" Freddie conceded. "Fine, I'll go out and meet girls with you."
"Awesome!" Gibby said. "This will be so much fun. I feel like you and I never do anything just the two of us. It always has to be with Carly and Sam and-"
"So where are we gonna go?" Freddie sighed. "A dance club or something?"
"A dance club?" Gibby scoffed. "Who meets girls in a place like that? We're going to the Laundromat."
"The Laundromat?" Freddie repeated. "You mean the place where people do laundry?"
"Yeah," Gibby nodded. "Oh, and if you have any extra dryer sheets, bring them with you. I have to wash my whites while we're out."
"Why-We're going -the Laundromat?" Freddie said again, still not wrapping his head around the concept.
"Yes, we established that," Gibby said, rolling his eyes. "Oh, and promise you won't, you know, embarrass me while we're out. I sort of have a reputation to uphold."
…..
"Here we are," Gibby said later that night as he pushed open the glass door of the local Laundromat. "This is where the magic happens."
Freddie looked around, seeing mainly elderlies loading their washer and dryers.
"Just try to have a good time tonight," Gibby told him.
"Yeah, I'm sure I'll have lots of fun talking to senior citizens about detergent brands," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, will you stop knocking this place?" Gibby said. "I've been coming here for almost a year and it never disappoints."
"Sorry, I just find it hard to believe that you can actually find girls born before World War II in this place," Freddie said. "I mean, look around! All I see are-"
"Gibby!"
Freddie turned around to see an exceptionally attractive girl their age running towards them.
"Vanessa!" Gibby said coolly as the girl threw her arms around him. "How you've been? You get that chocolate stain out of that blouse?"
"Sure did," Vanessa giggled. "Thanks for that tip about the club soda."
"Hey, I can't take all the credit for that," Gibby said modestly. "I got it from a Martha Stewart clip I found on the Internet."
"Who's that?"
"No clue, but she also has some videos on how to do your taxes and make a mean apple pie," Gibby shrugged. "Oh! Vanessa, this is my gloomy friend, Freddie. I thought I'd take him here to try and cheer him up tonight."
"Um, hi," Freddie said, completely confused by the whole scene.
"Aw, Gibby, that's so sweet of you," Vanessa gushed. "What a good friend."
"Yeah, well," Gibby said. "What can I say?"
"Okay…this is too weird," Freddie said, shaking his head.
"Oh, Gibby, you have to come check out the new spin cycle on machine eight," Vanessa said, grabbing his hand. "It's amazing!"
"No way!" Gibby said excitedly. "See Freddie? And to think you ever doubted this place."
Freddie watched as the two ran off to a nearby washer.
"Well," Freddie said to himself as he stepped over to an empty seat and sat down. "This is definitely a new low for me. I'm sitting in a Laundromat while Sam is out eating pizza with some new guy."
Why was this all so hard? Why was it that after almost a month of being broken up, it still seemed like Sam occupied his every waking thought? She had clearly moved on. So why couldn't he?
"Excuse me?"
Freddie looked up to see a pretty girl standing next to him.
"Oh, um, hi," Freddie said. "Am I in your seat?"
"Oh no," the girl said quickly. "My friend Vanessa just told me that there was a cute guy sitting alone by the fabric softener bottles. And well…turns out she was right."
"I-Huh?" Freddie said. "Cute? Me?"
The girl laughed as she sat down in the chair next to him. "I'm Janet," she said, extending a hand to him.
"Freddie," Freddie replied, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"I couldn't help but notice you look a little…down in the dumps," Janet said. "And you're in a Laundromat. Something must really be eating at you."
"Oh, um, no, no I'm fine," Freddie said quickly.
"Well good," Janet said. "Because it'd be a shame for such a handsome guy to be so-"
"Hey, what do you think of baseball?" Freddie blurted out.
"Um, baseball?" Janet repeated.
"Yeah, you know, with the bats and homeruns," Freddie said.
"I-I guess it's okay," Janet shrugged.
"It's a stupid sport," Freddie scoffed. "I mean they just run around the bases! Where's the skill in that?"
"Um…is there something-"
"And don't even get me started on those hats they wear!" Freddie continued.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Janet asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah," Freddie said. "I'm just peachy."
"Well then," Janet said, smiling at him. "How about we go see what kind of socks people have left behind in the lost and found box-"
"Do you think it's weird for a girl to just go out with some guy she met for five minutes?" Freddie asked, cutting her off. "Don't you think that's insane?"
"Am-Am I missing something here?" Janet frowned.
"Er, no, this-this is just purely hypothetical," Freddie said lamely. "But it's crazy isn't it?"
"I don't know," Janet shrugged. "I guess if she really hits it off with the guy-"
"But he just bought her a smoothie!" Freddie said. "I've bought her hundreds of smoothies over the years!"
"Huh?"
"Er, never mind," Freddie said.
"Great," Janet said. "So then let's-"
"And the line the guy used!" Freddie said. "Prettiest girls in Seattle? Please, like that's an original pick-up line!"
"This isn't hypothetical anymore, is it?" Janet sighed.
"What? Of course it is!" Freddie said.
"Come on," Janet said. "You're fidgety, angry, distracted…this 'hypothetical' situation you keep bringing up is actually some real situation, and this she must be someone who you've been involved with in the past but aren't anymore, except you still have feelings for her."
"I-No!" Freddie exclaimed. "That couldn't be more wrong! I do not still have feelings for Sam!"
"So her name's Sam? You mean she is a real person?"
"That-That's not-Oh, what do you know?" Freddie snapped. "You're just some Laundromat girl."
"Listen," Janet said, giving Freddie a kind smile. "I've been an exclusive VIP here at the Laundromat for ages now. I can usually get any guy I want to swap labels on laundry detergents with me or make cute puppets out of dryer lint-"
"So are these all codes for something or am I just really out of touch with dating activities?" Freddie frowned.
"-But not you," Janet continued, ignoring his comment. "Because you are in love with someone else."
"Look, no offense, you seem like a nice girl, but you have no idea what you're talking about," Freddie said. "I'm not in love with Sam. We broke up because it was what was best for us. When we were together we would have all these stupid arguments and stress everybody out. We could never agree on any couple activities to do together other than make-out and we –we were just too different."
"But," Janet said. "Even with all that…did you feel as miserable as you do now when you were with her?"
Freddie sighed. "Not even a little."
"Listen…it's not going to do you any good to just bury your feelings for this girl," Janet said. "Even here at the Laundromat, you're not going to be able to enjoy yourself if you're too busy trying to crush down feelings."
"Well I can't tell Sam how I feel," Freddie sighed. "I mean…she must be over me if she's already back out in the dating game."
"Hey, you never know," Janet said encouragingly. "If there's one thing I've learned from spending so much time here, it's that life is full of unexpected twists. Like last week, when Mr. Jones accidently put his cell phone in the washer or when Mrs. Pompeto almost left her baby in a laundry basket."
"So…" Freddie said, giving her a confused look. "You're saying I shouldn't give up hope that Sam and me might one day get back together even though she's out with some other guy?"
"Exactly," Janet nodded, getting to her feet.
"Huh…you know, believe it or not, this little talk has actually helped," Freddie said. "So Sam's out with some guy watching a baseball game? That just means I have a real reason to sit down and talk to her about my feelings for her! Maybe this whole Luke thing was just the push I needed!"
"Glad I could help," Janet said. "Now go on, go find this girl and let her know how much she means to you."
"I will!" Freddie said. "But before I go, I have to know. What is the deal with you people hanging around a Laundromat?"
"If you have to ask," Janet said, turning to head back behind a set of dryers. "Then you weren't meant to know."
….
"Alright," Freddie said to himself as he headed down the hallway towards apartment 8C back at Bushwell Plaza. "You're going to wait until Carly and Sam get back from their little outing with Luke. Then the second she gets back, you're going to tell Sam how you feel and convince her that she should be with you and not that jerk!"
He pushed open the door of the Shay's apartment.
"Oh, hey nub," Sam said, looking up from the show she was watching on the couch. "I was wondering where you were. I looked for you over at your place but you weren't home. You should probably do something about the vase I broke before your mom gets home, though."
"Sam?" Freddie frowned. "What are you doing back here so soon?"
"Um, watching T.V., what does it look like?" Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Spencer's lame book club finally left, thank God. They were droning on and on about some chick in the attic for hours until Spencer accidently set a tray of cupcakes on fire and got banned again."
"I-I just thought you'd be out with Luke still," Freddie said. "But-But good! I'm glad you're back, because there's something I have to talk to you about-"
"Out with Luke?" Sam scoffed. "What do you mean?"
"You know, you said you were going to watch him play baseball and get pizza with him," Freddie said.
"And?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow.
"And…don't-don't you like him?" Freddie said. "I mean you watched a baseball game, Sam."
"Come on, don't tell me you fell for that," Sam grinned.
"Fell for what?" Freddie asked, confused.
"Dude! I wasn't into Luke!" Sam laughed. "Carly was!"
"Well-I-I assumed you both were-"
"No, no, no," Sam said. "We don't go after the same guy anymore. Not after what happened to that Shane kid…or that Robert guy…Or Zach….Anyway, when Carly pointed him out to me, I could tell that she liked him way more than I did so we made a silent agreement to try and get her with him. And it worked! After I hung around them for a few minutes after we left the smoothie to make sure he wasn't a creep or anything I made up some excuse about my mom being stuck in a well and left them. Apparently the two of them hit it off real well. Carly just texted me that they went to get frozen yogurt after they left the pizza place."
"Wait…" Freddie said slowly. "So-So you don't-You and Luke aren't-You don't like him?"
"God no," Sam said. "He looks like he's a boy band member. And not one of the cute mysterious ones."
"Oh," Freddie said lamely, the adrenaline that had been pumping through his body suddenly fading.
"Anyway, you wanna watch this cool new show I found? It's about squirrel with the mental capacity of a human with an IQ of 160. It's hilarious."
"Yeah, okay," Freddie nodded, sitting down next to her.
"Oh, and what did you want to talk to me about?" Sam asked.
"Huh?"
"You said you had something to talk to me about before," Sam said. "So what is it?"
"Oh…um," Freddie said nervously. The previous fearlessness had been replaced with anxiety once more now that the threat of Sam dating some other guy was suddenly gone. Maybe it was just his nerves, or maybe it was simply him no longer being in that Laundromat, but he felt as though he would vomit if he started such a conversation with Sam.
"Um…I-I finally figured out how to tell the difference between the Olsen twins," Freddie said lamely.
Sam gave him a strange look. "Congratulations?"
"Right, well, um…let's-let's start this show you were talking about then," Freddie said. "I'm a sucker for a comically smart animal."
"Whatever," Sam said, giving him one last look before turning the show on. "Your mom must've put extra fiber in your fruit sauce this morning or something, because you're being extra weird."
"Probably," Freddie sighed, staring at the screen.
He wished he had been able to muster up that same courage he had been feeling earlier and tell Sam what he really wanted to tell her. But now that he knew she wasn't out dating other guys he felt, well, safe. And it was as Sam always pointed out; he always liked to play it safe. It was one of his greatest strengths when it came practical things, like school, but when it came to things like this…things that required spontaneity and guts…it was his greatest weakness.
"Hey," Sam said suddenly, sniffing the air. "I smell laundry detergent. Were you just washing your tick resistant boxer shorts or something?"
"Something like that," Freddie sighed.
