Inspirations: Three Cheers For Five Years (Acoustic) – Mayday Parade; Fall For You – Secondhand Serenade.

Chapter Eighteen: iAm Out of School

It's the last day of school. We had locker clean out two days ago and Carly had next to nothing in her locker, so she helped me with mine. The majority of the contents in my locker was something edible, which didn't surprise anyone. After we cleared my locker of its contents, we helped Freddie move his electronic equipment from his locker. Why? Because I didn't want to hear him whining about how heavy it was and Carly insisted we help him. But that was two days ago. It's seriously the last day of school, I'm not lying. I only have two more solid years left in this hell hole the city calls a high school.

"Do you know what this means, Carls?" I nudged her side lightly with my elbow. She gave me a questioning look. "This means we're officially juniors. We are finally upperclassmen. No more dealing with shit from older students... well, except seniors." She was tired, I knew that. She had been up all night studying for her math final and I felt bad for falling asleep on her on the phone, too. But I needed to sleep. I wasn't studying. I had no drive to keep me awake like Carly did.

"Sam, I understand you are very excited to be out of school, but I am exhausted..." She complained to me quietly. I felt her head rest on my shoulder gently as well. I wrapped an arm around her waist.

"We can go home and take a nap. I wouldn't mind holding you," I pushed some of her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears. My fingertips grazed along her skin slowly. I saw her eyes close and the smile on her face grow in size.

"When you say home, do you mean my place or yours?" She asked me softly. That made me smirk a little. Home has so many meanings to me, but when it comes down to it, home is really where I feel safe and comfortable to be myself. That happens when I'm locked in my bedroom, when I'm at Carly's, or when I'm holding Carly.

"Mm, wherever you want to fall asleep in my arms," I told her, grinning like a fool.

"Who's falling asleep?" Freddie's voice seemed to burn my ears by how he was ruining our moment. He had a habit of ruining moments for us. I let go of Carly's waist and she lifted her head, smiling weakly to Freddie.

"I am," Carly chirped, yawning and resting her head on my shoulder again, closing her eyes. She turned so that her forearms brushed against my biceps, from the way her arms were folded over her chest. I wanted to put my arm around her and hold her close, but I couldn't. We had decided to keep our enhanced relationship a secret from Freddie as best as we possibly could. We didn't want to make things awkward for him.

"Oh. Well, I just wanted to tell you that I can't hang tonight." He informed us brightly, tucking some small equipment into his backpack. It was the last bits and pieces of his locker apparatus that he didn't entrust Carly or myself to carry from point A to point B. I gave him a questioning look that could cover both my thoughts and Carly's thoughts. "I have a date tonight with my girlfriend."

Carly lifted her head and rubbed her eyes open. "Am I hearing you correctly? Did you just say you have a date with your girlfriend?" He nodded to her brightly, grinning wide. Carly glanced over to me and I narrowed my eyes at her. "Well, where are you taking this elusive girlfriend of yours on your date?"

"I was thinking dinner and a movie. Something simple, I guess," Freddie replied, closing his locker gently. "I'll talk to you later. I gotta meet Heather at the park in an hour,"

"Ooo, la la!" Carly teased him. But as soon as he walked away and the halls were empty, except for us, she curled her arms around one of my arms and leaned on my shoulder, closing her eyes again. Then she turned her head to look at me, smiling with her eyes open.

"What?" I asked, my voice quiet, a smirk playing across my lips. "What's going on in that smart head of yours, cupcake?"

"Why don't you ever take me on movie and dinner dates?" She asked me in response, drawing in a shaky breath as she spoke to me.

"Because, cupcake," I explained to her, stroking her face slowly with my other hand. "We're not together and I'm broke." That didn't seem to be the answer that Carly wanted. She sighed and nodded in response to me. As a result of what I said, the public bus ride and walk up to her apartment were silent, for the most part. I mean, she did hold my hand the whole time, even when we got inside, even when Spencer greeted us. Carly simply waved to him – as did I – and she continued leading me up the stairs and into the room that had become our bedroom. Yes, our bedroom. The iCarly studio was slowly turning into the room we slept in whenever I was here. I mean, yeah, sometimes we did end up in Carly's actual bedroom, but it was rare for us.

I sat down on the edge of the race car bed, folding my arms over my chest. Carly sat down next to me. I watched her fingers walk along my thigh slowly. She made my breath hitch. I bit my bottom lip carefully and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Carls, I thought you wanted to take a nap or something," I offered to her quietly, opening my eyes and glancing over to her. She leaned towards me and caught my lips. "Mmn, that doesn't sound like nap time..."

"I'll take a nap if you promise to hold me and never let go." She whispered on my lips. She pulled back and shifted, starting to slide underneath the blankets on the bed. I took off my shoes – Carly was wearing flip flops that she easily kicked off but I was wearing sneakers – and I moved to lie down next to her underneath the blankets.

"What reason would I ever have to let go of you," I honestly asked her and she simply shrugged her shoulders to me as I pulled an arm around her waist, bringing us closer. Carly grinned and pecked my lips, then she curled against my chest, closing her eyes. She instantly fell asleep. But I was still awake. I couldn't fall asleep just yet. My heart was pounding and my stomach was full of active butterflies.

I was about to close my eyes when I heard the door open. It was Spencer. I slowly let go of Carly and kissed her forehead. She was sound asleep. I tip-toed over to the door and slipped into the hallway.

"She wanted to take a nap and I..." Spencer and I rarely had conversations alone like this. Sometimes I felt a tad awkward around him, like right now, when he walked in on me cuddling with his little sister.

"It's fine, Sam." He shrugged it off. "I just wanted to come up here and remind Carly that I'm leaving in a few hours for that art show in Los Angeles." He explained. "She's got all the information she'll need and my cell phone will be on, so if she needs to reach me... you know, she'll be able to do that."

"Oh," I nodded slightly to him. "I'll tell her when she wakes up, if she wakes up after you leave or something," Spencer nodded and headed back on downstairs. I moved back into the studio and wrapped my arm around her waist again. That's when I felt her starting to squirm a little in my arms. She was stirring. Did she know that I had gotten up and spoken to Spencer?

"Mmn, why did you get up?" She whispered close to my neck and it made me close my eyes gently. "I got cold without you here," Carly wrapped an arm around me as well and pulled me closer to her. I smiled widely to that and kissed her forehead lovingly.

"Spencer came to the door. Mentioned something about an art show in LA and that he was leaving soon," She nodded into my neck, obviously knowing what I was talking about. But I don't think she cared right about now.

"So are you staying over?" She asked me quietly. My fingers threaded through her hair carefully and she snuggled closer to me. I could feel her soft moan of approval vibrate against my neck. It gave me chills, in all honesty.

"Do you want me to stay?" She nodded against me. I closed my eyes and leaned my face into her hair. "Well, after our nap, I'll have to go home and pack a bag or something. I'm running out of clothes here and I don't think any of your stuff will fit me." I explained and I felt her nod against me once more.

"Works for me," Carly placed a chaste kiss against my neck and started to shift. But she opened her eyes and looked right back at me. Our eyes locked for what felt like ages. I was getting lost in her eyes, so lost that I didn't even notice that she was speaking to me, not until she poked my cheek anyway.

"Sam, did you just hear me?" She asked, giggling when I shook my head. She pecked my lips sweetly and let her nose brush against mine playfully. When she tried to pull out of the kiss, I tugged at her bottom lip and she cupped my face delicately. "I asked you a question,"

"What did you ask; I zoned out," I didn't want to tell her I got lost in her eyes. How lame does that sound? The fact that you can actually get lost in someone's eyes or the fact that I can't bring myself to admit that I was just doing it? Ugh.

Carly poked my stomach playfully, smirking to me. "I asked if you would be my girlfriend, not a big deal or anything.." She whispered to me, drawing in a deep breath. My heart started to race again and I knew my stomach was doing flips. I couldn't seem to verbally answer her but I couldn't stop grinning. "Well?"

Before she could say another word, I shifted our position a little roughly. I cupped her face and crashed our lips together, pinning her down to the bed. I wasn't sure if Carly would go for the intense kiss, but when I felt her fingers curling around the bottom of my shirt and tugging me just an inch closer, I teasingly pulled back. Our foreheads were touching, our noses were brushing against one another.

"So, that's a yes, right?" Carly whispered, her eyes still closed. I felt her fingertips moving along my sides, underneath of my shirt. I loved the way her fingertips seemed to leave trails of fire from there they touched my skin.

"Of course it's a yes. But I thought you weren't into labels? Thought those were for soup cans and whatnot," I teased her, and she wrinkled her nose to me. She pressed her lips against mine again, in an attempt to get out of replying to my question.

"Maybe I don't like labels but I want to be able to call you my girlfriend," She informed when I pulled back from her kiss. Damnit, Carls: why can you be so cute without even trying?

I rolled off of her and stayed lying on my side. I wrapped an arm around her again and she curled up to my chest again. I felt Carly's breathing even out as she started to fall asleep again. I closed my eyes and leaned my face into her hair. I inhaled evenly. I wonder how this summer is going to go over, or how this relationship will go. But all I can do is wonder. And dream.

A/N: I've already started planning the second part of this story, from Carly's POV. ^.^