Egg
"Wow, look at this place!" Carly exclaimed as her, Spencer, Sam and Freddie stepped into their hotel room. "This is ten times better than the room we stayed in last time."
"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "And it's right in the heart of New York too. Would you look at that view?"
"Aw man, there's only two beds again," Sam moaned. "What? Jimmy Fallon couldn't have sprung for a bigger place?"
"Unbelievable," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Only you could find a way to complain about a free trip to New York."
"I'm not complaining!" Sam snapped. "So why don't you shut your face, Benson and-"
"Guys!" Carly said loudly. "Come on! Can we have one trip without the two of you fighting like children?"
"She started it," Freddie mumbled.
"Two beds won't be a problem," Spencer said, setting his bag down. "We'll just double up like last time. Sam and Carly will share one bed, and me and Fredd-O will take the other."
"You trimmed your toenails this time, though, right?" Freddie frowned.
"Pfft, who does that?" Spencer scoffed.
"This so great, though," Carly said, sitting down by the window. "I can't believe Jimmy Fallon wanted us back to do another interview on his show!"
"Well the first one did kind of get ruined by Gibby's…incident," Freddie pointed out.
"Yeah, good call ditching the doof," Sam said.
"We didn't ditch him," Carly said. "He had found another gig as a men's' restroom attendant, remember?"
"Whatever, the point is he's not here to screw this up," Sam said. "So, what's the plan for tonight? We gonna go explore the city or something?"
"Oh, didn't we tell you?" Spencer said. "Carly and I have plans for tonight."
"What?" Freddie frowned.
"Oh right," Carly said. "See, one of our dad's old Air Force buddies lives in the city, and when he heard we were going to be in town, he invited the two of us for dinner at his place tonight."
"Well what are we supposed to do?" Sam exclaimed.
"I dunno, hang around the room?" Carly shrugged. "Prep for Jimmy Fallon tomorrow night?"
"You mean I'm going to be stuck here tonight with just her?" Freddie frowned, pointing at Sam. "With no witnesses?"
"She'll behave herself, won't you, Sam?" Carly said firmly.
"Well…"
"Sam!" Carly snapped.
"Fine!" Sam conceded. "I'll be good. But he has to promise he can't be a lame nub."
"What do you want me to be? A hooligan like you?" Freddie said.
"Look, just-just order room service and watch movies or something," Carly cut in quickly. "Just please make sure this place is in one piece when we get back, okay?"
She turned to her brother. "Come on, we need to get a cab now if we want to be there on time."
"Okey-doke," Spencer nodded, grabbing his jacket.
"Remember…behave!" Carly said, shooting her two friends one last warning glance before following Spencer out of the hotel room.
"Well this blows," Sam moaned. "We're in one of the coolest cities in the country and those two go and ditch us!"
"Well we could go and do something," Freddie said. "We don't have to stay in the room."
"And risk being seen with you?" Sam cringed. "No thank you."
"Fine," Freddie said simply grabbing the remote. "Let's see what's on T.V. then."
He pressed the power button, yet instead of any show popping up onto the screen, the two were met with a boxed message.
"Due to recent budget cuts, cable television is now only included in the deluxe room package," Sam read. "To enjoy your television shows of choice, please upgrade using any valid credit card. Are you kidding me? Even the dumpy hotels my mom stays at have cable T.V.! Grab Spencer's credit card, will you, Fredork?"
"He took it with him," Freddie told her.
"What? Why would he do that?"
"Probably because the last time he left you alone with it, you ordered five hundred cannolis," Freddie reminded her.
"Well that's just fantastic," Sam said bitterly. "No T.V.? Who lives that way?"
"Bet being seen with me in the city doesn't seem so bad now, does it?" Freddie smirked triumphantly as he got to his feet. "Look, we can either sit in here, bored out of our skulls, or we can try to make the best out of tonight and go explore New York."
Sam pondered this for a moment.
"I'll walk two steps behind you so no one will think we're together," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Eh…I guess that beats doing nothing," Sam gave in, grabbing her purse. "Fine, let's go."
…..
"Okay, how great were those egg rolls?" Sam said an hour later as her and Freddie left the Chinese restaurant they had just dined at. "I bet they don't even make them that good in China."
"Maybe we should've brought some back for Carly and Spencer," Freddie said.
"No way," Sam said. "They ditched us! We're not going to reward them with heavenly egg rolls. Seriously, my mouth is crying because it's not devouring one of those bad boys right now."
"They were pretty good," Freddie grinned. "Anyway, where to now?"
"I don't know, somewhere warm," Sam said, hugging her arms around her body. "It's freezing out here. It feels like it's about to snow."
"Well I told you the temperature was probably going to drop around zero before we left the hotel," Freddie said. "I suggested you go get a thicker jacket, but you pushed me into a ficus and told me not to boss you around."
"Well you shouldn't be so bossy," Sam snapped.
Freddie sighed. "Would you like my jacket?"
"No," Sam mumbled at once. "I'm not your little girlfriend anymore. Keep your nerdy-looking jacket to yourself."
"Fine," Freddie said, shaking her head at his stubbornness. "Well at least take my scarf, will you? We do need to be on national T.V. tomorrow night and you getting a cold is the last thing we need."
Giving a groan of defeat, Sam held out her hand for his scarf.
"You're welcome," Freddie smirked.
"Yeah, yeah," Sam said. "Hey, there's a hot chocolate stand over there. Let's go get some."
"Alright," Freddie nodded. "I could go for some-whoa!"
Freddie had suddenly stepped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk and slipped and fell hard onto the ground.
"Ow!" Freddie moaned, clutching his ankle in pain. "Ow! Ow, I think I just broke my ankle!"
"Man, are you clumsy," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, come on, nub, that hot chocolate's waiting for us."
"Can you not see I'm in pain?" Freddie snapped. "Ow! Yup…it's definitely broken!"
"Sorry, sorry…it's just weird seeing you in pain when I'm not the one who caused it," Sam said, kneeling down next to him. She frowned as she saw that his ankle was really beginning to swell. "Um…okay, that does not look good."
"You think?"
"You want me to call an ambulance or something?" Sam asked, trying not to sound too concerned.
"No," Freddie said, his face still contorted in pain. "No…there's a clinic a couple of blocks from here we can go to."
"How do you know?" Sam asked.
"My mom made me memorize the locations of every health-related facility in the city before I could come," Freddie mumbled.
"For real?" Sam snorted. "Remind me to make fun of you for that later."
"Thanks!"
"Alright, well, I guess if I leave you here to fend for yourself, Carly will kill me," Sam said, extending her hand to Freddie to help him up. "So let's get you to that clinic. Can you walk at all?"
"No," Freddie winced. "No, it hurts if I put any weight on it."
"Ugh, fine!" Sam said. "I guess…I guess just put your arm around me and lean against me until we get there. Man…you owe me big for this."
…
"I hate this hotel!" Sam stated angrily three hours later as she shoved open their room door, staggering inside as she supported Freddie's weight. "Of all the nights for the elevator to stop working! I can't believe I just lugged you up eight flights of stairs!"
"I like stairs," Freddie laughed as Sam helped him onto his bed. "Stairs are fun. Hey! We should tell Lewbert to get them back home!"
"How many pain pills did you take?" Sam asked.
"I dunno…" Freddie said groggily. "Two-teen?"
"Oye," Sam sighed, grabbing the pill bottle from Freddie. "This is gonna be a long night. Carly and Spencer better get home soon."
"Hey, hey, Sam?" Freddie said from the bed. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"We're in…we're in New York!" Freddie exclaimed, laughing as though he had just told the century. "New York! Get it? Get it?"
Sam couldn't help but chuckle. "Man…you are gone, Benson."
"Pfft…no!" Freddie scoffed. "I'm right here!"
"Well…at least I'll have some entertainment tonight," Sam said. She grabbed a pillow and carefully propped it under Freddie's wrapped ankle. "Alright, well, you heard the doctor. Your ankle's just sprained, not broken, so as long as you take it easy, you'll be fine in a few days. Oh…and-and you were supposed to give me forty bucks too."
"Well dokey-okey," Freddie said, reaching for his wallet. "Oh no…I only have sixty dollars. Can I give you the other ninety later?"
"Yeah, sure," Sam smirked, taking the bills from him. "No problem."
"Hey Sam?" Freddie said, holding up his hands to his face. "Do you know where my pinky went?"
"Your pinky?"
"I swear…I had it when I got off the plane," Freddie said, looking around him. "Did I drop it?"
Sam sat down next to him and held up his pinky. "Here it is."
"Hey! You found it!" Freddie said happily. "Where was it?"
"I should get this on video," Sam smirked.
"Sam…" Freddie said again. "You're pretty…really pretty."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Yup…you've officially gone loopy."
"Come here," Freddie said, carelessly flapping his arm at the empty spot on the bed next to him.
Sam moved closer to him, and Freddie's arm fell limply around her shoulders.
"You're lucky you have a sprained ankle, Fredifer," Sam sighed. "Or I'd really be letting you have it right now."
Freddie laughed. "You're funny…funny, pretty Sam. That's why you're my favorite."
"Favorite what?" Sam asked.
"Person," Freddie said simply, playing with the lose ends of her hair.
Sam looked down at her lap, feeling her cheeks redden.
Too bad you're hopped up on pain pills and probably don't mean a word of all this, Sam thought to herself.
"Hey," Freddie said, pulling her ear closer to his mouth. "Want to hear a secret?"
"What? That you've somehow managed to give new meaning to the word 'lame'?" Sam asked. "Because newsflash, Freddicini, that's no secret."
"Noooo," Freddie chuckled. "Not that."
He pulled her ear closer to his mouth. "I love you."
Sam's eyes widened. "You love me?"
"Righy-o."
"Like-Like a friend though, right?" Sam said.
"Nooooo," Freddie beamed. "Like love, love, love."
"Okay, um, I-I think those pain pills are working overtime," Sam said quickly, clearing her throat. "I mean…you-you don't mean that, do you? It's just the meds talking…right? Because-Because you still think I'm too abnormal, and-and you're still too normal…Although, I-I guess, well…does that really still matter? Yeah, sure, us being so different kinda made things a little difficult, but-but was it really that bad? Actually, no, forget I said that. What am I talking about anyway? I'm making it sound like there's some remote possibility of us getting back together. That's just crazy, right? Right?"
She looked over at Freddie, only to see the boy was completely passed out and fast asleep, his head resting on her shoulder and his arm still wrapped around her.
Sam couldn't help but smile at how peaceful he looked. She carefully reached for the covers and pulled them up over both of them before turning off the lamp on the bedside table.
"Night, Frednub," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Love you too."
….
"Look at them!"
"How long do you think they've been like that?"
"Must've been hours; it's already nine in the morning."
"You think we should take a picture? This is too cute."
Sam groggily blinked her eyes open, letting out a loud yawn. For a moment, she was completely confused as to why she had suddenly awoken from her peaceful slumber. She then looked over to see Carly and Spencer standing at the foot of the bed, both with huge smiles on their face.
"What are you two so happy about?" Sam mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
Just then, she felt something stir next to her, and she looked over to see Freddie slowly opening his eyes as well.
"What time is it?" he yawned. "I don't even remember going to sleep last-"
As his and Sam's eyes locked, both stared at one another for a moment before Freddie quickly pulled his arm away from Sam and Sam jumped to her feet.
"Morning, you two," Carly grinned. "Looks like you had a fun night."
"No!" Sam and Freddie exclaimed simultaneously.
"Well then what was going on?" Carly asked
"We just-we just fell asleep!" Sam explained quickly. "Freddie twisted his ankle and-and I had to help him into bed and then-and then he was so loopy on pain pills that-that I figured I couldn't leave him so…yeah."
"You were loopy?" Spencer asked Freddie.
"Um, I guess so," Freddie said, confused. "I don't really remember anything. Last thing I do remember is sitting in that clinic we went to, Sam."
Sam frowned. "So…that's it? That's all you remember from last night?"
"Yeah, I guess those were some pretty powerful pain pills," Freddie nodded. "Why? What happened? I didn't do anything crazy, did I?"
Sam looked down at her feet. "Um…no, no you didn't. You just um, you were just saying that you-that you couldn't find your pinky. Yeah, um, you thought your pinky was missing."
"Wow," Carly chuckled. "That's insane. Why would you think your pinky was-"
"Wait," Spencer frowned. "Was it missing?"
Carly stared up at her brother. "Really?"
"Well I'm curious!" Spencer defended. "It's a valid question! So was his pinky missing? Yes or no?"
"Um, no," Sam replied. "No, it-it was there."
"Well, at least my ankle doesn't hurt too much anymore," Freddie said. "Guess those pills were good for something."
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "Guess so…"
