The next evening, Sam was in Carly's room eating their dinner of toast with butter and strawberries. It had been Sam's idea, and although it was oddly good Carly found it more to be a breakfast meal, but was in anything but the mood to tell her. The two friends were strangely quiet as they sat on their beanbags. Carly had been hoping Sam would apologize for wasting iCarly rehearsal practice yesterday, but Sam's mind was somewhere else. The time would come when they'd have to start getting for Ander's friend's party, and they both knew they'd have to admit what was on their minds eventually.
Carly sighed, causing Sam to meet her eye. Clenching her jaw tightly, Carly finally burst, "I invited Dawn to come with us tonight!"
At the same time, Sam explained, "I think I'm going to go to the party by myself."
The two of them froze, first waiting for each other's responses, then realizing what they had both said. Carly frowned, pursing her lips in shock. "Oh," she said simply. She then rolled her eyes. It was so like Sam to leave everything to the last minute.
"Hey, don't get all huffy with me," Sam muttered bitterly. "At least I didn't invite my new best friend to come to a party behind your back."
"She's not my best friend Sam," Carly sighed, "I just decided to invite her as a thanks for her party the other night. Besides, if it weren't for Dawn I'd be showing up at this guy's house by myself. You know," she then added, "if you had told me any later I would have thought you were ditching me."
"How am I ditching you if I'm just going to show up a little bit after you?" Sam retorted. "I'll be there before you know it. I just feel like, I don't know, I just want to go by myself, okay?"
Carly's eyes widened as she turned away from Sam. "Okay, do whatever you want. You always have, Sam Puckett." She began to clench her jaw again, irritably fiddling with the end of a strand of dark hair. She knew there had been a good reason for inviting Dawn. Without knowing that Sam would be bailing on her, Carly had only invited dawn because Sam had been getting on her nerves more than usual and figured that Sam just need some time to herself. Carly's plan had been to have Dawn by her side so that Sam would do whatever it took to avoid her, and that way Sam could think whatever was on her mind by herself without Carly actually having to tell her. Carly piped up, her voice quiet, "Well I'm going to start getting ready. Dawn will be showing up soon."
"Right," Sam said with annoyance, "then I should leave. I'll see you later."
With a tiny wave, Carly managed to say goodbye. After all, it was only the polite thing to do.
Dawn was grinning from ear to ear, the gap in her front teeth exasperatingly obvious. She had been like this the second she and Carly had walked through the doors into large loft where Anders greeted them. The girl was beaming standing by Carly who was practically her idol. For about the hundredth time, she turned to Carly and whispered, "Thanks so much for inviting me here. It's so great of you!"
Carly smiled tightly. "No worries. This is just to make up for throwing up next to your sunflowers. That was humiliating."
"Don't even worry about it," Dawn waved her hand in the air, "weirder things happened that night."
When Carly asked what Dawn meant by this, the girl let out a tiny squeal and quickly put her drink up to her mouth, taking large gulps. Carly hardly noticed, too busy glancing around the dimly lit room. She only recognized a few people who happened to go to her school, plus Anders, but other than that she didn't even know the name of the host. A couple standing by were eyeing Carly and whispering intently to each other, unsure if she was the one from the web show or not. Carly just waved awkwardly to them before turning away.
As she did, she caught sight of long, curly blonde hair. Sam clearly met Carly's eye, but quickly dropped her gaze before disappearing into the crowd. Carly let out an angry groan as Dawn asked bluntly, "Wasn't that Sam? Where is she going?"
"It doesn't matter," Carly replied, her voice a higher pitch than normal, "it doesn't matter where she's going because Sam is always off in her own little world." She paused, calming herself down by taking a deep breath before she would say something to Dawn that she would later regret. "It's just frustrating because, no offense Dawn, but Sam's my best friend and I know she's not telling me something and it's screwing everything up right now! She's been like this ever since your party and I don't know what to do."
Dawn's eyes grew wide and she quickly gulped the rest of her drink down. This time, Carly noticed and her mouth formed the shape of an O. "You know something, don't you." Carly spoke slowly, narrowing her eyes, "Don't you, Dawn."
Squeezing her cup, Dawn shifted her gaze back and forth, face flaming red. "I don't know anything Carly, I swear. I mean me, really? I barely remember anything that happened the night of the party. Something as obvious as, I don't know, Sam and Freddie hooking up, I would remember, but I don't so it didn't happen. HA! Uhh, hey… Hey, who's that hottie?"
Dawn forced a grin onto her face as Carly stared at her with dull eyes, clearly not amused. She decided to take Dawn's obvious distraction and turned her head to see Anders approaching them. His face beamed at the sight of Carly, and Carly found herself relax at the sight of him, slightly.
"Hey," he grinned lopsidedly, "I'm glad you showed up. Can I get you guys something to drink?"
"Yes!" Dawn shouted, drawing some attention to herself. "Yes, please. I need a shot or something just as strong." She began fanning herself with her hands, somehow convincing herself that she had kept Sam's secret a secret. "You know what," she told Dawn and Anders, "I'm just going to go and find some alcohol right now. Wait for me!"
"I'm fine," Carly responded, eyeing Dawn funnily as she skittered away. "I told myself I'm not drinking tonight after a recent experience. Not that I drink a lot," Carly added frantically, "because I don't, usually, just that –"
"It's fine," Anders cut her off with a laugh, "do whatever you want. I don't drink, ever. I'm a pure straightedge. But since we're both not drinking tonight, why don't we stop talking about drinks and you tell me about where you want to travel?"
A slow, sheepish smile crawled across Carly's face. "You remember?" she said in disbelief. Her grin growing, she daringly decided to say, "I want to go to Laos. It's a country in Asia."
"I know," Anders told her, "it's a landlocked country, between Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and China. It's great you want to go there."
Carly almost began choking on air. A human other than her knew about the country Laos? It seemed so impossible! Caught off guard, she stared up at Anders with admiration gleaming in her eyes, unaware that her mouth was hanging open. Carly was completely in love with Anders, but knowing it would have been inappropriate to say such a thing, she stood up her tiptoes and kissed him instead.
After a second, Anders pulled away. "Wait," he sounded as if he wished he hadn't had to pull back, "doesn't your friend Sam… I mean I thought with all her flirting today that she…"
"You thought that Sam liked you?" Carly finished the sentence for him, "Don't worry, she doesn't." Smiling mischievously, Carly kissed Anders again softly before adding, "I'm absolutely sure of it."
Leaning up against the wall, Sam wasn't even trying to be social. She had somehow ended up with a drink her hand that tasted like Rootbeer and rum, and although it made her cringe to drink it, she swallowed it down anyways. Sam had arrived alone, and she continued to stand alone, part of her wondering why she had decided to even show up at all. She didn't even want to talk to Carly which was why she hadn't gotten ready with her before the party as they usually did. Everything was too tense between the two of them, and Sam knew that it was because of her.
Sam had been staring at the ground for quite some time before a pair of shoes approached her. Regrettably, she looked up to see an inquisitive girl she didn't know. The girl laughed giddily and asked, "Are you Sam, like Sam from iCarly?"
"Yup," Sam muttered in response. The girl seemed to wait for Sam to say something else, perhaps a joke or humorous comment, but Sam would do no such thing. If the girl hadn't been drunk then the scene between the two of them could have been described as awkward. Instead though, the girl just laughed as if Sam had said something funny, then tripped away.
Sam finished off her drink, coughing as the last sip of rum hit the back of her throat unexpectedly. As she was sputtering away, Sam noticed a familiar figure standing across the room. The burning in her throat died down, allowing Sam to narrow her eyes and make out the face of Freddie and the scene around him. He laughing lightly among people he didn't know. No drink was in his hand, but his arm was wrapped around a girl who clung onto him like she was made out of sticky tack.
Look who decided to have some fun, Sam arched her eyebrows in amusement. It was so unlike Freddie to ever be anything but a shadow at a party that she was considering marching over there to congratulate him. As Sam was imagining how embarrassed Freddie would have been, she suddenly saw something she wished she hadn't. Her small smiled faded. Nothing was amusing anymore.
The girl in Freddie's arms had lifted her head up and her lips landed on Freddie's chin. She then drunkenly moved around, her lips hitting his cheek, his jaw, his nose, until they finally landed on his… Sam looked away. She would have been speechless if she had had anyone to talk to. Staring at the ground carefully, Sam felt the blood in her veins run cold. Her throat tightened and the rim around her eyes began to sting.
What the hell did that mean?
"Shit," Sam muttered as she stormed away from her wallflower position, avoiding Freddie completely. "Shit, shit, shit!" Once she was sure she had lost the sight of Freddie, Sam glanced up and peered around the room as she pushed her way through the crowd. It took her a moment before she found who she was looking for, and letting out a cry of relief, she ran towards her. "Carly!" Sam began, but quickly apologized, "I'm sorry –" That was as far as she got before she found herself choking up.
Carly, who had been making out with Anders, pulled away. She did not look angry or flustered or frustrated at Sam for interrupting her, but rather just relieved to see Sam at all. Glancing over her, Carly noticed right away Sam's glassy eyes and broken expression. Turning back to Anders, she took him by the hands and said remorsefully, "I'm sorry, but I have to go."
Anders looked back and forth between Carly and Sam. "Are you sure," he asked, "is everything okay?" Carly only nodded, leaning up to kiss him goodbye before releasing his hands.
Sam was already making her way to the door, desperately trying to swallow back the rising lump in her throat. Carly approached her, linking her arm with hers in a reassuring way. When Sam tried to explain, Carly quickly cut her off. Looking straight ahead as she pulled Sam through the room, she told her softly, "Don't worry. I already know. I've figured it all it."