A week after our fight at Freddie's job, I finally agreed to see him again. He'd called a bunch of times but I'd just blow him off. It took a damn near pathetic voice mail before I finally called him back

"Sam, please call me back,.I'm sorry. I'll take all of next week off and we can do whatever you want. We can lay in bed and eat pizza and watch TV and I won't touch the remote. Just please call me back? Please Sam..."

It wasn't that I was furious or anything, it was more like...I couldn't let him feel in control; I had to be the one making things happen. The doorbell rang and I got up slowly, I did all I could to keep myself from running to answer it. I didn't want him to know that I needed him as much as I did.

"Hi Freddie."

"Sam!" He immediately wrapped his arms around me. I let myself lean into the hug. I breathed in his scent. I did miss him.

"Come on, let's get to Carly's." The eagerness in his voice set off my jealousy, but I bit my tongue. I wasn't sure that could go another week without him. The fights were beginning to really get to me. He grabbed my hand and held it hand the whole time, which I hoped was his way of letting me know that he missed me. He caught me looking and smiled at me. I smiled back when normally I would have looked away.

He squeezed my hand tighter as we entered the party in Carly's apartment. Some of Freddie's friends from school were here. I felt immediate butterflies because to be honest, they didn't like me, actually they despised me. They wouldn't spit on me if I was on fire. I was the girl they couldn't stand, even before I stole away their favorite tech geek. They worried about the influence I had on Freddie. According to them, I distracted him from everything, even school which he did so well in before me, he ditched them for me, and I just made him crazy. One of his former friends approached him with a pissed off look on his face.

"Hey Benson."

"Hey Nick," Freddie said, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

"Where have you been? You haven't been to AV club in like...months."

"I work a lot, and then I have schoolwork and I just don't have much free time anymore."

"Yeah I wonder why..." Nick said and stared me down. At the suggestion it was my fault, I glared at Nick, took Freddie's hand and dragged him away. He staggered and waved goodbye.

"Sam!" He objected. "I was talking to someone." I didn't want to admit that Nick's words had stung me. So I came up with an excuse.

"I wanted us to be alone." I whispered. I kissed him full on, which took him by surprise. Even so, he wrapped his arms tightly around me. I smiled inside.

"Sam! Freddie!" Freddie immediately pulled away from me to give Carly a hug. She smiled that infectious little laugh of hers.

"I never see you guys anymore." She complained sadly. "Hey Freddie, while you're here can you take a look at my computer? It's been doing some really weird stuff lately"

"Sure thing Car." He left me standing there. Left me to go help Carly. God,this was not what I needed right now. I couldn't follow them like a little puppy, but it was so hard to watch them climb the stairs together, laughing about something that I couldn't quite hear. I could feel my jealousy bubbling up again, but I couldn't let on that I didn't trust him after we'd just worked things out. So I just left. I walked home alone in the dark, and I laid around for 3 hours before Freddie finally showed up. He'd never taken that long before. He knocked lightly before letting himself into my room.

"Sam, why did you leave?"

"Because you went to go help Carly."

"You could have came with us Sam, no one was excluding you."

"Oh, but you miss having alone time with Carly, who was I to stand in your way?" He sat down next to where I was laying on my bed and played with my hair. I sat up and put my head on his chest.

"You smell like beer." I said curiously.

"Yeah, I had a few before I left." He answered

"So you had a good time without me?" I stood up. "How long did it take you to notice I left? Or were to too distracted by Carly's computer issues?"

"Sam, it's not like that. I haven't seen Carly or any of my friends for such a long time. I just wanted to have a good time!"

"You didn't have a good time when I was there then, Freddie? Jesus, what took you three fucking hours to notice I was gone?"

"Why can't you just trust me?" He screamed. "What's wrong with you? What did I do to make you not trust me? I never lied to you once, Sam. What is your problem?"

"I don't know!" I screamed. I couldn't hold back tears anymore, I let myself cry and sat back down, He pulled me into him. I got his shirt wet. He held me tighter.

"I want to try harder." I said

"Okay." he whispered. "It's alright."

He fell asleep before I did. I laid my head on his chest and listened to his steady breathing.

"I'll try a lot harder." I promised my sleeping boyfriend. "I'll do the best that I can."