'AND THAT IS THE QUESTION'
Chapter Four: The Second Part of a Perfect Evening
So far 'Operation First Date' was going perfectly.
"You know something Benson. I could actually get used to this." Sam commented, suddenly.
"What? The free food?" Freddie replied, with a smirk.
"No." She muttered, looking up at him. "Just… spending time with you."
The two friends were sitting on the couch. It had been one night after they shared their first kiss, and they were watching some sappy chick flick, because Carly had rented it. Of course, she had gone upstairs, took a shower and somehow didn't make it back downstairs again.
Sam noticed her missing best friend, but didn't say anything to Freddie.
All the while, the boy had leant his head against the back of the couch, and decided to 'enjoy' watching the movie anyway. And despite its cheesy script, and predictable plotline, he found himself liking it.
" What a girly film. 'The Best Friend'. At least it's better than 'The First Kiss'." Sam scoffed.
"I kind of like it." Freddie responded, not looking at the girl beside him.
"You would. Because you're such a girl!"
"You mean to say that you can't relate to this?"
It was a fair question he had asked. She stared at the screen, hoping the answer would appear from it.
The movie was about three best friends. Two girls and a boy. The boy was supposedly in love with the brunette, and the blonde girl, who bullied the boy everyday, was afraid to admit her crush on him. The blonde gets jealous when her best friends start dating and plan to break them up again.
Sound familiar at all?
"No way. I'm not jealous!"
"I never said you were."
"Oh. Well… You are such a doof brain!"
Freddie rolls his eyes, and hides the forming smirk on his face. Sam turns away and also tries not to smile.
While her two best friends are still talking their "small-talk" while on their first date, Carly had gotten her binoculars out and was spying on Sam and Freddie. Gibby was still confused as to why they had to look in on the 'Seddie' date anyway.
"We could have just set up some video cameras around the restaurant and then-"
"But this is way more fun! Besides, you wanted to be a spy. So here's your chance."
"What if they catch us?" Gibby questions, straining his neck around to look where Sam and Freddie were seated.
"They won't. They're to involved with their date to even look for us."
It was then, she realized that Sam was staring right at her. The girl tapped Freddie's arm, and pointed in their direction. Carly held her breath momentarily.
"Holy chiz!" Squeaked the brunette.
"What's wrong? No liquid soap in the bathroom?" Gibby asked, suddenly panicking.
"They see us!"
The whisper is loud enough to reach Gibby's ears. He also gasps and the both of them duck underneath their table. With the binoculars still attached to her eyes, she peeks out from her hiding spot. Breathing a sigh of relief, Carly and her strange, sometimes shirtless friend take their seats again.
Her best friends were shrugging it off and laughing together, as if it was one huge joke.
"That," whispered Gibby. "Was way too close."
Carly nods her head in agreement.
Freddie saved Carly from a taco truck. Sam had just learnt that Carly kissed Freddie. Something she thought wasn't possible.
"How in the world did this happen?"
"Well… when his mom left to get him some more pain medicine, he was in the shower… but then he fell down, so I had to go in and help him to his bed because I didn't want him laying on the floor for thirty-six minutes. Anyway, after I got him out, we talked about how he was a 'hero'… and before I knew it, and had an urge to lean over and kiss him right on the lips." Carly was speaking quickly. As she usually does.
"You… you think you…." Sam starts to say.
"Exactly. I think I'm in love with Freddie."
"In. Love?"
"Sam, I know what you're thinking. It's Freddie. But… he saved my life! That does not happen everyday."
"Yeah."
"Of course, you can't have dinner without dessert," explains Freddie, after paying the bill and stood up, offering the girl his arm. "Shall we?"
"A little corny there, Freddenstein." Sam replies, giggling a little.
"Uhh Sam. We're on a first date. How much cornier can you get?"
"So true."
The pair of them walked, hand in hand, out of Petrosini's and toward the front door.
Close behind them were Carly and Gibby. Both friends smirked, and followed the unknowing Sam and Freddie to their next stop. The Groovy Smoothie. Probably to get a smoothie, or some random item that T-Bo happened to be selling on a stick.
While Freddie went to the front counter to order two smoothies from them, Sam took a seat in their favorite spot. The triangular table in the middle of the store.
Looking in the window from the outside, the spying friends sighed.
"What are we doing?" Carly questioned herself.
"Umm… Making Sam and Freddie's first date perfect?" Gibby answered with another question.
"That's just it Gibs. We've spied on them the whole evening. But it feels wrong, somehow."
Gibby shrugs and doesn't say anything.
"Just…. Come on!"
As the brunette pulls her friend away from their "mission", they both walk back to the Bushwell Plaza, and up to Carly's apartment. No doubt Spencer was sitting on his couch and waiting for all the 'deets'.
It was late at night.
Earlier that same day, the brunette girl had found out that Sam and Freddie had kissed each other.
"I just can't believe my two friends kissed each other." Carly sighed.
"Sam loves Freddie. There's no other explanation." Spencer replies, shrugging.
Carly sits down on the couch, and stares at her older brother in surprise.
"But she hates him. She tells him that every single day."
"Or… does she? Hmm?" Spencer asks, hinting something small but significant.
"What do you mean, Spence?"
Spencer stands up slowly, and starts pacing the living room floor.
"Sam hasn't actually said 'I hate you' to Freddie. Has she?"
"Just on his birthday card. But never to his face… or at least when I'm in the room."
"Exactly! So why would she be in love with him?"
"Well… she seemed jealous when Freddie and I dated… for a short while."
As soon as Sam and Freddie had gotten their smoothies, and rejected the strange looking cupcakes on the stick that T-Bo was offering them, they took a walk down the street. Cars raced past them in a hurry, and trucks honked their horns. Clouds gathered overhead.
Raindrops started falling from the sky, and onto the pavement where they were walking.
"Oh Seattle." Freddie and Sam said, simultaneously and then laughed.
The downpour of rain got heavier and heavier, until they had both abandoned their smoothies and dancing around like idiots. Smiling. Laughing. Having a wonderfully, perfect time.
"Hey Sam!" Freddie yelled.
"What?" Sam yelled back.
"Since this is the corniest night we've spent together…"
"Wanna dance?"
"I thought you'd never ask!"
The biggest grin appeared on both Freddie and Sam's faces, as they turned to face one another, place their arms around each other and begin to dance, in the pouring rain. Dancing. Laughing. Getting soaked through to the skin.
One thing was for sure. This would certainly be a night to remember.