Intolerance
"Hey, Sam," Carly said, entering her bedroom carrying several bags in her arms.
"Where have you been all day?" Sam asked, looking up from the ice cream sandwich loveseat she was lounging on. "I've been here all day by myself!"
"Well since I knew you'd be difficult about the whole thing, I decided to do our dress shopping for the Web Awards banquet myself," Carly said.
"No way!" Sam gasped. "You mean I don't have to spend hours and hours with you in a bunch of snooty stores that smell like perfume and diet soda?"
"That's right," Carly grinned. "Am I the best friend ever or what?"
"Duh!" Sam said, getting to her feet. "This makes me kind of regret taking that twenty bucks from your purse earlier…"
"Huh?"
"Nothing," Sam said quickly. "So what'd you get?"
"Well for me, I bought this adorable black dress," Carly said, pulling the item out of one of the bags. "Cute, right? I'm going to wear it with some new wedges I bought and that sparkly necklace my dad sent me from Spain."
"Yeah, you'll look real hot, kid," Sam nodded.
"And for you," Carly continued, rifling through the other bag. "I got this super nice red dress!"
She handed Sam the garment. "Like it?"
"Um, yeah, but isn't it kind of fancy for me?" Sam commented.
"Sam, this banquet is one of the biggest web events of the year!" Carly said. "Everybody who has any sort of web show or blog or newsfeed is going to be there! And we're going to be accepting our award for best short skit; we're supposed to look fancy!"
"Alright, alright," Sam said. "I get it."
"I also bought you some new heels and a strapless bra," Carly said, handing Sam another bag. "Now the sizes at the store where I got the stuff are a little different than normal, so you should try everything on to make sure it fits."
"Okay," Sam said. "Hey, thanks for getting all this stuff without me. I owe you one."
"Well, since the last time we went shopping you tore off a mannequins arm to use as a backscratcher, I figured it was the best bet," Carly chuckled. "Alright, I'm going to go down to the front desk to see if the new purse I ordered online came yet, and then I want to see how all this looks on you. I'll be back in a little bit; don't eat anything while you're wearing the stuff!"
"Ugh! Then hurry back!"
Carly rolled her eyes as she headed out of her room, closing the door behind her. When she got downstairs she saw Freddie just stepping into the apartment.
"Hey, Freddie!" Carly smiled. "Did you pick up your tux for the banquet yet?"
"My mom's spraying tick repellant on it as we speak," Freddie nodded. "But I just came over here because I was wondering if I left my physics book here?"
"Um…yeah, I think it's up in my room," Carly nodded. "Just go grab it. I have to go down and beg Lewbert to tell me if my package arrived."
"Good luck," Freddie chuckled. "He once held on of my deliveries ransom for two week."
"Well he hates you more than me because your mom broke his warty little heart," Carly smirked.
"Good point," Freddie nodded.
Once Carly left the apartment, Freddie started up the stairs to her bedroom.
I guess I'll just do that physics homework here, Freddie told himself. If I go back to my place while my mom's her tick stuff out, I'll have no chance over there.
He stepped off the landing of the stairs and turned to Carly's closed door and reached for the knob.
Hey, I wonder is there's any pudding cups downstairs, he thought as he pushed open the door. I'm in a pudding mood. I could-
"Hey!"
Freddie's eyes suddenly widened and all thoughts of pudding cups and physics books were kicked from his mind as he slowly realized what he had just walked in on.
There, before his eyes, was Sam, right in the middle of changing.
"Get out!" Sam yelled, quickly grabbing a towel from the back of Carly's chair and wrapping it around herself even though Freddie had already gotten quite an eyeful.
"S-Sorry!" Freddie said, finally snapping out of his stupor and hurrying out of the room slamming the door behind him. "I-I didn't know you were-I just wanted-I'm sorry-"
"Go!" Sam yelled from behind the closed door.
Deciding facing the possibility of a forced tick bath was much safer than waiting around for Sam to come out, Freddie ran back downstairs and out the door, nearly running into Carly as she turned the corned of the hallway.
"Dude!" she said, catching her balance. "Where's the fire? Wait…is-is there a fire in there? Ugh! Spencer knows the fire department's still mad at him from that stunt with the cotton balls!"
"There's no fire," Freddie panted.
"But then why are you-"
"I gotta go!" Freddie said, scrambling into his own apartment.
"Um…okay…" Carly frowned, stepping into her own home.
As she closed her front door, Sam came rushing down the stairs, having thrown on her old clothes.
"Hey, I wanted to see how you looked in that dress," Carly said. "And then I'm going to need you to go down and help me persuade Lewbert to give me the purse I ordered. I know he has it. He's just-"
"Where," Sam cut her off, her voice filled with danger. "Is the nub?"
"Freddie? He just ran across the hall," Carly shrugged. "Why?"
"I'm going to strangle him!" Sam snapped.
"Okay, before I have to diffuse any situations, can I at least know what's going on?" Carly asked.
"That-That pervert walked in on me changing!" Sam exclaimed.
"He did?" Carly frowned. "Oh! Oh Sam, I'm so sorry! That-That was my fault. I ran into him before I left and I told him his textbook was up there. I figured he'd knock, though, before he just went in there and-"
"When has anybody around here ever knocked?" Sam yelled.
"I'm sorry!" Carly said again. "But-But I'm sure it's not that bad. I mean, did he see anything?"
"Yes!" Sam snapped. "I was changing!"
"Okay, but maybe-maybe he didn't get a chance to look before he ran out-"
"He was like a deer in headlights for at least five seconds!"
"Oh," Carly said. "Well…okay, so-so this was a little bit, um, awkward-"
"Awkward?" Sam repeated. "It's humiliating, Carly!"
"Come on, is it really so terrible?"
"How would you feel if Freddie saw you naked?"
"Well…okay, it sucks," Carly admitted. "But-But the important thing here is to be mature. This was all just a mistake. I mean it's not like Freddie was spying on you."
"I'm never going to be able to look him in the eye when I'm beating him up again," Sam moaned, her face bright red.
"Aw Sam, I'm sure in a couple days, you and Freddie will both be able to look back on this whole incident and laugh about it," Carly said comfortingly.
Sam looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay…maybe-maybe a couple weeks."
….
"Sam's going to murder me!" Freddie said frantically as he paced back and forth in his bedroom. "I'm dead! Okay, well-well I've had a pretty good life. Sixteen years filled with tick baths and fruit sauce…not-not a bad way to end things."
He slowly sat down on the corner of his bed.
"Oh…why didn't I knock? Why didn't I remember to bring my textbook home last night? Why-Why-Why can't I get this stupid image out of my mind!"
It was as thought the event had been officially branded in his thoughts.
Every time he closed his eyes or even blinked all he could see was Sam, just standing there, completely…
"Stop it!" Freddie yelled out loud. "Come on! This-This isn't okay! Sam is your friend…sort of. You should not still be thinking about that! It's creepy! Besides, it's Sam! If anything I should be in the bathroom vomiting."
But strangely, the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach didn't feel like nausea.
"Alright, this doesn't have to be a huge deal," Freddie sighed. "I-I'll just go over there and apologize to Sam and then we can both agree to never speak of it again. I mean that worked for our kiss…for a little while. And-And I mean I've been the beach with her! I've seen her in a swimsuit! And how different is that really? Sure, it-it's a little less layers but-but-oh! They're completely different!"
He flopped down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Well…this is the end. Either Sam's going to kill me or I'm just gonna drive myself insane."
….
"Alright, so the Web Awards are tomorrow night so we really need to finish our acceptance speech," Carly said as her and Sam sat up in the studio the next afternoon. "So when Freddie gets here-"
"Ugh! You mean he's gonna be here?" Sam mumbled.
"Well, yes, he is a part of iCarly," Carly nodded. "Come on, I get it. Yesterday was really weird and uncomfortable for both of you-"
"Oh what was so bad for him?" Sam snapped. "He was the gawker! I was the gawkee!"
"I doubt Freddie gawked," Carly said. "And he's really embarrassed about it too! It took me forever to convince him to come over today. So when he gets here can you please try to just act normally and-"
She was cut off as Freddie himself entered the studio.
As their eyes met, Sam quickly looked down at her lap and Freddie diverted his gaze down to the floor.
"Hey, Freddie," Carly smiled, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Thanks for coming!"
"Yeah, um, sure," Freddie muttered, taking the seat furthest from Sam.
"Hey, think you can take a look at this closing sentence?" Carly asked, passing him her Pearpad. "Sam and I have been looking at it and-"
"I wasn't looking!" Freddie blurted out. "Not at Sam! I mean I-But not on-It was…um…just-just give me that."
He took the Pearpad, his face flushing.
"Um, alright then," Carly said, clearing her throat. "So Sam; your mom said it's cool if we use that Winnebago she 'won' at that bingo tournament, right? Spencer can drive it and that way we can just change and get ready on the way over there; it will save a ton of time."
"I don't know, will people be throwing open doors while we're changing?" Sam snipped.
"Okay, that's it!" Carly said firmly, getting to her feet. "I can't tolerate this anymore! Can we just discuss the elephant in the room and be done with it?"
"What elephant?" Sam frowned.
"It's an expression!" Carly exclaimed. "Look, obviously what happened yesterday is still making both of you a little…uncomfortable. So, Freddie just apologize to Sam for not knocking and Sam, you be a mature grown-up and accept his apology and let's all just try and-"
"Oh easy for you to say!" Sam snapped. "The nub didn't ogle you!"
"I didn't ogle!" Freddie defended. "I-I barely even noticed anything!"
"Oh? So now I wasn't even worth you noticing?"
"That's not what I said!"
"So you were-"
"Alright, I need juice for this," Carly sighed, tossing her Pearpad aside and getting to her feet.
Once Carly left the room, Sam and Freddie were left alone with the very obvious tension building even more between them.
Freddie, who was still trying with all his might to not think about what he saw, finally let out a long breath. "Alright…this-this is a little ridiculous. The two of us can't keep being this, well, awkward around each other."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sam mumbled, not looking at him.
"Well…I'm sorry I accidently walked in on you while you were, um, not-not clothed," Freddie said lamely, his face beet red. "I should've knocked."
"No chiz!" Sam snapped. "You know, if I wasn't so afraid of the violent projectile vomiting that would come after, I'd find some way to walk in on you while you were changing. But no amount of revenge is worth that."
"Yeah, yeah," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "So-So how about we just try to forget about this and we never speak of it again?"
Sam pondered this for a moment. "Think we can really just forget about it?"
Probably not, Freddie thought to himself.
"Sure," he lied at once. "I mean…we forgot about that kiss, didn't we?"
Well, that wasn't completely true either. He'd definitely thought about that a lot. And even more in the past twenty-four hours since the incident.
"What kiss?" Sam smirked playfully.
"Exactly," Freddie chuckled.
"Fine," Sam finally conceded. "I-I guess there's not really much of a choice. But we never ever so much as think about what happened ever again. We never tell anybody else what happened, and we never let it happen again."
"Deal," Freddie nodded. "It never happened."
"Good," Sam said standing up. "I'm gonna go see there is to eat downstairs."
"Oh, can you bring me a-"
"Nope," Sam said, turning on her heel and heading out of the studio.
Once she left, Freddie let out a long breath as he leaned back in his beanbag chair.
"Alright, Benson, you heard her," he told himself. "Get it out of your head."
