Sweat
"I'm really loving this new nail polish," Carly said as her and Sam sat in Sam and Freddie's shared living room, painting their nails. "I mean it's so glossy I don't even think I'll need a top coat."
"As long as it dries quickly," Sam said. "I'm starving, and I hate eating with wet nails. I always wind up with nail polish all over my meat."
Just then the front door of the apartment opened and Freddie walked in.
"Hey, baby!" he smiled, stepping over to give Sam a quick kiss. "Hey, Carls. What are you girls up to?"
"Carly's making me paint my nails," Sam explained.
"Come on, that purple shade looks great on you," Carly said. "You should be thanking me."
"For what? The fact that my nose has itched for the past twenty minutes and I can't scratch it?" Sam scoffed.
"Oh, here you go," Freddie said, leaning down and scratching his girlfriend's nose.
"Thanks, Frednub," Sam smiled.
"Okay, you guys are adorable," Carly chuckled. "So I take it living together has been good?"
"Definitely," Sam said, looking over at Freddie. "I like it so much I don't even mind all his geeky habits."
"Aw," Freddie beamed.
"So what were you doing today?" Sam asked. "You've been gone the whole afternoon."
"I," Freddie said proudly. "Have been taking the first steps in totally improving my life."
"So you're getting rid of that shirt you're wearing?" Sam asked.
Freddie frowned and looked down at his shirt. "Sam, my mom got me this shirt for my birthday."
"Doesn't make it any less lame, baby," Sam smirked. "In fact…that ups the lameness."
"Cute," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"How have you been improving your life?" Carly asked.
"I'm glad you asked," Freddie said. "You remember how my New Years Resolution was to start working out more?"
"Yeah," Sam said. "And yet your gym bag has been sitting in the closet, untouched, for months."
"True," Freddie said. "However, I've decided that even though the year is half done, it's not too late for me to start on that resolution. Which is why I've signed us up for the Seattle five-k at the end of the month! It's going to be great; all the profits go to the children's center."
"What? Dude, you-you can't run a five-k!" Sam said. "You've never even run one k!"
"Yeah, um, not to crush your resolution, but don't you think you should start with something smaller?" Carly said. "Like, I dunno, jogging half-a-mile or something?"
"Come on! A five-k is totally manageable," Freddie said. "There's sixty-year olds who run them. We can do it if we just train."
"Freddie," Sam said. "Look, it's not that-wait…why-why did you just say 'we'?"
"You-You didn't sign us up for the race with you, did you?" Carly asked slowly.
"Um, well, Carly, I-I didn't sign you up," Freddie said, awkwardly clearing his throat. "But, um, well I didn't want to run alone, and, um-"
"So you signed up Gibby, right?" Sam said, getting to her feet. "Or Spencer? You signed one of them up to run with you…right?"
"Um, not exactly…" Freddie said.
"I think I'm just gonna take these away," Carly said, quickly grabbing the pair of nail clippers from the coffee table.
"Freddie…" Sam said, her voice dangerously soft. "Who did you sign up to run with you?"
"Um, y-you," Freddie said sheepishly. "But I-"
"Are you kidding me, Fredgut?" Sam exclaimed. "You signed me up for a run without even asking me! You know I hate any form of physical activity!"
"Yes, but you love me, right?" Freddie said. "So you-"
"Oh don't pull the love card!" Sam snapped. "What were you thinking?"
"Come on, a ton of other couples are signed up for the race too!" Freddie said. "It will be fun!"
"Dude I'm not running a five-k!" Sam said firmly. "That's like…two whole miles!"
"Er, three point one miles, actually," Freddie corrected.
"What?"
"Come on, you're in good shape," Freddie said. "You'll be fine after a little bit of practice."
"It's the middle of summer!" Sam continued. "It's hot out!"
"Well luckily the five-k starts at six in the morning, before the sun comes out," Freddie said. "So we won't have to-"
"I'm sorry…six in the morning?"
"Wow, you really know how to wind your girlfriend up," Carly chuckled.
"Sam…please?" Freddie said. "I-I think this will be something really cool to do together. You-You get a free t-shirt, you know."
Sam simply continued to glare at him.
"I-Okay," Freddie sighed. "You don't want to do it. I guess I can't do anything about that…I'll just have to work to achieve this goal all by myself, without my number one support system by my side…oh well."
"Aw, Sam, just run with your boyfriend," Carly said. "He's all sad!"
"Carly! Don't fall for his pathetic stunt!" Sam snapped.
"I wonder what I can use as motivation to cross that finish line now," Freddie continued, ignoring Sam's comment. "I was going to use the fact that my beautiful girlfriend would be running with me, but I suppose I'll have to find something else that-"
"Oh for the love of-Fine!" Sam groaned. "I'll run the dumb race with you!"
"You will?" Freddie said excitedly. "Really?"
"I-Yes," Sam said heavily. "But you're massaging my feet every night until this thing!"
"Sure, sure!" Freddie said at once. "Thank you, baby, you're the best! We can start training bright and early tomorrow morning!"
"Why'd I have to fall in love with such a dork," Sam moaned as Freddie hurried off.
"Come on, running a five-k won't be so bad," Carly said. "And who knows? Maybe you'll realize you really like running and before you know it you'll be doing marathons or-"
"Okay, you've officially breathed in too much nail polish," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
…..
"It's still dark out, I hope you realize," Sam said bitterly as she pulled an old t-shirt on the next morning.
"It's better than waiting until the afternoon to run," Freddie said, tying his sneakers. "If we did that, we'd risk getting heat stroke, and-"
"Dude, spare the lecture," Sam snapped. "You're already torturing me enough by making me do this."
"Okay, okay," Freddie agreed, getting up and stepping over to her, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank you again for doing this, Sam. It means a lot to me."
"Yeah, yeah," Sam mumbled, though she looked up and gave him a quick kiss. "Let's just get this over with."
"We need to eat first," Freddie said. "I picked up some protein bars last night; they're in the kitchen. And we need to stretch."
"Stretch?" Sam frowned. "So we have to do exercise before we exercise even more?"
"Well I wouldn't phrase it exactly like that, but…come on," Freddie said. "I bet once we get to the park and we start our run you'll feel much better. Running is supposed to improve your mood, you know."
"Sleep does that too," Sam yawned.
About half-an-hour later, once the couple had eaten a quick breakfast and stretched (or rather, once Freddie stretched with Sam sitting on the couch trying not to fall asleep), they walked to the large park across from their building.
"So this running path is about two miles long," Freddie said. "I'm thinking we go around once today, and maybe by next week we can make it around two times and-"
"Can we just go already?" Sam asked. "The sooner we finish the sooner I can go back to bed."
"Okay," Freddie said. "Come on, let's go."
The couple began to lightly jog down the path. After a few minutes, Freddie felt his breathing becoming heavier and heavier and little beads of sweat began to pour onto his forehead.
"Um, okay, we-we can take a walking break now," Freddie panted.
"Dude, we've been running for like, four minutes," Sam pointed out.
"Well, um, we-we shouldn't push ourselves this hard the first time around," Freddie said.
"Whatever," Sam shrugged.
"Weird…I didn't think it'd be so hot without the sun," Freddie frowned, wiping his brow. "You alright, Sam?"
"I'm fine," Sam said.
"Okay, well, um, I guess we can start up again," Freddie said, taking a deep breath.
So the couple picked up their pace again, and almost instantly Freddie felt out of breath. After another two minutes he had to stop again.
"Okay…this is harder than I thought," Freddie panted. "Man, it is hot."
"Baby, you alright?" Sam asked, concerned.
"Yeah, um, I guess I'm just a little out of shape," Freddie said lamely.
"Well I think I see a water fountain up ahead," Sam said. "I'm sure once you get a quick drink you'll feel much better."
"Yeah, you're right," Freddie agreed, noticing that Sam didn't seem to be out of breath at all. "Um, you know, if-if you wanted to go ahead of me, I wouldn't mind."
"I thought the point of this was for us to train together," Sam frowned.
"It is," Freddie said quickly. "But um, we'd still be training together. We'd just be in different physical locations on the trail, that's all."
"Yeah, but-"
"Look, I'll catch up to you," Freddie, assured her. "Really. I think I just need to get some water in me and then I'll be good to go."
"You sure?" Sam asked.
"I'm sure," Freddie smiled. "Go ahead, baby."
"Alright," Sam conceded. "But I have my phone on me. Text me if you want me to come back and meet you."
Freddie watched as Sam jogged off effortlessly.
"Alright, I can do this," Freddie said to himself as he approached the water fountain. "I'll catch up to her…"
….
"I can't feel my legs!" Freddie gasped as he finally reached the end of the trail, where Sam was waiting on a park bench.
"Here," Sam said, quickly getting up and handing him a sports drink. "I got this at the snack stand that just opened up."
"Thanks," Freddie said gratefully, opening the bottle up and gulping it down. He looked down at his watch. "Oh man…it took me almost forty-five minutes just to go two miles! That's not even the whole five-k!"
"Well…it was your first run," Sam reasoned.
"How long did it take you to get around the trail?" Freddie asked.
"Um…I-that's not important," Sam said quickly.
"Wait, come on, tell me," Freddie said.
Sam sighed. "A little over twenty minutes."
Freddie's eyes widened. "Whoa…that's pretty good. Have you done this before?"
"No," Sam said. "But um, you know me, I-I have a lot of energy when I want to. And, um, all that punching and kicking I do probably gave me good muscles."
"Wow," Freddie said. "And here I was thinking I'd need to encourage you."
"Aw, Frednub," Sam smiled. "You did encourage me. Without you my butt would still be in bed."
"I just…I didn't think I'd be this bad," Freddie said slowly.
"You weren't bad!" Sam said at once. "I mean there are people who haven't even run one mile in their whole life! Until now, I was planning on being one of them!"
"Yeah, but-"
"The point of training is to get better, right?" Sam said. "So tomorrow you can try and maybe run this whole trail in forty-four minutes. If you keep practicing enough, you'll get better!"
Freddie smiled. "You're right, Sam. Thanks."
"Sure thing," Sam said. "Now come on…I'm all sweaty."
"Same," Freddie said. "All I want to do is shower off."
"Well I get the shower first," Sam said.
"Fine," Freddie sighed.
"Or…" Sam grinned seductively, taking his hand as they walked back across the street to their building. "I guess if you're so eager to shower off we can save time by sharing a shower."
"Really now?" Freddie chuckled.
"What can I say?" Sam smirked. "That run gave me a lot of energy…"
…
"Unbelievable!" Freddie gasped as he looked at his watch at the end of the week. "I got slower! It took me forty-eight minutes to run this stupid path! You could've gone around twice and still beat me!"
"Well that's probably just because you're sore," Sam reasoned, walking over to him. "I mean you've run every day this week."
"Pfft, if you can call what I do running," Freddie scoffed. "I can barely go three minutes before I need to take a break. I don't get it! I've been drinking plenty of water, I stretched, I've been eating super healthy all week…How are you so fast? All you've been eating this week is Fat Cakes and ham!"
"I dunno, I had an active childhood," Sam shrugged. "I used to always run around with my cousins when I was kid, while you probably stayed inside and did puzzles. So if there's anybody you should be blaming for this, it's your mom. I say you teach her lesson by letting us blow off dinner with her this weekend."
"This stupid race is in two weeks and I haven't even run three miles yet," Freddie sighed, ignoring his girlfriend's comment. "I'm going to be the last one across the finish line."
"No, you won't," Sam said. "I heard a lot of people just walk these things."
"Yes, people who are ninety!" Freddie snapped. He took a giant swig of his water. "Whatever…let's just go home."
"Freddie…" Sam said. "Come on, you'll be fine for the race. You just need more practice, that's all. I mean it's only been a week."
"Right," Freddie mumbled.
….
"So," Carly said a few days later as her and Sam sat at their usual table at the Groovy Smoothie. "How goes the running?"
"Well, I gotta say, Carls, I'm not really too mad at the nub for forcing me to do this anymore," Sam said, sipping her smoothie. "Turns out I'm a pretty good runner. Plus it's weird; ever since I started it's like I suddenly have a ton more energy and I feel so refreshed the whole day."
"See? Exercise is good for you," Carly said. "I've been telling you that for years! I'm telling you, we should join a gym or something. I bet I could meet a lot of guys there..."
"Eh, let's not get carried away," Sam said.
"So how's Freddie doing with the running?" Carly continued. "Is he all excited about finally finishing his New Year's Resolution?"
"I dunno," Sam sighed. "I think he's starting to get a little discouraged. He, er, isn't exactly the fastest runner."
"Aw," Carly frowned. "Well the race isn't timed or anything, is it?"
"No, but he still wanted to get a decent time," Sam said.
"Well, still, at least he'll finish the race; that's all he wanted to do for his resolution," Carly said. "That's got to count for something."
"Yeah…" Sam said, somewhat distractedly.
"You alright?" Carly asked.
Sam shrugged. "I think me beating Freddie when we run all the time is kind of…is kind of making this whole thing worse for him."
"You think so?" Carly frowned.
"Yeah," Sam said. "So…I don't know, I was kind of thinking that maybe tomorrow morning when we run I'd fake an injury or something. You know, to slow me down."
"So you want to let Freddie beat you?"
"Well it might make him feel better," Sam pointed out.
"Maybe," Carly said slowly. "But…I thought you just said how much you like running. Why would you purposefully do bad at something you love?"
"Because," Sam said simply. "It's for Freddie."
"Sam," Carly smiled. "That's really sweet, but…do you really think Freddie would want you to make yourself do bad at something just to boost his ego? He's not that kind of guy, right?"
"Well…no, I guess not," Sam said slowly. "I mean…he'd probably be wazzed off if he did find out I did something like that. Okay, but I still want to help him feel better! He seems so defeated after he finishes a run, Carly! I tried cheering him up, but it's getting harder and harder. Shower sex is even starting to lose its appeal to him and-"
"Ugh!" Carly gagged, spitting out her smoothie. "Why'd you have to put those images in my head?"
"Come on, don't be a baby," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "But seriously, what am I supposed to do? I-I'm not really used to being the supportive girlfriend."
"You support Freddie plenty," Carly said, wiping her spat-up smoothie from the table.
"No, I-"
"Yes, you do," Carly said. "Trust me; I've been around you two as a couple for four years now."
"And yet you still gag at any mention of our sex life," Sam smirked.
"Well that's just icky; I've known Freddie since he was eleven! He's like my brother!" Carly defended. "But I'm serious, Sam. You are a supportive girlfriend. You just support Freddie through less traditional means than other girlfriends…"
"Really?" Sam said.
"Definitely," Carly said. "Just do your thing, Puckett."
…
The next morning Sam groggily opened her eyes. She looked over next to her and saw that Freddie was still peacefully asleep. She reached over to the bedside table next to her and picked up her phone, jolting up when she saw it was already seven-thirty. Her and Freddie were supposed to be up running by now.
"Baby," Sam said, shaking Freddie's shoulder. "Come on, if we want to run before the sun really starts beating down, we need to get going."
"Huh?" Freddie mumbled, slowly opening his eyes.
"I guess we slept through our alarms," Sam said, sitting up. "But no worries, at least it's Saturday, so we don't have to deal with rushing to get to work."
"Um, actually Sam, we didn't sleep through any alarms," Freddie sighed. "I-I never set any alarms last night."
"Why not?" Sam frowned. "Don't you want to run early enough to beat the heat? I mean I guess if you really wanted to, we can try running at night once the sun goes down, but-"
"Actually, I was thinking along the lines of just not running at all," Freddie said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sam said, confused. "We have to run; that five-k is right around the corner."
"Yeah…I'm not doing that anymore," Freddie said.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I'm not going running anymore."
"But baby…the five-k," Sam said. "Don't you want to train for it and-"
"I'm not doing that either," Freddie said. "You were right; it was a dumb idea."
"I-Huh?" Sam said.
"Yeah, it was stupid of me to sign us up for a five-k," Freddie mumbled. "It was a dumb resolution too…I don't know why I even made it in the first place."
"It wasn't dumb," Sam said. "It was actually a pretty cool resolution. Better than the one you made a few years ago about trying to write a brand new Galaxy Wars movie, at least…This one is totally doable!"
"No, it's not," Freddie said. "Sam, you've seen how bad of a runner I am."
"You're getting better!" Sam said. "Yesterday you were able to run for five minutes straight before you had to stop; that's progress!"
"Barely," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Come on, let's just go back to sleep."
Sam crossed her arms as she watched her boyfriend fall back down against his pillows, remembering what Carly had said to her the previous day.
"No…" she said firmly. "Benson, get your butt out of bed!"
"What?" Freddie said, surprised.
"You heard me, up!" Sam said. "We're running."
"No, Sam I-"
"Listen, nub, for the past two weeks I've been getting up earlier than I have in years, and I'm not about to let that all go to waste!" Sam said. "We're running that five-k, and you're going to get out there right now and train for it!"
"But it's-"
"Who cares if you're not super fast?" Sam said. "It's not like you're racing in the Olympics right now! You're doing a five-k for charity for crying out loud!"
"The charity still gets my money even if I don't run," Freddie mumbled. "I already paid, so-"
"Stop with the excuses!" Sam cut him off. "Look, yeah, you're probably not going to come in first in this race-"
"Gee, thanks," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"But by just running this thing, even if you have to take breaks every few minutes and you're the last one to cross the finish line, you still win over everybody else who didn't even try to do it," Sam said, sitting down next to him. "Think about it, baby…if you look back on this in a year, don't you think you'd be way more disappointed in yourself if you just gave up and didn't run than if you did run and just didn't set a new record or something?"
Freddie didn't reply.
"Look…I can't force you to run this five-k if you really don't want to," Sam said. "Well…let's be honest. I could force you, but I'm not going to. But just realize that even if you get your slowest time ever during the race, it'll be a better time than just sitting on the couch, not even trying."
Freddie sighed. "I guess…I guess I would feel kind of sucky about letting yet another New Years resolution fall through the cracks…though I still think I could've made it big with that Galaxy Wars movie idea…"
"Sure you could've," Sam smirked.
"And…I guess you have a point," Freddie continued. "I guess running slow is better than not running at all…"
"So?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow. "Does that mean you're gonna run?"
Freddie rolled his eyes. "Well after an inspirational speech like that, it'd be kind of anticlimactic if I didn't, now wouldn't it?"
Sam laughed as she leaned down and kissed him. "Good. Now hurry up and get your sneakers on, nub. You're burning daylight."
…..
"Wow, you finished in twenty-nine minutes?" Carly said as Sam approached her best friend a couple of weeks later. Carly had been waiting in the crowd at the end of the finish line for Sam and Freddie. "That's got to be some kind of record!"
"Carls, like thirty people finished before me," Sam chuckled. "One dude ran this thing in fifteen minutes!"
"I don't even know how that's possible," Carly said, shaking her head. "But still, you did awesome! So you think you're going to keep up running?"
"Eh, I think I'll go back to sleeping in past seven, but…I dunno, I can maybe see myself doing this again," Sam shrugged. "I mean, I figure with all this extra exercise, I can eat like, double my usual amount of ham, right?"
"Er, right," Carly chuckled. She looked back over to the finish line where runners were still crossing the finish line. "Man…there are a lot of people running this thing."
"Yeah, almost three-hundred people signed up," Sam said, craning her neck, looking for Freddie. "I hope Freddie's doing okay…"
"When did you last see him?" Carly asked.
"At the starting line," Sam replied. "Then we got separated. I just really hope he finishes…"
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Carly said.
"Yeah," Sam said. "I'm sure-oh! There he is!"
She had just spotted her boyfriend jog across the finish line, looking exhausted, but more proud than Sam had ever seen him.
"Freddie!" Sam called out, waving to get his attention. "Over here!"
Freddie walked over to the girls, wiping the sweat off his face.
"Baby, you did it!" Sam exclaimed, throwing her arms around him, not even caring how sweaty he way. "See? I told you could! And you didn't even come in last! There's still like, eighty people coming in behind you!"
"I can't believe I actually ran a five-k!" Freddie grinned, looking down at his watch. "And holy chiz! I did it in forty-two minutes! That's a new record for me!"
"Congratulations, baby!" Sam smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. "I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you, Sam," Freddie said when they pulled apart. "Really…without you I-I would've never done this."
"Eh, you were the one who signed us up for this in the first place," Sam shrugged.
"Yeah, but you're the one who kept me from quitting," Freddie said. "So really…thank you. You're the most supportive girlfriend a guy could ask for."
Sam smiled, feeling her cheeks flush; and it wasn't from the heat.
