Author's Note: I'm pretty sure you're all tired of hearing my excuses for not updating so often, so I'll just go on with what's important XD

Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. I'd be sitting in my office in LA, writing a beautiful show called iSeddie.

Chapter 8

Sam watched as the mysterious dark figure approached her calmly, but she couldn't tell who it was at first because of the lack of light of the surroundings. But when the figure was about five steps away from her, the person's face finally became visible, and she recognized who it was immediately.

Spencer.

She briefly wondered what he was doing there, and how he had found her. He couldn't have followed her, right? She would definitely have noticed it.

"Hey Sam" Spencer greeted her as he sat down right next to her, resting his back against the brick wall just like she had done earlier.

"Hey Spence" Sam greeted him back, eyeing him curiously. "What are you doing here?" She asked, and Spencer shrugged lightly in response.

"Well, I'm currently sitting on the top of Bushwell Plaza, talking to you" Spencer said jokingly, and Sam couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at him.

"You know what I meant! Why did you come here?" She rephrased her question, sounding annoyed. She didn't mean to be rude at all; she just wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Oh, well, to talk to you about something" He said, and Sam simply raised her eyebrows in response, giving him a questioning look.

"About what?" Sam asked, suddenly curious. She had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but she knew it was probably something pretty important, since it had been enough to make Spencer walk all the way up there just to talk to her.

"I kind of... overheard your conversation with Carly" He said hesitantly, and it all suddenly made sense to Sam.

"But... How did you know I was here?" She still couldn't understand how he had found her.

"Well, I heard you leaving, so I tried to catch up with you, but when I got to the lobby I didn't see you anywhere, so I asked Lewbert if he had seen you, and he yelled 'NO! GET OUT OF MY LOBBY! I HATE PEOPLE!', so if he was telling the truth, I assumed you were still in the building. So I tried to imagine where you could have gone, and I remembered that time when you and Carly were talking about this place once when I was working on that gigantic hamster made of ice cream, so I decided to give it a shot. And when I saw that the door that led to those stairs over there was unlocked, I knew I was right" Spencer explained, and Sam nodded in response, but she didn't say anything.

"So... What's up with you kiddo?" Spencer asked after a brief moment of silence.

"It's nothing Spencer, really" Sam lied.

"Well, then you and Carly argued like that for nothing?" Spencer asked, and Sam suddenly looked down, avoiding his gaze. "C'mon Sam, you can tell me what's wrong" He added calmly.

Sam didn't know if she should. But... What did she have to lose? The idea of telling someone about what was going through her mind, just opening up, was suddenly extremely appealing for the first time in her life. Maybe Spencer could help her with all that confusion she was feeling inside, and maybe he could give her some advice about what she should do.

But on the other hand, she didn't feel comfortable about telling anyone about what had happened that night. She had never been good at expressing her feelings and opening up to other people, even to Carly, but maybe this time she could give it a shot.

She finally came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, she'd feel better if she told Spencer about it. She sure couldn't tell Carly; the girl would totally freak out over it and try to play the matchmaker, and Sam seriously wasn't in the mood to put up with that. And also, that just wouldn't help at all.

She sighed, giving in.

"Alright, alright. It's just that... Well, there's this boy-" Sam started, thinking that maybe she could avoid telling Spencer who she was talking about, but he quickly cut her off.

"And by 'this boy', I assume you mean Freddie" Spencer said, smiling, and Sam shot him a death glare "Sorry" He muttered.

"Anyway, he... he... well, tonight..." She knew there was no other way to say it, so she took a deep breath and blurted it all out at once.

"Tonight, after that stupid girl's choice dance, I went to the Groovy Smoothie, and Freddie was just sitting in there all alone, so I joined him and we started talking about how the night was horrible to both of us. And then he had the idea of trying to make this night at least a little bit better, and we slow danced in the middle of the desert Groovy Smoothie. And when the song was over, he kissed me, so I ran out of there and to Bushwell, but then Freddie showed up and said that he needed to talk to me, but I had asked Carly to tell him I wasn't there. But then later I went to talk to him, and he told me that he loves me, and now I have no idea what to do!" When Sam was done, she waited for an answer, but Spencer didn't say anything at first.

"What did you tell him when he said that he loved you?" Spencer asked suddenly.

"I said that I... That I didn't know if I could say it back... at least not yet" She hesitated before adding the last part, but then decided to do it, because that could change the meaning of the whole sentence.

"So basically, you're confused about your feelings for him?" Spencer asked.

"Well... yeah" Sam said, still trying to avoid his gaze, and sighed, finally letting herself admit that she didn't know how she really felt about Freddie.

"Well, first of all, do you really hate him like you've always claimed to?" Spencer asked, and she shook her head in response.

"Actually... I've never actually hated him" Sam admitted. "And I guess that we're actually pretty close friends now" She said, causing Spencer to smile a bit, and then went on "But... I don't know if we could be more than friends"

"Why not?" Spencer asked, and Sam simply shook her head, shrugging lightly as she tried to put her thoughts into words, but that was a lot harder than it seemed.

"I don't know, it's just... What if it doesn't work? I mean, we're complete opposites, it probably won't work out well. And if things go wrong, it will ruin our friendship forever"

"How can you know that it won't work if you never try?" This time Sam didn't respond, she simply shook her head and sighed loudly."Listen, Sam." Spencer went on when he realized Sam wouldn't say anything. "I'm not going to tell you what you should do, because no one should do that. This is a decision you need to make on your own, but I can tell you something" He made a short pause "Think everything through before making a decision, because if you regret your decision later... Maybe you won't have a way to go back"

"I know that..." Sam said, finally looking up at him, and he smiled softly at her, trying to make her feel better.

"I know you'll do the right thing, Sam" He said, and then stood up from the floor and started walking away.

"I hope so" She muttered to herself, before calling after Spencer. "Hey, Spencer!" He quickly turned around at the sound of her voice. "Thank you" She said, giving him a small smile, and Spencer smiled back, before vanishing from sight as he climbed down the metal staircase he had come from just a few minutes ago.

Sam sighed once again, closing her eyes shut tightly.

She thought about everything that had happened that night. She was feeling so confused inside that it made her want to scream in frustration at the top of her lungs. But that wouldn't help much, would it?

She shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside, and kept replaying the conversation she had had with Freddie inside her head. Did she feel something for Freddie? Could they really be more than friends? Those were the two questions that had been haunting her nonstop, and she craved the answer to those two so badly it hurt.

She knew she didn't hate Freddie. She never had. And also, she truly cared about him, even though she had never actually said it out loud and always tried to make it seem like she didn't.

She suddenly thought back about all the times Freddie had claimed that he loved Carly, and she remembered how it annoyed her to no end, but she never really understood why.

She couldn't be… jealous, could she? No, no, there was no way she could be jealous of Freddie.

Or… was there?

If it wasn't jealousy, then what the hell was that feeling she had in the pit of her stomach every time she imagined Carly and Freddie together? She honestly felt like she was going to puke up blood, and she just felt like they weren't right for each other. But also, for some reason, it made her angry. And that didn't only happen with Carly, but at the thought of Freddie with any other girl. She just couldn't imagine Freddie with anyone else other than-

She froze. Had she been about to think that she could only imagine Freddie with herself? No, no, no, that just didn't sound right… well, actually… it kind of did.

But why would she be jealous of Freddie anyway? Did she… like him?

Well, if she did, then many things would finally make sense. Like why whenever he was around, she felt happier than usual, and why every time he smiled she felt the urge to smile back, even when she was sad or angry, and every time he laughed that cute dorky laugh of his, she could swear her heart skipped a beat. Even when she was in her worst days, she seemed to practically forget about her problems when he was around. And every time she noticed there was something wrong with him, she felt worried until she knew what it was, and all the time he was depressed, she felt bad for some reason, even if she wasn't the one who had caused it. And whenever he traveled, she had a weird feeling that just didn't seem to go way, like there was something missing.

And whenever their eyes met, she felt as if he could see right through her. His eyes were of such a beautiful chocolate brown color she had caught herself lost in them several times. Also, whenever their skin touched, she felt like she had touched an electric cord, and a small electric current was sent through her. But it was nothing compared to the two times they kissed. She felt as if a bolt of a thousand watts had been sent through her body, and she felt as if her stomach was filled with butterflies that were trying to escape. It was like fireworks were exploding inside her head and nothing else in the world mattered, only the two of them. It was the best feeling in the world.

Oh my god… Sam thought, finally coming to a realization.

How could she have never realized the truth that had been right in front of her eyes during all these years? Well, the truth had always been there, she had just avoided actually thinking about it, so she had never been able to realize the truth. She was just too stubborn to let herself even consider it, simply never even letting the thought of it cross her mind.

But how could she, Sam Puckett, the girl who's always beating nerds up, who's always in trouble with teachers, who's always pulling pranks on whoever crosses her path, have developed feelings for Freddie Benson? The boy who always has the best grades at school, never gets in trouble and has an overprotective mother that's always trying to protect him from everything but oxygen.

And most importantly, how could Freddie have fallen for her? She tried to make his life miserable whenever she got the chance, turning his life into a living hell. How could anyone fall for someone like that?

But apparently, none of that mattered, because now, they both felt something for each other. But could they really work as a couple? Could they be more than friends? What she feared the most was that if they didn't work out, it would be too awkward for them to go back to being friends again. And that would end up harming not only their own friendship, but their friendship with Carly as well.

But on the other hand, just like Spencer had said, they wouldn't know if they could actually work as a couple or not if they didn't give it a shot. And also, how could Sam pretend nothing had happened now that she knew Freddie loved her and also knowing that she felt something for him in return? After a few minutes of just sitting there, thinking things through about a hundred times, she finally knew what she had to do, so she got up from the floor and ran towards the metal staircase several steps away from her.

She knew she wasn't ready to tell Freddie that she loved him back, mainly because she wasn't a hundred percent sure about how she really felt about him, but she knew that she had feelings for him, and she willing to give this all a chance. There was no other way to know if they could really work out.

She reached the eighth floor quicker than she thought she would, and when she realized it, she was already standing right outside in the fire escape, but she was disappointed when she realized that Freddie was nowhere in sight. She sighed, thinking that he had probably gone home, until something caught her eye. His jacket was still there, lying on the metal staircase that led to the fire escape of the floor above. He had probably forgotten it. Sam wondered if she should go over to his apartment to give it to him, which would give her the chance to tell him what she had gone there to tell in the first place, but for some reason, that thought made her pretty nervous.

She stood there for a moment, thinking about what she should do, until she finally told herself to man up and picked up his jacket, before turning around and exiting the fire escape. But as she made her way down the hall, she suddenly spotted Freddie coming into view right around the corner, looking down at the floor as he made his way back to the fire escape, probably to retrieve his jacket.

Sam paused and watched him as he walked towards her, but he hadn't spotted her yet, and he didn't realize she was there until he was only a few steps away from her. He looked up abruptly, and when their eyes met, he froze, clearly surprised to see her standing there in the middle of the hallway, holding his jacket.

Sam's heart was racing inside her chest as she tried to make herself calm down so she could say something, but she felt as if she had suddenly lost the ability to speak.

Author's Note: I'm not very pleased with the way this chapter turned out... It just seemed a lot better in my head XD

But my opinion is not the one that really matters here, so why don't you tell me yours by pressing that pretty little button down there and leaving me a review? ;D

Thank you so much for reading! =)

xxiCarlyFanxx