Author's Note:

Okay, the Seddiers are going to hate me. I'm sorry guys. Everyone knows (or should know) how much I love Seddie. They honestly are my OTP. But I was really disappointed by iOpen a Restaurant. Actually, I've been disappointed in what the writers have recently done to our favorite couple. So this story was made out of my disappointment and sadness.

I've toyed with the Brad/Sam relationship in this story. I love Brad as a character and hope he can come back to the show sometime. I feel like the writers could have done more with him.

For those of you about to read, please give this story a chance. I know it's not Seddie (and sorry it won't be) but please keep your mind open. And I apologize in advance for the way I portray Freddie. In reality, I totally love him. But he's the bad guy in this story. He's going to be OOC and so is Sam. I wanted to try and write something different. It's not fluff, but rather, a darker story.

Please let me know what you think. This chapter is supposed to be kind of boring because it's the explanatory chapter. The others chapters won't be like this one. Oh, and the whole story is in Sam's POV.

Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, I wouldn't have written this Fanfic. I'd be writing an episode full of Seddie instead. Rights go to Dan Schneider.

iGame of Love

Chapter 1

It was just a game. A fucking game.

Why did I ever think that Freddie Benson loved me? The only person he could love was Carly Shay, the dazzling, perfect girl. How could I have been so stupid to believe for a second that he wanted anyone besides her?

So why did Freddie waste the time to be with someone who wasn't as perfect, beautiful, or smart as Carly? The answer was simple: it was just a part of the little game we had played since 6th grade.

The game started out as a way for us to hurt each other, but then morphed into something that became playful and slightly romantic. Now the hurtful side was back.

He only dated me so he could hurt me in the end. His love was a lie, and deep in my heart, I always knew. It wasn't possible for a guy like Freddie to love a girl like me. It went against everything rational in this world.

Sadly, this time I didn't play along with the game. Sure, I could have pretended that nothing mattered to me. That months of being his girlfriend was just an act to make him happy. But I would be outright lying, and I was tired of doing that. Telling lie after lie wore me down after a while.

Even though we broke up a few months ago, I still wasn't over it. I tried to move on, but I couldn't. Seeing him everyday made me realize how much I missed everything about him.

Missing him wasn't even the worst part. No, it was the fact that he had already moved on. Just weeks after our breakup, he started to follow Carly again, acting like a lost puppy. It didn't really surprise me, though, since his feelings for her never really went away.

Every day I put on a brave face for my friends. I acted like I normally did and they thought I was fine. They didn't know that I cried myself to sleep every night in my tiny bed in my stupid house.

There was a reason why I spent so much time at Carly's. It felt like a home, while mine didn't. Mine was a place where my drunk mother passed out with her sleezy boyfriends. It was a place with limited food and definitely no comfort.

As time progressed, I spent less time at Carly's and more time in my room. Some days I would lock the door, crawl into bed, and cry my eyes out. That seemed to happen more often now. Sometimes I would black out because there would be nothing to pull me back to reality.

No one came to my house to check on me. I told them not to bother.

Carly might have texted during those times, but I never responded. She didn't question my periods of silence because she knew better. She didn't need to know about the hell I went through every day. I didn't want her to know, either. They say ignorance is bliss, which couldn't be truer.

I made sure to look normal by dressing nicely, doing my hair and makeup, and eating regularly. But once I was safely in my room, I let my façade slip. I wore comfy old sweats, washed my makeup off, and only ate if I was absolutely hungry. If I was alone, I barely took care of myself.

If it weren't for three specific people right now, I'd probably be dead. Suicide was never in my vocabulary until recently, and it hovered in the back of my mind every now and then. They were saving me as much as they could.

It was a shocker, but Carly wasn't saving me. I made it my priority to keep her in the dark. If she knew, she'd force me to go see a psychiatrist or something. There was no way in hell that was happening.

As I slowly drifted away from Carly, I got closer to Wendy. She and I had always been friends, but we seemed pretty tight right now. She just understood some things about me that Carly couldn't.

Wendy came from a rough past, too. Her parents were divorced, but neither wanted to keep her. Her mom was heavily into drugs and partying, and her dad was always busy with his job. At the moment, she was living with her aunt.

Don't get me wrong, Carly's family life wasn't easy either. But she had Spencer, and even before her dad joined the Air Force, she spent a lot of time with him. He really did love her, so she never felt like she wasn't wanted.

Wendy and I both knew what it felt like to not be wanted. She understood what I was going through. I liked that she wasn't pushy about asking for details. Instead, she offered to listen to me if I wanted to talk.

And then there was good ol' Gib. He was still as odd as ever, but he made me happy. Things with him were simple, not complicated at all.

Face to face, Gibby seemed pretty plain; as long as you treated him right, he would be nice to you. But I found out he was actually a pretty complex person when we opened Gibby's, our restaurant.

Eventually, we closed the place down for good because it was too hard to handle with everything. He understood that I couldn't deal with the business and all of my problems at the same time.

Gibby, like Wendy, was there for me when I wanted to talk. Unlike Carly, he didn't coddle me. He listened and offered me a big teddy bear hug after words.

Most people thought that Gibby and I had something between us. But I could never think of him in a romantic way. Ew. We were just really good friends.

Most importantly, there was Brad. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be sure where I'd be at. Out of everyone, he truly was my savior. He knew exactly how to make me feel better and was always there when I needed him.

Even though he didn't go to Ridgeway anymore, he remained incredibly close to me. He still lived in Seattle, in a house that wasn't far from mine. If I wasn't in my room, at Carly's, or at school, I went to Brad's house.

It really sucked when his parents made him quit the iCarly internship. But he still hung out with me, so he knew about everything. Brad didn't keep in contact with Carly or Freddie, mainly because he didn't want to confront them after what happened.

As much as I liked Wendy and Gibby, I still had trouble opening up to them. Carly knew about my soft side and Freddie briefly saw it when we dated. With Brad, it was so easy to be vulnerable. It didn't freak him out to see how broken I was. If anything, it made him like me even more because I wasn't always so tough.

He had seen me at my worst: angry as hell and throwing things around, tired as ever with huge bags under my eyes, or sad with tears streaming down my face. He had seen me at my best with twinkling eyes and a huge smile on my lips. He had seen it all and still managed to care about me.

Like I said, if it weren't for Bradley Haverford, I honestly wouldn't know what to do.

It was Friday night and as I sat in my room, I felt desperately lonely. The house felt empty without my mom and her latest asshole boyfriend. They left yesterday morning and wouldn't be back until Tuesday, at the earliest. I shivered involuntarily, not from the cold, but from being all alone once again.

I stared at my hands, thinking about what I shouldn't have been: Freddie and Carly. After we finished iCarly for the night, I left as soon as I could. They eyed each other a ton during the show, and I couldn't stand to see anymore of that. So I made up some excuse and left. They seemed concerned about my quick exit, but didn't question it or follow me.

Come to think of it, they were probably out together, sipping smoothies or drinking lattes. Freddie would probably be staring into Carly's eyes, holding her hand across the table. God, I had to stop thinking about that or I'd throw up.

To distract myself, I picked up my copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. Yes, Sam Puckett actually reads something other than the Boogie Bear series. Shocker, right? I actually liked reading, when I wasn't forced into it. After a while, my attention started to wander, so I decided to do something other than mope around the house.

Tossing my book aside, I stood up from my small bed. I grabbed my light jacket and put it on over my worn t-shirt. I slid my shoes on and made my way out of the house, closing the heavy front door behind me. There wasn't any point in locking it since nothing was worth stealing.

My feet took me to the house that I knew as well as my own. In about 10 minutes, I reached the place I needed to be. I knocked quietly on the mahogany door of the enormous house that stood in front of me.

It was only a few seconds later when someone opened the door. I stared into his deep, warm green eyes and a small smile spread across my lips.

"Hey, Brad," I said softly.