Hi! Thanks for the reviews! Sorry if this took too long to update, but I've been super busy. On Monday I had a ton of homework (I actually finished it all!) and yesterday I went up to Bristol for football straight from school and I didn't get back 'til Midnight, so now is the only time I can do this, especially since I'm helping out at my school later on open evening. You're just lucky I had a half day today (finished at 12:30) otherwise you'd have to wait literally many hours for an update. Also, I've got tomorrow and Friday off, so expect some activity then.

On with the show!

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Sam snuggled up tighter in Freddie's arms, nuzzling into the soft, material of Freddie's Flobots t-shirt. Freddie's arms subconsciously tightened round Sam's slim waist, warmly and protectively.

Flashback

'Can I stay here tonight?' Sam asked Freddie.

Freddie looked concerned, his brotherly instinct for Sam kicking in. Sam suddenly looked so tiny, shivering in her pyjamas, just a pair of rainbow coloured long-shorts and a pink vest top. Her watery eyes cried for help, a cry so pleading not even a hardened criminal could say no.

'Of course,' Freddie said. He stepped aside to let Sam in and felt slightly startled and suitably awkward when Sam started crying.

After shutting the door, Freddie went over to Sam and hugged her tight. Instead of being an awkward hug between two friends-but-not-really-friends it was a deep and meaningful, comforting hug between someone who needed it and someone who cared.

Freddie sat Sam down on the sofa before hurrying into the kitchen and fetching a cool, damp towel. Sitting next to Sam he gently pressed it against the cut on her cheek, trying not to cause any pain and desperate to help. She winced at the sudden coolness on her flushed, tear-stained cheek.

'Do you want to talk about it?' Freddie asked worriedly. Sure, Sam was rude, obnoxious, kinda greedy and lazy, but she was his friend, and he really cared a lot about her.

Sam shook her head automatically but paused, thinking. Freddie wouldn't judge her if she poured her heart out to him, definitely. And he certainly wasn't the type to blab about it, not even to Carly. She nodded.

She moved closer to Freddie. However she didn't face him, as if she was in a church, confessing a sin, and Freddie was a priest. Freddie tenderly removed the towel from Sam's cheek, set it down on the coffee table and rested his hands in his lap, still sleepy, but ready to listen.

'So... it's...' Sam found trouble beginning. 'It's my mom,' she settled on. 'She's messed up. Drinking, sleeping around, all right under my nose. Tonight she... I don't know. She had this dude over, and she told me to go upstairs. And, well, I was on my laptop and I didn't want to go upstairs. The dude went to the bathroom and she started yelling. She was all up in my face, telling me how I was a disappointment, a burden, how she should have had an abortion...' Fresh tears started forming in Sam's eyes. '... she threw her shot glass at me... my cheek... she – I –' Sam was crying inconsolably now.

Freddie was visibly wound up, but placed a comforting hand on Sam's back. 'You don't have to finish,' he said softly.

Sam leaned back, falling into Freddie's arms. He held her tight, knowing it was the least he could do, and soothed her to sleep.

Flashback over

Freddie and Sam were awoken by Ms. Benson's shrill scream. The first thing they saw was her standing over them, her face contorted into an expression frighteningly similar to the Scream painting.

'Woah, woah, mom!' Freddie cried. 'Calm down!'

Sam sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the couch. Her mind was blank for a moment; 'What's going on? ... Oh, right.' She remembered the events of the night before.

'What did you do to my son?' Ms. Bensons cry was high pitched, so much so that Sam couldn't play any music in her head to block it out.

'Mom, Sam just needed help with... a problem last night, that's all. I helped her out.'

'A problem?' Ms. Benson looked momentarily confused. 'A maths problem?'

'Yeah...' Sam glanced at Freddie. 'A maths problem.'

'Well that's fine then,' Ms. Benson replied. 'Are you staying for breakfast, Samantha?'

'As much as I'd like to, Freddie's mom, I should probably get home. My mom would be... worried...'

'Alrighty then,' Ms. Benson pottered off to the bathroom, her big pink bathrobe billowing behind her, making her bum look like a beach ball.

Sam glanced down at the carpet, chewing her lip. 'I'd better go home, then,' she said.

'Sam?' Freddie said.

'Yeah?'

'Do you want me to come with you?'

'That would be awesome,' Sam smiled weakly.

Ten minutes later, the pair left the apartment, Freddie fully dressed and Sam with Freddie's Scouting For Girls t-shirt thrown on for decency. They walked through the park, him oblivious to the fact that each crunch of the leaves under their feet still made butterflies shake in Sam's stomach at the memory of the night before.

Standing outside Sam's house, you would never have guessed what went on in there, as it looked so normal. There were two milk bottles standing next to the slightly overgrown bushes, waiting to be picked up, and a crumpled newspaper hanging out of the letter box. A few weeds grew in the grassy front garden, but nothing that couldn't be sorted out by a half-hour of gardening, and a couple of garden gnomes stood bright and cheerful next to each other, each holding fishing rods and rocking red pointy hats.

If only they knew what went on in here, Sam thought as she and Freddie walked past them on their way to the front door. Then they wouldn't be so damn happy.

As Sam inserted the key into the lock on the door, she found herself reaching for Freddie's hand and clasping it, like a five year old if it had seen something scary.

The door swung open, revealing a corridor with cream walls and a once-fluffy-now-matted brown carpet. A picture of Sam and her mum five years earlier hung on the wall, like a tool to convince people that they had a happy family life.

The end of the corridor was where it started to look wrong. The remnants of the broke shot glass lay in the doorway, a few shards glistening with Sam's blood. Carefully sidestepping this, Sam walked into the beige-themed living room.

Her heart stopped for a moment as she stood, unable to move, in the doorway. She dropped Freddie's hand and her mouth formed into a devastated "o" shape as she saw the scene in front of her.

--

Sorry is it was disappointing, it was like midnight when I wrote this. I have a huuuuuge folder up in my room that I write in every day, it's brilliant. It's blue but you can barely see any blue bits because I've covered it in pictures of various hotties e.g. James Sutton, Lucas Grabeel, Nick Jonas, Nick Jonas, Nick Jonas, and a little bit more Nick Jonas. Nick Jonas is hot.

So please get your review thang on and drop me a line, your feedback is to me like hotness is to the Jonas Brothers.

Thanks!

Charz

xx