Chapter 4

"So you really do that for a living? You review tech stuff on youtube and make money?" Sam asked, licking her ice cream cone. "How?"

"Well," Keith started, "People want to know what they're buying before they buy it. Especially with expensive electronics, people will sit and watch reviews and un-boxings on them all day."

"Hm," Sam said, still engrossed in her ice cream cone. "Still, how do you survive off just doing that?"

Keith shrugged his shoulders. "I just do, I guess. It's a good thing I do too, or else you wouldn't be eating that ice cream cone right now, which by the way, I can't believe you can still eat after eating Inside Out Burger and drinking an extra large fat shake," he said, playfully nudging her. "And have you seriously never looked online for reviews before you bought expensive electronics?"

"It's a gift," Sam laughed, "and actually I never check reviews for anything before I buy it. Heck, I hardly buy myself any of those fancy pants tech stuff anyways."

"Then how do you have the new Pearphone XT?" he said, shaking his head. "Even I only have the GX, and that was because I stupidly got another GX after my first died, not knowing that the XT was coming out the next week."

"Eh, a friend of mine bought it for me. Same guy that reads all those lame online reviews for me," she said, nonchalant. "Plus, isn't the six coming out next year? Everyones going to abandon the XT soon enough."

"True," he laughed. "But uh, who's your friend that, um, buys expensive tech stuff for you?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Dude, I've known you for like two seconds. Don not even tell me your jealous. And he's just a friend. Back in Seattle, my friend Carly and I hosted a web show, and he filmed it and handled all that nerdy chiz."

Keith feigned hurt, "Well I am appalled that you would even suggest that. Can't a guy just get to know a girl that he's just recently met on the public bus?"

She raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, okay. But only because I think you're amazing. Your crappy childhood, your crazy antics, your cute smile," he said, stepping closer. "I want to get to know you better Samantha."

"Dude-"

"I know you hate when people called you that, believe me- that story about the guy you pushed out of a moving vehicle made than clear to me, but it's a beautiful name and you're a beautiful girl so I don't know why you don't embrace a name that was clearly made for you."

Sam thought it over, "Well, when you put it that way..."

"Bus headed to Los Angeles, California is departing in fifteen minutes. All passengers, please make your way back into the vehicle. This layover in Portland, Oregon is officially coming to a close. I repeat, this layover is coming to a close and all passengers headed to Los Angeles, California must head back to their designated bus. Thank you." the intercom blared, interrupting Sam.

"Well that's our que," he said, holding her hand and leading her onto the bus, "Come on, if we get on quickly enough, we can find seats with optimal spitballing opportunities!"

Sam smiled, 'Well how's that for adventure Carls?'

Meanwhile, in Seattle...

"Good weasel, yes, you're a very good weasel aren't you?" Gibby cooed, petting his weasel. "And daddy loves you very much!"

"Hey Gib," said Freddie, "Aren't you going to name the weasel?"

"Oh yeah, I think I'll call you Sir-Fur-A-Lot, you like that don't you?"

Freddie laughed, hanging out with Gibby did relieve some tension off of Sam leaving, no, erase that, his two best friends just up and leaving him. Carly leaving, he understood, but Sam? She could've stayed in Seattle. There was nothing she could do "traveling the country" that she couldn't do here! Right?

He sighed, that was the tenth text he had sent Sam since he found out she had left and the only reply he's gotten was a "Relax nub, I'm eating Inside Out Burger and drinking a fat shake. I'm not dead in a ditch somewhere." And that had been a few hours ago.

Gibby plopped down next to him and snatched away his phone. "Seriously dude, ten unrequited text messages to Sam? Even I would know to back off."

Freddie took his pearphone back, indignant. "Hey, only 9 were unrequited. She replied to one."

"Whatever dude, all I know is that you guys broke up how long ago? And you're still following her around like a puppy. And she's even in another state! Look dude, I'm not saying to ignore Sam and forget what you guys had, but maybe that's just it, something that you had."

Freddie straightened his back and thought about what Gibby had said. It is true that Sam was his first love. And he thought that he still loved her, but maybe he didn't? Maybe he was just sad about his two best friends leaving. Maybe it was like their breakup. Maybe he was just trying to grasp at straws, looking for something, anything, that was familiar to him. But then again, he felt like he still loved her. He was 99.9% sure he was. But here he was, in Seattle, thinking about her, while she was probably in some other state, having fun and not thinking about him.

"Maybe," he said. He shook his head and sighed. "Let's just hurry up and pick up that ointment for your weasel. My mom wants me to do a puzzle with her when she gets home from work."

Gibby laughed. "Dude, you just don't know how to say no to girls; your mom, Sam..."

"Now wait a-" Freddie started, then stopped, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." What could he say? His mom raised him, and he still loved her, despite her craziness. And Sam, well she was a completely different story. He would smash his brand new pearbook pro for her if she asked, and he wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

Eh, this chapter was written when I was really tired and just feeling bleh. School's coming up, so my mom's been pressing me about my summer homework (F you ap lang), so I've been doing that, and I've been in the market for a new cellular device. My current one is a super old android that I was totally okay with having until it started freezing multiple times a day and locking me out of texting (I'd have to either kill and restart the app over and over again or just restart the phone to get it to work. At this point, I can barely go a few minutes without it doing something wrong. So I headed over to ebay (the trusty site for cheapos like me) and bought an iphone 4s. I was debating between that and the 5, but the five was a good 130ish bucks more and it didn't come with cases and extra charge and sync cables so I got the 4s. But idk I kind of regret it now, because the 5 is a lot better and it wasn't that much more. What do you guys think? Should I have gotten the 5? Is it that much better? (Oh and not going to lie, the 4s had an iCarly pear phone case that was a major part of my decision).