Hi guys! Chapter two here, I'm pretty excited about my determination. I wrote this in about two days. One, the day after the last chapter, and two - majority of this story - today. I woke up late, around noon from insane dreams that felt like they took ages in time, and became writing inspired! I have ten days left before I go to college, so hopefully I can work on this story enough before I go that'll keep you guys happy. Oh! and its my birthday tuesday (the tenth!) & I turn eighteen. Birthday reviews pretty please? Best present ever!
Enjoy! & no, I don't own any of this.

Chapter 2: You Oughta Know

When I wake up, groggy and confused, I immediately reach for my phone.

And then it hits me. I'm at Carly's, and all thats left of my phone is my sim card.

I trudge carefully to the bathroom, nervous for crossing the couple's path.

I make it to the bathroom with success for once, noticing that the couch is empty. Mrs. Benson must've had a fit.

I open the fridge and search for some quick food I can eat.

I hear footsteps behind me, and I swing around, bracing myself to see Carly.

"Sam."

"What the hell, Benson? Why are you here? Your mom must've had a panic attack when she didn't tuck you in last night."

"I slept on the couch in Carly's room." Oh, i'm so sure it was the couch. "Why aren't you home? Isn't your mom pissed about your 'little stunt'? Why'd you run away, Sam?"

I narrowed my eyes. "You ask way too many questions."

I push past him and curl my knees to my chest, balancing a lemon in my left hand.

He plops down beside me, arms crossed.

"Sam, c'mon."

I stand up, agitated and hardly able to contain my frustration.

"You know, Benson, take a hint. I don't wanna talk about it, I don't wanna deal with you and your precious girlfriend Carly. You can count me out of iCarly, and you can count me out of your friendships."

I squeeze the lemon in my hand hard, ready to throw it at his face, but where my nails dig into the fruit, the tart juice squirts into his eyes instead. Oh well, same effect.

"Sam!" The way he says it is hardly angry, but more upset.

I take a bite into the sour lemon, force myself to swallow the bitter taste.

"Tell Spencer thanks, and not to worry. I'l be in school tomorrow."

As I was closing the door, Freddie was staring at me, saying "You can't run away from everything."

I took off, knees aching from all of the running i'd been doing. I stopped at the Groovy Smoothie, it was hardly occupied.

"T-Bo!"

"Sam Puckett. Why you here at eight am? I thought you didn't rise til noon."

I shrugged and sat down, as he placed a smoothie next to me.

"Wanna buy some bacon on a stick?"

"Now you're talkin."

I looked into pocket to pull out money, and realized I was down to my last five bucks.

"Here!" I threw the money at T-Bo, and he glanced at it, questioningly.

Handing the stick of bacon and a Strawberry Splat to me, he also sets down four fifty.

"What? T-Bo, I think you forgot how to count."

"I KNOW how to count, Sam. My great granduncle taught me to count, okay? Thats a dollar twenty five in change."

"No, its not. It's four fifty." I was confused now, what was wrong with his head?

"You seem to forget that this place isn't even open on sunday mornings this early, kay? I know how to count at eight am. You're hurting my feelings!" He pouts, and walks away.

I leaned over the table, nibbling on the bacon, thinking about my situation. I was going to have to head to the house to gather some things up. I reminded myself to grab my bank statement, I wasn't stupid. I just needed time to get on my feet.

A little voice was nagging at me in the back of my head 'why are you so upset'?

It's Freddie and Carly. Two people I trust with my life. I tell them nearly everything.

I was feeling something else about the situation, but I couldn't place my mind on it. A little voice just kept saying its "Freddie and (HER)." But i blocked it away, I dismissing it for anger instead.

Finishing my smoothie, I walked down the street, in the direction of our home.

As I see my mom's car in the driveway, I begin to brace myself. I wished I could take the keys, but I knew the second the car left the driveway, mother dearest would have the cops after me.

Quietly shutting the door behind me, I could hear my mom talking to someone in the living room.

I tried to tip toe to my room, but her screech, "SAMANTHA!" left me involuntarily trudging back to the middle of the main floor.

"What is wrong with you? I had your little friends here, looking for you, wondering where you disappeared to. I had the coppers callin me again, girl. I'm not dealing with this bull. You think you can just run off like that? I trust you enough to go to that girls house all the time. But look at you now? Causin trouble, just like your daddy did. Disgusting."

I swallowed down the bitter feeling. I was constantly a disappointment to her. I had begun to feel like Melanie was the one she was always proud of, until Melanie decided she liked dad better, staying with him when she had holidays off of school, coming home here around twice a year.

I began to walk off, but i failed. "Hey, girlie, I wasn't finished talking yet!"

I winced and turned back around.

"This is Bruce. He's a guard at that nice little bar down the street. He also sells accordions! He was kind enough to stay with me last night, so the least you can do is pay respect to him"

I shivered, and raised an eyebrow at the man, who didn't seem to care whether I was there or not. I mumbled a hello, and he nodded.

"Now, get your crap and get out of here. I'm sick of seeing your face, causing trouble to this family's name. If you have no respect for me and Brucey here, you don't deserve this place."

My jaw dropped a little bit. "Mom? You're kidding me here. I just had a bad night!"

"Yeah, and I had a bad marriage, bad pregnancy. We learn to deal with things, not run away from them." I look at her like she's crazy. She makes zero sense, and her shoving all three of us from her life just makes things worse. And she used Freddie's words, ones that she's a hypocrite for. I'm the only thing she has left, because at the end of the week, she's done with whatever guy that she had her ways with and is racking up the credit cards, buying meaningless things for herself with the money we don't have. She used to come to my room and cry and apologize, but the next day, "Sam! Come meet fill-in-the-blank! He's a doctor-lawyer-bartender-whatever I could find to get laid and buy me food and drinks!"

I don't mean to sound negative. I mean, six days of the week, she's a generally happy person. But she acts like I don't exist. She pulls down some of our pictures and pretends that I'm adopted, or her niece or best friend's kid. She'll lie in any way to get some guy to stick with her temporarily.

I sprint to my room, grab my white and black checkered backpack and begin to stuff things into it. My pearbook pro laptop, bought for me from a rich man of the week who actually appreciated my company. A pearpod, gifted to me when some guy used it as a "i'm sorry I can't put up with you" peace gift for their breakup, which my mom threw at me. She didn't need technology, she just needed a man's company, she'd say. Various pairs of worn pants and Penny T's I had stashed from the few bucks I saved up from borrowing money. Other things; fat cakes, a few pictures from the years of iCarly and growing up. How long was I going to be gone? Was I ever coming back? I grabbed my bank statement from under the desk drawer, carefully tucked away so my mother wouldn't take it and blow the money I had been saving from holidays and birthdays, the few times relatives would send me money; they knew it wasn't pretty here.

I start pulling things from my pockets in search of gum, but then I realized the little plastic piece of infinite memory resided in my pocket. My phone's sim card.

I snapped my fingers and searched under my bed for the extra phone Melanie left for me. When the pink slim plastic with a thick cord wrapped around it reached my fingertips after minutes of digging, I relaxed. I wasn't planning on using it anytime soon, but if I needed it, it was going to be with me.

After taking a long hard look at my room, I inhaled deep and shut the door.

I could hear my mom and her boy of the week being disgusting in the living room, so i rerouted through the kitchen, grabbing a few pieces of food before leaving the house completely.

My heart was beating rapidly and my breaths came out raspy and labored. I was kicked out, and had no where to go.

I was smarter than last time, knowing to avoid causing a scene and staying away from major streets. Incognito, of course.

I'd be at school tomorrow. Franklin would call home if I didn't show, and Carly and Freddie would come looking for me again.

Where to go, where to go. I needed a place to sleep, to figure out where to go from here.

Walking to the nearest park, I sit on the swings and watch the little kids run around, screaming and laughing. Parents everywhere chasing them, trying to control them or round them up to go home.

And then it hit me.

I'm homeless.

I began shaking, trying to breathe. I made one irrational decision and my life was falling apart at the seams.

Freddie Benson, I hate you right now.

As soon as that thought crosses my mind, I close my eyes and think back of everything that's been happening through the ages. I knew him and Carly were still talking, but he tried to date that other freakishly tall chick, so i believed he moved beyond that. Apparently not.

Freddie and I have been really close friends, teaming up over things with Carly hardly as involved as we were.

When all three of us promised no more secrets, I knew the rule was for Freddie and I, because Carly was blatantly jealous when finding out the truth.

Maybe I didn't want her to know the truth because I predicted her reaction.

It's like saying, you don't know what you have until its gone.

Once Carly figured out the truth, things changed. These past few months, he and her have spent more time together, or maybe I realized they spent less time with me.

Whichever it was, they were lying to keep me from knowing the truth.

If they would've told me the truth from the beginning, maybe I wouldn't be this… freaked out.

Maybe.

Opening my eyes, I can feel sun burning my skin and I begin to walk away from my previous spot.

"Sam!"

I feel a pair of arms wrap around my midsection and i look down.

I couldn't help but smile. "Hi Guppy."

Seconds later, Gibby's standing in front of me.

"What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like? Its a public park. I'm allowed to be here." I say, slight sarcasm in my voice.

He rolls his eyes. Lucky boy, if he was Freddie, i'd knock his lights out.

"Carly keeps texting me, talking about you. I tried calling last night, but all I got was your voicemail."

"No chizz, diphthong. I broke my phone."

He nods, as if he knows this by now.

Guppy begins pulling on my hand leading me on a walk over to the slides.

"So you knew too?" I ask Gibby, not saying specifics because it disgusted me too much.

He nods, and pulls a sad smile on his face. "Yeah. I tried to ignore it."

"Ignore it?" Gibby looks distraught, upset at this.

"Yeah, i liked Carly a lot. She just wouldn't pay attention to me. Why else would I be trying to lose this weight?"

I looked him over again. He had been trimming up pretty nicely.

"I'm sorry. How did they tell you?"

He shook his head, a slightly disgusted look on his face. "They didn't."

"But then how-" I started to ask, and he cut me off.

"I walked in on them one day, kissing." He shakes his head, cringing. Then I realized, I was mirroring his expression. "You know Tasha and I broke up because of her?"

"But I thought you liked Tasha?"

He nods, looks down at the ground, "but I never got over Carly."

I almost scream at him, angry. "You sound like Freddie."

His eyes open wide and he realizes the actuality of my words. "Gross. Maybe I should become a ladies man, start finding new chicks, ya know?"

I nod, have a short laugh. Whatever you say, kid.

"Sammy!" Guppy runs over to me, with a fist full of flowers. "Feel better!"

I almost start crying, feeling grateful for this little kid.

"Do you need a ride home?"

I was about to lie, uneasy with telling Gibby the truth, but then I realize lies are what ended me up here in the first place.

"I don't have a home anymore, Gibs. Mama Puckett the first kicked me out on the street. Apparently mothers don't like it when their daughters run away and get caught by the cops."

"Kicked out? Where are you gonna stay?"

I shrug my shoulders, as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

He shakes his head. "You can stay with us tonight. My mom won't care."

"Gibby, I can't do that. Thats nice of you and all but-"

"Sam, you said it yourself. You don't have anyplace else to go. Its supposed to storm tonight. You can't stay here. You can't get caught by the cops tonight. And I know that you really don't wanna stay at Carly's or Spencer's.

"Just for tonight?"

"Just for tonight."

I nod, and lean down to Guppy's height.

"I guess we're havin a sleepover tonight, Gup."

"Sleepover! Yay!" The little boy starts to run around, fists pumped up in the air.

Thank goodness for honest friends.

(LaTeR.)

i'm laying on the couch, watching TV. It's about ten or so at night, everyone's in bed. Staying here weirded me out, I'm not used to a house that was.. normal. Little Guppy attached himself to me, showing me every inch of their house. "This is our cat! This is our kitchen! This is our door!" I ate with the family, politely as I could be, aiming to not be piggish, although Gibby gave me the rest of his plate when he was full. It was nice, but awkward. I couldn't impose like this beyond today. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to figure out something new.

Digging in my backpack, I pull out the spare phone. Bracing myself, I slide the SIM card into empty space, click the battery in, and hold the end button to turn it on.

As soon as the welcome screen came on, my phone began vibrating. '16 missed calls, 22 unread messages, 5 voicemails.'

I held the phone up to my ear after punching in my code, and shakily began listening.

"Sam, Its Carly! Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't want Freddie to tell you until we figured out the best time. Where are you?"

"Carly again, I'm serious, Sam. Come back, or call us. We're really worried here. I'm really worried here."

"Hi Sam, It's me (Spencer). Well I'm sure you know who it is, it comes up on caller id and you can tell by the tone in my voice, as my tone is different and I've known you since- "SPENCER!" oh, right. Let me know where you are asap. We're going to your mom's house, Freddie and Carly are really worried."

"Hey Sam, its Gibby. Carly told me to call you? I'm sorry about what happened. Just call or text us to let us know you're okay."

"Sam. I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd care. I just didn't want to keep it a secret. I don't want you to be angry with me or Carly. You're our best friend. I called your mom today. She says you're gone, and she, well, uh. She says she doesn't care if you come back. I'm sorry, Sam. I know you don't have a phone right now, but. I just want to let you know, you're important. To iCarly, to Carly - who's been hysterical about you leaving- , and to me. You're my good friend. Call us."

Freddie's voice left me feeling upset.

Good friend.

Thats all I was, a good friend? Not his first kiss? Not the one who shared thanksgiving with him? Not the one who worked on half of our iCarly webvids? Not the one who was in my Spanish class with me, tutoring me in both Spanish and how to work the iCarly cameras?

Damn it.

I'm jealous.

Ah, before anyone asks me, I'm not going to do any Sibby. It suits them better to be friends, and it works against a too angsty Sam; she deserves to at least half one friend (one & a half if you count Guppy! )

Let me know what you guys think, provide me with some stellar inspiration!

- iHearU.