I honestly have no explanation for my lateness this time. I am sorry, really.

I actually wrote this chapter in my Worlds Religion class instead of watching a movie about Hinduism. This well reflects how productive I am in school…

But this is the last official chapter! (I just have an epilogue). And, although I found it hard to continue at some points, I really enjoyed writing this story. And I hope you liked reading it!

If You Were Me

By ForTheWin04

Chapter 12

How was I supposed to live through this?

Seeing Freddie with Carly was hard enough when I knew the relationship had potential to make him happy, but now that I knew Carly's true feelings towards him, it had become unbearable. I wished over and over that I could tell him, but I knew Carly was right when she told me that he would believe her over me. It was a fact I had trouble accepting, but I knew inside me that it was true. Freddie had thrown so much trust into Carly, that it was nearly impossible to see him not only believing me, but accepting that fact and being able to move on. I mean, telling him was one thing. But watching it break his heart was another.

I often find myself thinking about what Cameron told me at Carter's party a few weeks ago - Freddie was seen by our peers as being a guy who was in love with me. It was still hard to picture him that way, and I often considered that every one else was mistaken. However, the more I looked into the situation, the more I realized that there was a high chance of it being true. With that being said, it brought up far too many questions that I couldn't even begin to fathom answers to. When did he get over me? Did he try to use Carly to replace me? Did he ever even like me?

Currently, it is hard to believe so. Especially with his tongue so far down Carly's throat. I know I shouldn't be watching them, but it's almost hard not to. It's like I'm drawn to them, needing to watch the situation for myself. A few of the girls from football are having a small get-together to celebrate winning the final game of the season. I asked Freddie to come with me, and he insisted on bringing Carly. Clearly his attention was paid far more to her than to me. Normally, this would have only hurt my heart - seeing them together. But, now, it hurt almost everything inside of me. Freddie was in a relationship that was a complete joke to the other member. And the saddest part is that I've never seen him so happy before. I don't just feel bad for myself anymore, I feel bad for him.

I knew I hated Carly for a reason.

They finally came up for air and I feel slight relief to see them separate. "Must suck," I heard from behind me.

I turned to see Cameron standing behind me, peering over my shoulder to also view Carly and Freddie. "What do you mean?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Duh," she exclaimed like it was extremely obvious. "Watching him be all over her. Especially when you like him so much."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

She nodded like she understood, even though I knew she had no idea. "Hang in there," she assured me.

I sighed. "You wouldn't be able to say that so easily if you were me."

My hand reached up to knock on the apartment door, but, for the fourth time, I pulled it back to rest at my side. I had been standing in the hallway of floor eight, that I'm surprised no one has questioned my presence. So many thoughts have been passing through my mind that I think I've gone insane. I've never kept anything from Freddie, and a secret that would change a huge part of his life is hard to keep to myself. However, telling him would really hurt him, and might ruin our friendship. It would be an understatement to say I'm torn.

A large part of me knows, however, that he does deserve to know the truth, no matter what the consequence. So I raised my knuckles - fifth time - to knock. Only this time, my fist connected with the door. The sound of the knocking rang in my ears and I soon regretted my decision. I almost came to the conclusion of running away, when the door was pulled aside. "Sam," Freddie said cheerfully. "What're you doing here? I just rented a movie, come in!"

I saw an escape. I could easily have taken him up on his offer, and forget that I ever thought of sharing Carly's secret. But I knew it had to be done, and it was now or never. "I don't think I can," I informed him. "I actually have something to tell you."

"Is everything aright?" he asked, concerned with me.

"You trust me, don't you Freddie? I mean you know I would never lie to you for my own benefit, right?"

"Of course," he replied.

"So you'll believe me when I tell you this no matter how crazy it sounds?" I asked slowly. I could feel my palms sweating, and my heart beat beginning to speed up.

"Sam, you're scaring me."

I inhaled. "Carly told me something a few weeks ago-"

"Sam," he interrupted. "Please don't bring Carly into this. I feel like we let my relationship effect our friendship too much."

"No," I told him. "This is important." He didn't say anything else, so I figured he'd let me continue. "Carly…well, she doesn't really like you."

Everything in his face fell. "…what?"

"She told me," I began again, slowly. "That she is just using you to get good grades. Her sweet attitude is fake. She has everyone fooled!"

"T-That's not true…" he stuttered out.

I shook my head. "It is," I whispered. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you, but-"

"That can't be true," he said again.

"I'm sorry Freddie. I know this is going to sound bad, but she told me that if I told you anything, she would deny it and say I made it all up because I like you so much. But you have to know that I would never do that to you, no matter what I feel. You mean way too much for me to ever do that."

"There has to be some kind of mistake," Freddie said. "I want to believe you, but how could Carly do that to me? I trusted her!"

"I know you did," I told him softly. "I'm sorry she turned out to be so awful."

His face fell into his palms. "I can't believe this," he said, lifting his head again. "I mean, am I that much of a loser that she would only date me to get better grades? How could a person do that? God damn, I'm such an idiot!"

"That's not true Freddie-"

"Yes it is!" he exclaimed. "I can't do anything right! I'm such a nerd, it's like I have a disease or something."

"Where have you been?" I said as I took a step closer to him. "I certainly don't think that of you. I mean, god, I've been in love with you since the beginning of the school year…" I trailed off. "And I know you used to like me, too. My friend Cameron told me."

His face fell. "Sam," he said before engulfing me in a hug. "You mean so much to me. I just forgot for a while."

For a moment, I wasn't quite sure what he meant by this. He pulled back and looked me in the eyes. "I'm sorry I've been such a bad friend this year," he told me. "I've just been so confused."

"It's okay, I haven't been perfect either," I admitted.

"Yes you have," he breathed. "You've always been perfect."

He took that opportunity to lean down and kiss me. This moment had been anticipated in my head for so long, ever since our lips first encountered months before. It turned out to be better than I had been imagining. This kiss was better than the last, simply because I knew it was because he wanted to kiss me. It was a fulfilment of emotional contact, not physical. I could feel his emotions pouring into me through this kiss, and I wondered if Carly ever felt that. He reluctantly pulled away and looked back into my eyes. "I'm sorry," he breathed out. "Y'know I got so used to no one loving me back. When I met Carly I felt like someone finally could. But I guess a part of me was always replacing you. And now I've put you through so much this year."

"Yeah," I teased. "A bit."

"I had just liked you for so long. Meeting Carly made me feel like I could forget about my feelings for you. She was the opposite of you and I thought she might be a good chance to finally be happy in love. And, you know, for a while she did fill the hole in my heart. But then I saw how miserable you were getting, and you told me that you liked me, and all these old feelings came rushing back. It was hard to look at you without wanting to be with you, and knowing you wanted it too made it really confusing. So I tried to sort it out by diving myself into my relationship with Carly, hoping my feelings would go away again. So I stopped talking to you and it did help for a bit. But I always ended up finding a way back to you."

Every part of me was in shock, and I couldn't believe a word I was hearing. My brain couldn't fathom any words, so I just smiled at him.

"I'm sorry for putting you through that mess," he told me. "Can we just, start over."

Slowly, words returned. "Yeah," I said. "Let's start over."

And for the second time that afternoon, his lips captured mine. I never thought a moment could be so perfect, but I swear, when he kissed me, all the stars aligned.

END

I can't believe its the end! I will miss this story! Thank you SO SO SO SO much for reading this story, and sticking it out even when I took 752475208375802737 years to upload a chapter. I think this story really developed me as a writer and I love it to pieces.

Epilogue will be a thing though! I will try and get that out really really soon!

I love every one who has ever read a word of this story - literally, you are the best.

It's funny - the entire inspiration for this story was Sam seeing Carly and Freddie kissing and having a friend say "Oh everything will be okay." To which Sam replies "You wouldn't be saying that if you were me." And in this chapter, I don't think that had as much of an impact as I wanted it to. But, the title of the story has been included and (somewhat) explained.

I love you all! Review and tell me what you thought of the ending!

xoxoxoxoxox, ForTheWin04