THE AFTERMATH OF iCARLY

Sam: what's so perfect about being perfect?

Lying seems a lot easier than telling the truth. Telling the truth hurts but hurts a lot less in the long run. As they say, it is better to be honest. Honesty is the best policy. God, that sounded an awful lot like Freddie's mother. But Sam had more practice at lying. Particularly about the way she felt about things. It was better that way.

However... The moment she hung up on Freddie, she instantly regretted it.

There was so much more left to say to him. Such as: 'don't go on a second date with Angela' and 'I'm only doing the Brad thing as a favour, it means nothing'. She knew, deep down, that her feelings would remain covered up. Despite Freddie uncovering the truth - but what did she do? Said the complete opposite.

"Denial is not just a river in Utah," she said to her best friend. If only she could actually take her own advice.

Sam was scared. For the first time in her life, she didn't know what was going to happen next. Like flying by the seat of her pants. Which is what she was doing currently. The girl didn't like feeling afraid, it just wasn't her style. The more she thought about her conversation/argument with Freddie a couple of minutes ago, the more her armpits started sweating. Gross, I know. But that's how terrified she was. Now that she had given him "permission", pretty much, he'd go and ask the girl out for a second date.

But he wouldn't do that, she thought. This is Freddork Benson we're talking about. There's no way he'd have the balls to go against everything he stood for. Loyalty, being one of those things.

Then again, she was going out with Brad - to a wedding. A one time thing, really. His sister was getting married this Saturday, and he'd needed a date. Simple as pie. Mmm, she thought. Pie. No, focus! This wedding thing, surely wouldn't lead to anything to suspicious. Right? At least she wanted to think that nothing was going to happen between her and a cute boy who makes top-notch fudge. Mmm, she thought. Fudge.

God damn it, Sam.

After a shower and putting on her pyjamas, she climbed into bed and grabbed the paper bag filled with comfort food - chocolate covered bacon. Her all-time favourite snack - aside from fat-cakes from Canada. Mmm, she thought. Canadian fat cakes. Sugary goodness.

"You can't tell anyone, especially Carly. She's going to freak out." He said to her, handing her the fat cake.

"Thank you, nerd-pants," she replied. "I'll keep it forever. Or... eat it right now."

Those were the days. Back when times were simpler, less complicated and less scary. Now it was all too messed up for anyone to understand what was going on. If only Carly was there to make things better. Sam's best friend would always find a way to make things better. She'd always be telling Sam to be nicer to Freddie, to which she'd roll her eyes and eventually agree. She missed Carly like crazy right now. She bit into a piece of bacon and crunched it thoughtfully.

"Carly," she says out loud. "I wish you were here. Then you could tell me that this whole thing with Freddie is just stupid. And that we should stick to being frenemies."

The girl placed the paper back on her bed-side table, switched off the lamp and lay her head on the pillow, attempting sleep. The key word here was 'attempting'. She hadn't slept properly in over a week now. Still worried about Freddie and his new little girly friend and what they might be 'attempting' to do. But this time, she couldn't sleep because of what they had said to one another over the phone.

He had called her a 'bitch', but maybe she deserved that. She had called him a 'bastard', and he definitely deserved that.

How did he know about her feelings for him? Was she that obvious? Boys were quite often oblivious to way girls felt about them, as Carly always pointed out to Sam regularly. Sam could do nothing but believe this. This went for every boy she ever met. Perhaps Freddie was different... the exception to that rule.

She tossed over to the other side, closing her eyes, forcing herself to fall asleep. But it was no use. Sleep was staying away tonight, for no good reason.

The next morning, she had a text message from Brad. He was planning to take her to the mall for some dress shopping. She groaned as she read it and threw her pear phone onto the floor with disappointment. The one thing she hated to do, go shopping for dresses... and actually need to try them on. Her type of shopping was quick, easy and painless. This was more like Carly's type of shopping - which more often than not resulted in her not buying anything. Just window shopping.

Ugh, thought Sam, as she pulled on the same clothes as yesterday, fluffed up her hair a bit and took a look at herself in the mirror. She scowled as her reflection nodded its approval.

"Brad, you better appreciate all this effort," she says out loud.

Her doorbell rang, and just on time too, as Sam was brushing her teeth since she had just had breakfast. At least Pam Puckett was semi-reliable these days... she hadn't dated any form of loser for a while and kept the fridge stocked with edible food. That made her somewhat happy. She knew her mother was making a ditch effort, as the therapist had said, to be a good mom.

The doorbell rang again.

"I'm coming," she drones. The minute she opens the door, she feels a smile spreading across her face. Oh no!

"Hey Sam," says Brad. "Ready to go?"

"One sec."

Sam races back to the fridge, grabs a fat cake and shoves it in her purse then grabs her key out to lock the door behind her. Brad chuckled and lead her down to where his fancy car was waiting. He had his driver's license, and his dad had gotten him an expensive car for his birthday this year. She only knew all this because he had told her while they were waiting for Carly to come upstairs. She was taking an awful long time.

"So, I know you're not into the whole 'dress shopping' thing," he says, as the engine purrs. "But I promise to make it as quick, easy and painless as possible."

The girl opened her mouth to ask why exactly he knew that, but decided to not go into it too much. For all intents and purposes, Brad was just a nice guy whom she was attending a wedding with. A one time thing. No need to get all hung up about how he knows things about her. She had a sneaking suspicion that Freddie may have had something to do with it.

Freddie... she thought. Where would I be without you?

The car pulled into a car-parking space and Brad's teeth shone through his cute looking smile. If this thing, whatever she called it, with Freddork didn't work out, Brad would most definitely be Plan B. Haha, she thought. Plan B, Plan Brad. She was most definitely a genius.

"Do you have any shops that you like going into?" Brad asks, as they walk into the air-conditioned place, already crowded with people.

"Not really," she replies. "I just go where Carly leads us. Usually it's a shop with pink sparkly items."

Brad laughs, and Sam smiles softly. They keep walking until they come to a shop that has what seems like a million dresses on display at the front window. Sam shudders, but goes in anyway. She notices a smile creeping onto Brad's face. Dress shopping Puckett, she told herself. Just focus on the dress shopping.

There's a girl she recognises instantly standing behind the counter. Her perfection raining down on Sam's parade.

"Hello Sam," she says, with a bright smile. "Oh, are you hanging out with your boyfriend?"

Sam turns and looks at the boy who followed her in and was admiring the ceiling, as there were sun-catchers making light dance through the store. It really did look pretty. He watched them, and the blonde girl faced the counter girl, who happened to be dating Freddie.

"Hi," replies Sam. "He's not my boyfr- you know what... yes. Yes I am. I'm actually after a dress that's wedding suitable."

Angela's eyes widened at first. Sam smirked, allowing whatever thoughts were running through this girl's head to just run wild. Because she was feeling not as evil as she usually was today, maybe lack of sleep had something to do with it, she shook her head. What sort of girly, sappy monster was she turning into?

"Brad needs a date for his sister's wedding," she explains quickly.

"Ohh! Well that makes sense! Come with me, I have something that would be perfect."

It was weird that she knew exactly who Brad was, without further explanation. Also the fact that Angela was being a bit too sweet and helpful, bugged her a lot. Usually, she would have punched this chick in the face by now, because nice people annoyed her. But Sam being Sam, didn't question it and strangely kept calm.

Maybe Freddie's feelings for this girl had something to do with it... Nah, she thought, immediately scrubbing it out of her mind.

"Right. Lead me to it."

She turned to Brad and they shared a look, that needed no explanation. He nodded and again, smiled. And off she went, following Angela to the back of the shop, ready and willing to try anything she was given. Which was surprising, because the girl hated trying on dresses. But there was something about the niceness of Brad that rubbed off on her that made her behave like a perfect lady. Again, the "nice" people thing was creeping into her life. She was destined to be "nice" one of these days.

Even though she knew she was far from perfect. Just once, she wanted to prove herself wrong.