Revenge

"I'm so glad Sam's coming back from visiting Melanie today," Carly said as her and Freddie lounged around in the Shay's living room. "I've really missed her these past two weeks."

"You've missed her?" Freddie scoffed. "What about me? I'm her boyfriend! You know how hard it's been not getting to see her for this long?"

"What are you two going to do if you wind up going to different colleges next year?" Carly asked.

"That's a terrible, horrible bridge we'll cross when we get to it," Freddie replied simply, glancing down at his phone. "She should be here any minute. I can't wait to see her; I have the perfect night planned out for us. I'm going to take her to see Revenge of the Killer Mummies Part XII, which she's been dying to see for weeks, then we're going to get cannolis at the new Italian bakery, and then-"

"Well what about what I had planned for me and Sam?" Carly spoke up. "I've been missing my best friend sessions, you know! We were going to have a sleep over and eat cookie dough and watch terrible movies-"

"Oh, can't you do that tomorrow night?" Freddie begged. "Please? Tonight's the one night my mom's not home and I was really looking forward to having Sam over. I love her!"

"Ugh, fine!" Carly conceded. "You know I'm a sucker for romance. But you owe me! I went out and bought sixty bucks worth of junk food today."

"Thanks, Carls, you're the best," Freddie said. "You're really-"

Just then the front door of the Shay's apartment opened and Sam herself walked in.

"Sam!" Freddie and Carly exclaimed simultaneously.

"Hey," Sam said, giving her boyfriend and best friend a small smile.

"We've missed you so much!" Carly said, throwing her arms around the blonde. "How was Vermont? How's Melanie? Did you two get along?"

"Vermont was fine, and Melanie was just as annoying as usual," Sam said.

"Baby, this was the longest two weeks of my life," Freddie said, pushing past Carly and wrapping his arms around Sam as he leaned down and kissed her.

"Yeah, um, mine too," Sam said. "Listen, Freddie, can-can we-"

"Freddie talked me into letting him have you for tonight, but tomorrow, we're going to have some quality girl time," Carly cut Sam off. "Just you, me, and a couple of do-it-yourself pedicure kits. It's gonna be a blast!"

"Um, sounds fun," Sam said quickly. "But-"

"Come on, wanna go back to my place?" Freddie said, taking Sam's hand. "My mom's out of town, so she won't be there to spray us with disinfectant."

"Yeah, um, that sounds good," Sam nodded. "I wanted to talk to you anyway…"

"See you guys tomorrow," Carly smiled knowingly at the couple.

"Seriously Sam, I don't know how I managed to get through these last couple of weeks without you," Freddie said as him and Sam left the apartment and made their way across the hall. "I almost bought a plane ticket and flew out to Vermont just to see you."

"I missed you too," Sam said, somewhat distractedly. "But, um, we-we really need to talk."

"Can't we talk later?" Freddie said as he opened up his apartment door and led Sam inside. He leaned down and began kissing her.

"Um, no," Sam said, reluctantly pulling away. "This-This is kind of serious."

"Um, alright," Freddie said, confused. "What's up? Did something happen in Vermont?"

"Well, no, nothing happened…" Sam said slowly. "It-It's just while I was there I-I realized…I-I should've….um, okay, do you remember the night back at the beginning of the month? You know, when you were over at my place and you and I...we sort of…you know…"

"Well yeah I remember that night," Freddie grinned. "I think it's ingrained into my brain. Wait, is that what you wanted to talk about? Do you want to do it again? Because I totally down to-"

"No," Sam said quickly. "No, that's not…that's not what I meant. Freddie, I-I'm late."

"Late?" Freddie repeated. "For what? An appointment? Because I'm sure Spencer can drive you if you go back over and ask and-"

"No, I'm late," Sam said slowly. "You know, just-just think back to that health class we took last semester!"

"What do you-Wait…" Freddie said slowly. "Are you saying...do you mean…you're not…no! No…"

Sam slowly nodded her head, a few tears that had been collecting in the corners of her eyes falling down her cheeks.
"Sam, I-I don't understand," Freddie said softly, feeling as though he was about to fall down. "You-You think you're pregnant?"

"I-I don't know, I-I told you, I-I'm late," Sam said shakily. "And when we were up at Vermont I kept getting sick every morning, and I've been feeling groggy. Those-Those are the signs, right?"

"I-I just don't-This can't be happening," Freddie said, slowly sinking down onto the couch. "We were careful! We used protection!"

"I know!" Sam moaned, more tears falling from her eyes now. "But-But I guess it wasn't enough."

"This can't be happening," Freddie said, shaking his head. "We're in high school! We're just kids!"

"You don't think I know that?" Sam snapped. "You don't think I haven't been freaking out these past two weeks? I know we're only seventeen and that this is going to completely change our whole lives! I know how hard it will be! And in case you didn't realize, I'm the one who's going to have the most going on because it's happening to me! I'm the pregnant one! That means I'm the one whose going to get stared at and I'm the one who people are going to whisper about! I'm the one who's probably not going to be able to finish school!"

Freddie let out a long breath. "Sam…I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"I'm scared, Freddie," Sam whispered. "I-I've been holding this in since I started to suspect something last week. I-I know I should've called you sooner, but I wanted to tell you in person. I'm sorry…for everything."

Freddie stood up and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into her shoulder.

"This-This isn't just your fault," Freddie said after a minute. "Don't-Don't blame this just on you. I'm just as guilty."

"What are we going to do?" Sam sniffed. "Your mom's going to go ballistic! Even my mom's going to be furious. We have no money, no jobs-"

"We-We'll just have to-I don't know," Freddie said honestly. "I really don't know, Sam. But…we'll just have to figure this out."

Sam nodded silently.

For a moment, the two of them didn't say a word; they simply stood there, holding each other.

"How sure are you?" Freddie finally managed to ask. "I-I know you said you had some of the sings, but have you, you know, taken one of those tests?"

"No," Sam said, wiping her eyes. "I-I couldn't buy one up in Vermont without my mom or Melanie seeing."

"Alright," Freddie said, taking a deep breath. "Than that's where we should start. Wait here; I'll go to the drug store. We should be absolutely certain before we start making any major decisions."

"Okay," Sam agreed.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Freddie promised as he grabbed his wallet from the coffee table. He leaned down and kissed Sam. "I love you. No matter what."

"Love you too," Sam whispered back.

Once he was gone, Sam let out another soft cry. She couldn't believe this is where they were. Things had been going too good for her; she had an amazing boyfriend who loved and cared about more than anybody ever had. And now all of that could be ruined.

That test is going to come back positive, Sam thought miserably to herself. I know it.

Because that was generally how things worked out for her.

It was nearly an hour before Freddie returned to his apartment with the pregnancy test.

"What took so long?" Sam asked anxiously as Freddie came through the door.

"I didn't know what aisle these things were in," Freddie said, reaching into the plastic bag he was carrying and pulling out a thin, white box and a large bottle of sweet tea.

"What's the tea for?" Sam asked, taking the pregnancy test.

"For you," Freddie said. "I read the instructions on the box and apparently you have to, well, urinate on that thing, so I thought I'd buy you that to help, you know, speed things along."

"Oh, smart thinking," Sam said, taking the beverage and gulping it down.

"So do you have to pee now?"
"Give it a minute!"

"Right, right, sorry," Freddie said quickly. "But, um, just-just know, Sam, that no matter what happens…I'm going to be here for you. Through everything. I'm not going to be one of those jerk guys that just leaves you to deal with this on your own."

"I know you're not," Sam said, giving him a small smile. "I-I know you're-oh! Okay, now I gotta pee!"

She shoved the empty tea bottle into Freddie's arms and raced back to the bathroom.

Freddie sat down on the arm of the couch, trying to steady his breathing. He had been trying to act as calm and collect as possible for Sam's sake, but inside he was beyond terrified. How could just one night lead to something that could completely alter everything? He didn't know the first thing about being a father or taking care of another living thing; he had never taken care of a goldfish!

What are we going to do? Freddie thought desperately. What are we-

"Alright, it's done," Sam said, coming back into the living room carrying the thin stick in her hand.

"What's it say?" Freddie asked at once.

"We have to wait three minutes," Sam said, quickly starting a timer on her phone.

"Oh, right," Freddie nodded.

Sam sat down next to him, staring down at the test in her hands.

"I can get a job," Freddie said after a few seconds of silence.

"What?"

"You know, to-to help out with the whole money thing," Freddie said. "I-I bet I can find somewhere that could use a tech guy or something."

"Oh," Sam nodded. "Yeah, I-I guess I should try to find something too."

"Maybe if I start now, we'll have enough money saved up to, you know, move to a place of our own before the baby's born," Freddie continued. "Since our parents are probably going to disown us and everything. Maybe I can try to get back that studio apartment in the basement here…that was super cheap."

"Do you think we'll still be able to do iCarly?" Sam asked softly.

"I-I don't know," Freddie frowned. "I didn't think of that…wow, maybe not. I mean, we're probably not going to have too much free time, after all."

"That's true," Sam said sadly. "I guess we'll have to give up a lot…no more afternoons just hanging out at the Groovy Smoothie, no more hitting golf balls at the soccer girls with Wendy-"

"No more AV club or Training Bros," Freddie added. "No more…anything."

The two were silent again.

"But-But it won't be all bad," Freddie said. "Sure, it-it will be really hard, but we-we can do it. We can-"

Just then the timer on Sam's phone went off. Sam took a deep breath and flipped over the test. In the middle of the stick there was a thin, blue line.

"What's that mean?" Freddie asked.

"It's negative," Sam said softly, her eyes widening in shock. "It's negative. I-I'm not pregnant!"

"Oh thank God," Freddie said, feeling a rush of relief rush over his as Sam jumped to her feet and threw her arms around him.

"I was so scared," Sam said, hugging her boyfriend tightly.

"You're telling me," Freddie chuckled. "I've never been more terrified in my life. There is no way we were ready to raise a baby. I mean, I guess we could've if we had to, but I think I'm fine just being a normal, irresponsible teenager for now."

"As irresponsible as someone who labels his underwear for each day of the week can be, right?" Sam grinned.
"That's my mom and you know it!" Freddie snapped.

"I know, I know," Sam smiled. She looked back down at the negative pregnancy test. "You know this means we need to start being a lot more careful. I don't want to ever have to go through this again. Maybe this weekend I'll-I'll talk to my mom about that pill thing or something."

"Good idea," Freddie nodded. He leaned down and kissed Sam's cheek. "Hey…you think maybe one day there will be a point where we, you know, kind of hope for the opposite results from a pregnancy test?"

"You mean do you think we'll ever want a baby?" Sam asked.

"Well…yeah," Freddie said.

Sam smiled. "Yeah…one day I'm sure we'll be getting excited about seeing a tiny pink plus sign on one of these tests instead of the negative sign. But that will be way down the road. Right now there's so much else for us to worry about. Graduating high school, going to college, finding a job…"

"You're right," Freddie nodded, kissing her again. "One day we'll be ready…but not today. Definitely not today."