Shaking

"You know, I went through four years of college because I thought that was supposed to help me get a good job," Carly said as she walked into Sam and Freddie's apartment. "But clearly that was a waste of time, because you know what I had to do at work today?"

"What?" Freddie asked.

"I had to spend two hours redoing my bosses coffee order because she kept changing her mind!" Carly said. "I'm a script writer! Shouldn't I be coming up with new ideas and characters?"

"Well, you just started a few months ago," Freddie pointed out. "I'm sure it will get better eventually. You won't always have days like today."
"Well today wouldn't have been so bad if my co-worker hadn't called out sick!" Carly snapped, looking over at Sam, who was lounging on the couch with her headphones in as she typed away at her computer.

Sam made no indication that she even knew her best friend was in her home.

"Ugh, Sam!" Carly said hotly as she crossed the room and yanked the blonde's headphones out.

"Oh, hey Carly," Sam said, looking up. "How was work?"
"Terrible!" Carly exclaimed. "Where were you? Why did you call out sick! You're not sick at all!"

"I-I had a tickle in my throat," Sam said lamely.

"There was no tickle!"

"Okay, fine, I played hooky today; sue me," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "I just didn't feel like going into work today, that's all."

"You didn't feel like it?" Carly repeated. "Sam, this isn't college anymore, where you can skip a class every now and then and it's fine. This is the real world! You can't just miss work because you don't feel like going! You have to be responsible and-"

"Don't waste your breath, Carly," Freddie sighed. "I gave her the same lecture this morning when I told her that she should go into work."
"You didn't seem to mind the way we spent the morning instead," Sam smirked.

"Okay, okay, gross," Carly cringed. "Look, Sam, seriously, you can't just call out anymore. You're not going to have any sick days left for when you really get sick. Plus when you're gone, I have to do double the work."

Sam sighed. "Alright…I'm sorry. I'll try to make it to work everyday from now on."

"Thank you," Carly said, satisfied.

"I said the exact same thing to you this morning and you gave me a wedgie!" Freddie frowned.

"Your point?" Sam said, rolling her eyes as she shut her computer. "Anyway, since you're finally back from work, Carls, you guys wanna go out and get some dinner? Mama's starving."

"Sure," Carly chuckled.

"Let me just change out of my sweats," Sam said, getting to her feet. "I'll be down in a minute."

"Don't feel bad, Freddie, it takes a lot of practice to actually get her to listen to you," Carly said as Sam ran upstairs. "I've been her best friend for sixteen years. You've only been a couple for six."

"Yeah, yeah," Freddie chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"So what did you guys do here all day?" Carly asked.

"Well I did go to work," Freddie said. "Course Sam made me late-"

"Not that you minded, right?" Carly smirked.

"Ha, ha," Freddie said. "But I think Sam just stayed here all day and worked on her novel."

"Her what?"

"Her novel," Freddie repeated.

"She's writing a novel?" Carly asked. "Since when?"
"She's been working on it all through college," Freddie said.

"What? How did I not know that?" Carly frowned. "I was her roommate there!"

"Eh, she doesn't like to talk about it," Freddie shrugged. "So, you know, don't make a big deal about it."
"Well I think it's great that she's writing a book," Carly said. "She's such a talented writer."

"I know," Freddie said.

"What's the novel about?" Carly asked.

"No clue," Freddie replied. "Sam's never let me even read a sentence of it. She's super secretive about the whole thing. Writers…But I'm hoping she'll let me see it once it's done; I'd love to read what she's written. And I'm also hoping she really follows through with this whole project and tries to get her book published."

"Oh, that would be amazing!" Carly said. "She'd really-"

"Alright, I'm ready for food," Sam said, coming back downstairs.

"Cool," Freddie said quickly, giving Carly a silencing look. "Let's go."

…..

That evening, Freddie sat in his and Sam's bed, working on his computer.

"Hey," Sam said as she walked into the room and sat down next to him. "You busy?"

"Not really," Freddie said, closing his computer.

"Well, guess what?" Sam said, a grin creeping onto her face. "I have something exciting to tell you."

"Yeah? What's up?" Freddie asked.

"You know my novel I've been working on for forever?" Sam said. "Like, all though college?"

"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "What about it?"

"Well…I-I finally finished it!" Sam said.

"You-You did?" Freddie exclaimed. "Whoa! Sam, that's incredible! Congratulations!"

He threw his arms around her. "Why didn't you say anything earlier when we were out with Carly? We could've really celebrated!"

"I-I wanted you to be the first person I told," Sam said.

"Well, tomorrow we're going out," Freddie said firmly.

"No, dude, it's alright, we don't need to make a big deal out of it," Sam said quickly.

"But this is a big deal, Sam," Freddie said. "It's not everyday you finish a novel."

"Yeah…okay, it is kind of a big deal," Sam smiled. "But seriously, I don't want to celebrate. Not-Not yet at least."
"What do you mean?"

"Well, um, I-I didn't say anything to you earlier because I-I didn't want to jinx it," Sam said. "But a few weeks ago I sent the first chapter of my book to this publisher I had heard about at work. I just wanted to see what she thought."

"Really? Sam that's great," Freddie said. "Did-Did you hear back from her?"

"Yeah, she-she actually really liked the chapter," Sam nodded. "She said she thinks my story has real potential. So she asked me to send her the rest of it as soon as I finished, which I just did. Her and a few others from the publishing company are going to read it over, but if they like it…"

"Oh my God, baby, you're going to be published!" Freddie cried.

"Maybe!" Sam said quickly. "They-They could wind up hating the rest of the book."

"Sam, you're an incredible writer; I'm sure they're going to love it."

"We'll just have to wait and see," Sam said, her voice shaking a little bit from the combination of nerves and excitement. "They said they should have a decision about what they want to do within the next few days."

"Okay," Freddie said. "Well, I'm sure they'll be giving you the good news before you know it."
"Let's hope," Sam said heavily.

"Hey…" Freddie said slowly. "Um, I-I was wondering, Sam, I-I know your writing is really private to you but, um, do-do you think I could-"

"You wanna read it?" Sam asked.

Freddie nodded. "Yeah. But um, if you're not comfortable with me-"

"Here," Sam said, handing him a flash drive. "It's on this. You can download it onto your Pearpad or something."

"You're really okay with me reading this?" Freddie asked.

"Yeah, you-you're actually part of the reason I kept pushing myself to get this done," Sam admitted. "Just-Just don't let anyone else read it, okay?"

"I won't," Freddie promised, kissing her temple. "I'm just so proud of you, baby."

….

"Hey, I have coffee," Carly said a few days later as she walked into Sam and Freddie's home.

"Shhh!" Freddie hissed, looking up from his Pearpad.

"Huh?" Carly frowned.

"Sorry," Freddie said, not looking up from his screen. "But I have about ten pages left of Sam's book and I really want to find out what's going to happen."

"She let you read it?" Carly gasped.

"Uh-huh, and it's really good," Freddie said. "Even better than I thought."
"Well can I read it when you're done?"

"Er, sorry, Sam sort of only wants me to see it right now," Freddie said. "But I'm sure she'll let you read it soon."
"Well can you at least tell me what it's about?" Carly asked.

"Um, sorry, I-I really think Sam wants to keep it private right now," Freddie said. "But it's really good. I've been reading this non-stop for the past few days. I'm actually sad it's about to end."

"I guess I'll let you get back to it then," Carly chuckled, handing Freddie a coffee cup. "Thanks," Freddie said. "I'll tell Sam you stopped by."

About five minutes after Carly had left, the front door opened again and this time Sam burst into the home.

"Freddie, oh my God, you'll never believe this!" Sam exclaimed loudly.

"What is it?" Freddie asked.

"The publishing company emailed me back today," Sam said. "And-And they said they loved my book!"

"Are you serious?" Freddie beamed, jumping up and rushing over to Sam, spinning her around. "See? I told you they would! So this is it? You're going to be published?"

"I-I think so," Sam nodded. "It-It's probably not going to turn into anything big, but, well, it's still something, isn't it?"

"Sam, it's huge," Freddie said. "It's huger than huge, it's…gigantic! Okay, now we're gonna go out and celebrate. Right now."

"Alright," Sam laughed. "If you insist."

"Actually, we-we're gonna need to wait another five minutes," Freddie said.

"How come?"

"Well I have five more pages of this amazing book I need to finish," Freddie grinned. "The author is unbelievable; she's my new favorite. And between you and me, she's pretty hot, too."

"No way, you're almost done?" Sam beamed. "How-How do you like it? Do you think the characters were believable? Were the chapters too long? Too short? Did it-"

"It was perfect, Sam," Freddie assured her.

Sam rolled her eyes. "You're probably just saying that because you're my boyfriend."

"No, I mean it," Freddie said. He leaned down and kissed her. "You have a real talent here, Sam."

"Thanks," Sam smiled, leaning up to kiss him again. "You know…maybe before we go out, we can celebrate a little here first…"

"I'll take you up on that offer," Freddie grinned. "But seriously, I've got to finish this story first."