Author's Note: Yeah, I know, I suck at updating XD
Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, I wouldn't be worried about whether or not Seddie will be together in the finale, since I'd know for sure that they will, and they wouldn't have broken up in iLove You to begin with. But guess what? I don't own it. *sighs sadly*
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 23: Curiosity
Sam was getting hungry again, since it had probably been over an hour since she had eaten that fat cake, and adding that to her boredom, it all got her in a really bad mood and pretty unstable. And that helped the following events to happen, being those bad or good.
She could notice that Freddie was a bit tense, and he had been since the moment Carly had told them that it would take about two hours to fix the elevator. Well, at least that was what Carly had said, but Sam didn't buy it. She could easily tell that by the way Carly talked over the phone that she was lying about something; that she was hiding something from the two of them, but Sam couldn't figure out what it was.
What could Carly be hiding from them? Could it have anything to do with what she wanted to tell them after school?
Sam tried hard to find an answer to those questions, but she seriously couldn't think of any, so she soon dropped that line of thought and went back to what she had been thinking about before she started wondering what was up with Carly.
She knew her thoughts were wandering to dangerous grounds, but she really didn't care at the moment.
She couldn't figure out if Freddie was nervous about being trapped in that elevator with her because he was afraid that she'd hurt him, or if the reason was something else. Of course, he had his reasons to fear being hurt by her, but it wasn't like she hurt him all the time. It seriously hurt her that he constantly thought of her as someone who would hurt him at any chance she got. Why couldn't he just see her by who she really was, just like he did with Carly? It wasn't fair that only because Carly was a goody two-shoes and all girly that he'd notice her. Why did he have to love Carly, anyway?
Oh, yeah, because Carly was the kind of girl that all boys liked. They didn't like girls who'd throw a punch if necessary; they wanted delicate girls who wore high heels and makeup every day. But Sam wasn't that kind of girl, and she was suffering the consequences of that with Freddie.
She wouldn't change who she was for a guy; she had already learned her lesson about that with Pete. If a boy wanted to date her, he'd have to accept her by who she was.
But then, how could she and Freddie ever have a chance if he wouldn't even notice her in the first place? He was just too busy running after Carly like a lost puppy to realize that Sam was the one who would always be there for him, no matter what.
Why did he have to love Carly? Actually, why did she have to fall for him? If that hadn't happened, she wouldn't be going through all this. But she had fallen for him, and there was nothing she could do to change that.
A sudden movement made Sam look up abruptly, only to find Freddie looking down at his watch. She rolled her eyes, since that was pretty much a confirmation of what she was just thinking about. He might be dying inside to go back to his precious Carly and be free from this torture.
Sam got even angrier because of that last thought.
"You know, time won't go by faster if you just keep looking down at your watch," Sam said before she could stop herself, the words coming out a bit more harshly than she had meant them to, but she honestly didn't care at the moment.
"I know, I'm just trying to..." Freddie shook his head lightly. "Just forget it," he finally said, clearly changing his mind about whether he'd tell her something or not, which made Sam suddenly grow curious about it.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing, it's just that..." Freddie trailed off, and Sam knew that he'd try to make up something to say, so she gave him a look, telling him that he'd better tell her what was in his mind. At the sight, he gave in with a sigh. "Okay, okay. I was just..." Freddie seemed unsure of how to continue that. "Well, I was just trying to understand why the elevator really stopped. I mean, it wasn't Lewbert who shut down the power, because that wouldn't make sense," he said, and Sam was able to hear a hint of hesitation in his voice.
Sam nodded lightly at his words. "Yeah, actually, I've been thinking about the same thing," Sam admitted. "And also, don't you think that Carly seemed to be hiding something from us? On the phone, I mean."
"Yeah, actually, I do," Freddie replied. "But I just can't think of what it might be..." Freddie let his voice hang in the air for a moment. Of course he knew what Carly was hiding from them, or at least he thought he knew, but he couldn't share it with Sam, so he had to make sure that Sam thought he was just as clueless about all that as she was.
"Exactly." Sam paused for a moment. "Do you think she's the one who shut the power down to make the elevator stop? You know, just like Carly and I did that time with Jake?"
Freddie knew their conversation was heading in a dangerous direction, and he knew that he had to avoid that, but he had to think of a way to do that without making Sam grow suspicious about it. "Yeah, that could be it, but there's only one thing that doesn't fit..." He made a short pause. "Why would she do that?" Freddie asked, hoping that after that she'd drop the subject.
"I don't know," Sam said, shrugging. She didn't speak again for several seconds, and for a moment, Freddie thought that she had given up on the subject.
He was wrong.
"She couldn't be doing this as some kind of prank, right?" Sam asked suddenly. "I mean, Carly wouldn't do that. I think that girl has never pulled a single prank in her whole life, so why do it now, and completely out of nowhere?" Sam sounded pretty frustrated as she went on with a list of reasons why Carly could have done it, but none of them really made sense or was close enough to the truth. "Ugh, okay, I give up. Carly is just out of her mind, that might be it," she said finally, clearly frustrated.
"Or maybe it wasn't her," Freddie said, trying to sound believable.
"But then, who could it be?" Sam asked, sighing. "I think we're just gonna know the real reason when we're out of here, because this is leading us nowhere."
"Probably," Freddie agreed, feeling relieved that she had finally given up on trying to figure things out. "I guess all we can do for now is wait."
"Yeah, you're right... unfortunately," Sam said, before sighing quietly to herself. Maybe staying stuck inside an elevator with Freddie wouldn't be so bad if an awkward silence didn't take over every two minutes.
After a few seconds, however, the silence was broken when Sam's phone suddenly beeped, signaling that she had received a new text message. She took the phone in her hands expecting a text from Carly, but she frowned when she saw that the message was from an unknown number. She opened the message and read it, and as soon as her gaze fell upon the sender's name, her eyes widened in shock.
Finally made myself ask Carly for your number. Want to go out someday?
- Shane
Sam was frozen for a moment, unsure of what to do.
She had had a major crush on Shane once, but that had been over one year ago, and now, she honestly wouldn't care if Carly went out with him like she would have back then. But she couldn't help but feel happy after reading Shane's text, since no guy apart from Jonah had ever asked her out, even though she'd rather he had asked her in person.
"What is it?" Freddie's voice suddenly broke Sam out of her thoughts, and she quickly looked up, only to find him watching her curiously. Just then she realized that she had been smiling lightly to herself as she stared down at the screen of her phone.
"Nothing," she replied quickly, but an idea suddenly popped into her head. She had always wondered if Freddie would even care if she went out with someone, and even if she was sure that he probably wouldn't, she couldn't help but want to check his reaction to Shane's text. "Shane just asked me out on a date."
Sam had expected Freddie to act completely indifferently to that, but surprisingly, he seemed oddly interested and maybe even slightly surprised.
"He... He did?" Freddie asked, his tone earning some kind of weird tone she had never heard him use before.
"Yeah," she replied, shrugging lightly. "Why do you seem so surprised?"
"I'm not surprised, I'm just..." He seemed unable to find the right way to end that.
"Shocked that Shane would ever ask me out?" Sam asked. "Well, I don't know if you haven't realized it yet, but I'm a girl, Freddie. I don't see why a guy asking me out should be such a surprise." Sam sounded somewhat hurt, even though she tried hard to hide it.
"I didn't mean it like that, Sam!" Freddie said quickly. "It's no surprise that someone would ask you out; I mean, you're beautiful and-" Freddie stopped abruptly, his eyes widening as the realization of what he had just said sunk in.
Sam was completely shocked to hear that. She had honestly always thought that Freddie had never - and never would - see her as actually a girl the same way he saw Carly. So it was no surprise that after hearing him calling her beautiful, she felt completely speechless, unable to find a way to respond to it. No one had ever told her that, and the fact that Freddie was the one who had said it made her heart nearly explode with joy.
"You... You really mean that?" Sam asked, her voice low as she struggled against her sudden inability to speak.
Freddie nodded lightly. "Of course."
Sam hesitated for a few seconds before answering, not able to find the right thing to say. "Thank you," she said finally, earning a small smile from Freddie in response and smiling lightly in return. "No one has ever said anything like that to me, you know?"
"Well, I don't see why not." He shrugged lightly, the smile never leaving his face, and all the happiness inside Sam made her unable to stop smiling as well.
Another beep could be heard, this time coming from Freddie's bag that lay with Sam's right beside her. Sam somehow managed to look away from Freddie, suddenly finding her nails oddly entertaining, but she couldn't help but watch from the corner of her eye as Freddie stood up and took a step toward her, before kneeling down right in front of their bags. He then started searching through his own bag, looking for his cell phone.
"I thought you reserved that kind of thing for Carly." The words left Sam's mouth before she had the chance to stop them, and she regretted them as soon as they were out. She kept her gaze down, still not able to meet his eyes.
Freddie stopped his search for a moment, trying to decide how he should respond to that without giving too much away. He hesitated for a few seconds, but ended up telling her the truth.
"It's not like that anymore." He made a short pause, studying her reaction. She looked up and frowned at him, a curious expression on her face, which was a clear sign for him to go on. "I just… I just don't feel the same way for Carly as I did before," he admitted the truth he had never dared to speak out loud before, but now, actually hearing those words made it all seem even more real.
Sam was surprised to hear that to say the least; not simply surprised, but utterly shocked. Freddie loving Carly had been a solid fact in her life for over three years now, so knowing that it wasn't true anymore made her freeze and her mind start running like crazy. "Wait, so you're saying that you don't love her anymore?" Sam found herself asking, hoping with everything she had that his answer would be positive.
"I don't think I ever did," he told her, shrugging lightly. "I had a crush on her for a little over a year, nothing more than that."
Silence suddenly fell upon the two of them as Sam looked down once again. She was shocked to hear that, but she also felt somewhat relieved, as if the idea that Freddie might not have any more feelings for Carly meant that she might actually have a chance to be with him someday.
But she knew that she couldn't allow herself to feel hopeful, or else she'd for sure only end up having her feelings crushed. The fact that Freddie didn't have feelings for Carly anymore didn't mean that he'd ever feel anything for Sam, of all people.
The sound of Freddie chuckling lowly suddenly brought Sam back to reality, and she looked up abruptly, only to find him shaking his head lightly as he stared down at the screen of his PearPhone. Just then she remembered why he had been searching through his bag in the first place - he had been looking for his phone so he could check the text he had received just a few moments ago.
"What is it?" Sam asked before she could even stop herself.
Freddie quickly looked up. "My mom asking if I got home safely after school," he replied, and Sam couldn't help but chuckle lightly at his mother's paranoia. He quickly typed in a reply and sent it before putting his phone back inside his bag.
Sam did her best to resist the urge to ask him what he had told his mother. She briefly wondered if he had mentioned the fact that he was currently stuck inside an elevator with her, but she soon realized that he most likely hadn't. There was no point in doing that, since it would only make things worse. His mother would just keep sending him a million texts and calling him every two minutes to ask him if he was still alive and uninjured.
Sam wasn't sure if the subject of Freddie's now absent crush on Carly was over, but she found herself wanting to go on with that conversation, just so he'd tell her more about it, but she didn't know if she should.
Luckily, she didn't have to say anything.
"Carly is like a sister to me," Freddie said after he had zipped his bag shut again. "I just can't see us as a couple anymore."
"I never did," Sam admitted, shrugging lightly.
"Why not?" Freddie asked, sounding curious, and Sam suddenly regretted saying that, but there was way to take it back.
"I just…" She didn't know how to explain herself without giving away something she shouldn't. "I just don't think you two are right for each other," she finally said, hoping that he wouldn't ask for a more complete explanation.
"Well, I'm pretty sure you're right," he said, before falling silent once more. Everything was silent for a few awkward seconds, until Freddie finally broke the silence once again. "Aren't you gonna answer Shane?" he asked, his tone unusually curious. Even though Sam didn't know about it, he was hoping with everything he had that she'd turn Shane's invitation down, but he somehow knew that she wouldn't. He remembered just how crazy she and Carly had been about Shane over a year ago, which could only lead him to think that she would still be willing to go out with him on a date.
"Uh, yeah, I… I forgot," Sam said, looking back down at her phone. With the conversation she and Freddie had been having, she had honestly forgotten about the text she had received several minutes ago.
Sam typed in a quick reply and hit send.
Author's Note: Don't you guys just love cliffhangers? lol XD
I'll try not to take too long to update again XP
Thank you so much for reading! =)
I love reviews, and so does Bob ;) I think he's even lost some weight in the past few weeks ;D (He's finally realized that the wheel in his cage is not only for him to sleep on XD)
xxiCarlyFanxx
