Pet

"So now it's between the ruby red and the cherry red," Carly said, staring at the two bottles of nail polish in her hands as her and Sam sat up in the iCarly studio.

"What's the difference?" Sam frowned. "They're both red."

"There's a huge difference!" Carly exclaimed. "One will make my date with Ryan go perfectly enough to make him fall in love with me, and the other one will make my date with him go horribly!"

"I highly doubt your date will be influenced by your nail polish," Sam scoffed. "Ryan won't even care about your nails."

"He will too!" Carly defended. "I'm sure a lot of dates have ended poorly because of terrible nail polish decisions!"

Just then Freddie walked into the studio.

"Hey," Freddie greeted the girls.

"Yo Nub, how would you react if I showed up to one of our dates with weird nail polish?" Sam asked.

"Um…I wouldn't," Freddie frowned. "I don't care what nail polish you wear."
"There, boom!" Sam said triumphantly, smirking at her best friend.

"Oh, he doesn't count," Carly said, rolling her eyes.

"Well…that's always fun to hear," Freddie said, sitting down on Sam's beanbag chair and putting an arm around her.

"I just mean you're so in love with Sam that she could show up to one of your dates in a chicken suit and she wouldn't care," Carly said. "Me and Ryan aren't nearly there yet. But we can get there if I can just figure out what dang nail polish to use!"

"Those bottles are both red, right?" Freddie whispered to Sam. "Has she lost it?"

"Kind of," Sam nodded.

"You know what, I'm just gonna go get my nails done by a professional," Carly said, getting to her feet. "Wanna come Sam?"

"Gross, no," Sam cringed.

"Fine," Carly shrugged, grabbing her purse. "I'll just enjoy a nice manicure on my own. And I'll find the perfect shade of nail polish for my date tonight!"

"Wow," Freddie said as Carly headed out of the studio. "She's acting crazier than she normally does before a date. She must be real excited about this Ryan guy."

"Oh yeah, she's been talking about it ever since he asked her out last weekend," Sam nodded. "But for once I can't totally blame her. Have you seen the guy? He's insanely hot!"

"Ah, just what every boyfriend loves to hear," Freddie said. "His girlfriend drooling over other guys."

"Calm down, you know I love you," Sam smiled, leaning over and giving him a quick kiss.

"Aw, love you too," Freddie chuckled.

"Well, at least now that Carly's gone we have the studio to ourselves," Sam said. "We can make out without her walking in and yelling at us!"

"Very true," Freddie nodded. "But first there's kind of something I want to talk to you about."

"I swear, your mom's vase just fell down on its own," Sam said quickly.

"What are you talking about?" Freddie frowned.

"Er, nothing," Sam said. "So what' sup, baby?"

"Well, we've been dating for a little while now," Freddie said.

"Yeah, we just had our three-month anniversary last week," Sam nodded.

"Right," Freddie said. "And I realized that we have another important event coming up for us soon…"

"What?" Sam asked.

"Our hundred day kiss!" Freddie said. "Next Friday will be one hundred days of us dating!"

"Whoa…you're right!" Sam said. "Holy chiz, can you believe it? We made it into the tipple-digits!"

"Shoosh yeah we did!" Freddie grinned. "Bet we shocked a lot of people by lasting this long. And we'll keep on shocking them as we stay together. But anyway…what are we gonna do? I mean apparently this kiss is like, a huge deal."

"Yeah, I remember how excited Carly was when she thought her and that Steven punk were gonna have it together," Sam said darkly. "Poor kid…I still say we should've poured red ants down his pants."

"Well the virus I sent to his computer did plenty of damage," Freddie assured her. "But anyway, we need to make sure our hundred day kiss is perfect."

"Duh, but how do we do that?" Sam asked.

"We'll just have to set the mood," Freddie said. "We'll have a fancy dinner with candles and romantic music. Hey! My mom works that night, so why don't we do it over at my place? That way we can have the kiss out on the fire escape. You know, since that's where our first kiss was?"

"Aw, that's actually a really sweet idea," Sam said. "And I don't even want to puke from how mushy it is!"

"Great, then it's a date," Freddie said.

"It's a date," Sam confirmed, beaming. "Hey, since the hundred day kiss is such an important milestone, what do you say we practice our techniques?"

"Well we do have the studio to ourselves…" Freddie chuckled as Sam laced her arms around his neck. "It'd be a shame to waste an opportunity like this."

"Good thinking," Sam said. "Now stop talking…"

"Ugh, I don't know which earrings to wear!" Sam groaned the evening of her and Freddie's hundred day kiss. She held up two pairs of gold bulbs. "Help me, Carly!"

"Sam, they look exactly the same," Carly smirked.

"They're completely different!" Sam snapped. "One pair will make this kiss as perfect as it's supposed to be, the other will make it a disaster."

"Ah…déjà vu," Carly chuckled.

"Huh?"

"Sam, seriously, don't freak out over earrings," Carly told the blonde.

"You freak out over things way less important than earrings all the time!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yes, but you're getting ready for a date with Freddie," Carly said. "He'll think you're the most beautiful girl in the world no matter what earrings you wear. The only reason I still freak out about things like nail polish and earrings is because, well, I haven't found someone like that for me yet. You're really lucky, you know. Freddie loves you…and now you're going to have your hundred day kiss…"

Sam's expression softened.

"Aw kid, I'm sorry," Sam said. "I've been all jumpy about having this big kiss and your moment was ruined for you by that jerk Steven-"

"No, Sam, don't worry about me, really," Carly said quickly. "I just want to make sure you know that what you and Freddie have is, well, it's really special. I know I give you guys a hard time about being such a weird, crazy, dysfunctional couple, but you guys are really, well, perfect."

Sam smiled. "Wow…thanks Carly. Was that a speech from one of your chick flicks?"

"Nope, came up with it all on my own!" Carly said proudly.

"Impressive," Sam said approvingly.

"Seriously Sam, you're date tonight will go perfectly, no matter what you wear," Carly said. "You'll be fine."

Sam stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her best friend. Carly hugged her back.

"Anyway," Carly said when the girls pulled apart. "I know you and Freddie will probably be together pretty late tonight, but if you wanted to come over later on and tell me how it went tonight…"

"You're gonna make us have one of those girl talks, aren't you?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Well obviously," Carly nodded.

"Fine, fine, we'll talk all about everything tonight," Sam promised her. She looked down at her phone. "Oh! It's almost seven; I need to get over to Freddie's."

"Wow…look at you being all punctual," Carly said.

"It only happens on special occasions so the nub better not get used to it," Sam said, grabbing her purse. "Alright, I'll see you later on tonight."

"Have fun!" Carly called after her as she hurried out of the bedroom.

Sam headed downstairs and across the hall and knocked on Freddie's door. He opened up at once and let her inside.

"Hey!" he said, closing the door behind her. "Wow, you look great. Well, you look beautiful every day, but, well, you know what I mean."

"You look good yourself, Fredork," Sam smirked. She leaned in, expecting to share their usual greeting kiss. But to her surprise, Freddie pulled away.

"What?" she frowned.

"Oh, um, well I was just thinking that, um, since we're having our huge hundred day kiss tonight, maybe we should hold off on any extra kissing until then," Freddie said. "Just to make everything more special."

"Oh," Sam grinned. "Nice thinking, baby."

"I try," Freddie smiled. "So, you hungry? I have dinner all ready for us out on the fire escape."

"You cooked?" Sam frowned as she followed Freddie out to the fire escape.

"Oh God no, don't worry," Freddie assured her, helping her out through the window. Out on the fire escape there was a small table with a large tub of fried chicken and a platter of bacon. "I used the take-out option."

"Aw, I love the take-out option!" Sam said.

"I know you do," Freddie said, pulling out her chair for her.

"So," Sam said, helping herself to some food. "When are we having this big kiss?"

"Nine-twelve," Freddie replied promptly.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Kind of specific there. Why nine-twelve?"

"Um…you'll-you'll probably think I'm some huge dork if I tell you," Freddie said, his face turning red.

"Um, have you been absent the past six years?" Sam grinned. "I already think you're a huge dork."

"Right, guess that was a lame excuse," Freddie agreed.

"Come on, why nine-twelve?" Sam asked.

"Well…okay, you remember the night we got back together?" Freddie said. "We were hanging out across the hall and we had the place to ourselves because Spencer had rushed his pet hermit crab to the vet and Carly was out at some giant Glitter Gloss sale?"

"Of course I remember," Sam said. "We both finally admitted how much we missed each other and decided to go out again."

"Right, well, the first time we kissed that night, you know, as a couple again, was at nine-twelve," Freddie said, his face even redder now.

"You remember the time?"

"Right before we kissed, I happened to look at my watch," Freddie explained. "And I remember thinking to myself…this is the moment when my life is going to become incredible."

Sam looked down at her lap, a small smile creeping onto her face. "Well…definitely still think you're a dork. But you're the sweetest dork out there."

"That's fine by me," Freddie said, pouring the two glasses of Mountain Fizz. "Hey…what do you think the kiss will be like? I mean it must be pretty great for it to be such a huge deal for couples."

"I don't know, it's not like I've ever had a hundred day kiss before," Sam said. "But it must be amazing. Maybe your lips just magically pick up new skills once you hit the hundred day mark. Maybe this is some rite of passage that you have to go through, and once you do, kissing becomes even more fun."

"I don't think that's how that works," Freddie chuckled.

"Well how do you think it works then, nub?" Sam smirked.

"Maybe it's like, an emotional thing," Freddie suggested. "Maybe once you hit that important kiss, you realize how much you care about that person, and your body and mind just react to that when you kiss. I mean I'm sure if there was a study to look at the differences in hormone levels experienced by couples who have and haven't had a hundred day kiss yet-"

"Ugh, are you gonna bring science into this?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"I'll shut up," Freddie laughed.

The couple spent the next couple of hours sitting out on the fire escape enjoying their dinner and just sitting with their arms around one another. Finally, around nine o'clock, they began to get ready for the kiss.

"You realize we've never gone so long together without kissing each other, right?" Freddie said as he cleared the table. "I know I'm the one who suggested we hold off until now, but all I've wanted to do since you got here was kiss you."

"How do you think I felt?" Sam said, applying a fresh coat of green apple lip gloss; Freddie's favorite. "Especially earlier when you had barbecue sauce on the corner of your mouth. I thought you were trying to torture me."

"So how long do we kiss for?" Freddie asked as the couple sat down on the ledge of the window. "Are there rules for this kiss?"

"I dunno, I guess we can just kiss like we normally would," Sam shrugged. "For like, eight seconds. That's pretty typical for us, right? Unless it's a make-out session, of course, but we'll save that for later on tonight."

"Got it," Freddie nodded. He looked at his watch. "One minute…I can't believe we're here, Sam."

"Me neither," Sam said softly. "Hey…I love you."

"Love you too," Freddie said at once.

The alarm on his watch went off.

"Happy hundred days," Freddie whispered, leaning in towards her.

"Happy hundred days," Sam echoed, pressing her lips to his.

The two kissed for well over eight seconds; it seemed any concept of time had slipped away from them. But when they finally pulled away, both of them locked eyes with one another and smiled.

"Well…there we have it," Freddie said. "We finally had our hundred day kiss."

"Guess we're like, official or something now," Sam smirked. She rested her head on his shoulder. "So how was it?"

"It was…It was nice," Freddie said.

"Just nice?" Sam frowned. "It was our hundred day kiss…shouldn't it have been more than nice?"

"Of course it was more than nice," Freddie said. "But, um, okay, maybe-maybe I was just off or something but…it didn't feel any different."

"What?"

"It was incredible," Freddie said quickly. "The best feeling I've ever experienced, but…it wasn't different. All of our kisses feel that way to me."

Sam chuckled. "Good…I thought I was going crazy. Because it didn't feel any different to me either. It was amazing and all, but…but I felt the same way I always feel after you kiss me."

The two were silent for a moment.

"Well what gives?" Sam suddenly exclaimed. "Did we do it wrong? Why wasn't our hundred day kiss some huge deal like everybody said it was supposed to be? Maybe I had too much lip gloss on. Or maybe we didn't tilt our heads right. Or maybe we-"

"Or maybe our kiss wasn't better than any other kiss we've had together because, well, you can't make something better if it's already perfect," Freddie said slowly.

"Huh…" Sam said thoughtfully.

"Think about it," Freddie said. "What makes any kiss perfect? Having it with someone you love; someone who you care about more than anything and makes your heart skip a beat just by walking into a room."

"We've felt that way about each other for a while now," Sam pointed out.

"Exactly," Freddie nodded. "So that's why our hundred day kiss didn't feel any different. We've already had our important kiss! Maybe…Maybe this hundred day kiss thing isn't about having a kiss on the hundredth day you date someone. Maybe it's about having a kiss with a person when you realize how much they mean to you. That's what makes it seem perfect. Some people might feel that way after exactly a hundred days of dating, some people may feel it after a little longer. And some people, like us, may feel that way before they reach the hundred day mark."

Sam thought about what Carly had said to her just before she had come over to Freddie's: "You and Freddie are perfect for each other."

"You're right," Sam said. "Some date on the calendar isn't going to make a kiss perfect. We've already done that."

"Yes we have," Freddie nodded. He leaned down and kissed her again. "Still…it is pretty cool that we've dated for a hundred days today."

"Yeah, it's an accomplishment," Sam agreed.

"Well, we'll have plenty more accomplishments like this later on," Freddie said.

"I'm holding you to that, Benson," Sam said. She got to her feet and took his hand. "Come on, let's go finish celebrating our hundred days of dating."

"Right behind you, baby," Freddie grinned, jumping up.