Eighteen
"Hey, want to hear something super sad and depressing?" Freddie asked, letting himself into the Shay's apartment.
"Um, sure," Carly nodded, looking up from the bowl of soup she was eating on the couch. "I do wake up every morning just waiting to feel depressed."
"Sam's mom is ditching her on her birthday," Freddie told her.
"What? Are you serious?" Carly frowned.
"Yeah," Freddie said. "I was just over there hanging out with Sam, and she told me that her mom is going to be on some cruise with this guy she just met all of next week! Can you believe that? What kind of mom just blows off her daughter's birthday like that?"
"Especially her eighteenth birthday," Carly said. "This is one of the biggest birthdays Sam will ever had. Her mom should celebrate with her! I mean last year she went up to Vermont to celebrate with Melanie, the year before that she was recovering from some plastic surgery procedure. And the year before that-"
"Yeah, I know, Sam's mom has the worst track record when it comes to her birthday," Freddie sighed.
"Well is Sam okay?" Carly asked.
"Eh, you know her," Freddie shrugged. "She says she doesn't care, but I could tell she was kind of bummed."
"Well, we'll just have to make sure we celebrate Sam's eighteenth birthday right," Carly said.
"Exactly," Freddie grinned. "Which is why I came up with the best idea on my way over here. We throw Sam a surprise party!"
"A surprise party?" Carly repeated.
"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "You know, we'll get cake, pizza, wings, ham…I'll keep Sam busy all day while you set up, and then when I bring her back, everybody jumps up and yells-"
"Yes, I'm familiar with how a surprise party works," Carly chuckled. "You think Sam will really like that?"
"Sure, she liked that one you threw her when she turned fifteen," Freddie pointed out.
"Oh yeah, that was fun," Carly smiled. "I remember how happy she was when that Pete guy showed up. Remember him?"
"Unfortunately," Freddie said darkly. "But whatever, let's not bring the mood down by bringing up Sam's stupid ex-boyfriends. So what do you say? Are you on board?"
"Sure, a surprise party sounds like a great idea," Carly nodded. "Plus it gives me an excuse to use my party planning skills again. So who should we invite?"
"Well there's me, you, Spencer, and Gibby," Freddie listed. "T-Bo, Wendy, her detention crew, her-"
Just then the front door opened and Sam walked in, causing Freddie to instantly fall silent.
"Hey, what are you guys up to?" she asked, stepping over to her boyfriend and giving him a quick kiss.
"Nothing," Freddie said quickly. "Carly-Carly was just telling me, um, about her soup!"
"My soup?" Carly frowned.
"Why would you want to hear about her soup?" Sam asked.
"Well, just look at it!" Freddie said lamely. "It's-It's a whole new kind! I've never seen anything like it!"
Sam looked down at Carly's bowl. "It's chicken noodle."
"I-Right!" Freddie said. "I mean how do they get the perfect ratio of chicken to noodles? You know, I think I'm going to do my next science report on this."
"Oh-kay," Sam said, giving him and Carly a strange look before sitting down on the sofa. "Anyway, you guys want to go to the mall? I head Food on a Stick is having a two for one deal."
"Um…we-we can't," Carly said quickly. "We-We have to, um-"
"We have to go to an apartment meeting!" Freddie said. "You know, since-since Carly and I live here, in this apartment."
"Since when do you guys have apartment meetings?" Sam asked.
"Since…now," Carly said slowly. "Speaking of which, we-we kind of have to leave right now, so, um, we'll have to catch up with you later."
"Well why can't I just chill up here until your stupid meeting is done?" Sam asked.
"Because our apartment is being…fumigated," Carly said. "Yeah, so, um, you-you can't be in here."
"Why is your-"
"Whoa, when did you turn into Ms. Questions?" Freddie said quickly, taking Sam's hand and pulling her to her feet. "But, um, seriously, baby, you should be going."
"What's with you two?" Sam frowned. "Why are you being so weird?"
"We're not being weird," Carly scoffed.
"Look, um, we-we'll see you tonight," Freddie said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek as he opened the door. "Bye, Sam!"
"Wait, what are you-" Sam started, but Freddie closed the door in her face.
"Okay, that was close," Freddie said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Okay, let's start operation Surprise Party. Sam's birthday is in two days, so we're going to have to do a lot of work to make this happen."
"And we should probably come up with some more convincing lies to tell Sam while we're planning," Carly said. "Because that little stunt back there was pathetic."
"Alright, um, we'll just tell her we're working on a French project together," Freddie said. "We both have that class without her. It'll be perfect."
"Yeah, that could work," Carly nodded. "Alright, well let's start sending out the invites, then we can figure out everything else."
"Good idea," Freddie said. "Man…Sam's going to be so surprised! She's going to love this!"
….
"Alright, so I already placed orders at Wings Galore and this cool place Spencer found that makes sculptures out of meat," Carly said the next morning as her and Freddie stood by her locker. "After school do you think you can come by my place alone? I had this really cool idea last night that I need your help with. See, I want to have this photo montage of all the pictures I have of me and Sam since we've been friends playing at the party."
"Yeah, no problem," Freddie nodded. "We'll have to tell Sam we're working on that French project though. Tuesdays after school we always play air hockey down at the arcade."
"Well just make sure she doesn't come," Carly said. "This needs to just be the two of us."
"I know," Freddie nodded. "Don't worry about-"
"Hey," Sam said, turning the corner and joining the other two.
"Sam!" Freddie explained, clearly not expecting to see his girlfriend. "What-what are you doing here? School doesn't start for another twenty minutes."
"I know, but I wound up getting a ride from my neighbor," Sam shrugged. "She's applying for a job at Inside-Out Burger across the street. So how was that apartment meeting last night?"
"Apartment meeting?" Carly repeated.
"Yeah…that thing I got kicked out of your apartment for," Sam said. "How was it? Did Lewbert freak like usual?"
"Oh, um, yeah," Freddie nodded. "Yeah, it-it was real fun."
"So we still on for air hockey after school?" Sam asked. "I've been waiting to cream you all week."
"Um, actually, baby, Carly and I have to work on this huge French project today after school," Freddie told her.
"Oh," Sam said. "Well whatever, we'll go some other time. I guess I can just chill with you two while you do that project and-"
"Er, um, no-no offense, Sam," Carly said quickly. "But Freddie and I would kind of prefer it if-if we could work on the project alone."
"Alone?" Sam frowned. "How come?"
"It's just, this-this is a really big part of our grade," Freddie said. "And we do sort of need to concentrate without any, er, distractions."
"So I'm a distraction?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow.
"No! Of course not!" Freddie said. "What I meant was-was-"
"Who cares, it's fine," Sam said. "Have your little French meeting. I'll just go home after school and hope my mom's not still using that at-home wax kit."
"We'll call you as soon as we finish to hang out!" Carly assured her.
"Whatever," Sam mumbled. "I'll see you guys later. I have to give Wendy back her slingshot."
"I hate ditching Sam like this," Freddie sighed as he watched his girlfriend walk down the hallway.
"I know, me too," Carly said. "But just remember, it will totally be worth it to see her face when she walks into the party."
…
"I finished that video montage for you," Freddie said. "And I finished a killer playlist. I'm putting all of Sam's favorite songs on it. Now I'm just working on my birthday card I'm going to give to her. It's going to be the first one I've given her as her boyfriend, so I'm going all out. See? I'm decorating it with those tiny chocolate kisses she loves."
"Perfect. Real cute," Carly said. "And I just finished ordering all the decorations. By the time I'm done with the place, our living room is going to look incredible. I'm making it look like the Persian palace from her favorite book, The Penny Snatcher."
"Nice!" Freddie said impressed. "Listen, Carly, you-you've been unbelievably helpful with all this."
"Aw, it's no big deal," Carly said modestly.
"No big deal? Carly, you've been exactly what I've needed!" Freddie said. "This is all going so smoothly because of you. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Well this was all your idea to start with," Carly said.
"And it's the best one I've had for a long time, if I do say so myself," Freddie grinned. "The only thing that can ruin all of this is if Sam finds out what we've been doing."
"Oh man, that would be the worst!" Carly agreed. "Hopefully we keep this secret going. I mean things have been going so well for us."
"We can do it," Freddie assured her. "We've just got to make sure we keep our story straight. Remember, whenever we need to meet up in private, we just use this French project excuse."
"Right," Carly nodded. "You know, all this sneaking around has been kind of fun. I feel like one of those spies in the movie. Hey, you wanna give me a kiss?"
"Sure thing," Freddie nodded, tossing her one of the chocolate kisses he was using for Sam's card.
"So good," Carly sighed happily, popping the chocolate in her mouth.
"Anyway, after I finish Sam's card, I have to go pick up her birthday present, and then we should call her and tell her to come over. She looked really bummed when he told her not to at school today."
"Yeah," Carly agreed. "But hey, what'd you get her?"
"I'll show you," Freddie grinned, taking out his phone. "I ordered it last month. I had been saving up for it all year, though."
He showed Carly an image of a sparkling, silver charm bracelet.
"Oh, that's beautiful!" Carly gasped. "She'll love it, Freddie!"
"Each of the charms represents something special," Freddie told her. "I have a golf club, for all our games of Meat Golf, a tap shoe, because she used to love dancing, a ham, for obvious reasons, a violet, her favorite type of flower, a boxing glove because she loves to fight, a cat to remind her of Frothy, and the sun, because she lights up every room she walks into. Oh, and this heart charm has our anniversary date engraved on it."
"I think you just topped any present a guy has ever given his girlfriend on her birthday," Carly chuckled.
"That was the plan," Freddie said happily.
…
Unbelievable, Sam thought bitterly as she made her way up her driveway. Since when do Carly and Freddie have to completely ditch me to do homework? They've never had a problem doing their lame school chiz while I watch T.V. over there! Wonder why they're acting so weird about that all of the sudden. Eh, whatever, they're probably just wazzed off still about that time I used their Physics notes as napkins.
When she reached the front door, she dug in her pocket for her keys, only to find they were missing.
"Aw, man," Sam moaned. "I must've left them at Carly's yesterday!"
Figuring she'd just get them later, she looked in her pocket again for her trusty bobby pin, only to find it was missing too.
She let out a groan of frustration. Normally in this situation, she'd just break down any door that stood in her way, but seeing as this was her own door, she decided against that option.
Guess I have to go back to Carly's and grab my keys…hopefully me being there for five seconds won't disturb their precious homework.
Sam reached Bushwell Plaza about twenty minutes later. She let herself into the Shay's apartment, expecting to walk in and see Carly and Freddie huddled at the kitchen table as they normally were when doing homework. She was greeted instead by an empty living room.
Maybe their working in the studio, Sam thought to herself.
She spotted her keys sitting on the coffee table. She stepped over to grab them, but in the process, she spotted Carly's French textbook lying on the couch next to Freddie's.
Sam frowned. How are they working on a French project without their French books?
Suddenly she heard the sound of muffled voices coming from upstairs, confirming her earlier suspicion. Stuffing her keys into her pocket, Sam started up the steps. When she reached the hallway that led to the iCarly studio, she saw that the glass door was open, and she could now clearly hear Carly and Freddie's voices.
"Carly, you've been exactly what I've needed!" she heard Freddie say. "This is all going so smoothly because of you. I don't know what I'd do without you."
What's going smoothly? Sam thought curiously, standing just outside the door so she could eavesdrop.
"Well this was all your idea to start with," Carly said.
"And it's the best one I've had for a long time, if I do say so myself," Freddie said. "The only thing that can ruin all of this is if Sam finds out what we've been doing."
Sam's eyes widened. They're hiding something from me? But what? What would they be doing in there that they wouldn't want me to know about? We tell each other everything…the only thing they wouldn't be telling me would be…no! No, that's ridiculous! Freddie isn't cheating on me with Carly! This-This has to be about something else.
"Oh man, that would be the worst!" she heard Carly say. "Hopefully we keep this secret going. I mean things have been going so well for us."
"We can do it," came Freddie's voice again. "We've just got to make sure we keep our story straight. Remember, whenever we need to meet up in private, we just use this French project excuse."
I knew there was something weird about that French project, Sam told herself. But-But I still don't understand why'd they make it up. What are they doing in there?
"Right," Carly said. "You know, all this sneaking around has been kind of fun. I feel like one of those spies in the movie. Hey, you wanna give me a kiss?"
Sam nearly lost her balance. A kiss? A-Holy chiz! No! No, this is not happening!
"Sure thing," Freddie said.
Sam felt like she had just been punched in the stomach by someone with strength to match her own. How could this be happening? How could her boyfriend be in there kissing her best friend like that? How?
She suddenly felt like she was about to puke. She felt like her whole world was crashing down.
Without making a sound, Sam turned and ran back downstairs and out of the apartment, determined to hold herself together until she was behind closed doors.
And she was successful. The tears did not start pouring from her eyes until she was safely locked in her room.
…
When Sam awoke the next morning, it took several moments for it to even click in her head that it was her eighteenth birthday. She felt far from festive, after all. The shock of finding out your boyfriend is cheating on you with your best friend could do that to you, after all.
She curled up under her covers. It looked like this birthday would be far from ideal. Her mom had run off with her boyfriend and she felt so heartbroken by Carly and Freddie's betrayal that she didn't think she could even look them in the eye.
She reached for her phone, seeing that she had several missed calls and texts from Freddie and Carly.
What do they even want from me? Sam thought to herself. Shouldn't they be using this time to make-out behind my back?
At that very thought, Sam felt her eyes narrow in anger. How could they do this to me? Carly's supposed to be my best friend and Freddie…Freddie said he loved me. Ha! Well I don't want anything to do with either of them anymore!
But as those words ran through her head, Sam knew that would be easier said than done. Imagining life without Carly seemed foreign to her, and even though she felt as if her heart had been stabbed by Freddie, Sam knew that deep down, she still loved him, no matter how much it hurt.
Just then her phone started to buzz, and she looked down to see her boyfriend's name flashing across the screen. Sam rolled her eyes, having every intention of letting the call go straight to voicemail. But just as the call was about to be forwarded, she had a quick moment of weakness and found herself answering the call before she could even stop herself.
"Hello?"
"Happy birthday, baby," Freddie said at once. "Glad to hear you're finally up. I've been calling you all morning. I tried to call you yesterday too, but I guess you were busy."
Sam looked down at her lap. This was her chance, wasn't it? This was the part where she could tell Freddie she knew what was going on. She could yell at him and threaten him and scare him so badly he wouldn't want to leave his apartment for months. Yet when she opened her mouth, all that came out was: "Yeah, I was."
"Well I hope you've got time today," Freddie said cheerfully. "Because we're going to make your eighteenth birthday the best ever. We're going to get chocolate stuffed waffles for brunch, we're going to play laser tag, we're going to get you your first lotto scratch off cards, and-"
"Um, I-Um, I can't," Sam said lamely. "I-My cousin Chaz made parole and-and I already promised I'd spend the day with him since I haven't seen him in awhile."
"Oh," Freddie said, disappointed. Or maybe he was just trying not to act too excited that he now had the whole afternoon free to spend with Carly. "Well, that-that's alright. But I do want give you an eighteenth-birthday worthy day of events, so tomorrow, it's you and me and a dozen stuffed waffles. Oh, but-but you are going to be free tonight, right? Carly made reservations at the Cheesecake Warehouse for us all to go out and celebrate, so you need to be at her place at eight, okay?"
The mention of Carly's name made her feel even worse. She shook her head. Well if this is how Freddie wanted to play, then fine. It would be better to confront them both in person anyway. She would just wait until this evening.
"Fine," Sam said simply. "I'll be there."
"Great," Freddie said. "Have fun with your cousin, baby. And happy birthday again. I can't wait to see you later."
"I bet," Sam mumbled.
"Love you," Freddie said.
Sam hung up, a painful stinging feeling replacing the giddy one she would normally feel when she'd hear those words.
…
"Alright, everybody's here!" Carly said to Freddie later that evening as she pulled him into the kitchen, away from the crowd in the elaborately decorated living room. "Is Sam on her way?"
"I don't know," Freddie said. "I've been texting her for an hour but she hasn't responded."
"I thought you were supposed to be spending the whole day with her," Carly said. "That way you'd bring her here yourself when everything was ready."
"I was going to, but she told me she had plans with her cousin," Freddie said. "What about you? Haven't you talked to her today?"
"I've been trying to, but she hasn't responded to me at all," Carly said. "I texted her right at midnight to wish her a happy birthday, and I've called her six times, but I haven't gotten any answer. You think-You think maybe she's upset we blew her off yesterday?"
"Maybe," Freddie sighed heavily. "She did seem kind of off when I talked to her this morning…Man, I hate that she'd be feeling ditched by us on her birthday."
"Remember, the second she walks in here and sees this party, she'll realize what we were doing," Carly told him.
Just then Freddie's phone buzzed. He looked down and saw he had a text from Sam.
"She's just getting into the parking lot now," Freddie said. "I'll run down and meet her in the lobby."
"I'll get everybody ready to yell surprise," Carly nodded. "This is it! This is going to be great!"
…
Sam had spent the whole day going over what she was going to say to Carly and Freddie. It hadn't been easy. She had never even imagined being in this position.
Normally when she was mad at someone, she'd teach them a lesson the hard way, usually with the butter sock as her tool of choice. But it wasn't just anybody that had hurt her. It was Carly and Freddie, and no matter how angry she got, she could never seriously hurt either of them. On purpose.
She was just about to step over to the elevators in the lobby when suddenly Freddie himself came running downstairs.
"Hey!" he said, hurrying over to her.
He leaned down to give her a quick kiss. Sam tried to pull away, but something inside of her stopped her. What was going to happen now? Maybe…maybe she should just pretend that everything was fine. At least then nothing would change…
No, Sam told herself firmly when she finally managed to pull away from Freddie's lips. No, you have to do this.
"Where's Carly?" she asked simply.
"Upstairs," Freddie replied. "Come on, I'll go up with you. Let's just take the stairs though. How was your day with your cousin? I don't want to know about any illegal doings, but did you have fun?"
"My day was fine," Sam said simply. "But…I need to talk to you and Carly. It's important."
"Er, okay," Freddie nodded. "You-You can do that when we get upstairs. Anyway, like I said earlier, tomorrow we're continuing your birthday celebration because I want to personally make sure you'll always remember your eighteenth birthday as one of the best in your life."
"I'm sure I'll remember it alright…" Sam mumbled as they reached the eighth floor, feeling nervous and anxious about the conversation she was about to have.
"Okay," Freddie said as the couple stood in front of apartment 8C. "You ready?"
Sam gave him a strange look. "Ready for what?"
"For this," Freddie smiled as he opened the door.
As soon as they stepped into the apartment, Sam was greeted by loud cries of "surprise!", catching her completely off guard.
"What-What's going on?" Sam frowned, looking around at all of her friends gathered in what looked exactly like the Persian palace from The Penny Snatcher. "What is all this?"
"Surprise!" Freddie said again, beaming from ear to ear. "It's your party!"
"My-My-" Sam started, still confused as Freddie wrapped an arm around her.
"Sam!" Carly exclaimed, rushing over to her best friend and throwing her arms around her. "Happy birthday!"
"What-I don't get it," Sam frowned.
"Well when you told me the other day that your mom was leaving on your birthday, I thought throwing you an awesome surprise party would be just the thing to cheer you up!" Freddie said.
"That's right, it was all Freddie's idea!" Carly nodded.
"Well Carly did all the decorations," Freddie said. "And the invites and the food. Seriously, her party planning was insane. Doesn't this place look great?"
"It looks like the Persian Palace from The Penny Snatcher," Sam said slowly. "And-Hey! That's a ham sculpture!"
"That's right," Freddie chuckled. "See, I know Carly and I have been acting kind of distant these past couple of days. But that was only because we were putting together all of this."
"Yeah, we just wanted to make sure your birthday was special," Carly said, hugging Sam again.
"I-Wait," Sam said. "So-So that French project you guys kept saying you needed to work on-"
"That was just a cover," Freddie nodded. "So you wouldn't find out about all this and ruin the surprise. And we got you good. You should have seen your face, baby!"
"I-Yeah…yeah, I-I wasn't expecting this," Sam said, slightly dazed.
"Oh! I have to check how we're doing on chips," Carly said. "I'll leave you two to have a little couple time. But Sam, I can't wait to show you the most adorable video montage Freddie helped me set up!"
"It really is incredible," Freddie said as Carly ran off. "So? Do-Do you like this? I know you've never been one for huge parties, but I just really wanted your eighteenth birthday to be perfect."
"Um, yeah," Sam nodded. "Yeah, this-this is all great."
"Oh, come here," Freddie said, taking her hand and leading her to the stairs. "I want to give you your present. I can't wait any longer."
He led her up to the hallway leading to the iCarly studio, stopping in the same exact spot Sam had been yesterday when she had heard everything. Or at least…what she thought was everything.
"So this is what you and Carly have been doing?" Sam said, wanting to make sure she got all her facts straight. "You've been planning this all for me? This is why you guys kept running off together?"
"Yeah, and I'm really sorry we made it seem like we were ditching you," Freddie said. "We just couldn't have you find out. That-That kind of defeats the purpose of a surprise party. Alright, just wait here while I go grab your present."
As he hurried into the studio, Sam leaned against the wall, deep in thought. It was starting to make sense…Freddie and Carly talking yesterday about something they didn't want Sam to find out about…it was this party! Still, though, there was one last thing that she couldn't figure out…why would Carly ask Freddie to give her a kiss?
"Okay, I know it goes against everything you believe in, but you have to read the card first," Freddie said, returning to the hall with a small, velvet box and an elaborately decorated card.
Sam took the card, staring down at the three-dimensional design on the front. It was a heart surrounded by her favorite chocolate kisses.
"Kisses…" Sam said slowly.
"I know you love those," Freddie chuckled. "Let me tell you, though, it was not easy keeping those from Carly while I was making that. She'd ask for them every five minutes! Apparently she hasn't had them in years because Spencer won't let her bring them in the house after some incident involving a parrot, and I guess she was making up for lost time."
"Oh my God…" Sam said softly. "You-You gave her these kisses! These!"
A huge grin broke out over her face as she realized what had been going on all along. Freddie wasn't cheating on her with Carly! The only thing those two were guilty of was throwing her an unbelievable surprise party and exchanging chocolate kisses with Carly!
"Well, yeah," Freddie nodded. "I mean she helped me out a lot with this party. The least I could do was let her have some-"
He was cut off as Sam threw her arms around him and kissed him hard.
"Wow," Freddie said, gasping for breath when the couple finally pulled apart. "I-I take it you liked the card?"
"I loved it," Sam said. "Man, I can't believe I…never mind."
"Well," Freddie chuckled. "If you liked the card that much, I can't wait to see how you react to your actual present."
He handed her the velvet box. "Happy birthday, Sam. I love you."
Sam carefully opened the box, revealing the beautiful charm bracelet.
"Freddie…" Sam gasped. "It's-It's-Oh my God!"
"I wanted to get you something special," Freddie said. "Because, well, you make every day for me special."
"It's perfect," Sam whispered, looking up at him. "I-This-This is the best gift I've ever gotten, Freddie."
"I'm glad you like it," Freddie smiled, pulling Sam into an embrace.
"Thank you," Sam said, hugging him back tightly. "Thank you for the bracelet and-and this party and-well, everything."
"Anytime," Freddie said, giving her a short, gentle kiss.
