iGrow Up

"So this is your room, huh?" Carly asked, looking around her bad boy's bedroom with that spark in her eyes. "I'm impressed."

"Yeah, well…what can I say? Can't let you be impressed with me but not my room," Griffin grinned as he slid off his leather jacket and threw it absently into one of the corners. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at Carly.

Her smile grew with the more discoveries she made. She went through all his hanging hubcaps, each one seeming just a little different. She ran her hand over his cool grey bed sheets as she walked to the other side of the room, just then catching the hole in the wall. After hearing his explanation, she could only shake her head and laugh gently.

"So…" he began, pushing himself away from the wall he had been leaning against. He walked slowly toward her, "do you want to continue where we left off before class this morning?"

Though she should definitely be used to his advances by now, Carly still felt her face get warm every time Griffin came close to her.

She shrugged casually, always having a hard time not making light of the situation, "Sure, why not!"

Griffin smirked as he wrapped his arms around her waist, making her melt instantly into his embrace and slip her hands onto his shoulders before their lips met for the fourth time that day.

Carly couldn't really explain it…she always thought she would prefer a relationship that was based on conversation and really getting to know the guy she was dating, but for some reason…this was all she wanted to do with Griffin. Maybe it was because the few times she tried to have a normal conversation with him, he always gave her that smirk he just gave her three seconds ago and her brain completely shut down. Maybe this was what it was really like to be in love. She was attracted to him physically and wanted nothing more but to be in his arms.

She gasped in shock, however, when she quickly felt his lips leave hers and trap onto her neck. Her eyes widened when he pulled her just a little closer, their bodies being more united than they had ever been.

"Whoa, Griffin…" her voice wandered off, not quite sure what exactly she wanted to say.

"Yeah….?" his voice was muffled into her neck.

Carly felt him begin to use his teeth to lightly nibble what she found to be a very sensitive area. She wanted to do too many things at once. She wanted to close her eyes and enjoy what he was doing to her. She wanted to tell him stop because…she was enjoying what he was doing to her. But instead, she simply focused on one of his many rims and studied it with an out of focus mind…as she enjoyed what he was doing to her.

"Carly…" he whispered harshly into her ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily. The skin on her arms became tight and her face got hotter than she ever remembered it becoming.

She quickly backed away from him, her hands fumbling together in front of her in that nervous habit she had.

"What are you doing?" he asked her, his arms still held open as though he expected her to come back into them within the second.

"I…I…" she stuttered, still trying to get her bearings straight but trying to act cool at the same time. As she tried to come up with some excuse of why she stopped him, her eyes fell on the same rim she had been absently studying while he was kissing her. "Hey, ya know…" she quickly dodged him as she walked around him, going to the hubcap and pointing to it like she was at an art museum, "I like this one. Where'd you get it?"

He stared at her like she lost her mind, taking slow steps toward her once again, "I stole it off a Porsche a little while ago."

"A Porsche?!" Carly exclaimed, for a moment actually forgetting why she felt the need to begin talking about it, "When did you see a Porsche around this area?"

"When you had that one kid from America Sings on your show…I guess that was the ride he was chauffeured in."

"Oh yeah…" Carly smiled at the memories, though most of them were annoying, of that stuck up boy who hated America.

Not realizing that she had taken her eyes off him, when she turned around again she was surprised to see him standing right in front of her. Before she could object, his arms were around her again with his lips pressed to hers in a rougher fashion than she was used to.

Carly didn't push him away. She didn't hold him like she usually did when they made out, but…she didn't deny him. She felt her back hit the wall behind her, subconscious of the slight rocking of the rim when her elbow brushed against it.

"Griffin! Carly!"

Hearing her name, she quickly pushed her boyfriend away and stood like a deer caught in headlights toward his bedroom door that they never closed. To her surprise, no one was standing there. However, two seconds later, Griffin's mother walked into the room, flashing a big smile and carrying an even bigger bowl of pudding. She held up a spoon that was dripping with the dessert.

"Are you two sure you don't want any pudding? I think this is the best I've ever made!"

Griffin rolled his eyes, "No, Mom…we don't want any pudding! Can't you see we're busy?"

His mother looked back and forth between the two, making Carly's blush get brighter and brighter. Without saying anything more, only losing her smile slightly, Griffin's mother walked out of the room with her bowl of pudding.

Sighing with annoyance, Griffin turned back to her, "Anyway…"

"Hey, you know…" Carly began again, swiping past him to get to her bag that she threw on his bed, "I should probably get going for now…Sam and Freddie will be over my house soon to start rehearsing for tonight's show."

"Okay…hey, want me to give you a ride?"

She gave a short laugh, "A ride on what?"

He smirked again, making her almost wish she didn't say she had to leave, "I saw that my neighbor got a new bike a few days ago. I learned how to hotwire it and…borrow it for a little while."

It was wrong. It was so, so wrong. But Carly was hardly surprised at herself when her heart beat faster and her voice agreed with his suggestion.

**********

Carly walked into her brother's apartment ten minutes later, not finding it unusual to see that Sam was already there and that her and Spencer were flinging sushi onto the ceiling.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked nonchalantly, going around them to get some lemonade from the refrigerator.

"We saw this on TV…" Sam replied, still chucking pieces that stuck to the ceiling.

"Yeah and we thought we'd try it to see how many we can get up there before they start falling," Spencer added, taking about ten pieces of sushi at a time and throwing his hands upward.

Carly watched them for a few minutes before one piece suddenly fell back to the ground. Sam and Spencer stared at it in shock before another piece fell…then another. Carly jumped when they both screamed bloody murder.

"We're losing!" Spenser screamed, bending down to pick up the fallen pieces only to throw them back up.

"We still have three more containers of sushi to get up there!" Sam began helping Spenser, but it began to seem like a lost cause. For every piece they threw up, three more pieces fell.

Carly finished her lemonade and walked around the counter toward them. Covering her head from the falling sushi, she grabbed Sam's arm at the same time to take her away from her project.

"H-hey, what are you doing?!" Sam yelled as she was dragged away, "There's still so much more sushiiiiiii….!"

Spenser watched his partner get dragged up the stairs by his sister, "Don't leave me now! We were so close!" He screamed again when about thirty pieces of sushi decided to fall on his head at that time.

About time Sam and Carly got up to their studio, Sam had basically forgotten about her experiment downstairs, save for the couple pieces she still had in her hands that she quickly ate.

"That's so gross," Carly commented, not liking the taste of sushi at all.

"Eh. You have to admit it's not the worst thing I've ever eaten."

"True," Carly laughed, flopping down in her beanbag and staring up at Sam with a big smile.

Sam only had to stare at her for a second before she gave that knowing grin. She pointed her finger at her best friend in a "shameful for doing such awesome things with your bad boy!" fashion.

"You got a new story for me?" Sam asked, flopping down on the floor right beside Carly.

Carly's smile grew and her eyes rolled up to the ceiling to fake her innocence, "Of course."

"All right, so spit it out! I need some advice for when I find my bad boy!" Sam demanded, suddenly picturing a hot boy dressed in a leather jacket and tight jeans. He was in the kitchen, holding a large chicken wing that he "coolly" dipped into a pickle jar before he bit into it like he ate stuff like that everyday. Sam grinned, "Yeah…you eat that chicken and pickle juice, you bad, bad boy…"

Carly simply raised an eyebrow, but dismissed Sam's fantasy once Sam turned back to her and it looked like she was ready to listen to Carly's story.

"Well…I think Griffin and I went a little further than usual when we were at his house…" Carly started.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, her eyes widening with interest.

"I mean…" Carly began fumbling her hands together again. She gave a sudden huge grin, "He kissed me in other places besides my lips…"

Sam jumped to her feet too quickly for Carly to follow, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT!"

Carly tilted her head to the side, her eyes moving from one side of the room to the other, "Okay…I'm waiting…"

"All right, lemmie get this straight," Sam held out her hands as though she was trying to solve a math problem, "Did he kiss you above the lips?"

"Umm…no…"

"So I take it you mean he kissed you below the lips then?"

"Yeah…"

"Was it lower then the chin?"

"Yeah…"

"Was it lower than the shoulders?"

Carly shot her head back, surprised Sam skipped a big, obvious area, "No…"

Sam clicked her fingers and gave a smile full of pride, "I knew it…you guys were necking."

"Sam!" Carly stood up quickly, Sam's words scaring her that Spenser heard what she said, "No! I mean…kinda!" Carly sighed in frustration, "Yes, he kissed me on the neck, but I didn't do it back, so it's not technically considered…" she looked over Sam's shoulder at the door before lowering her voice, "necking."

Sam crossed her arms arrogantly, "Uh-huh…so is that all that happened?"

"Yes! I--."

Carly was caught off when Freddie walked into the room, giving a loud, upbeat greeting to his fellow stars.

Carly clenched onto Sam's arm hard, keeping Sam's full attention for another second. She lowered her voice even more, barely above a whisper, "Don't say anything to anyone…not Spenser, not Freddie…anyone. Got it?"

"Okay, okay…geez, you would think you were embarrassed about neck-umph!" Sam grunted when Carly jumped on top of her to keep her from saying that word aloud with Freddie in the room.

They both looked up at Freddie looking down at them with a blank stare. Carly half giggled as she stood up, "So…how about this show tonight?"