A/N: Hi guys! Happy early Christmas, or whatever you celebrate.

I loved all of your feedback, it made me glow.

I worked extra hard on this chapter, and i hope you guys enjoy it! It's told in Freddie's point of view, which was tough for me, cause, well... i'm a girl.

Disclaimer: If my name was Dan Schneider, I wouldn't be writing these, would i?

Chapter 8: Glitter in the Air

"It's okay. Come tomorrow, you won't ever have to worry about me, ever again."

I'm sitting in the iCarly studio after school, trying to edit out glitches for some programs in webshows, and I can hardly concentrate. I keep looking up, expecting a blonde headed demon to be chucking ham towards my head.

Sam's words keep ringing in my ears. Three days ago she said that. Two days ago, she wasn't in school. I figured she was playing sick, aiming to try and make her a pity case. Yesterday, she wasn't either. I believed she was either good at acting, or she really was sick. And if it were the latter, it must be bad, or she'd be here coughing all over me. Sam can hardly stand a day at home with her mom. But two? It's kind of unheard of. Today, she didn't show up either…

Now, Carly and I are freaking out. Okay, so Carly is externally, but internally, I'm slightly concerned. It isn't like Sam to miss this much school without at least letting Carly know. After what she said, I need to know what she meant by that. I never told Carly. She was extremely pissed after what I said to Sam, yaddiyaddiyada, but she got over it when she realized that she didn't wanna lose me.

Don't get me wrong, I love Carly, but at times, she's really… shallow. A part of me felt like she just wants to date me just for the sole fact of having a boyfriend. But I'm determined to prove her wrong. I'm going to show her I'm the perfect boyfriend, and exactly what she needs.

"Freddie?" Carly asks gingerly, noticing my state of mind, "What are you thinking about?"

I shrug, and start talking about electrical outputs and AV to VGA from display ports and she rolls her eyes and interrupts me. "I'm worried about Sam. I have no clue where she is. She hasn't answered her phone except for a few texts here and there, A few one-word texts. Does she hate me again?"

"I doubt it Carly. Don't worry about her. She's probably terrorizing small children and innocent old people." I say, emphasizing my words with extra sarcasm as I wrap my arms around her.

Her shoulders tense, and she gives me 'the look'.

"Carly, quit it. Sam wants us to leave her alone. You can't just barge into everything and expect to fix it yourself. THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS."

At that moment, Gibby walks in. "We're gonna bring Sam back? Score."

He high fives Carly, and I snarl a little under my breath.

"What's your problem? It is my business. Sam is our best friend!"
"I'll tell you the problem, Carly. Sam WAS our best friend. She doesn't need us anymore. And I don't need her either. Things are so much better with her not getting in the way, like with our relationship. We can be open; she doesn't have to slow that down anymore. I'm sick of her insults and abuse. I'm done with her."

"Freddie, come on! You're not even thinking of anything good. You and Sam were best friends!" Gibby chimes in at that time, walking a little closer in my direction, and I push him down to the ground in reflex, and he falls over a few wires.

"Oh my gosh, Gibby! Are you okay?" Carly immediately takes charge and comes to the rescue, freaking out over a cut on his wrist from the floorboards.

"What the heck are you thinking, Freddie?"

I mumble my response, "I don't know. Sorry."

Carly stands, looks me straight in the eye.

"Sorry? Right. Listen here, Freddie. You know how you're done with Sam? Well I'm done with the way you're acting. Your insults and abuse are ten times worse than anything Sam's ever tried. Open up your eyes, Freddie. Without Sam, things are terrible. So you can be done with Sam all you want, because I'm done being in a relationship with you. I can't believe I fell for someone who's so cold hearted! When you want to be mature and be my friend again, I'll be here. But think about what you are doing right now, before you even consider being my friend ever again."

And that was how I, Fredward Benson, got dumped by the Carlotta Shay.

I stomped down the steps and sat on the couch, crossing my arms and huffing in disgust. Spencer comes and sits next to me.

"Spencer, I-"

"NOIWILLNOTTELLYOUWHERESAMIS!" Spencer yells out in my face, and follows up his word vomit by widening his eyes and putting both hands over my ears.

"LALALALALA. These are magical earmuffs! You did not hear that! I know nothing!"

I look at him and pull his hands off of my ears, calmly.

"You know where she is?" I say, surprised.

"Oh! Look! It's a… uh…" Spencer's eyes dart around the room, desperate to diverge my attention. "It's an adolescent boy?"

"Give up, and tell me."

"Her dad's house." Spencer stands and begins to sprint into the bathroom, and I hear the water start to run. "I'M WASHING AWAY THE FACT I EVER TOLD YOU THAT!"

Her dad's house? Sam never, ever talks about her dad. I've never heard her or Carly bring it up – I always believed it was one of those unspoken rules that we establish between us. I don't speak about my dad, Carly doesn't speak about her mom, Sam doesn't speak about her dad. But now, I can't stop thinking about –

Wait. Why should I even care? This is SAM PUCKETT we're talking about. I refuse to tell Carly about this because she's going to get some grand scheme in her head about going to Sam's dad's house to beg her to come back and love us and blah blah blah.

Not gonna happen.

I was just never going to mention it to my ex girlfriend and just get along with my life. What's the worst that could happen?

SP-FB-SP_FB-SP SP-FB-SP_FB-SP SP-FB-SP_FB-SP SP-FB-SP_FB-SP

I'm sitting on the fire escape later on that evening, feeling pretty betrayed. Sam's gone. Carly's not my girlfriend. Gibby is hitting on Carly. Sam's gone.

My mom was out on another late shift at the hospital, probably bored with the lack of patients with injuries caused by Sam.

Where's her dad's house anyways? No, Freddie! Stop that. Sam's probably found a new nub to pick on.

Is that where Melanie lives too? Ugh, Benson. Quit it. You're starting to sound like a chick.

I slump back into the chair as I look into the Seattle sky, and my headphones begin playing a song I memorized every word to. As if in reflex, my head swivels to the fire escape's window, half expecting to see blonde.

That's where this song's from. The night Sam and I had our first kiss.

I unplug my headphones from the device and wind up my hand, ready to throw my PearPod as far as I could.

Damn it, Sam, why do you get under my skin so bad?

I take a few deep breaths, and relax.

Sam will come back. She's probably just vacationing there, or taking some time to cool off.

You want her to come back.

No. I want things to get better. I want her to come back so I can date Carly again, and I want her to be nicer. Hopefully it's a reality check for her, that she can't have things her way.

And neither can you, Freddie. What's gotten better since she left?

I close my eyes and lean back, deep in thought.

We introduced Gibby to the show… Who made Carly fall for him and made all the viewers want Sam back more.

I finally stood up for myself to Sam… and it got me three night's detention, a nanny cam set up by my mom, and a mark on my permanent record regarding verbal assault.

Carly and I got to be open with dating each other... and it ended in scaring her away because she doesn't think I care about Sam.

Do i?

I think back to what Carly said the night Sam flipped out on us. Carly claimed Sam to be jealous, and that was the whole reason she never wanted to tell Sam in the first place. I never really believed Carly about her being jealous – I only attributed her anger to her not being included into knowing that her best friends – best friend and enemy? – Are dating.

But are you missing something?

The day after the dance.

Carly and mine's lovely dates, Austin and Malika, decided to be freaks, and I ended up enjoying a dance with Carly at the Groovy Smoothie. It was probably the highlight of my night, but things were kind of awkward after. I kind of just sat there and toyed around with my phone, wondering, "where's Sam?"

The next day, we went into the school, and Sam was kind of looking at us funny. "What's up?"

"Where were you last night?" I ask it before Carly gets a chance.

"You know, around."

"Sam, you weren't at the dance. You weren't at the Groovy Smoothie."

She turns into her locker, and I hear her mumble, "yes I was."

"Wha-""I need to get to class early to discuss my grades, guys. See you soon." Carly interrupts my questioning, leaving she and I standing there.

"You were there last night?"

Something flashes in her eyes, unexpecting confrontation of this question, and she answers, "What's it to you, Benson? I went to Gibby's house. Ended up, I got turned down by Gibby. He has a girl. Went to the GS. Walked in and saw you and Carls all lovey-dovey, left. The end, happily ever after."

"You saw us? Why didn't you come sit and hang out?"
"Because. Wow, Fredwina, I never knew you were this dumb." And she pushed me down and walked away to class.

Was she trying to tell me something? Or did she just mean that she didn't want to ruin Carly and mine's moment?

Either way, I begin to feel more and more guilty for everything going on.

I know I need to get to the bottom of what's going on and why Sam's at her dad's house, so I snuck away from my mother's supervision and walked to Sam's mom's house.

"Whaddya want?" Moments after I knock on the Puckett's door, Pam Puckett stands in the doorway, whiskey bottle in hand, staring me down.

"Hi, uh, Miss Puckett. I was wondering if you could tell me about where Sam-"
"Sam? You mean that wretched girl who used to live here?"

My eyes widened, a lot. "I mean your daughter, ma'm."

She shrugs, and looks over her shoulder, "Meh. No daughters here. Melanie's away at school, and the other one…" She puts her finger to her temple and starts tapping it, as if she's having trouble remembering.

"Sam?"

"Oh yeah. That one; kicked her out."

My stomach dropped a little. Kicked her daughter out?
"When?"

"You know. After the coppers took her in. I don't need that in my house." She looks over her shoulder and stumbles a little more. I notice some guy in a wife beater lying out in a wife beater, drinking what looked to be his sixth or seventh beer.

Of course she would think her daughter's the problem.

"Can you give me her father's address?" It kind of tumbled out of my mouth before I could help myself.

"What do I look like, kid? I don't give handouts to people I don't know."

She starts to pull the door shut, and I give it my last shot.

"Please, Miss Puckett. That's the only thing I'm here for and then I'll leave you alone."

I thought she was about to slam the door, but instead grabs a piece of paper and pen, scribbling something down.

"There. Happy? Now go leave me alone so mama can have some fun."

That statement gave me shivers up my spine. Sam.

I take the piece of paper and carefully fold it and place it in my pocket.

After rushing home when it was nearly dark, I come into the apartment to be greeted by my mom, screeching, "Freddie! I was worried sick! You know better than to be out without telling mommy! What in the world were you-" And I cut her off, nearly shocking her by wrapping her up in a big hug.

Sometimes you don't realize how good you have it, til slipping into someone else's shoes.

A/N:

Ah, so now you see where the plot thickens. Finally, Freddie shows his emotions! And Carly and Freddie are done dating. Or are they?

Let me know what you think?

iHearU