Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I've had a combination of writer's block and not having time to write, what with school and some other stuff.
I hope you like this chapter, it's not one of my favorites, but I don't think it's half bad :) Please, please review. They make me happy, which I could use right now. And, they remind me that people want more, and make me write more/faster. So it's in your best interest to review.
Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, do you think that I would have to write fanfics? I would just make the episodes. But alas, I do not, so here I am :)
Freddie's POV
They were all staring at me as if I'd walked in with a basket of fruit on my head "What's wrong?" I asked Sam.
"Dude, what happened?" she said after a moment.
"We had a fight, obviously." I shrugged. It wasn't a big deal anymore.
"No chiz you had a fight!" Sam half shouted, staring at me. "Why?"
"Because, she treats me like I'm five years old, and I'm sick of it." Again, I shrugged.
This time Carly spoke up. "But…you've always been sick of it. Why are you suddenly freaking out about it?"
"Carly, it's been a long time coming."
"So, are you moving out again?" Sam asked.
I shook my head. "No, of course not, I think we all remember how that turned out." We all grimaced as we remembered that brief time when I moved out. "I'm still gonna live there, but judging by what she said, it'll be like she's not even there." They were still staring at me, but I tried to ignore it and grabbed a plate. "You mind if I take a…whatever this is?" I asked Spencer.
Directly speaking to him seemed to make him unfreeze. "Oh, uh, yeah go ahead. And it's a wafflewich, by the way."
"Wafflewich?" I questioned.
"It's a word!" he shouted.
I turned and went to sit on the couch, ignoring how Sam and Carly were still staring at me. Sam came and sat down by me, surprisingly without food. "Are you okay?" she asked softly
"I think so." I told her. "But I really don't wanna talk about it right now."
"Ok." She was still looking at me, and I could tell she was worried. Sh reached out hesitantly, and I figured she was going for my wafflewich. To my surprise, her hand touched the back of mine, and she wrapped her hand around mine, her palm on the back of my hand. "If you do want to talk," she squeezed my hand "I'm here." She said this slowly and hesitantly, as if not sure she should.
I smiled at her. "Thanks. Wafflewich?" I offered, holding the plate out with my opposite hand.
"That's okay, Carly will bring me one." She turned her head toward the kitchen "Right, Carly?"
"Sure." She came around the counter holding two plates. She handed one to Sam and sat next to her. We sat in silence, eating our wafflewiches, I with my left hand, Sam with her right, as we were still holding hands. We all finished, and still we sat, in silence.
Finally, I got tired of the tangible awkwardness that hung in the air, and said "Guys, can we please just get over this? It's no big deal, honestly."
"Freddie," Carly said after a moment. "I think it is. I've never heard you guys fight like that. What started it."
"Carly, I really don't want to talk about it."
"Freddie-" she started, but Sam cut her off.
"He doesn't want to talk about it! Leave it alone." She snapped, giving Carly a look. She surprised me. I never expected her to stand up for me like that, even now.
"Sorry." Carly said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. She seemed to like Sam defending me.
"It's fine." I said.
Again, there was a silence between the three of us. I hated the thought of the awkwardness I was causing, so I asked if they wanted to go to the Groovy smoothie. They both nodded. At this point Spencer came out of the kitchen, where he had been washing dishes. "Hey Carly, I could use your help with a sculpture. You mind staying?"
"Umm, I guess not." She replied, looking at me and Sam.
"We could stay too." I offered.
"Nah, that's okay. I just need one person. You two go."
I looked at Carly and shrugged. She smiled. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up with you in a bit.
"Alright." I said, standing up. When I did, Sam's hand fell off mine, she quickly jumped up and grabbed my hand again, intertwining her fingers with mine. I smiled, and so did she. We walked to the elevator, and I tried to ignore the looks Carly and Spencer were giving us. "Later." I called just as the doors closed.
After two minutes of actual comfortable silence, we reached the lobby, where Lewbert glared at us. "Get out of my lobby!" he screamed as we left.
Outside, I broke our silence. "Thanks."
"For what?"
I smiled. " For sticking up for me. And for what you said. It was…sweet." I squeezed her hand.
"Yeah, well. I figured a dork like you would need defending." She replied, grinning. She started to swing our arms.
"At least I know I have a bloodthirsty blonde fighting my battles." I teased.
"You know, a lot of people would call this strange, or dysfunctional."
"And? It's more fun that way." I grinned.
"You got that right." We continued to walk, our arms swinging back and forth, laughing about random things.
"Hey," she said a few minutes from the groovy smoothie. "I hope you know you're paying."
"Yeah, I know. I always pay." I thought about. I really did always pay.
"Just sayin'."
The bell chimed as we walked in, and T-bo greeted us with a simple, but strange "Burger?" in his hand was a stick with about a dozen burgers speared on it.
I glanced at Sam "Burger?"
"Nah."
"No thanks." I said to T-bo.
"What, you got somethin' against burgers?" he questioned, apparently offended.
"No, we just don't want-"
"Well you know what? Burger's don't want you neither! Hmph!" he walked away, leaving us standing there, confused as always by his behavior.
"I'll go get smoothies." I said as we walked to a table in the middle of the small shop.
I walked up to the counter, and T-bo grinned. "What can I get'cha?"
"Uhh, two strawberry splats, please." I knew that was Sam's favorite.
"Alrighty, that'll be right up."
Sam's POV
Freddie went off to get smoothies while I sat down and started tearing up a napkin. I was worried about him. I kept thinking about what his mother head said, that he was making a mistake with me. I wondered if she was right. Were we being stupid, trying to do this? We fought so much, would this work?
Freddie interrupted my thoughts when he sat down and slid a smoothie over to me. "Strawberry splat." He said, grinning. "I know it's your favorite."
I smiled and took it, still deep in thought. We sipped in silence, but it was fine. It wasn't awkward like it had been in Carly's apartment. This was…comfortable.
"She told me to break up with you." Freddie said suddenly, staring down at the ripped napkin on the table.
"What?"
My mom. We were sitting on the couch, watching a video about how to tick-proof yourself," he rolled his eyes. "And she asked me how it was at Carly's when we watched the ball drop, so I told her the truth. I told her it was great, and that you and I are…together. She freaked out, and started calling you all these names. I told her to stop, that underneath the demonness" he grinned at me. "You were an awesome person. Still, she told me that tomorrow I was to go over there and break up with you."
"How did she know I'd be there?" I asked, wanting him to finish before I started getting upset.
"I asked the same thing. She said that you were such a freeloader that that's where you always are." He answered apologetically. "So I got up because I was pretty mad, and she told me sit back down and watch the movie. I didn't. I was just like, staring at her, because I couldn't believe what she said. She said that I had better sit down because this is her bonding time with me, and that's it's new year's day we shouldn't be fighting, we should be crocheting."
"Crocheting?"
"Like knitting, but with one needle."
"Ohh, continue."
"I told her I didn't want to, so I went to leave. She was yelling after me, something about don't go, and all that. After…well you saw what happened."
"So, this whole thing between you and your mom is because of me?" I felt bad.
"Don't say it like that." He said after a moment. "I guess you're a part of it, but really, her babying me and everything is a lot of it."
"But if it weren't for me, none of that would have happened." I said.
"Sam," he said softly, grabbing my hand. "I'm glad it did. I've been sick of how she treated me for a long time. If it weren't for you, I'd be at home, watching a movie on de-ticking someone. Thank you."
I still felt bad. "But-"
"But nothing. It's good that she's finally going to back off. I'm happy."
"On another note," he said, changing the subject "You know what we should have watched last night?"
"What?"
"Celebrities underwater. They had Bob Sagget on."
"And we missed it?" I slapped him on the arm. "You should have told me!"
We finished our smoothies a few minutes later, but waited before leaving. We weren't sure whether Carly was going to show up or not. After 5 minutes we decided, we might see her on the way back and headed back to Carly's, holding hands and swinging our arms.
"I wonder what the sculpture is." I said after a moment.
"I don't know. What kind of sculpture needs two people, but no more?" he wondered aloud, glancing at me.
"I have no idea."
We arrived at Bushwell plaza, and headed inside. Again, Lewbert yelled at us to leave.
"Oh shut up and go wax your wart!" I shouted at him, and Freddie laughed.
We opened the door to Carly's apartment, without knocking, of course, and were confused by what we saw. Both Carly and Spencer were sitting on the couch, watching a movie. There was no sculpture in sight, and neither one looked liked they'd moved much in the hour we'd been gone.
"Hey guys." I said, and they glanced over.
They greeted us with a dull "Hey."
"What happened to working on a sculpture?" Freddie asked
"Oh. That. We decided not to. We didn't feel like it." She said sadly.
"Ok, what's wrong with you guys?" I asked loudly, letting go of Freddie's hand and going to stand in front of the TV. We left you guys were all uncomfortable. Now, you seem miserable and depressed. What happened."
"You."
"What?"
"You and Freddie. You're happy. Spencer, and me we're not gonna be happy. He's 29, and hasn't found anyone, and everyday his chances are going down. Every guy I date we break up within a week. We're both gonna die alone, but for each other." She said sadly.
I looked at Freddie, and he looked back, bewildered.
"Uhh, Carly? May I remind you that you're sixteen?" I sat down next to her. "You don't have to find love now. And Spencer…" I looked at Freddie for help.
"Uhh, you'll… you'll find that girl. You'll be fine." I looked at him in disbelief. That's all he could come up with? He shrugged. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Carly.
"What about Adam?" I asked.
"Please, after he got attacked by those super fans at Webicon? He's never even going to speak to me again."
"Hand me your phone." I ordered.
"Why?"
"Just do it." She handed it to me, and I stood up, scrolling through names. I found the one I wanted, and hit dial.
I walked toward the kitchen, phone to my ear.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Adam, it's Sam, calling on behalf of Carly."
"Sam!" Carly whisper-shouted.
"Shh."
"Umm, hi? What do you want?"
"I was wondering if you'd want to go on a double date. You and Carly, me and Freddie."
"Sam, don't just volunteer me-"Freddie started, but I shushed him.
"Freddie? I thought he and Carly-"
"No."
"But the fans-"
"Yeah, disregard anything anyone says about, Creddie. Seriously. So will you do it?"
"I don't know, I really don't want to get attacked again…"
"You won't," I promised
"Still…"
"I'll take that as a yes. We'll see you tomorrow night at Carly's apartment. 6:30. Bye."
I hung up and turned around to face Carly. "So much for no love." I smiled.
"Sam," she started, standing up and stalking toward me. "I am going to kill you."
"If you really want to, do it after tomorrow night. You'll see."
"You didn't let me finish. I am going to kill you when we get home tomorrow. For now, though," she took another step toward me "We have to figure out what we're going to wear!" she shrieked, grabbing my arm and dragging me upstairs. I shot a pleading look at Freddie, who shook his head and grinned. I was going to get him for not helping me.
In the mean time, what did I get myself into?
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