It had been three weeks since graduation, and Freddie was now packing his things to leave to college in a few days. Boxes were stacked up around his room, filled with clothes, personal items, and other things that had once been strewn across his shelves. There wasn't much left in his room anymore; just furniture and a few sets of clothes that he would need over the next few days.

There weren't many people for him to say goodbye to anymore, and him mom had somehow managed to find a way to move to L.A. with him. He was partially irritated about it, even if he was getting his own apartment, but then again he wasn't too fond of the idea of losing all company from home. He barely even felt anything right now, and needed the life kicked into him again.

He decides to give himself room to breathe out in the hallway, and finds himself knocking on Spencer's door, greeted by a friend and familiar face.

"Hi."

"Come on in." Spencer steps aside to let Freddie in, then quietly shuts the door. There's an unfamiliar quietness about the place, and it's almost scarily empty.

"You all packed?"

"Mostly, my mom is clearing out the closets. The delivery guys are coming to get some of the furniture tomorrow morning."

"And you?"

Freddie looks up from where he's sitting at the kitchen island in confusion.

"What about me?"

"How're you holding up?"

He sighs, fiddling with the pen on the counter.

"I've been better. I just...I always pictured this whole process differently, you know? I knew it would change when Carly left, but Sam...there's just a full void where my social life used to be."

Spencer leans forward on the counter, observing the younger boy in front of him. There were only a few other times when he had seen Freddie this solemn about something. He wished he could tell him everything. Why Sam had left, where she had gone, and what she'd been doing. But Sam had sworn to slit his throat if he ever spoke a word about it, and so he could only keep his mouth shut about details.

"She needed to leave, Freddie. She couldn't stay here any longer."

"But why?! I don't get it! One minute we're still remotely talking at school, and the next she won't even look at me. What did I do?"

"If it were really just about you, she would have just punched you, not left."

"What does that even mean?"

"I really can't say."

The vague sound of a cell phone goes off somewhere in the house, and Spencer's ears perk up. "Hang on, I should get that." He says with a small smile, and disappears into his room.

Freddie groans to himself, and rests his head on his hand, his elbow nudging the computer mouse, causing the screen to light up. Spencer's had a website open, something about a babysitting service.

Why would Spencer need a babysitter? He scrolls up, to see a picture of a girl with cherry-red hair, laughing and playing with a smiling child. He feels like he's seen her before, but he can't really recall where from. He continues to click on random pages of the site, scrolling past picture of Sam and the red-haired girl, while admiring the quality of the design, and wondered if he could buy the theme—wait. He scrolls back up, and freezes.

Sam.

His breath catches in his throat as his eyes fall upon the girl who for so many years had been the bane of his existence, but had developed an affinity for. She looked happy, and her eyes lit up like they did when she saw chicken.

"That was the TV repair guy, he—" Spencer cuts himself off when he sees what Freddie is looking at. "You weren't supposed to see that."

"A babysitting service? Of all the things, this is one thing I never pictured Sam doing." He doesn't turn to look at Spencer, but just stares at the picture before him.

"Well, she's got a good mind for business. Until it got shut down by the school, Gibby's was doing really well."

He remains silent, just blinking and staring.

"She looks happy."

"Yeah. It seems so."

He finally navigates away from the photos page, and starts to read about this little service she has running, until he sees an address at the bottom.

"Sh-she's….in L.A. She's in L.A.?! I'm going to L.A.!" He picks the pen up and notes the address down on his arm.

"Freddie…"

"I've got to find her! Spencer, do you realize what this means? We'll be in the same city and I can finally see her and-"

"Freddie!"

"What?"

"You can't just go and see her."

"Well why not?"

"Because…she doesn't want you to."

"I don't get it…"

"Look. I'm not going to lie and say that you had nothing to do with Sam leaving, but she left the life she had here behind for a reason. I don't think she wants to be reminded of it."

"Spencer…you don't understand. If I don't find out what it is I did that drove her away I won't be able to forgive myself for the rest of my life. I need to do this. Please. Let me go find her."

Spencer wants so badly to believe that this wouldn't go as bad as he thought it would, but then again, he'd been wrong before. But looking at the broken-hearted boy before him, he knew that this might be the only chance that he would ever see the three of them happy again.

"If you hurt her again, I will set you on fire."