Chapter 23: First Dates
Disclaimer: Never had it, never will.
Day 12 - The Dates
1
It wasn't their best iCarly. Most of the audience probably didn't notice the difference between it and most episodes. It wasn't the worst-neither girl stormed out during the middle of it and Nevel didn't try to take over the show. But both Carly and Sam were nervous about their respective dates that night, and that made them both the tiniest bit off. Strangely, Freddie, who in the past was sometimes the most nerve-wracked of the three, didn't seem affected at all.
"Great show, guys," he said. Well, it was a pretty good show, and he didn't want to bring anybody down. Normally, Sam and Carly would have agonized about the mistakes and missteps on the show, but as soon as the red light went off, they had both forgotten about it.
"I'm going to start getting ready. If you want any help, Sam, you know where I'll..." Carly left without finishing her sentence.
Freddie went over to Sam and wrapped his arms around her waist. She put her arms around his neck, as if it was second nature. "You nervous?" he asked.
"About a date with you? Please. Only that you will bring me somewhere boring, or that we'll have to do something nerdy." She scoffed, although she was indeed nervous. He knew she was, and she knew that he knew, but they didn't talk about that. In some ways they had fallen into a couple's routine before they had officially become a couple.
"Oh...well, I guess I'll have to cancel that tour of the World's Largest Computer," he said. She rolled her eyes.
"Well, I guess I need to go get ready. I want to look good just in case I run into somebody more interesting," she said. She left. Freddie winced. He knew she was kidding, doing the Sam-and-Freddie thing they always did, but it hurt when she said it, in a way something like that had never done before. He was going to have to reconcile his two versions of Sam if he wanted to keep dating her. And he did.
2
By the time Sam got to Carly's room, Carly had already tried on six different outfits. Sam quickly changed into something similar to what she had already been wearing, but without the accumulation of the day's pranking. She did apply some light make-up.
'What am I going to wear?" Carly asked. Sam turned around to see Carly standing in her bra and underwear.
"Wear that. Gibby will appreciate it."
"Ha ha, Sam. I seriously don't know what to wear." Sam rolled her eyes. She got up, went to Carly's closet, and picked out a blue dress.
"Wear that."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, yeah, put it on. You're welcome."
Sam went back to look at the mirror. Her make-up was finished; she didn't really look she was wearing any. She looked at her hair and wondered what she should do with it.
"Just keep it like it is, Sam."
"What?"
"Freddie likes your hair like that."
"He does? Did he say something?" She looked at her hair in the mirror. It was full of curls and somewhat tousled.
"No, but I've been watching him, since, you know, I knew you guys liked each other, and he looks at your hair all the time. Plus, I've seen him running his fingers through it." Sam thought about it. He had done that. Cool, she thought. That meant she had less work to do. Carly giggled.
"What?"
"You're blushing, Sam. Who would have thought that Freddie Benson had such capacity to make Sam Puckett blush."
"Shut up." She got up. "Carly, what if I screw this up?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, by being me. I said something to him before I left the studio, and I think it hurt his feelings, because I was thinking of him as Freddie, not as my boyfriend."
"Do you want him to be your boyfriend, Sam? No smart answer! Just the truth."
"Yes," Sam whispered.
"Then apologize."
Sam thought about it. "Well, that will be new." Unless I plan to kiss him afterward, she thought. Well, maybe not so new.
3
When they came downstairs, Freddie and Gibby were waiting for them. They had at some point started ignoring Spencer, who was talking to them about the birds and bees, which had somehow morphed into swans and fire trucks.
Gibby saw them first and stood up. Freddie turned around and got up, too.
"You look beautiful, Carly," Gibby said. Carly turned red.
"Who's blushing now?" Sam whispered in Carly's ear, and laughed. Sam walked down to Freddie. "What, don't I look hot, Freddie? Take some lessons from Gibson."
He bent so that his mouth was near her ear, and she felt his breath on her neck. "You always look beautiful." She heard Carly laugh, and she knew her face was now red.
"You kids have fun. Not too much fun, of course," Spencer said.
4
The two couples parted outside the lobby. Gibby escorted Carly to his car, and Sam and Freddie walked to his mother's car. Sam was somewhat surprised his mother had agreed to let him drive, especially on a date with Sam. She wanted to ask him about it, but she was afraid that what she said might come out insulting.
"So where are we going, Freddie?" she asked.
"You'll see."
"You know you really can't pull off the mysterious type. You know that, right, Freddie?"
"Oh, I can't?" he said, and he smirked at her, making her feel lightheaded.
"Hey, Freddie?" He looked at her. "You know I was teasing about what I said earlier, about finding somebody more interesting, right?"
"Yeah, I know." He was silent for a moment. "I guess we're just going to have to figure this out as we go."
She nodded.
5
"I didn't know you speak French, Gibby." Actually, she knew he hadn't taken any language courses in school, and yet he had ordered the food perfectly. She looked around the restaurant. She was glad Sam picked out the blue dress, as it fit perfectly with the restaurant's decorum.
"It's the best way to order French food," Gibby said, smiling. He really has a sweet smile, Carly thought.
"Are you sure this isn't too expensive, Gibby? It looks expensive."
"No, I come here all the time." As if to prove it, a man wearing a chef's uniform came up to Gibby and spoke to him in French, gesturing animatedly. He turned to Carly, pinching her cheeks lightly, surprising her. He kissed Gibby on the cheek and headed back to the kitchen.
"What did he say?" Carly asked.
"He said I was here with the most beautiful date tonight. I agree." He smiled at her. "And...he said he's glad I stopped taking my shirt off all the time."
Carly laughed.
6
"Are you going to kill me, Freddie?"
"What?"
"You took me to a park at night, with nobody else around. I'm just waiting for some eerie music to begin playing, and a hatchet to come out." He laughed.
"It's funny you say that."
'Wha..." They arrived over a hill, and there was a small building, like a utility shed. Freddie pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked the building. He pulled out a projector and a screen. Then he went back in and pulled out a small ice chest, with a heavy bag on top of it.
"What is this, Freddie?"
He grinned. "I thought you'd like to watch a movie."
And then Sam said the words she thought would never come out of her mouth. "What if we get caught?"
7
Carly and Gibby were done with the second course of the meal before she realized that they had talked only about her. She was so unused to it, that she hadn't even noticed it. She shuddered internally, thinking about Austin, the boy who she met at the speed dating thing, who wouldn't let her get in a word edgewise. And Gibby, who she had known for a large portion of her life, was asking her questions about herself.
"Gibby?"
"Yeah?" He paused as he was taking a drink of water.
"What are you going to do in college?"
"I've been thinking of becoming a veterinarian."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I worked at my uncle's pet store last summer, and it just feels natural."
Carly thought about it. "Gibby, do you have...uh, I mean, are your..."
"Do I have good enough grades?" he asked. She nodded, ashamed. "I'm on the honor roll, Carly. I'm strange, not stupid."
"I'm sorry, Gibby, I didn't mean it like that." He saw that tears ran down her cheeks. He picked up his chair and moved next to her, putting his arm over her shoulder lightly.
"I don't blame you, Carly. I know how people see me. I know how I act. That's just, you know, who I am. It never bothered me what people thought of me. It bothers me what you think of me."
She still didn't look at him. "I think you're probably the sweetest boy I've ever known, and I suck for thinking that about you."
"No, you don't. Hey, you want some creme brulee?"
8
"We won't get caught," Freddie said.
"Well, we're trespassing," Sam said.
"Technically, no, we're not," he said. He adjusted the projection screen near the building, and then set up the projector. He shook out a blanket and invited her to sit.
"What do you mean, we're not trespassing?"
"You remember that guy Gunsmoke, who my mom hired as a bodyguard during that whole Shadow Hammer thing?"
"Yeah." He handed her something from the bag. She looked at it; it was a Meatstravaganza sub from her favorite shop. He handed her a can of Peppy Cola.
"Well, he still comes around every once in a while. He and my mom have become friends."
"Are they..."
"I don't know. I don't want to know. Anyway, he has connections with a bunch of government agencies, and he helped me get a permit for this. Technically, we're supposed to be a college film class doing a project on nature."
"Wow, Freddie Benson, rebel. Well, rebel with a permit."
"Shut up, Puckett," he said. He kissed her on the cheek. "Do you want to watch this or not?"
"I hope you don't expect me to watch something like The Notebook, because all the cheese I need is in this sub."
"Let's see what we can do." He started the projector.
Sam's mouth dropped open. "Mutilated at Midnight? Are you kidding?"
"I thought you'd like it." He sat down next to her. Without thinking, she snuggled closer to him. Only Sam Puckett would find a slasher film romantic, he thought.
"Dude, did you see what he did to that guy's spine?"
9
The meal had been the best Carly had in her entire life. She had felt stupid for, well, acting like Gibby was stupid, but he had moved past it, making her laugh with imitations of several of the animals he had encountered at the pet shop, although she did blanch a little when he imitated the goat.
But now, it was strange again. They were walking past the Seattle Art Museum, and she realized she was once again was doing all the talking. She looked over at him and saw that he had a strange look on his face, as if he were both scared and sick.
Oh, no, he's still mad about what I said. I'm a horrible person.
She did not see the ghost of a smile that was on his face or the way his breath had stopped as they passed the museum.
She never noticed that she had grabbed his hand at that time and had been holding it since. It had seemed so natural that it hadn't registered in her mind.
10
"Are you sure, Sam? I mean, he looks pretty dead...holy...that was gross!" Sam laughed. She took another bite of his sandwich. He had eaten half of his and decided he couldn't go any further. She looked over at him. He had a hand over his eyes, with his fingers splayed.
"Dude, come on, you have to watch this part." She pulled his hand away.
"Ooooowwwww," they said together. The film credits began to roll. She grabbed a Peppy Cola to wash down the last bite of sandwich.
"Sam?"
"Hmm."
"Will you carry me? I'm scared." She snorted laughter, and Peppy Cola came out her nose.
"Ow, Freddie, I'm gonna hurt you." But she couldn't stop laughing. He smiled at her, pulled her close and kissed her on the head. He handed her some paper towels to clean the mess she had created.
He began packing up the film stuff. He almost said something when he noticed Sam helping, but he didn't want to call attention to it. He chose instead to cherish it-Sam assisting without being prompted was a rare thing.
The walk to the car was slow. They walked closely together, pausing occasionally to share a kiss. Freddie wasn't normally easily frightened, unless his past experiences with Sam were counted, but the film was pretty dark and gross. Of course, he thought, no murderer in the woods would be a match for Sam Puckett.
He put everything in the trunk. When he turned around, Sam moved to him and put her arms around his waist. He did likewise to her. They stood like that for a minute, not moving, just holding on to each other and looking into each other's eyes.
11
In many ways, the two of them could not have been any different. The prissy, popular girl and the strange, often-shirtless boy. They would have seemed different to anybody who saw them at that moment, even if the person seeing them had not known them at all. The difference was in the eyes. The boy, when you looked into his eyes, looked deliriously happy. The girl did not, but you would have had to raise her face to see her eyes, as she had barely looked up, and had never seen the look in the boy's face.
"I guess I'm gonna go, Gibby," she said. She wanted to apologize for being such a horrible date, such a horrible person. She started to move toward the door of her apartment, but found her arm held back. She looked.
"When did you start holding my hand?" she asked.
He smiled. "You held my hand, Carly. Since the museum." Then she did look into his eyes and realized that once again she had misjudged Gibby.
"I had a nice time tonight, Gibby. I'm sorry that I said something stupid."
He shook his head. "You didn't. You couldn't."
They stood there for a moment, and then Carly moved forward, reaching up and placing her lips on his. The kiss was soft. A moment later, they broke apart.
"Bye, Gibby."
"Uh, bye, Carly," the almost-impossibly even-more-dazed boy said.
Carly shut the door behind her and leaned agains the door.
Spencer was sitting on the couch. "Are you okay, Carly?"
"I kissed Gibby lips!"
Spencer moved his mouth several times before he was actually able to form words. "Um, how was it?"
A small smile broke open on Carly's face. "Pretty nice, actually."
12
"What is it with you and Puckett girls and this fire escape, Freddie?" She turned to him from staring out at the Seattle night. She smiled at him, hoping he understood she was joking. She didn't like the idea of him kissing her sister, but she understood how it happened, and she didn't want that one mistake to ruin what had been the place where she first began to realize she liked him.
"Oh, I take all my dates here," he said. She grinned. Maybe this can work, she thought. Maybe we can be Sam and Freddie and have our verbal battles, and still be able to kiss and make out. She thought there was probably something wrong with her that she liked the confrontations she and Freddie had so much, but, then again, so did he, or he wouldn't have put up with her for so long.
"Do you now?"
"Yes, they call me Senor Amor de el Fuego Escaparse."
Sam laughed. She tried to think of a Freddie three years younger being able to say something like that to her, and couldn't do it. He had grown.
"I had a good time tonight, Sam." He moved closer to her, and they resumed the position they had outside the car, arms around each other, looking into each other's eyes.
"Of course you did. You were with me."
"Yes, even despite that, I had a good time. Ow," he said, as she lightly punched his chest. He stuck his tongue out at her. "Of course, I mean that I had a good time because I was with you."
"Better," Sam said. "Now kiss me, before you start to bore me."
"Gladly," he said. And he did so.
13
Spencer had gone into his bedroom soon after Carly had come home. Truthfully, he was still having issues with the whole Gibby lips situation.
Sam entered Carly's bedroom. Carly was on her bed, with her knees up, pillow between her knees and chest.
"You have to hear about my date," they said at the same time.
A/N: I know I probably screwed that Spanish up, but I did the best I could. Wow, we only have four chapters after this. I'm actually a little sad about that. Of course, I've spent longer on this story than any of my others, not to mention that depending how long it ends up being, it will past the word count of my other three stories combined. Now, I really hate to do this to everybody, but I feel I have to. I'm not going to post another chapter until I get a review that uses the word "tintinnabulation" correctly. I'm sorry; that's just the way it has to be.
Thank you for reviews from: rangergirl123, afanoffanfic, Flutter360, Geekquality, SeddierFTW, MissSeddie, QueenV101, iCarlyfan101, Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie, Penny Tee13, Moviepal, cynthiarox99, seddieSUPERFAN101, ManzanasSilla, clarksonfan, and PurpleJerk.
Rangergirl123: Yeah, I never saw Gibby and Carly being such a big part of this story. Strange things happen.
afanoffanfic: I have no problem with wanting feedback, or even with pleading for feedback. It's the people who say, "I'm not going to post another chapter unless I get so many reviews" that bother me. What if there is one person out there who loves your story so much, and that person is suffering the waiting because other people haven't reviewed? It's just sucky. Okay, hopefully that's my last word on this topic.
Flutter360: I do a lot of my reading on the phone, too, so I understand not reviewing. Again, I appreciate any reviews I get. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
SeddierFTW: I wish they were all my pranks. All praise the power of Google. If it was up to my pranking ability, the entire chapter would have been filled with puns and wordplay.
Penny Tee13: Thank you! I was ridiculously proud of that, and I'm glad that somebody mentioned it. Much better than "Francine Briggs was Jiffy Popped". Because, well, that kind of sounds gross.
ManzanaSilla: I actually like the relationship, too, at least the way I'm writing it. I corresponded with somebody else about Gibby-mainly about how difficult he is to write, because I think Dan and company allow more leeway in his character for the sake of a joke (hence, why he would be so upset about Freddie and Tasha that he would want to fight Freddie, but then he and Tasha have a non-exclusive relationship, so that he can date Patrice). So, although I haven't written Gibby completely true to character (since you can't really nail that down), I'm pleased with it.
PurpleJerk: I think Rodney is a cool guy, just as long as you don't cut into his profit margin. You would be surprised how little work there is available for comedy ninjas. "What do you mean you don't want me to pop in and randomly insult you, grab some food out of your fridge, and leave? Whatever, man, I guess you hate America!"