Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you're all having a fabulous week, whether you're at school, work, or just lazing at home like me ;) Thank you for all the wonderful reviews for this story, it makes my heart swell so :) For some of you who wanted a long chapter for this story, here it finally is. Some of you might be pleased by what transpires in this chapter, especially Fanfic-Reader-88 and Carl Rahl, hee hee. Enjoy this one on me :D
Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly or any elements of the supernatural or evidence of a higher power.
Carly slept badly that night. After she had shrugged out of her clothes and put on a pair of cotton pyjamas, Carly ignored her bouncy trampoline which would usually transport her straight onto her comfy duvet and simply collapsed onto her bed with a loud sigh and a heavy heart. She tossed and turned for hours before landing on her back and staring aimlessly at her ceiling fan overhead, her dark eyes the colour of black.
Against her better intentions, Carly decided to carpool with Sam and Pam the following morning on their way to Ridgeway. There was no way that she was carpooling with Freddie and Mrs. Benson after what had happened the night before. Carly needed to prepare herself yet again for when she would inevitably see Freddie and to give herself time to make a break for it if necessary.
The things he had said to her had really stung. Carly had always thought that Freddie was so in sync with what she was thinking and how she was feeling most of the time; his misunderstanding of what she'd been trying to tell him had come as a complete surprise to her. Carly wasn't so much angry at Freddie as she was at herself. Maybe Freddie had been unnecessarily harsh, but his words had hit home with Carly somehow.
She realised now how much her mixed signals in the past had hurt him, in light of their brief romance when she'd been sure that she was in love with him and he had rebuffed her. How could he possibly understand what was happening between them now? And more importantly, why would he suddenly believe that her feelings were real this time around?
But that was just it.
Carly still wasn't sure whether her feelings for Freddie were real or merely a product of yet another accident which could've been avoided. What was the difference between almost getting hit by a taco truck and falling down the stairs? How could there possibly be any difference between the two?
"Earth to Carly!" Sam called out in a booming voice, cupping her mouth with her hands.
Carly snapped out of her reverie and looked around her. She and Sam were standing outside the lab on the first floor at Ridgeway where they usually had their Environmental Science lectures. Carly remembered taking out her cellphone as a pretence for checking to see if she had any text messages, but had ended up drifting off into space. She must've zoned out for a while if Sam was trying to get her attention.
"What's up with you today, Cupcake?" Sam asked gently, a curious frown on her face.
Carly turned to face her best friend, arranging her face into what she hoped was a mask of dazed serenity.
"What do you mean?" she asked tentatively of Sam, feigning innocence.
"Carly, you've barely paid attention to a word I've said all day, and lunch is already over. I was prepared to let it slide as you still recovering from Pam's driving earlier this morning. But now that I think about it, you've been acting really weird lately. What's going on?" Sam questioned seriously.
"Nothing's going on, Sam. I'm just feeling really out of it today, that's all." Carly responded rapidly, trying her best to smile reassuringly.
"Wait!" Sam exclaimed sharply with one hand raised in the air, taking Carly completely by surprise.
"What?" Carly asked in alarm, clutching her hand to her chest.
"Something's wrong. It's too quiet around here…" Sam trailed off suspiciously, her nostrils flared as if she had caught the scent of something really foul.
"Wait a minute, of course it's quiet. Fredlumps isn't here," Sam pointed out knowingly.
Carly was astonished that it had taken Sam so long to realise that Freddie hadn't pitched for his first and second period classes, which all three of them shared. It had taken Carly about three minutes into the first class of the day to realise Freddie's absence and to deduce that he probably wouldn't be at school all day while Sam had been happily eating a Fat Cake at her desk. Had she really become that acutely aware of Freddie's presence around her? Carly found that she was intensely disappointed by the fact that Freddie had decided to avoid her today instead of the other way around.
"And you only just noticed now?" Carly asked flippantly, slinging her backpack over her shoulder as she began walking away from the lab with Sam following closely behind her.
"Well, yeah. Granted, I'm always ecstatic when the dork isn't following us around 24-7 and actually gives us some proper 'girl time'. But still, it's not like Frednerd to wilfully skip class. Is he sick or something?" Sam inquired thoughtfully, turning to face Carly.
"Don't know," Carly replied dully with a shrug of her shoulders while glancing down at her feet.
Something in the defensive way that Carly delivered her words immediately struck Sam. She had been walking ahead the entire time; but now, she stopped dead in her tracks and rounded on Carly, who frowned in confusion at the look in her best friend's eye.
"What did you mean by that?" Sam pressed suspiciously.
"Mean by what? What are you talking about, Sam?" Carly asked wearily.
"Do you really not know why Freddie's not at school?" Sam questioned seriously.
"That's what I just said." Carly retorted impatiently before stalking past Sam.
"Ok, am I missing something here? Do you know why Freddie cut class today?" Sam persisted, following quickly behind Carly.
"How should I know why Freddie cut class today? I'm not his personal assistant." Carly answered shortly, her bag knocking against her hip as she walked.
"You do know something. What's going on? Did you and Fredturd have a fight or something?" Sam questioned curiously.
"No!" Carly exclaimed in a ringing tone, realising at the last minute that she wasn't doing a very good job of masking her true feelings and keeping Sam's suspicions at bay.
"Ok, so something definitely happened, huh? Was he all upset about you not showing up to spoon-feed him jello at the hospital last week?" Sam pressed eagerly.
"Not exactly. He kinda showed up outside my bedroom window last night on the fire escape and-"
"Wait, you spoke to Freddie last night? I thought you had a ton of homework, to do" Sam interjected impatiently.
"Well, the thing is…" Carly trailed off, still trying to figure out what she was going to say.
"Carly!"
Both Carly and Sam whipped around and gazed on in surprise. Freddie had just stepped out of the bathroom and came bounding down the hallway. He reached them a few seconds later, clutching his backpack to his shoulder and completely out of breath.
"Cutting class, Benson? I guess you're just as much a delinquent as I am," Sam stated devilishly by way of greeting.
"Not now, Sam. Carly, I need to talk to you." Freddie interjected rudely, cutting Sam off completely as he focused on Carly.
Sam cocked her neck to stare at Freddie in amazement while he wilfully ignored her. Carly only faltered for a split second before she made up her mind on what she wanted to do next.
"I can't, I'm late for class," she replied crisply as she began walking away from both Sam and Freddie.
"Carly, wait a minute," Freddie persisted as he began following her.
"So where have you been all morning, Fredward? Do you know that I had to copy Gibby's notes during History? That shirtless nub does not know how to write…" Sam rambled on, deciding to play along and walk alongside Freddie instead as he pursued Carly.
"Sam, I really don't have time for this right now!" Freddie spat impatiently, rounding abruptly on Sam.
Without waiting for the usual retort, Freddie began jogging after Carly, who was speeding walking rapidly down the hallway. Sam shook her head at her two best friends, wondering what on Earth was going on with them. She admitted that she wasn't always the most observant person in the world, especially when presented with a large glazed ham. But she was very much attuned to everything Carly said and did, mostly because Carly never did anything out of the ordinary. As for Freddie, she knew that he only got testy with her when something serious had happened.
Sam was dying to know what was going on with the two of them. But in an unusually considerate manoeuvre, she decided to keep her distance for the moment. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that whatever it was, Carly and Freddie clearly needed to talk things out, and preferably in private. Sam consoled herself with the notion that Carly would eventually tell her all about it because her best friend was incapable of keeping a secret for very long.
Just then Gibby came sidling up alongside Sam with his backpack slung over his shoulder.
"Hey, Sam. Have you seen Freddie?" he asked curiously of the blonde-headed demon.
"He's not here," Sam retorted crisply.
"Well, have you seen him? I asked him to put a couple of 'Galaxy Wars' episodes on a flash drive for me," Gibby persisted vehemently.
"Gibby, whatever dorky hobby you and Frednerd have got going on the side is no concern of mine. As for Count Dorkula, he's talking to Carly right now. So beat it!" Sam barked loudly, causing Gibby to take off down the hallway in a fearful blur.
"Gibbys are way too easy," Sam noted in an aside with a self-satisfied smirk.
"Carly! Wold you hold on a second?" Freddie called out.
"Carly!" Freddie snapped impatiently, grabbing Carly by the arm and forcing her to stop and face him.
Freddie's actions caused Carly to swell with a myriad of emotions, namely anger and indignation for the time being. She tried her best to ignore the familiar burn that was creeping along her skin from Freddie's touch.
"What was that for?" Carly demanded heatedly.
With the way that Carly's chest was heaving from her startled breaths, Freddie's eyes rested momentarily on her mouth. Why did her lips have to be so damn kissable right now?
"You wouldn't stop when I called out to you," he protested, matching her tone, trying to focus on the situation at hand.
"Because I'm stopping off at my locker to grab my books before I head to my next class." Carly retorted impatiently.
"That can wait. I need to talk to you about last night, Carly." Freddie persisted seriously.
"I thought you made yourself pretty clearly when you left me standing by myself on my own fire escape after you kissed me," Carly retorted in a huff before stalking off again.
Freddie sighed wearily and began walking after Carly once more.
"I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment. But the things you said last night made even less sense," he pointed out reluctantly.
"If this is your idea of an apology, then you're doing a pretty lousy job, Freddie." Carly snapped callously over her shoulder.
"Ok, you're right. I acted like a jerk last night and I'm sorry, Carly. But I need to know something. What were you trying to tell me before I left?" Freddie asked seriously, keeping in perfect sync with her every stride
"Why do you even care? I barely got a word out before you jumped down my throat after that!" Carly hissed with a haphazard gesture of her hand in Freddie's direction.
"I didn't sleep at all last night trying to figure out what you were trying to say to me before I stormed off. I never meant to say or do anything to hurt you, you have to believe that, Carly. It's just that you've been acting so weird lately, I wanted to know if you were mad at me. I thought you were trying to let me down easy when you started talking about us 'bonding'. But the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. When you've given me that whole 'we're better off as friends' speech in the past, you've always led with the 'special bond' stuff. But then you mentioned that what we have is like a 'drug' and a 'disease' and that got me really confused. What did you mean by that?" Freddie pressed firmly, cutting across Carly to stand in front of her and block her path.
"Freddie, I really don't have time for this right now," Carly stated wearily with one hand on her hip.
"Carly, is there something going on with you that I don't know about?"
"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Carly demanded miserably, feeling strangely close to tears.
"So there is something going on. Carly, I know you better than most people and I've never seen you look so unhappy and stressed out before. We've always been able to be honest with each other – why can't you tell me what's wrong?" Freddie pleaded painstakingly.
"It's complicated, Freddie." Carly replied dejectedly.
"Then explain it to me!"
"I can't!" Carly shot back angrily.
"Why not?" Freddie asked in a hurt tone.
"Because…you wouldn't understand, Freddie. If you were so ready to think the worst of me and my intentions last night, then there's no telling what you might do if you actually knew the truth." Carly explained morosely.
"Carly…" Freddie pleaded, but to no avail.
"I have to get to class," Carly mumbled before walking off.
With her shoulders slumped and her head bent downwards, Carly moved through the mass of students as she made her way to her locker. She wished she hadn't been so abrupt with Freddie, but it was too late to take it back now. She wanted to talk to him about everything that happened, but having that particular conversation at school of all places was not the solution. Carly wished it could be simple, but she instinctively knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg for the road she and Freddie were travelling down. Why did everything have to be so confusing?
Carly barely saw where she was walking until she collided head-first into a thick-muscled arm covered in a letterman jacket. It took Carly about 5 seconds of massaging the newly formed bump on her forehead to realise that she had bumped into Rory Blake: a senior and captain of the football team. On any other day, Carly would've happily killed Lewbert and fed him to a group of starving sharks without a second thought just to talk to Rory Blake for 5 minutes next to her locker. But today, Carly just couldn't bring herself to make the effort to even pretend to flirt with the good-looking upperclassman. Ever since Freddie's accident on the stairs, everything seemed to be working backwards.
"Carly Shay! The pride and spirit of Ridgeway! Go Bulldogs!" Rory called out boisterously before mimicking a barking dog.
"Hey, Rory. Sorry about bumping into you," Carly apologised self-consciously while leaning forward to open her locker.
"It's cool, I didn't even feel it," Rory responded nonchalantly.
He didn't say anything else, but continued standing there while Carly began putting some of her books into her locker.
"Was there something you wanted?" she asked politely when Rory made no effort to break the silence.
"Right. I totally lost my train of thought there, Beautiful. Well, as you know, Senior Prom's coming up in a few weeks and the juniors on the Prom Committee are in charge of organising the event," Rory began more seriously.
"Yeah, I remember, since I am on the Prom Committee," Carly replied nonchalantly as she grabbed a note book from her locker and shoved it into her backpack.
"Right. Well, since you, Sam and Frankie-"
"Freddie," Carly corrected coolly, wondering why she felt so irritated all of a sudden.
"Whatever. Since you guys do iCarly, I was wondering if you could mention Ridgeway's Senior Prom on one of your weekly episodes. Just mentioning it in passing would be cool," Rory continued quickly.
"Ok, but why would you want us to mention the Senior Prom on iCarly?" Carly asked curiously after shutting her locker with a loud bang.
"Senior Prom is cool and so is iCarly. Oh, and if you could mention the fact that we still need a DJ to play at the dance, that would be great. Ms Briggs fired DJ Slim because he didn't have any tracks with bag pipes on them," Rory explained disbelievingly.
"Of course she did," Carly quipped dryly with a subtle eye-roll.
Why Principal Franklin had allowed Ms. Briggs to oversee Prom this year was a mystery to everyone. Carly's guess was that Ted might have had one too many Red Bulls during the usual faculty meetings.
"I'll see what I can do, Rory," Carly replied stoically.
"Excellent. You're a life-saver, Carly." Rory praised brightly.
Carly couldn't understand why she felt so uncomfortable around the burly senior. Perhaps it was the way that his eyes seemed to travel around her whole body, lingering just a little too long on her chest area to make her feel like she was being X-rayed. Even though Rory had been polite to her in the past, she vaguely recollected something disparaging that Wendy had once told her about the football captain, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what she was trying to remember.
Freddie was watching the exchange from a few feet away, a grim expression on his face. He had stopped short when he saw Rory approach Carly while she retrieved her books from her locker, a broad smile on his handsome face. Freddie had never liked Rory Blake; the guy put way too much stock in his good lucks and his ability to score a touchdown to actually possess a brain.
Gibby came skidding down the hallway towards Freddie with his backpack swinging on his shoulders, having successfully evaded Sam. He came to stand next to Freddie, who had a pensive expression on his face.
"Hey, Freddie. Where have you been all morning? Do you have those 'Galaxy Wars' episodes for me?" Gibby asked impatiently.
"I'm a little busy right now, Gibby," Freddie replied distractedly, staring straight ahead of him and not looking at his friend.
Gibby glanced around the tiny hallway and then back at Freddie, who hadn't moved a muscle.
"But you're just standing in the middle of the hallway watching Carly," Gibby pointed out sardonically.
"Exactly," Freddie agreed seriously.
"Am I missing something here?" Gibby asked dumbly.
"Carly said she was too busy to talk to me before class, and here she is, talking non-stop to Rory Blake." Freddie declared scathingly.
"Freddie, you don't really need me to clue you in on the laws of high school, right?" Gibby asked patronisingly.
"No offence, but shouldn't you be used to Carly blowing you off for good-looking guys by now?" Gibby asked knowingly.
"How am I not supposed to be offended by that, Gibby?" Freddie demanded waspishly, rounding defensively on Gibby for a split second.
"Besides, it's different this time," he added sombrely, turning to look at Carly and Rory again.
"What do you mean? What's going on?" Gibby asked in concern, trying to gauge his friend's expression.
"I'm not sure, Gib. But I'm gonna find out one way or the other," Freddie promised with an ominous glint in his eye.
"Well…I'd better get to class," Carly announced abruptly, a sudden desire to flee at the forefront of her mind.
Carly gave a start when Rory's hand shot out like lightning against her locker, successfully blocking her path.
"What's your hurry, sweetheart?" Rory asked in what was supposed to be a suave tone.
"I'm gonna be late, Rory." Carly mumbled in a small voice.
"You're Carly Shay: you can afford to be a little late. Stay and talk to me for a few more minutes," Rory implored in a low voice.
Carly was shocked when Rory began running his hand up and down her arm. She was having a difficult time trying to stay composed when all she wanted to do was run like crazy. What was going on? Why was she suddenly so afraid?
"What the hell…?" Freddie asked in alarm, watching as the scene changed abruptly.
He could sense Carly's innate discomfort more than he could see her outward struggle to get away from Rory.
"He's got his hands all over Carly," Freddie hissed angrily.
Gibby didn't like the look in Freddie's eye one bit.
That look meant trouble.
"Freddie, what are you gonna do, man?" Gibby asked anxiously.
"I'm gonna set him straight." Freddie declared without hesitation.
"Is that a good idea? Rory's at least three heads taller and has way more muscles than you do." Gibby protested weakly.
"I can take him," Freddie promised ominously and began walking away.
"Freddie! Don't do it, man! Oh, boy…" Gibby trailed off helplessly, watching Freddie's progress down the hallway.
"I can't, Rory." Carly pleaded hoarsely.
"Hey, why so serious? You need to loosen up, Carly. I can show you how," Rory chided softly.
Now Carly remembered what Wendy had told her about Rory with sudden nausea. The football captain had grabbed her ass at a party not too long ago and tried to get her to come upstairs with him into someone's bedroom so that they could be alone. He had a reputation for collecting high school girls and adding them to the notches on his belt.
The younger, the better.
Carly had never wanted to run more than in this particular moment. But she was prevented from doing so when Rory wrapped both arms tightly around her lithe body. A thrill of terror shot down her spine at the feel of his finger trailing down her cheek, making her instantly recoil.
"Let go of me, Rory." Carly begged more forcefully, shuddering from his tight grip on her.
"You really need to relax," Rory implored in a deathly low voice, his hot breath fanning her cheeks.
"Let her go, Rory."
Both Carly and Rory whipped around at the sound of his voice. Freddie stood a few inches away from them, his hands balled into fists at his sides and a fierce look in his eye. Rory's grip loosened on Carly and she managed to push his arms off of her and gain some distance. She wasn't even aware that she had approached Freddie until she was standing right beside him.
"Freddie, let's just go," she hissed in a low murmur.
"In a minute," Freddie replied venomously, not taking his eyes off of Rory.
"And what do you think's gonna happen in a minute, dork?" Rory demanded tauntingly, taking a few steps closer towards Freddie.
"First off, I'm gonna educate you on how not to man-handle a girl, Rory." Freddie declared evenly.
Rory hooted with mirthful laughter. Then he stopped abruptly and fixed Freddie with a menacing look in his eye, one he usually reserved for his opponents on the football field.
"Big talk for someone who hides behind a camera lens every single week, Benson." He retorted callously.
"Carly, get to class," Freddie ordered tersely with a jerk of his neck to stare momentarily at her.
"I'm not leaving you here alone with Rory," Carly shot back in an undertone.
"Yeah, Benson, Carly's not going anywhere; we were in the middle of a chat before you interrupted. So do everyone a favour right now and walk away right now before I do some serious damage to that tiny head of yours." Rory commanded severely, making a show of flexing his knuckles.
A crowd was beginning to gather on the stairwell off to the right and along the hallway, wondering what was about to happen. On any other occasion, Freddie would've taken that as his cue to leave and take Carly with him. He'd seen what Rory had done to guys half his size when they crossed him.
He knew that Rory meant business.
But for some reason or another, he was rooted to the spot, heat flooding his veins and his face. He ran his tongue reflexively over his two front teeth, tasting the mounting tension in the hallway.
He wasn't about to walk away, not this time.
"I'm not going anywhere, Rory." Freddie stated seriously, his hands pulsing like live wires at his sides.
"Are you challenging me, Benson?" Rory asked in a dangerously quiet voice, recognising that all-too-familiar look of defiance in the younger boy's eyes.
"Maybe I am," Freddie retorted, his eyes boring into the older boy's.
"Freddie, don't…" Carly pleaded painstakingly, trying to grab at his arm.
"Yeah, Freddie, don't do it. You've seen what I do to guys who cross me," Rory answered menacingly.
"You don't scare me, Rory. I'm not leaving until you apologise to Carly." Freddie declared slowly.
He said the words nonchalantly, but Freddie was seething inwardly, like a volcano about to erupt. What was happening? Why did he have a maddening desire to pummel Rory Blake into oblivion? He could feel the blood pumping through his veins, colouring every inch of his body until he literally saw red through the edges of his eyes.
"And just who's gonna make me, Benson? You?" Rory asked with a sneering smirk, stepping closer till he was right in front of Freddie, bearing down on him.
"If I have to. Don't push me, Rory." Freddie warned in a cold tone.
Without warning, Rory moved closer to Carly, his hand resting on her shoulder in a possessive manner. Carly stiffened instantly at his touch. Freddie's jaw flexed automatically and his Adam's apple throbbed rapidly while he tried to keep his composure.
"Well, guess what, Benson? You don't scare me either," Rory scoffed openly.
"Touch her again, and I'll kill you," Freddie seethed matter-of-factly.
Rory rolled his eyes abrasively in Freddie's direction and tightened his grip on Carly's shoulder. Freddie disappeared from where he stood and reappeared behind Rory in a swirling blur of colours and cool air. His hands closed reflexively on the backs of Rory's shoulders and pulled him away from Carly. Then he whirled Rory around to face him, the burly football captain like a limp rag doll in his powerful hands.
What happened next would've been comical if not for its absurdly disturbing detachment from reality. Freddie had hoisted Rory up into the air, one hand closing around the senior's throat in a death grip. As the stagnant seconds slurred by, Rory tried to get out of Freddie's steely grasp with little to no effect. With a casual stance, Freddie lazily slapped away Rory's beefy hand away while the former tried to get out of his deathly grip, his feet dangling a few feet off the ground like he was being lynched.
Rory's face was steadily turning purple, his eyes popping slightly while they watered like crazy. Before Rory could pass out by the lack of oxygen entering his throat, Freddie used both of his hands to grip at the collar on the football captain's Letterman jacket, the red of the fabric reminiscent to that of the colour of dried blood. Then with an abrupt rush of air, Freddie let go of him and tossed him backwards, like he didn't weigh a thing.
Rory sailed through the air, his back curved like that of a foetus in its mother's womb. He made a distance of at least 5 feet all the way across the hallway and slammed head-first into a row of lockers perpendicular to the stairwell. And then he sank onto the floor on his stomach in a crumpled heap, his arms stretched out beside him at an odd angle, his body completely still.
For a second or two, the whole world seemed to freeze in space and time. And then abruptly, the sound came back, pounding intrusively in Freddie's ears as screams were emitted and footsteps pounded all around him. A crowd was beginning to gather around Rory Blake, who still wasn't moving. Freddie's erratic breathing sounded in his ears and he stared down at his hands in horror, as if they had expanded to ten times their original size. Then he whipped around on the balls of his feet and faced Carly, whose eyes were drawn to the scene behind him.
Then her brown eyes locked on Freddie and she stepped forward tentatively, her pale skin looking almost translucent under the fluorescent lighting overhead.
"Freddie…" she began softly.
"Don't touch me!" Freddie yelled in revulsion, his brown eyes bulging in their sockets.
Carly's eyes widened to the size of saucers when Freddie abruptly turned on his heels and began sprinting like crazy away from her down the crowded hallway, multitudes of eyes following him.
Freddie's panting was the only thing he could focus on as he sprinted past surprised onlookers towards the back entrance of Ridgeway which he, Sam and Carly used every single morning when they came to school.
He had to get out of here.
He had to get away from what he'd just done.
Freddie finally made it outside and bent over clutching his knees, breathing in the sweet smell of fresh air coursing all around him. It helped to assuage some of the nausea he felt at the sight of Rory's crumpled form on the ground, the dent in the locker which he had crashed into hollowed out with metallic incongruity.
The incident had only lasted for several seconds. But for Freddie, it had felt like an hour while he'd been holding Rory up in the air by the scruff his collar, trying to choke the life out of him with relish. The thought made Freddie want to puke all over the sidewalk.
Just then, the sound of a revving engine pounded in his ears. Freddie looked up and saw a man in his late twenties sitting on a motorcycle not too far from him. The man simply sat perfectly at ease on the leather seat of what looked like a vintage Harley, the exterior sleek and smooth like a panther stalking its prey, the black paint gleaming against the cloud cover overhead. Freddie noted that the man was dressed in black from head to toe: black leather jacket, black T-shirt, black jeans and black combat boots. Even his wavy hair was black. The eyes were the only contrast, like pale blue chips of crystallised ice.
"Need a ride, Freddie Benson?" the young man asked in a winning tone.
Freddie had no idea how this stranger knew his name, but a part of him surmised that his sudden appearance wasn't a coincidence. He made up his mind in an instant when he saw Carly running towards him. He couldn't stay at school another second longer.
"Freddie!" Carly called out, pushing her legs forward as she tried to reach him.
Freddie turned his back on Carly and jogged towards the motorcycle. The stranger started up the engine once more and Freddie hopped on the back.
"Where we heading?" the stranger questioned curiously.
"Anywhere but here," Freddie murmured dispassionately.
The man grinned secretively to himself and put his foot down hard on the gas pedal, squeezing at the clutch on the handlebar. The bike roared to life like the shriek of a jaguar and he pulled away from the curb. Carly began sprinting like crazy when she realised what Freddie was about to do.
"FREDDIE!" she yelled excitably.
Freddie looked away and held on tightly to the stranger in front of him and they sped off down the street without a backwards glance. Carly watched him go with a sinking pit of despair deep in her chest.
It had been difficult to tell at first glance, but more reflection told Carly that the stranger on the motorcycle was Michael. Why did he come to the school? Had he been looking for her? Or did he specifically come for Freddie?
Carly was sure that in-between the time that Freddie had spent recovering from his concussion, he couldn't have possibly met Michael. But she was beginning to doubt herself. Michael had found a way to leave flowers for Freddie at the hospital; surely he could've found a way to meet Freddie in private if he'd wanted to. But why had Freddie gone with him now? Where were they going?
Carly's head was spinning from the force of what had just transpired inside and outside of the school. Her emotions were screaming so loudly in her ears that she didn't even hear Sam come jogging out of the school after her.
"Was that Freddie I just saw?" Sam queried curiously, clutching a stitch in her side while she spoke.
"Yeah," Carly answered numbly, her eyes still trained on the road up ahead.
"What is that nub up to now? I always knew he was out of his mind, but this is some really strange chizz," Sam noted lightly while flicking something off of her finger nails.
"You have no idea, Sam." Carly noted solemnly, a lone tear cascading down her cheek, which she wiped away at hastily.
"He's been acting weird ever since that accident on the stairs at your place. Or maybe he just likes getting on the back of motorbikes with random guys. I always figured that was more of Spencer's thing, since he's always been 'questionable'," Sam continued nonchalantly with air-quotes.
Something snapped inside of Carly and she rounded on Sam with sudden speed that caught her best friend off guard.
"Do you think this is funny, Sam? Freddie just left the school with some random guy and we don't even know where he went!" Carly shrieked indignantly.
"Geez, calm down, Carly! Dorkward probably knows the guy; I'm sure he'll be back home before his mom even realises that he skipped class." Sam chided casually.
"You don't get it, do you, Sam? He shouldn't be going off anywhere, and not just with anyone either. Freddie's just recovered from a serious head injury, one that you caused." Carly snapped furiously.
"You're blaming me for what happened on the stairs a week ago?" Sam asked in alarm.
"Yes, I blame you! It's always you, Sam. Whether it's Freddie or anyone in general who annoys you, you just can't let it go. You never think about the consequences of your actions, you just act on your bare instincts. You don't care who gets hurts in the process, just as long as you get your way. You could've killed Freddie, does that even register with you?" Carly asked coldly.
"Carly-"
"This is all your fault, Sam. So do me a favour and just man up for once in your life, if that's not too difficult."
"Carly!"
"Leave me alone, Sam." Carly snapped angrily.
Then she took a leaf out of Freddie's book and began sprinting away from school, tears running down her face till they were blinding her. She left Sam standing alone on the curb, a perturbed expression on her face while she pondered on what had just transpired between her and her two best friends.
Author's Note: Whoo, can you believe this all happened in one scene? I hope some of you are pleased that Carly finally gave it to Sam (well, sort of) - hopefully Carly gets some sympathy points back for that ;) I hope Freddie hopping onto the back of some strange guy's motorcyle isn't too ultra-gay, I have my reasons for putting that in here. I'm off to take a nap now whilst listening to some tracks by Adele (what a voice!) before my dosage of Friday evening soap operas. Cheers!