Serendipity (Book 2)

iShould've Told You by Edio

Chapter 3

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"Tell me what you were going to say about Sam. You said you found out something." Freddie had already decided to tell Carly everything but he still found it awkward to broach the subject first. It was tough enough already.

The two of them were sitting against the wall under the blackboard with their knees bent and shoulders touching. Freddie used his bag to wipe away most of the dust on the floor. He even laid down his jacket for Carly to sit on so as not to ruin her black slacks.

"Well, it really started a while ago when Sam started acting weird," Carly started.

"And you could tell the difference, how?" said Freddie sarcastically. Carly scowled at his feeble attempt to lighten the mood. "There was just a lot of tension in this room. Don't hate me for wanting to relieve some of it." That made Carly roll her eyes and smirk. "Keep going then," he urged and leaned his head back.

"Well, for one thing, she stopped cleaning out the fridge of all of the food. Spencer told me we saved three hundred dollars in groceries the last month. I figured at first she was on a diet or something." Freddie snorted derisively. "Mostly I noticed she stopped talking to me about pretty much anything. Every time we would plan out an iCarly show, she would just grunt to say yes and grunt to say no. Once in a while she would throw in a shrug for maybe. Didn't you notice?" She paused to wait for his response but Freddie just shrugged. He could tell Carly was babbling to have something to talk about right now. She tended to do that when she was nervous about something.

"It's really hard to come up with funny stuff when your partner is a mute. I was getting really frustrated with her." Carly continued. "You haven't been a big help either come to think of it. Every time I looked at you, you were about to fall asleep," she tilted her head at him. "Like now."

It was true. One of the worst things he did during the day was sit down. It was like his body would remind his brain of how tired it was and a warm sensation would surge down from the top of his head. School became unbearable as he struggled to remain conscious during every class. He's been feeling like this for so long, he couldn't recall how it was to feel normal. Normal was impossible for him now, he thought - better get used to it. Carly had stopped talking. Apparently she was waiting for an explanation from him. Freddie shook his head and said, "I'm sorry. I'll tell you about it, I promise. Go on."

"Well you were the other thing I noticed, really." When he arched his eyebrow at her she continued, "One of the constants in my life was always you and Sam bickering. Kind of like a song playing the background while you're doing something. Ok song might be the wrong word," corrected Carly. "When you guys stopped it was just too quiet. Did you guys get into a fight or something?"

"You could say that," confirmed Freddie.

"You did? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I was right. But, you guys just don't fight like that though. There was a lot of tension between you two, even when you would talk to each other. I thought maybe Sam finally... you know - told you... you know..?"

"No, I don't know," he admitted, completely clueless.

"Never mind," concluded Carly mysteriously. What did she think Sam told him? His brain was so addled that even the simplest ideas were beyond him and Carly's next question derailed his train of thought completely. "What did you guys fight about, anyway?"

He thought about the events of that morning, how Sam reacted when she found out. "Later," he promised again. "You still haven't told me what you found out," prompted Freddie to get her back on track.

"Well that's kind of what I'm getting to. When you two stopped talking, Sam started acting odd. She sort of closed up to everyone. You know how Spencer could always make her laugh? When she did, you could tell she was faking. She started staying over less too. Even when she did, she would just grab the laptop and park on a chair then looked up stuff for hours and hours. It wasn't something she didn't normally do, but it was different. She was very obsessed about it. I even found her up one morning because she hadn't slept yet. Every time I came near her she would close it or shut it down before I could see. She told me she was studying for biology or something-or-other."