iLove You

The final one (for now)

...

All Freddie did for days was sit. Sit and ponder about the decision his mother implanted into his brain. About him and Sam. He could still hear his mother's reasoning:

She's too fiesty for you

I don't want you to get hurt

You and Sam are opposites

At this point Freddie wanted to pull his hair out. He knew in his heart that his mother was just looking out for him, but what about Sam?

He asked himself a question outloud. "What about Sam?"

His light blue sheets began to ruffle again as he rolled over on his side. He was wearing the blue plaid shirt that he'd worn the night of the lock-in. The muscles in his face contracted as he gripped the sides of his temple with his thumb on one side and his ring finger on the other. Cringing at the pain it caused him. It made his week and a half long headache ten times worse. But the pain reminded him that this was all real. Just a week and a half ago he was in a happy, commited relationship with a girl he'd grown close and warmer to. Never in a million years would he have drawn the conclusion of him and Sam's relationship to this point, or any other point between now and that kiss during the lock-in for that matter. He remembered a conversation that he had with George the bra a while ago; implying the same question he'd asked himself before repositioning himself in this painful way. What about Sam?

...

(18 months ago...)

"And what about Sam?" The bra asked.

I replied back in a confused tone. "What about Sam?"

"Some people think you and Sam would be better together than you and Carly."

"Bra, I'd never date Sam Puckett, and she'd never date me."

"Never is a strong word…"

...

George was right, never is a strong word. Then again, Freddie vowed never to do a lot of things. In fact, he had a list of 5 things he'd never do.

Vandalize anything

Get lower than a B+ on any academic assignment

Move to Alaska

Make a girl cry

Date or have any romantic involvement with Sam Puckett

He laughed at the list as he caressed it inbetween his fingers. He'd vandalized things before (thanks to Sam), and got a B- in science (again, thanks to Sam). He'd done everything on that list he vowed to never do except one thing. A slight frown took over Freddie's figure as he sat up and removed his face. He wished that he moved to Alaska. Instead, he stared long and hard at number 4. Freddie was a gentleman. Making a girl cry was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He wasn't going to be one of those jerks who just uses girls and tosses them aside once another one catches his eye. No, he was the super heroic guy who would lend his shoulder to let those who were heartbroken cry on. He frowned more at the thought of Sam Puckett becoming one of those girls. Even more because of the fact that he was the guy who caused her to cry. Of course he didn't do this on purpose.

Sam never cried in front of Freddie, except that one time. And those 5 seconds of tears that he saw from Sam before she fled the sight broke his heart into millions of pieces. She wouldn't even let him comfort her, she just ran away like usual. He hated to admit that one of the things that he and Sam always had in common was that they kept running away from good things. Only this time the roles were reversed.

Freddie never admitted to Sam that his mother was the source of the break-up. She assumed he wanted out and never felt that way about her. That this whole time he was stringing her along and just waiting for the perfect moment to admit that he really didn't love her.

She was wrong.

...

(2 weeks before...)

"Am I just supposed to sit here until you two have an argument so I can settle it?" Carly sat at a table, alone, with lasagna as she tossed a glare towards her best friends, who were happily sitting across from one another on a date. They'd dragged Carly along be the referee in case there was a brawl amongst them. Carly didn't see it that way. She saw it as being a third wheel and a waste of a perfectly fine Friday night.

"Pretty much." Sam nodded.

Freddie mimicked her movements with a fork-full of lasagna in his left hand. "We'd really appreciate that." He replied in a cutesy way that only he could pull off. Carly just rolled her eyes and went back to her dinner.

"Oh..." Sam moaned with a mouthful of the most orgasmic lasagna on the face of this planet. "We'reare defen...com...ba- here." Trying to identify what she was saying would be Morse code for most.

"Oh, we are definitely coming back here again." Then again, Freddie wasn't most people. And they weren't most couples.

"You know, the foot action underneath the table is almost as good as this lasagna." Sam threw a wink at Freddie. His response consisted of the same gesture accompanied by some kind of animal noise.

"Hey, keep it PG over there, you guys!" Carly scolded the couple with a motherly pointing finger that aimed to the bottom of the table cloth. They both looked her way and exchanges chaste glares between one another before letting out a laugh.

"Oh, relax, Carls. Mommy dearest of his wouldn't appreciate me bringing her little Fredwardkins home looking like he got attacked with a gigantic vacuum cleaner."

Freddie raised his eyebrows. "Gigantic vacuum?" Sam stuffed a heaping load of lasagna trickled with sauce into her mouth.

"Shove it." She said without a trouble. It's as if the lasagna didn't faze her speaking. A big glob of sauce stained her cheek. Rolling up the sleeve of his blue dress shirt, Freddie retrieved the napkin from his lap, licked it and wiped the stain off.

"Ew!" Sam exclaimed after gulping the heap down. "Benson cooties on my cheek!" She rubbed his saliva off as they both finished their last bite of lasagna.

He replied with a teasing tone. "Oh, will you chill you chiz, Puckett? Not like you never had it on your face before."

"Eh, buy me a dessert and we'll be even."

Nodding and chuckling in an approving way, Freddie said "Deal."

...

Freddie kept on staring at the ceiling of his room. The vibration of his cell phone accompanied by his Galaxy Wars theme ringtone caused his waist to thrust forward and him to sit in an upward position on the phone. The caller i.d. was Carly.

"Hello?" He spoke into the phone as if he had just gotten up from a very long nap. Well, day dreaming wasn't too far off.

She sounded frantic on the other line. "Freddie! Do you have a couple hundred bucks?"

"Carls, you're starting to sound just like..- nevermind." He stopped himself before saying the name of his girlfriend. Ex girlfriend currently. "Yeah, it's my savings for the new video editing software I'm saving up for. Why?"

"Sam and her Uncle are in jail. Her Uncle called earlier and told me and Spencer to bail her out, but he's not home and I don't have the money." She spoke a million miles a minute. It was pretty hard for Freddie to keep up. Good thing he had practice listening to people who were usually hard to understand. The countless dates he went on with Sam where she'd shove food in her mouth then talk.

"Whoa, whoa." He made a gesture with his hand even though she couldn't see it. "Slow down, Shay. I'll be right there with the money, but..." He glanced towards his open bedroom door at the hallway portraits of him and his mother.

"I have some patches to sew up here first."

"Ok and do you want me to go with you to bail her out?"

"I think it's best that I go alone. I'd like to sort some stuff out with Sam."

Carly knew that he was going there alone to get Sam to be his girlfriend again. "Go get her tiger!" She cheered on the other line. Freddie hung up and jumped off his bed. He then went over to black box on his dresser, took a key out and opened it up.

He whimpered at the box. "Goodbye cutting room flow 4.0 money. Sorry, maybe next year. But I have to go bail my girlfriend out of jail." He locked the box back up; stuffing the key back into his pockets along with the $400 he got from the box and marched down the hallway of his apartment.

"Mom..." He called out. He soon found his mother windexing picture frames with yellow rubber gloves on in their dining room.

"Yes, dear?"

Freddie clenched his teeth. "We need to talk." She put the rag that she was using to clean the pictures with down on the wooden dining table.

"Is there something wrong?" He crossed his arms and stood tall.

"Tell me again, why did Sam and I break up?" Marissa's eyes went up and down for a second before she stuttered an answer out.

"B-because...you guys were too different." Freddie made a sharp buzzer-like sound instantaneously which caused his mother to jump a bit.

"Wrong answer mom. Not even close. I remember distinctly e had a conversation right in this very spot and you specifically said to me: Fredward, you are forbidden to see Samantha as a romantic partner anymore. You're too different. "His imitation of his mother was extremely exaggerated.

"I do not sound like that!" She defended.

"And Sam and I are not too different." He spat back. Marissa's face became redder by the minute. She couldn't believe the audacity that her son had at his moment. She normally would've scolded him, but telling by the look on his face he was going to stand his ground for however long it took to get his full point across. Something he inherited from her.

"Where's all this coming from?" She stood up and slowly began to approach her son, who quickly pointed his finger at her.

"You. Sam and I were just great, just wonderful. Until you found out, freaked out on us, and brainwashed me into believing Sam and I couldn't work out. How?" He was on the verge of angry tears. "How could you do that to me?" Freddie's voice grew exhausted and ended with a mixture of a growl and a hum.

"Well...Freddie, I don't want to see you hurt."

Freddie put his hands up and slapped them down by his thighs. "Well congrats mom. Not only did you hurt me, but you hurt Sam. We were in love, mom. IN LOVE. The mood face app told her that, and my heart told me. For cryin' out loud, mom, she kissed me first. If anyone's got the ball in their court, it's me. And I want us. Regardless of how this conversation comes to an end and whether you like it or not I am going to jail to bail her out and we will continue a romantic partnership."

Marissa's eyes became overflowed with tears. "You've really become a man. Haven't you? You're in love. And it's beautiful. I never thought in a million years I'd say this, but... Go! go bail Sam out of jail and win her back! Go before I realize what I just told you to do and change my mind." She took off the gloves and rubbed her forehead.

Freddie's grin took over his whole face as he sped towards the door and sprinted all the way to the police station.

...

His passion got him there faster than he even imagined. By the time it caught him, he was out of breath and straddling on his knees next to the door. A police officer had walked out and seen Freddie's condition.

"You ok, son?"

Freddie nodded exhaustedly. "Yeah, I just ran a couple miles to get here. My hearts racing and my legs feel like jello. No big deal." The police officer chuckled as he pulled a tomato out of his satchel and bit into it.

"Sounds like you're in love." He chuckled with tomato juice racing down his face. The police officer began walking away and got into his car.

"Yeah, no kidding." Freddie responded. Finally he was in condition to go inside and breathe normally again. There was a counter with a receptionist that had curly red hair and two police officers sitting near it.

"May I help you?" the receptionist spoke up. Freddie stuttered and held the back of his neck with his right hand, smoothing his hair in the process.

"Um, yeah. I'm looking for a Sam Puckett."

The receptionist nodded and typed a few words into the computer. "Ah, yes. Samantha Puckett, she's in cell #239. Name and relation to Miss. Puckett, please?"

"I'm Freddie Benson. I'm…well, I used to be her boyfriend."

The receptionist let out a chuckle. "You two? My kids watch iCarly and I never thought in a million years you two would even…."

"Yeah, it's a long story." He laughed back.

"Her bail is $450." Freddie's eyes became saucers as he patted his pockets. He only had 400.

"Excuse me, ma'am. I only have $400. Could I still?"

"It's against the legal state of law. I'm sorry, sonny."

He sighed deeply. "Well, can I at least go talk with her?"

"Officer McDuggar must accompany you."

Freddie glared. "Fine." He and the officer walked in through the stray hallway that led them to the cell where Sam and her Uncle were. They'd finally reached a cell with a blonde girl and a bald man with tattoos playing some sort of card game. The girl was sprawled out on a bench and the man sat on the ground.

"Got any 4's?" She asked him.

"Gold fish." He said.

Freddie read the cell number next to the lock: Cell 239

"I don't mean to intrude this little game, Miss Puckett, but you have a visitor." The officer took a seat on the bench a good distance across from the cell. Freddie stood there and leaned on the bars. His look met Sam's with an awkward wave. She coldly returned the gesture before turning back around to stare at her cards.

"I thought Carly was bailing me out."

He tapped the bars twice. "She was, but she didn't have the money and Spencer wasn't home. And I'm about $50 bucks short anyway, so…" He trailed off with a light laugh. Sam turned back around.

"Then you can leave. Not like I've never spent the night in jail anyway."

"Look, Sam, you and I need to talk…alone." She looked towards her Uncle Carmine.

"Excuse me, officer, can you accompany me to the restroom?" He asked. The officer nodded and opened the cell to let Freddie in and Uncle Carmine out.

"Lock it." Freddie demanded. The police officer, flabbergasted to say the least, turned the key to lock the two teens in the 12X12 cell. Sam resumed her sitting position as Freddie paced.

"Wow, I feel like I'm actually in jail." He gripped two of the bars with both of his hands then turned to Sam.

"Got a metal cup? I've always wanted to do that."

Sam's eyebrows rose as she spoke without taking her eyes off her cards. "That only happens in the movies, Benson." He turned around to stare at her.

Freddie so badly wanted to make conversation. "I heard you Uncle didn't pay for his gas and that's why you're in here."

Sam finally put her cards down and looked him in the eyes. "We both know that's not what you wanted to talk about." She looked back down again. To Sam, Freddie's eyes were like magnets. They pulled her in and once she was at a certain point, she couldn't stop. That's what got her into trouble. Usually Freddie would either throw a fit of leave after one of their scuffles, but the night of the lock-in was different. He didn't back away. He stood up to her. That's why she kissed him. That was her breaking point.

"I know…look, Sam. I came here to tell you….why we really broke up." She nodded.

"I'm listening."

"My mom gave me this talk one night. Told me you and I are completely, different, which, we are. But it scared me. It scares me that we could be so different that…we couldn't work. Once my mother implanted that in my head, she had forbidden me to date you again. I trusted her, believed her. But now I'm seeing a whole different light. Look, Sam. I realized that you're like broccoli! Hear me out...You know when you're younger and how your mom tries to make you eat vegetables? When you're a kid you hate vegetables, right? You loathe them, wish they never existed. That's how I felt about you...a long time ago. And then you get older, eat more junk food. The junk food looks good, makes you happy for a short time, but it doesn't make you feel really really good. Here's where the vegetable comes into play. When you're older, and that junk food phase is over with...you learn to appreciate the vegetable. Not only does it make you feel good, but it's good for you. I used to hate broccoli. Now...I kinda like it, a lot. Dontcha see, Sam? You're my broccoli." Sam blinked before letting out a small laugh.

"You just compared me to your favorite vegetable. See, that's what I l-…" She stopped in mid-sentence.

"What you….? It's ok to say the word Sam. Watch. Sam, I love you. I probably always have, but I know I always will." He smiled and moved over to Sam on the bench. It was like they started out as they had during the lock-in talk, but were ending like they did when they had the first kiss.

"Well…lean." Sam stifled out a laugh as Freddie met her lip 100%. They had a few small kisses before Sam put her hand on the side of his face. He kept his hands on her thighs as a harmonic "Awww" came from the other side of the cell. They broke apart and saw the police officer with Uncle Carmine admiring them from the other side of the cell.

"Kid, I'm going to let her bail go for $400. Just do me a favor, do something nice for someone on your way out." The news led Sam and Freddie into a tight embrace as the cell door open and exchanged members. Sam and Freddie walked out hand-in-hand as he handed the $00 to the officer before thanking him. The couple had not only just gotten back together, but they were closer than ever.

"Hey." Sam said with her head on his shoulder. "I hate you."

Freddie laughed. "I love you, too." Their gooey moment was over once Sam got out of his grip and started running.

"Last one to Carly's is a loooooser!" She screamed while running. The feeling Freddie had before, the jello legs and his heart beating fastly was due to the fact that he was truly in love with Sam now. Either that or his body knew in advance that it was gonna have to run again.

Or it could be both.