THE AFTERMATH OF iCARLY
Freddie: nothing can break us apart
It's a sad day when you need sleep but sleep does not come. I feel very sorry for insomniacs. Imagine, not being able to sleep, when you most need it.
The boy was lying in his bed but not asleep. In fact, he couldn't be further away from it. He was just lying there thinking about Sam, Angela and Carly.
Mostly Sam, though. It was always Sam. She is... unforgettable, to say the least.
There were many things on his mental 'to-do' list. Perhaps, he thought, I should write them down. Like he'd forget to do them, or something. Ha! Like he'd forget! They were all important as each other.
He had to get Sam back. He had to say "good bye" to Angela. And he had to pick Carly up from the airport. He was going to a busy man later on today.
He checked his phone for the time and if anyone sent him a text or whatever. It was fricken two in the morning! Freddie groaned and turned over and shut his eyes, forcing sleep to come.
Until...
"Sam! Stop!" It was Spencer's voice, all frantic. He groaned again. "No! YOU CAN'T JUST THROW A CHAIR AT-"
C-R-A-S-H-! Went the Benson apartment door.
"Oh chiz!" he shouts, as soon as he hears the noise.
"Freddie's door." Spencer finishes, sadly.
He sat bolt upright, tossed the blankets aside and scrambled into the living room, where a nicely dressed up Sam was holding a chair, Spencer was looking speechless and the door - well it was pretty much non-existent.
"Sam, what'd you do!" Freddie yells, looking at her angrily. "You just-"
"Demolished your door? You're welcome."
"What? No! You can't just take a chair and ... and... throw it at someone's door!"
"That's what I said!" Spencer chimes in.
"Well I just did," she says and he knows she's baiting him for an argument. "What are you gonna do about it?"
Freddie runs his hands over his head and groans. What the hell was THAT all about? He loved the girl, but she was INFURIATING. Especially now that she'd broken his door... worse, his MOTHER'S door. He is doomed.
Sam looks at him and smiles cheekily, like nothing is even wrong. She places the chair down and sits on it.
"You know, when something like this happens, it's always best to..." Spencer stops speaking and runs out, back into the "safety" of his own apartment, and slams the door.
Hey, at least he HAS a door!
"What do you want, Puckett? Another apology? You were the one who brushed ME off, remember?"
"Benson," she scoffs. "You're an idiot. I was doing a FAVOUR for Brad. He asked me to."
Freddie folded his arms. Sam stands up and walks over to him. He takes a step back, in case there's another "chair-swing-smash" heading his way and HE was the target.
At least he was wrong. Thankfully. He held his breath nonetheless.
"You're kind of cute when you're jealous," she whispers.
"And you look like a stark-raving mad lunatic when you're jealous," he whispers back and sees her giggle.
"Freddie, I'm-"
"No, don't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted your loyalty." He looks away, doubting his OWN loyalty.
"And I shouldn't have snapped at you for trying to save me... or smashed your door with a chair or-"
"Enough already. I get it."
They shared a look that only resembled forgiveness. And kind of a warmth that only stayed between them.
Here they were, all apologetic and so out of character. It was either extremes of hate or extremes of love. These two had no middle ground to stand on. Until now, just at this very moment. That's where they were standing.
A silence settles over them once again.
But it's okay, because they're used to silences now. They mean different things. This one is a friendly one.
"Carly's coming home today," Freddie blurts out.
"What?" Sam asks. "Why didn't she-"
"She left a message on my voice-mail. She wanted me to pick her up at the airport."
"Oh." She looked down as though remembering something.
He wondered if Sam had gotten a call too, but maybe she didn't pick it up because she didn't recognise the 'international call code' and plus it was an unknown number too. That would make sense.
"You can come with me, if you like. I'm sure she'd love us both there." He says, quickly and hoping that'd cheer her up.
She suddenly tackles him in a hug. He contains his emotion... for all of five milli-seconds and then hugs her back. He doesn't want to let her go. He feels her let go, but he's holding her tightly until she clears her throat and he retreats.
He looks at her, like really looks at her for the first time in... since they broke up. She's standing there... in a dress that she most likely hates wearing... and the sneakers that he's quite fond of. She can pull any outfit off with those sneakers, even if it is for a wedding. But if he recalled yesterday, she had been wearing heels. And probably complained all night.
A strange tingly feeling starts in his fingertips and moves up his arms and pretty soon his whole body is itching. And he's ninety nine point nine percent sure that it's not an allergic reaction.
"Sam..." he starts to say.
"...Freddie..." she replies, softly now.
He's desperate to kiss her and he's pretty sure she's expecting him to. But the guilt of kissing someone else nagged the back of his mind.
"About the proposal..."
"Hypothetical?"
"Oh... uhmm... yeah. The hypothetical proposal..."
"What about it?"
"I think we should..." he stopped himself. Her eyes widened as he spoke, she was hanging onto his every word.
"Yes...?"
"I think that we should..." he couldn't say it.
"Spit it out, Benson!"
The memories of their history together and not together, friendship, frenemy, enemy, and all the other stuff zoomed into his brain. He left the present momentarily and with it, left Sam too. Just for now. I'll bring him back, I promise.
Entering Freddie's flashbacks...
There was a time where they hated, and I mean HATED one another. But that was Sam being jealous, or so it seemed.
"Oh, you invited the doof!"
"Man! I didn't know THAT was gonna be here!"
"She. I'm a "she" Freddie, as in GIRL."
"...barely..."
There was a time where they were in a kind of love/hate thing. Some say, they never left that phase of their relationship.
"Really? You wanna kiss me?"
"Kiss you? Dude I'd rather... Not do that at this time, but that's for your kind offer."
Or how about when Sam's sitting at a kissing booth, and Freddie approaches her... she stares at him.
"Not for nine BILIION dollars."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you."
And then... THIS happens kind of out of nowhere... the fire-escape and the first-kiss conundrum...
"I was just going to say-"
"That WE should kiss?"
"You're gonna break my arm now, right?"
"No."
And there was a time that Sam and Freddie confessed something major - too bad it was while they were breaking up...
"Hey, I love you."
"I love you too."
And finally... there was the time that this happened... despite them ending it... was all that he needed to keep believing they would find a way to be together and stay together. One day...
"Hey, how was I?"
"Just alright."
"That's offensive! But seriously...?"
"The best I've ever had."
... exiting Freddie's flashbacks.
There were many, MANY other times that he could think of... but these few stuck with him and never left.
"Earth to Fredwardo," says Sam.
How long had he been snapped out of it?
"Sorry, I was just... uhh, never mind."
"What were you going to say before? Something about the propo- I mean, 'hypothetical' proposal?"
"Sam, I don't care if you hit me, slap me or punch me-"
"Those are all the same thing-"
"... yeah... "
"So?"
"I want to marry you, Samantha Joy Puckett," he says, stretching his hands out. "I love you. I know, I know. It's going to be a challenge. But I'm up for it... considering it'll be with you."
Sam is speechless.
"This is not hypothetical. This is real. I am saying this because you and I... we don't have to be perfect. But-"
"Okay."
"Okay, what?"
"I will marry you. For real."
"Seriously?"
"You want me to decline?"
"No! No, I'm happy you're accepting."
"Just happy?"
"Over the moon, ecstatic, excited, nervous but mostly overjoyed. Yes, I'm happy."
Freddie reaches over, pulls her to him - again, cheesy as - but the moment called for something like this. Sam would probably disagree. But anyway, he hugs her tightly and she hugs him back. They stay like that for a long time.
"So we're engaged," she says. "Do we tell Carly?" The question of all questions.
"Hmm, I'm not sure. What do you think?"
"I don't know. I mean, she's our best friend. But she'll freak out if we walk over to her in the airport, holding hands."
They were thinking along the same line here. Carly wasn't very... accepting to change - despite leaving for Italy which changed life completely!
Freddie looks at Sam. Sam looks at Freddie.
Perhaps they should keep it to themselves, just until Carly gets settled back in... finds a new job... or college or whatever she wants to do, finds a nice boyfriend (or girlfriend - there's no judgment here) and is happy with being back.
There was no point in worrying the poor girl. Besides, she'll be uber jet-lagged from her flight.
"I love you, Sam."
"Aww. You're a nub," replies Sam. He laughs.
"Never change, Puckett."
"I don't plan to, Benson."
Oh and hey, he had completed one thing on his mental 'to-do' list already. Except another was added in replacement - such as "buy a brand new door" and fix the door-frame before his mother comes back.
For now, they were secretly engaged.
Unless someone goes and blurts it out "accidentally on purpose" to some other character, who will tell another character who will ... you get the picture. But who will this character be? Gibby? Spencer? Brad? Angela? ... or some other new character that will just happen to know about Sam and Freddie's secret?
Who do YOU think it will be? Well...?