Cake

"Have I ever told you that you are a very good kisser?" Freddie said to Sam as him and her sat intertwined on his sofa.

"I think you've mentioned it a few times," Sam grinned, leaning in to continue kissing him. "And you're not so shabby yourself. Mama's taught you well."

"You really have," Freddie chuckled, shifting his girlfriend so she was now sitting on his lap. He glanced over at the T.V. "Um, are we going to pretend that we're still watching this movie?"

"It's not like either of us have been following it," Sam shrugged. "I don't even know why this chick is suddenly talking to horses. Turn that noise off."

"You got it," Freddie said, grabbing the remote. As he did he glanced down at his watch. "Whoa, it's already one in the morning."

"Seriously?"

"Well time flies when you're busy making out," Freddie said. "So do you want to sleep over again tonight? Or should I drive you back over to yours and Carly's?"

"I'll stay here, we have a lot of unfinished business to attend to," Sam smirked, wrapping her arms around her neck. "I just need to text Carly not to wait up for me. She always worries if I'm out too late, even though she knows I'm probably over here."

"That's nice of her," Freddie said.

"Yeah, well, she's a good roommate," Sam said, grabbing her phone and typing quickly. "Oh hey, is my toothbrush over here still?"

"Sam, you've slept over every day this, week, all your stuff is here," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "This morning I was looking through my underwear drawer for clean boxers and all I could find were your bras."

"Oh, sorry," Sam said.

"No it's fine, I don't mind," Freddie assured her. "Actually, I-I wanted to talk to you about something, now that we're on the topic."

"What's up?" Sam asked.

"Well, lately you and I have been spending nearly every night together," Freddie said. "You either stay over here or I sleep over at your place."

"Okay…do you want to take a break from that or something?" Sam frowned. "Spend a few nights apart?"

"No, um, just the opposite," Freddie said. "I wanted to ask you how you would feel about, um, maybe moving in with me?"

"Move in with you?" Sam repeated.

"Yeah, um, like I said we practically live together now," Freddie said. "I thought maybe we could make it official."

"Wow…" Sam said softly. "That's-That's a big step."

"It's just something to think about," Freddie said quickly. "If you think we should hold off on that, we can-"

"No, I-I want to," Sam said, a smile creeping onto her face. "I want to move in with you."

"You do?" Freddie beamed. "Well…great! Look at us, baby. We're gonna be living together!"

"We're such adults," Sam laughed, kissing him.

"Definitely," Freddie agreed. "So…when can you move in? We can go get your stuff tomorrow."

"Well, um, I-I think maybe I should wait until the end of the month at least," Sam said slowly. "You know, so I can help Carly with the rent and stuff."

"Oh, right," Freddie nodded. "Well that's fine. I mean obviously I can't wait for you to move in, but I guess you shouldn't just leave Carly high and dry either."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow when I get home," Sam said. "But right now…how about we head back to our bedroom."

"Our bedroom…" Freddie repeated. "I like the sound of that."

…..

The next afternoon Sam let herself into her and Carly's shared apartment.

"Hey, Shay," the blonde greeted her best friend as she dropped her keys onto the kitchen counter.

"Wow, look who's finally home," Carly grinned, looking up from her Pearpad.

"Sorry," Sam said.

"Hey, it's cool, you know I don't mind you sleeping over at Freddie's," Carly said. "At least when you sleep over there I don't have to hear…things through my walls. But seriously, I was beginning to think you had just moved in over there."

"Yeah…" Sam said, giving a nervous laugh. "Um, funny you should mention that…"

"What?"

"So, um, last night Freddie, er, Freddie asked me to-to move in with him," Sam said slowly.

"Wait, for real?" Carly gasped.

Sam nodded. "For real."

"Oh my God, that's a huge step!"

"I know," Sam said, taking a deep breath. "But, I mean, it-it makes sense, doesn't it? The two of us haven't spent a night apart in months. He's either over here or I'm over there…So, um, I-I said yes."

"Sam!" Carly beamed. "That's great! You guys must be really serious about your relationship to take such a huge step like this. I'm so happy for you both! I-Wait…Oh, this-this means-"

"That we won't be roommates anymore," Sam said heavily.

The two girls were silent for a moment.

"Well…" Carly finally said. "I guess we both knew this would happen eventually. We couldn't stay roommates for our whole lives."

"Yeah, guess not," Sam said softly. "But, um, I'm not moving out right away so you don't have to worry about the rent right now. And Freddie's place is only five minutes from here so we'll still be close to each other."

"Yeah, it will be totally fine," Carly nodded.

Another silence fell over them.

"I'm really gonna miss you," Sam said softly.

"I'll miss you two," Carly said, a tear falling from her eye.

"Oh…kid, don't cry," Sam sighed, stepping forward and hugging her best friend.

"I can't help it," Carly sniffed. "You moving out…this is the end of an era!"

"But-But like we said, it's going to be fine," Sam said, though her own voice was cracking. "Sure we won't be roommates anymore, but we're still going to be best friends. That won't change."

"I know, but-but who's going to stay up until four in the morning watching America Sings reruns in pajamas with me?" Carly mumbled. "Or kill bugs around here?"

"Well…when we were kids we didn't live together, but I still practically spent all my time on your couch," Sam pointed out. "We can go back to that!"

"No, because you're going to have your boyfriend at your new place," Carly said heavily. "You're not going to want to come over as often anymore…"

"Carls…"

"I'm sorry," Carly said quickly, wiping her eyes. "We-We shouldn't be crying. We-We should be celebrating. This-This is such great news for you. I know; I'll make cinnamon rolls!"

"Aw man, your cinnamon rolls," Sam sighed. "I'm definitely going to miss those…Freddie can't bake to save his life."

"Well once you leave, there will be nobody around to eat all my baking," Carly said sadly.

Sam bit the corner of her lip. "Maybe…Maybe I shouldn't do this."

"No," Carly said quickly. "I-You shouldn't not do this because you don't want to move out of our apartment. Like we said, we're still gonna be best friends. And as your best friend, I'm telling you that you should move in with Freddie because, well, you love him. And I want you to be happy."

Sam gave a small smile. "The nub has grown on me."

"I've noticed," Carly chuckled. She looked down at the ground. "So…you're not moving out until the end of the month?"

"Nope," Sam said. "I've already told Freddie that; he's fine waiting until then."

"Good," Carly said. "So we still have time to do roommate stuff one last time?"

"Duh," Sam smirked. "Of course we do."

….

When the last night of Sam living in her and Carly's apartment finally arrived, both girls were very emotional.

"Wow…it's so empty in here," Carly said as her and Sam stood in Sam's bedroom. Most of Sam's stuff had already been packed up and moved into Freddie's. "It's the cleanest its ever been…"

"Well there you go," Sam said. "Now that I'm leaving you won't have to deal with my mess!"

"I'll miss the mess," Carly mumbled.

"Hey, remember what we said?" Sam said quickly. "We're not going to spend our last night as roommates being sad and depressed. We're gonna have a fun night of lame movies, junk food, and manicures."
"Right, right," Carly nodded. "Speaking of which, the pizza's on its way now. It should be here any-"

She was cut off by a knock at the door.

"Oh, there it is now!" Carly said. She turned and headed to the front door. But when she opened the door it was Freddie standing in front of her instead.

"Oh, hey Freddie," Carly said. "Um, I-I didn't know you were coming over tonight."

"Relax, Carly, I'm not staying," Freddie assured her. "I'm not going to get in the way of 'girls night'."

"He just came by to pick up the last box of my stuff," Sam said, stepping out carrying a box, which she thrust into her boyfriend's hands.

"Oh, good," Carly said, relieved. "Er, not that I'm not glad to see you, Freddie, but-"

"It's fine, I get it," Freddie chuckled. "Oh, I was at the store earlier and I picked you guys up a few things I thought you'd like for tonight."

He held up a plastic bag. "Cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies."

"I've trained you well," Sam grinned, snatching the bag and setting it down on the table. She quickly got to work devouring one of the cupcakes.

"Aw, that was really sweet, Freddie," Carly smiled.

"Yeah, well…" Freddie said. "Figured it's the least I could do. Listen, Carly, thanks for being so cool about Sam moving out of here. Having her live with me means a lot."

"You guys needed to take this step," Carly said. "But, um…there are a few things you need to know about living with Sam. Now I know you've been her boyfriend for awhile now, but now that she's moving in with you, I have a few responsibilities I'll be passing on."

She pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Freddie. "So every morning I sneak a multi-vitamin into her sugar hoops. You know, so she has some nutritional value throughout the day."

"Huh?" Sam said, looking up from her cupcake.

"Nothing!" Carly said quickly. She turned back to Freddie. "Now, during her lady times she likes those really big chocolate-peanut butter squares. You'll need about a dozen of them…And to get her to do the dishes, or any housework, really, you're going to have to have an extra-large package of bacon ready to bribe her."

"Got it," Freddie chuckled, stuffing the list into his pocket. "So, what do you two have planned for tonight?"

"We're going to watch our top five terrible movies, eat junk food, drink wine, do our hair…your basic girl's night in," Carly said. "Since it's going to be our last one…"

"Carls, I told you, we'll still hang out together all the time!" Sam assured her.

"Yeah, you can come over to our place any time you want to hang out," Freddie nodded. "Just, you know, knock first."

"Pfft, after that one time last month, I'm knocking every time," Carly shuddered.

"Alright, well I'll let you girls have your fun then," Freddie said. He leaned down and gave Sam a quick kiss.

"Bye, baby," Sam said.

"Bye, Freddie," Carly waved.

Once Freddie left, Carly stepped over to the cabinets and pulled out two wine glasses. Sam grabbed a bottle of wine and filled the glasses up.

"Alright, Shay," Sam grinned, handing her one of the glasses. The two clinked them together. "Let's get this party started."

"Here we are; casa de Sam and Freddie!" Freddie told Sam the next day as they stepped into their now shared apartment. "I unpacked most of your stuff last night. I had nothing better to do, and I figured you wouldn't want to do it."

"Nope," Sam sighed. "I wouldn't have."

"You alright?" Freddie asked, putting an arm around her.

"Yeah," Sam shrugged. "It's just…Carly and I have been roommates since college. And even before then we practically lived together. It feels like a huge chapter in my life just…finished."

"I know, it's a big change," Freddie agreed. "But now it's like a whole new chapter is beginning, isn't it?"

Sam reached down and squeezed his hand gently, giving him a small smile. "Yeah…yeah it is."