Disclaimer: Bob is currently grounded for misbehaving, so I haven't been able to make any progress in my 'trying to own iCarly' cause. *sighs sadly*

And for the slow ones, I don't own iCarly! XP

Enjoy! ;D


Chapter 24: Whirlwind

The disposable phone Carly had used to text Sam earlier buzzed inside her pocket, signaling that she had received a new text message. Her heart started beating faster in expectation, since she knew very well just who the text was from.

She had been waiting for that text for the past fifteen whole minutes, and she hadn't been able to make herself calm down since the moment she had hit send. She knew the success of her plan partially depended on that text, so it was no wonder why she felt so nervous about it.

But she also felt extremely conflicted, which was why she ended up hesitating so much to read the text. One part of her really wanted to just read the message so she'd finally know whether her plan had any chance of working or not, since the suspense was so intense it might end up giving her a heart attack, but there was another part of her that was afraid of what she might read in the text.

She had already thought about all the consequences of her plan going wrong, but she had been so sure that everything would work out just perfectly that she hadn't been really worried about it. But now that her plan was coming close to its end, she felt nervous beyond belief. She couldn't even imagine just how mad Freddie would be at her if her plan didn't work the way it had been supposed to, since she had pretty much put everything he had spent the last few months trying to hide at risk, and he might never forgive her for that. And also, she had no idea what she'd do if Sam accepted 'Shane's' invitation to go out with him, and if Sam ever found out that Carly had been the one that had sent the text, she'd be so pissed that she might even call the quits on being her best friend.

It was just then that Carly actually realized the seriousness of the situation, since she could pretty much lose both her best friends over this, but now what was done was done, and there was nothing she could do to take it all back.

That thought didn't make her feel even the slightest bit better.

With shaky hands, Carly managed to grab the disposable phone from her pocket and open up the text she had been expecting to receive for several minutes now, and after taking a deep breath in a failing effort to try to calm herself down, she let her eyes rest on the screen of the mobile in her hands.

I'd love to, but I'm kinda seeing someone else. Thanks for the invite, though.

~Sam

Carly found herself unable to tell whether that reply was bad or good.

She felt relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with the possible consequences of Sam agreeing to go on a date that wasn't happening, but she also felt worried that Sam's words might be true.

But… Sam would have told her if she was seeing someone, right? Of course she would, Carly told herself. Sam wouldn't keep something like that from her, she was sure of it. But then, that could only mean that, for some reason, Sam just didn't want to go out with Shane and had come up with that excuse.

That thought made her a little calmer, but she was still worried. She had no idea how things were going inside that elevator, and she'd only know it when it was time to release Sam and Freddie from there.

Carly sighed, flopping down onto the couch. She set the alarm on her phone to go off in an hour, and then tried to occupy her mind with anything that didn't have anything to do with elevators, but she couldn't keep her mind from wandering back toward the subject of her two best friends a lot more than she'd be happy with.


Sam tried not to put too much thought into what she had just found, but that turned out to be pretty much impossible. How could she simply ignore the fact that the boy she had fallen in love with hadn't been in love with her best friend all along, like she had always believed him to be?

But even if what Freddie had told her was true, that didn't mean that she suddenly had a chance to be with him, and the fact that Freddie didn't actually love Carly also didn't mean that he didn't have eyes for some other girl.

That thought had such a strong effect on her that it even surprised her. Whenever Freddie hit on Carly, it was obvious that she felt jealous, but she had never worried too much about it. She knew for a fact that Carly didn't feel anything for Freddie, and that made her feel relatively safe, since she knew she wouldn't need to compete for Freddie's heart against her own best friend.

But even the single thought of another girl entering the picture, and that she had no idea who this girl was and if she even felt anything for Freddie, truly freaked her out. She felt a strong sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, one that she could only identify as jealousy, and she suddenly felt the urge to ask Freddie if he had his eyes laid on any other girl, but she knew she couldn't do that.

"So..." Freddie's voice suddenly snapped Sam out of her troubled thoughts, and she quickly looked up at him. "What did you tell Shane?"

His question surprised Sam to say the least, and she couldn't help but raise a questioning eyebrow at him. "Why do you even care?" She couldn't stop the words before they left her mouth.

"Oh, no reason... Just trying to keep a conversation going on, I guess," Freddie said, shrugging lightly and looking slightly uncomfortable.

Sam frowned at that, but she didn't say anything. And that was when she had a pretty risky idea, but desperate times asked for desperate measures.

"If you really want to know, I told him that I'd love to go out with him," she said. She wasn't really sure why she said it, though. She guessed she was just curious to see Freddie's reaction to it, even though she knew she shouldn't expect any kind of jealousy from his part.

His reaction caught her off guard, though. Freddie looked extremely surprised for a moment, and for barely a second, an emotion Sam wasn't able to identify crossed his features, but it vanished so quickly she wasn't even sure if she had really seen it. "Oh, uh..." He cleared his throat awkwardly, seeming to be at a loss for words.

"Are you okay?" Sam couldn't stop herself from asking.

"Yeah, I... I just thought, you know..." He made a short pause, as if he was still not sure of what he should say. "I just thought that after that little competition you and Carly had over him a year ago, neither one of you would date him again so soon," he finally said, and Sam was silent for a moment, unsure of how to respond to that.

Sam had to admit that Freddie indeed had a point, but she couldn't let it show that she actually had no intention of going out with Shane. "That was one year ago. I'm sure Carly won't mind."

"Yeah… I guess you're right," Freddie replied after a moment, but he didn't seem really happy about admitting it. Silence took over the two of them for a moment, until Freddie spoke up once again. "So you still like Shane, huh?" There was something weird about his tone, but Sam couldn't put a finger on exactly what.

The question caught Sam completely off guard, and she hesitated briefly before responding. She couldn't understand why Freddie suddenly seemed so interested in her supposedly accepting to go out with Shane. He couldn't possibly be… jealous, could he? Of course he's not jealous, Sam thought quickly. There was no way Freddie would ever be jealous because of her going out with someone.

"Uh…" She tried to organize her thoughts for a moment. "Yeah… kinda," she finally said. "I mean, he's a really sweet guy," she added, shrugging lightly.

"So you're going out with him just because he's sweet?" Freddie asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Okay, what's with the sudden questioning? What, now I need to have your approval on which guys I can date?" The words were out there before Sam even realized them, and Freddie suddenly tensed up, which didn't go unnoticed by her.

"No, I just…" Freddie seemed to be at a loss for words once again as he ran his hand over the back of his neck. "Just forget it," he said, suddenly looking down, and Sam simply frowned at him.

The way Freddie was acting really intrigued Sam, and she wasn't willing to just let it go. "If a girl ever asked you out – and I'm not saying one ever will - and you thought that she was really sweet, wouldn't you go out with her, even if you didn't exactly like her?"

Freddie eyed her for a moment, as if processing what he had just heard, before he finally responded. "Probably not," he said finally, and when he noticed Sam's lifted eyebrow, he quickly explained himself. "Well, I just wouldn't go out with someone I don't like that way, you know?"

Sam thought for a second, before shrugging lightly. "Yeah, that makes sense, I guess," she replied. "But you'd still go out with Carly if she asked you out, I'm sure." Sam couldn't have stopped the words from escaping her mouth even if she had tried to. She had no idea why she was acting like that – completely on instinct and not even trying to stop herself from asking the kind of questions she had never thought she'd ever have the courage to ask Freddie.

Freddie blinked a few times, before looking down abruptly, as if he couldn't bear to look at Sam in the eye or something. "I've already told you, Sam. I don't like Carly that way anymore," he said finally.

"So you seriously wouldn't go out with her?" Sam asked just to make sure Freddie actually meant what he said.

"No, probably not," Freddie replied. "I've already told you; Carly is like a sister to me. It would be too weird for me to date her."

Sam paused for a moment, wondering if she should really say something, and her jealousy and curiosity ended up getting the best of her. "Oh, so that's it? Or is there a new little crush on the picture?" Sam said it in the best joking tone she could muster at the moment.

Freddie opened his mouth to respond, but quickly closed it shut. For a moment, he actually considered telling her that there wasn't, but for some reason, another part of his brain didn't want to lie to her about it and was insanely curious to see her reaction to it, since Sam seemed pretty curious about the subject of his now absent crush on Carly, and his brief moment of hesitation ended up giving away the truth.

Sam raised an eyebrow at his reaction. "What, cat got your tongue?" she asked, trying not to read too much into his hesitation, but the truth was clear as crystal right in front of her eyes - Freddie indeed had a crush on someone else now.

She had a heavy feeling inside her chest, but she did her best not to show how broken she suddenly felt inside. Images of Freddie holding hands and kissing some random, faceless girl flooded her mind, and the feeling in her chest only got stronger.

"I, uh..." Freddie still hesitated for another moment, but he soon realized that there was no point in trying to hide it now; his hesitation had already said enough. "Okay, fine, yes, I do have a crush on someone else," he admitted. He preferred to say it was a crush, since he didn't think it was a good idea to tell Sam that he was in love with someone who happened to be her, even if she wouldn't know about the last part.

Sam was silent for a moment, as if processing what she had just heard, when she was actually trying to build up the courage to keep the conversation going. "So... Do I know her?" she asked, doing her best not to sound too interested in it.

Freddie eyed her for a moment, wondering why she was suddenly so interested in whom he had feelings for, and he could only blame the boredom for it. "No, you don't know her," he said, deciding not to risk telling her that she knew who he was talking about, since she might try to guess who it was.

"So she's not from Ridgeway, then?" Sam asked, still trying to sound slightly uninterested.

"No," Freddie replied.

Sam grew silent once again. She tried to think of where Freddie could know this girl from, and several places crossed her mind. Freddie's mother made him attend to several mother-son classes with her, and there sure were a few girls about their age there, so that already gave her several possible places where Freddie might have met this mysterious girl. The others were just regular places he went to, like tech-stores and the shopping mall.

None of that got her any closer to figuring out who this girl was, which only frustrated her deeply.

"Poor girl," Sam said, suddenly breaking the silence. "I assume you keep running after her like you used to do with Carly," she added, hoping that it would help her get more information about the girl out of Freddie without making him grow suspicious because of her curiosity.

Freddie couldn't help but chuckle lightly at that. If only she knew…

"No, she doesn't even know about it," he told her, starting to grow slightly uncomfortable with the direction their conversation was heading.

Sam raised an eyebrow at that. "You really haven't told her?" Freddie shook his head lightly in response. "Well, that's a shock, considering that you made sure Carly didn't forget about your 'love' for her every single day of the week," she commented, adding the air quotes to the word 'love'.

Freddie looked away from her, trying to think of a way to change the subject without making Sam grow suspicious about it, but his mind just didn't seem really cooperative at the moment.

"I just…" He hesitated for a moment, shaking his head lightly as he tried to clear up his thoughts. "She doesn't feel the same way, I can tell," he finally said, still avoiding her gaze.

"You knew that Carly didn't like you that way and you still told her how you felt," Sam reminded him.

Freddie shrugged lightly. "It's not the same thing. I just… I just don't wanna risk my friendship with her."

Sam didn't respond; she simply eyed Freddie for a moment, another weird feeling taking over her.

She suddenly felt bad for Freddie, since she knew very well what he was going through. She knew exactly what it felt like to have unrequired feelings for someone who surely didn't feel the same way. And ironically, this someone was Freddie.

She could somehow tell that Freddie didn't simply have a crush on this girl, and as much as that thought pained her, she knew she couldn't expect Freddie to forget about this girl she didn't even know just to be with her. She knew he'd never do that.

Sam didn't know what was happening to her, but she suddenly found herself feeling the need to encourage Freddie to follow his heart and give this random girl a shot, because as much as it might hurt her to see him with someone else, it hurt her even more to know that he was hurting. She just wanted him to be happy, even if it wasn't with her, because she knew that they would never be together. Freddie would never feel anything for her, she was sure of it.

"You know…" she started, a lump forming in her throat as she thought about the consequences of what she was about to say, but she fought against it and managed to say the words that, in her mind, would end her chances of being with the boy she loved, but were still the right words to say.

Freddie looked back up at her, his eyebrows frowned as he waited for her to go on.

"You're never going to know if she really doesn't like you if you never tell her how you feel," Sam finally said, and Freddie shook his head lightly in response.

"Trust me, it's not that easy," he said.

"Why not?" Sam asked, shrugging lightly.

"She's just... complicated," Freddie said, shaking his head lightly. "I don't really want to talk about it," he added, hoping that Sam just drop the subject.

"Okay then," she said finally, before growing silent for a few minutes. But she felt somewhat unable to simply forget about that subject, so she soon spoke up again. "What is she like?"

Freddie couldn't help but chuckle at her. "Why are you suddenly so interested in my love life?"

Sam hesitated for a seconds before responding. "Boredom, I guess," she replied, shrugging once again.

Freddie didn't seem entirely convinced by her answer, but he spoke anyway. "She's just... amazing in her own way. Nothing seems to get her down. And she's probably the prettiest girl I've ever seen. She has this beautiful smile and ridiculously cute laugh. And..." Freddie paused, thinking that he was probably going a bit too far.

Sam was looking down now, not trusting her ability to hide how she was feeling inside anymore. She feared that if she looked at Freddie in the eye, he'd be able to see all the hurt she felt inside as she heard him talking about this girl he was probably falling for.

"Sam?" Freddie's voice brought her back to reality, but she didn't dare to look up at him. "Sam, are you okay?" he asked, confused by the sudden change in her behavior.

"Yeah, I..." She shook her head lightly, as if trying to clear up her thoughts.

"What's wrong?" Freddie was truly worried now, that much was evident.

"It's... It's nothing, really," she insisted, still avoiding his gaze.

Freddie abruptly stood up and took two steps ahead, before kneeling down right in front of her. "Sam, look at me," he said, his voice earning a serious yet soft tone.

After taking a deep breath, Sam finally made herself look up, only to find Freddie's dark brown eyes staring into her clear blue ones with so much intensity she suddenly found herself unable to look away.

"What's wrong?" Freddie's voice came out just as low as a whisper. He could see something in her eyes - something he couldn't quite define - and he could easily tell that whatever she was feeling, it wasn't good.

Sam simply stared into his eyes, her voice suddenly gone. The way Freddie talked about that girl really cut deep, because even if he hadn't been in love with Carly during all those years he had claimed to be, she knew something for sure - he was falling for this girl, whoever she was. That was, if he hadn't already.

That thought made Sam feel completely shattered on the inside, but she did her best not to show it. The hold Freddie had on her still surprised her. She had never felt something like that for anyone in her whole life, so how easily it was for Freddie to hurt her, even if he didn't know about it, was shocking to say the least.

And as she looked into those two big chocolate brown eyes, she found herself wondering if things might have turned out differently if she hadn't been such a bully to Freddie for all those years.

In that moment, there was nothing she wanted more than to be that insanely lucky girl. But she knew that was impossible, and she was the only one to blame for that. With the constant name calling and beatings she had put Freddie through since the day they had first met, how could he ever feel something for her other than deep dislike?

She just wanted Freddie to talk about her the same way he talked about that girl. She wanted to look into his eyes and find the loving gaze she saw in them when he was talking about that girl.

She wanted him to choose her.

In the midst of the whirlwind of emotions she felt inside of her, Sam ended up losing every single bit of rationality she had for a brief second. She rested each one of her hands on each side of Freddie's face and pulled him to her, connecting her lips with his.


Author's Note: I love reviews ;D

xxiCarlyFanxx