Half

"Hey," Sam said as she let herself into the Shay's apartment.

"Hey," Freddie replied, looking up from his laptop.

"Carly home?" Sam asked, looking around.

"Nah, her and Spencer just left to spend the day with one of their dad's old military friends," Freddie replied.

"Oh good," Sam grinned, opening her bag and rummaging through it.

"Good?" Freddie frowned. "Why's that good?"

"I came over here to use her DVD player," Sam said, still going through her bag. "Mine's busted. My mom got mad that her relaxation yoga DVD froze, so she through the whole thing into a puddle."

"And Carly can't be home for that because…?"

"Because this is the movie I want to watch!" Sam grinned, finally finding what she was looking for in her purse. She held up a DVD case with a terrifying looking zombie on it. "The Undead Takeover Part IX: More Blood, More Guts."

"That movie looks absolutely horrifying," Freddie cringed.

"Yeah…" Sam said happily. "Anyway, Carly hates watching these types of movies, so she always makes a big scene when I put them on here. Which is why it's perfect that she's not here. So move your nubby butt over."

"Who says I want to watch this movie?" Freddie demanded as Sam put the movie into the DVD player.

"Pfft, you don't live here," Sam scoffed.

"Neither do you!"

"Well tough beans, I'm still watching my movie," Sam said. "So you can either deal with the movie or you can leave and go back to your own apartment. I would prefer the second option, but I'll let you make the call on your own."

"Ugh, you're lucky my mom's making beatloaf at my place," Freddie muttered darkly. "And I can't stand the smell over there. I'd rather watch a horrible movie than deal with that."

"Yeah…'lucky''s not exactly the word I'd use," Sam said, shaking her head as she sat down next to Freddie. "But whateves. Just try not to get too scared, alright, Fredbutt? This movie is supposed to be the best horror film of the year."

"Oh yay," Freddie sighed. "I can't believe you like these movies."

"They're cool," Sam defended.

"Yeah, but…come on, you don't get even a little freaked out by them?" Freddie asked.

"Uh, no," Sam said. "Know why? Because I'm not a whimp."

"Really?" Freddie said. "You've never even gotten the tiniest bit scared from them? Even when you were a little kid?"

"I don't know what to tell you, Benson," Sam said. "Guess I've always been tough. Unlike you who got scared when we watched the Wizard of Oz."

"I was eleven!" Freddie snapped. "And those monkeys…ugh!"

"Well I'm just saying, if you can't handle a children's classic, you're not going to be able to handle this," Sam warned as the opening credits rolled onto the screen. "This is a real movie."

…..

Later that night, at around three in the morning, as Freddie was sleeping peacefully in his bed, he was awoken from his slumber by the sound of his Pearphone loudly ringing.

"Huh? What?" Freddie stammered, bolting up, still half-asleep. As the ringing continued, he groggily reached over to his nightstand and picked up his phone and saw Sam's name flashing across the screen.

"Hello?" Freddie yawned as he answered the phone, falling back down against his pillows.

"I hate you Benson!" Sam snapped on the other line.

"You've told me this multiple times," Freddie mumbled. "Why are you calling at three a.m. to do it now?"

"You jinxed me!"

"I jinxed you?" Freddie frowned. "Okay, Sam, I'm a little too tired right now to explain to you that jinxes aren't real and-"

"You jinxed my perfect record of not getting freaked out by horror movies!" Sam exclaimed.

"Wait, what?"

"I've been watching those movies since I was an infant!" Sam fumed. "I had seen every Deranged Werewolf movie in the series before I could talk! And never, not once in my seventeen years, have I ever been the slightest bit scared after any of them! And now today, after you had to open your trap and question me on it, I'm sitting over here too freaked out to even sleep!"

"You're scared?" Freddie asked, a small smile appearing on his face. "You, Sam Puckett?"

"Watch it, Benson, or I might reach through this phone and give you a wedgie."

"Well Sam, that movie was kind of…gruesome," Freddie reasoned. "Especially the part where the zombie bit the other zombie in half."

"I know!" Sam moaned. "It's all I can see when I close my eyes. Usually zombie dreams are comforting to me, but now they're killing me! Look, you're a whimp and get scared by things all the time-"

"Gee, thanks," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"-So what do you do?" Sam continued.

"Oh…So Sam Puckett is afraid?" Freddie grinned. "Wow, I really wish I was recording this conversation right now."

"Benson!"

"Okay, okay," Freddie conceded. "Um, well, when I'm scared it kind of helps me to have another person around I guess. Usually when I get freaked out, it because Spencer had some brainy idea for us to watch a horror movie, so I just go across the hall and chill with him since he's always up scared too."

"Well Spencer spent the night at his dad's friends' place with Carly!" Sam said. "So that option's out!"

"You can wake up your mom," Freddie suggested.

"She's not home," Sam sighed. "She's dating a sailor this week so they went on a yacht trip."

"Do you have any neighbors or something?"

"You know all my neighbors are skeezballs and creeps!" Sam snapped.
"Right, right," Freddie said. He glanced over at the clock. It was now a quarter past three. Sam lived about ten minutes away. If he took his bike (which he had successfully hidden from his mother for close to two years now) he could get over there before three-thirty.

"Just…hang on," Freddie said, slowly getting up out of bed.

"Why?"

"Just…Just hang on," Freddie said again. "I'll talk to you in a little bit."

The eerie silence that fell over Sam's neighborhood at this hour was enough to begin freaking Freddie out himself as he walked up Sam's front steps. He looked over his shoulder as he rang the bell, making sure nothing was going to sneak up on him.

"Thank God," Sam breathed as she opened the door and quickly pulled Freddie inside. "I thought you were one of those double-undead zombies from the movie. But…what are you doing here? It's three-thirty!"

"You couldn't sleep and needed someone," Freddie shrugged. "So…here I am."

"You came all the way over here because I was scared of a dumb horror movie?" Sam blinked.

"Yeah, well, um, like you said, I'm usually the one getting freaked out by those movies," Freddie said. "So I know how it feels to be in your situation. So, um, I wanted to help you."

"Oh," Sam said, slightly taken aback. "Um, wow, thanks."

"So, since you're probably not going to be getting any sleep tonight, what do you want to do?" Freddie asked.

"We can watch a movie," Sam suggested.

"Okay," Freddie shrugged. "Which one?"

"Mutant Mummies Take Vegas," Sam replied at once.

"Are-Are you insane?" Freddie exclaimed. "You can't sleep because you're terrified from one horror movie, so you want to stay up to watch another one?"

"Well everybody knows mummies are ten times less scary than zombies," Sam said. "So maybe it will comfort me."

"Of course," Freddie sighed, shaking his head. "Only you, Sam. Only you."