Thanks for the reviews, favorites and follows. I really appreciate hearing from you guys! Here's the conculsion to the story. Don't worry, I have another short story almost ready to go.
Normal POV
The next morning, as Sam slept in like she usually did, Cat was on the phone. Her first call was to her Nona. After begging and pleading, the older lady said she would loan Cat some of her bingo money. The next call was to Dice who came up with two hundred dollars and agreed to talk to a man he knew at the airline. She called her parents, but they were only able to send her fifty and wished her good luck.
Against her better judgement, she called Melanie and carefully explained the situation to her, conveniently leaving out the part that Mel's twin didn't trust her around her boyfriend. Melanie agreed to send what money she could, but she was also struck with the idea of making a trip to Boston herself, supposedly so she could see Carly, something Cat tried very hard to talk her out of.
Finally, as much as she didn't want to, Cat called Freddie. He saw her number on his caller ID and shuddered at the thought of what she might want. Sure, he thought of Cat as a naive and innocent girl, his girlfriend's room mate and all, but he also thought she was a little unhinged and there was no telling what she might be asking him for. That was a certainty, she didn't call him unless she wanted something. Never.
"Hey, Cat. How's it going?" Freddie answered with a wince.
"Hey, Freddie. How'd you know it was me? Are you psychic? I know you're, like, super smart and all but . . . "
"Um, your number came up on my phone. You know, it's called caller ID." He stated simply.
"Oh." Cat didn't seem to understand. "Well, do you know why I'm calling?"
"No. But if you're going to come up with a story Sam being run over by a taco truck or a mini van or something, I'm hanging up now."
Cat gasped. "I'd never say that. Anyway, I was just wondering if you talked to Carly lately."
"No, but she sent me an email last night with a ton of pictures. She says she's going to be visiting Boston for Christmas. Man, I really wish Sam could be here. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I know she would kill me for telling you this, so please promise you won't tell, but Sam misses you like crazy and she would really like to come see you for Christmas. And she found out about Carly and she's really bummed."
"I know, Cat. I miss her too. But Sam and I were over this. We're just going to wait until spring break to see each other. It's gonna be difficult, but we'll get through it."
"Yeah, but not only does she miss you, but she won't get to see Carly now." Cat conveniently left out the part about Sam being afraid Carly would make a move on him.
"What do you want me to do? It's not like I can move Christmas."
"I've scraped and begged and I have almost enough money to get her a ticket, all but about a hundred dollars. Could you maybe lend us the money? I want to surprise her with an early Christmas gift."
"That's really thoughtful, Cat, but are you sure this is gonna be alright with Sam. You know she really doesn't like surprises or charity. I don't want to make her mad. There's no use in getting her a ticket if she's just gonna come here and give me a huge wedgie or something."
"She'll be fine. Now quit arguing and send me the money so I can get her a ticket." Cat demanded. "I have to do by tomorrow morning if I'm going to get her there for Christmas."
Happy with the prospect of seeing Sam, Freddie wired Cat the money within the hour and the little redhead and Dice set about to booking their friend a ticket to Boston three days in the future.
"Saaa-aammm!" Cat sang as she came skipping into the apartment late the next morning, just as Sam was dragging herself to the kitchen for her breakfast. Cat had already been up for hours and been out of the apartment. She was chipper as usual.
"Oh, hey, Kiddo." Sam replied with a groan and poured a cup of coffee. "Gaak! This coffee's all cold." The blonde spit the liquid into the sink and rinsed out her cup.
Before Cat could tell her room mate about the surprise, Dice burst through the door with news about Sam's flight.
As Cat and Dice conferred secretly, Sam checked her email. First, was one from Carly telling am how she would miss seeing her, but she was sure her and Freddie would have a good time together. "Psh, I'm sure you'll try." Sam grumbled to herself. "You better not have too much fun."
"What's that?" Cat called, thinking Sam was talking to her.
"Nothing, just an email. Go ahead and get fuzz-top fixed up." Sam was clearly depressed and continued reading and slurping up the milk and cereal she had poured.
A few minutes later, Sam read a message from her sister. "Oh, chiz! Chiz! Chiz! And did I mention Chiz!" Sam banged her head off the keyboard.
Cat and Dice walked over to where Sam was sitting at her computer. "What's wrong, Sam?" Dice asked and tried to look over her shoulder. "Did your mom get arrested again or something?"
Sam left out a sigh. "Well, if you must know, not only is my best friend going to visit my boyfriend for Christmas, but now my boy-crazy sister is, too. Son of a . . . "
"What?" Cat exclaimed. "Melanie's going to see Freddie, too. I told her not to do that." Cat clamped a hand over her mouth and cut herself off before she spilled any more beans.
Sam just glared at Cat. "What - did - you - say?" She gritted her teeth.
"Well, I guess you and Freddie won't have much time to yourselves." Dice smiled as Cat motioned for him to stop talking. He obviously knew something Sam didn't.
"Wait a minute, you two are up to something. What's going on?" Sam whipped around and grabbed each of them by an arm.
Neither said a word for a moment, but Sam's tightening grip and death glare soon loosened Cat's lips.
"It was supposed to be a surprise, but I got you a ticket to Boston." Cat said, sheepishly, wincing away from Sam's gaze.
Sam left out a very un-Sam like squeak and threw her arms around the red haired girl.
"Hey, I helped, too." Dice pouted, disappointed to not be hugging the girls, one of his favorite past times, hugging older, busty girls.
"C'mere, kid!" Sam invited him for a group hug. "Man, I can't believe you two, you guys are the best buds ever!"
"Now, the ticket is ultra super saver coach fair, so you might have to sit over a wing or against the bathroom wall or something. I really had to call in a favor with a guy I know that works at the airport." Dice explained. "And you don't fly out 'till the 24th, so you'll just barely get there in time for Christmas."
"Ah, hell, kid. I don't care if I have to ride in the bathroom or even in the cargo hold in a cage like a German Shepherd, as long as I get to Boston." Sam smirked and hugged them both again. "Dice, can you maybe make sure Cat doesn't get into any trouble while I'm gone?"
"I'll unplug the appliances." He replied quietly.
The morning of Christmas eve, Sam was standing in a long line waiting to get through security at the airport, talking to Freddie on her phone.
"Now don't forget to pick me up at nine-thirty." She reminded him. "We'll get back to your place late, but I'm sure neither of us will get much sleep anyway."
"There's no way I'd ever forget to pick up my Princess Puckett. Besides, Carly and Mels are driving me insane, I can't wait to get out of this place. Maybe we should look into a hotel room or something while they're here."
"So I take it you're not feeling like Hugh Hefner with two cute, flirty girls giggling around your apartment. I figured you'd be eating this up. I can't imagine too many of those other nerds at MIT can even get one hot girl, let alone two in their apartment. Before long you'll have three." She smirked.
"Psh! I'm ready to slip them roofies just to get them to shut up and take it down a notch. I've never been around so much giggling and girly-ness in my life. I swear I can feel my testosterone level actually going down by the hour."
"They'll settle down once I get there or I'll knock 'em out with the butter sock." Sam cracked. "So I guess you finally realize I really do have a twin sister."
"Yes. And after spending time under the same roof as her, all I can say is you should be nominated for sainthood, growing up with her and Pam. You know what they did last night? They spent five and a half hours painting each others nails! Five and a half whole hours! Gheesh, every nail on their bodies is painted. Some of them twice. Heck, I was afraid to go to sleep in case I'd wake up with candy-cane stripes on mine."
Sam snickered at the thoughts of her boyfriend with painted nails. "Aw, you'd look so adorable."
"And they're doing make-overs right now." He informed Sam. "But that's not the worst part. They've been doing it all day, they even got up early just for that."
"Yeah, sounds pretty much normal. Man, I'm glad Carly wasn't around for Prom. She'd have needed at least two days prep time. I guess she'd have driven us both crazy."
"You know what's not normal? They tweezed me, Sam." He said with a frown. "Melanie held me down, and by the way she's just as strong as you are, then Carly plucked my eyebrows. It was like some kind of foreign tweezer torture."
Sam began laughing out loud as other passengers looked at her funny.
"All I'm saying is forget the water-boarding, all the CIA would have to do to those terrorists is start ripping out their eyebrows one hair at a time with little, chrome pincers and believe me, they'd talk."
Sam kept laughing.
"That's not even the worst part. Then they insisted on exfoliating me. It felt like they were sanding my face off. I'll say this, I'm nice and smooth now. But I'm glad you think this is entertaining."
Sam was now doubled over laughing at him all the harder. "I guess I'd better hang up soon before I pee my pants from laughing. These people are starting to look at me like I'm crazy, too."
"Alright, baby. I'll see you in a few hours. Have a safe flight."
"Alright, try not to let them dye your hair before I get there. See you soon, Fredcakes. Love you."
"Love you too, Princess."
Right on time, Sam's plane landed and before Freddie knew what hit him, he was being crushed by a blonde with her arms and legs wrapped around him like an anaconda. After a two-minute long kiss, Sam pulled back and took a good look at him.
"Say, you look good with the makeover, there Fredstud. Groomed eyebrows suit you." She rubbed her hands over his forehead and nose. And you're as smooth as a newborn dolphin.
"Give it a rest, Sam." He leaned in to kiss her again. "I hope I never have to endure anything like that again. Ever!"
"I'm serious, you look good. But I need to ask, how far south did they go with the man-scaping? You didn't let them attack you down there did you?" Sam made a motion toward his lower body with her eyes.
"Like I could have stopped them if they tried. But, no, everything south of the border is still very much intact." Freddie frowned.
"Good, cause mama needs some attention and I don't need you starting off sore." Sam smirked.
The three girls and Freddie spent a nice Christmas holiday together. Fortunately, Carly and Melanie took advantage of the opportunity to go shopping as often as possible, leaving Sam and Freddie all to themselves frequently enough to get all their pent up feelings out of the way. They kept their PDA under control when the others were around but when they were alone it was literally a free for all.
Before long, it was time for the girls to head back to their own lives. Melanie left first, she had been invited to a New Year's party in New York by one of her friends from school that she insisted she couldn't miss. Because she was traveling back to Europe, Carly's return flight was scheduled for the day before Sam had to leave. This gave the couple one more night and his apartment all to themselves with no one to stop them from doing whatever they wanted.
There was, of course, time for pillow talk in the aftermath. "So I guess we're going to have to re-think the whole spring break thing, you know, since I'll be paying my friends back until the forth of July." Sam frowned, thinking that she wouldn't see Freddie again until school was out in May.
"Welll, I was sort of thinking and, you know we never did really work out the whole spring break plan thing. Maybe I could just come to L.A. for the week instead of going to Seattle and visit you this time." He suggested. "I know my mom will have a hissy, but I'd rather not have to spend the whole week sneaking off just to be alone. I think we can distract Cat long enough to have some time to ourselves at your place."
"Psh, yeah. I can always send her to the store to look for something totally weird, that usually keeps her busy for at least four hours. Hey, you know what, I think Cat said something about going to Cancun with Jade and Tori and them. If she goes, we'll have my place all to ourselves."
"Really? Now I know I'll have to come. I can't have you spending the whole week all by yourself."
"You said it. I'll stock up on frozen pizzas and a couple of cases of soda, we won't even have to leave the apartment."
"Or the bedroom." Freddie smirked.
Hope everyone enjoyed it.