THE FRIEND ZONE
Chapter One
Chloe opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in Oliver's apartment, lying on his couch, but why was the couch breathing? She slowly moved her head before realising she was not alone. Oliver had his arms wrapped tightly around her while her head was nestled comfortably into his chest. They both must have fallen asleep during their movie night. She hesitated wondering whether to wake him, but decided against it and managed to squirm out of his arms for her
morning coffee fix.
"Hey Sidekick," Oliver said as he walked up to her in the kitchen.
"Hey yourself, sorry about last night I must have fallen asleep," Chloe said.
"No worries, anyway you better get going, or your boss will be angry if you're late," Oliver joked, though with a serious expression on his face.
"Well he's often late himself, so he would be a bit of a hypocrite if he was," Chloe said laughing. Oliver smiled at her; she was beautiful when she laughed.
"I need to go home to change," Chloe said signalling to the clothes she was currently wearing.
They were crumpled and could be clearly seen as the ones she had worn the day before. The last thing she wanted to do was the walk of shame to watchtower, especially when she had nothing to be ashamed of.
"Don't you remember that after the last time you slept over you decided to keep some spare clothes in the chest of drawers for emergencies?" Oliver said. Chloe nodded.
"I'll just go and get changed then," Chloe murmured, gesturing upstairs.
"Me too," Oliver said walking in the opposite direction.
Chloe wandered upstairs to the chest of draws; that now belonged to her. She slid the draw open, gathered what she needed and went into the bathroom and began to get changed.
She and Oliver had been spending a lot more time together, ever since Lois and Clark had gotten engaged. Oliver was quickly becoming one of her best friends; she found it nice to have someone to talk to who wasn't in a committed relationship. Lately it seemed that everyone had paired off. The Justice league had expanded and had grown in many of the major cities nearby, but the core (Chloe, Oliver, Clark, Bart, Victor, AC and Lois) were still based in Metropolis. So with everyone paired off Chloe and Oliver had decided to stick together.
"You ready to go," Oliver called, his voice echoing the halls.
"Yep," Chloe shouted back, and proceeded to walk down the stairs. The Clock-Tower wasn't far from Watchtower so the two decided to walk. Chloe glanced into a passing shop window as they walked in a comfortable silence; seeing camera's lined up.
It suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks, Jimmy had been murdered two years ago today and she had forgotten. Was she that much of a terrible person that she had not remembered the anniversary of her husband's death?
Oliver glanced at Chloe as she had stopped walking and had looked like she had seen a ghost. "Sidekick," Oliver said. She didn't answer. "Chloe," He repeated his voice revealing the panic he felt.
"Oh sorry I just spaced out, I'm fine," Chloe answered.
"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, not quite sure she was telling the truth.
"Of course," Chloe said trying to reassure him, the last thing she wanted was for him to worry then she would have to explain about how it was two years ago today and that would be embarrassing. Not only would she explain that, she would have to explain how she had forgotten, what would Oliver think on her then? A widow that had forgot the anniversary on her husband's death.
She carried on walking; pretending that nothing had happened, and silently prayed he would drop it. Fortunately for her God seemed to answer her prayers and not another word was spoken.
As they both walked into Watchtower they were greeted by Christine, Victor's wife. "Chloe, Oliver, how are you?" Christine had been his long-term girlfriend and he had finally proposed to her a year ago and had been married for about two months. Chloe nodded, a small smile gracing her lips at Christine, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"Fine thank you and yourself?" Oliver asked politely. He liked Christine; she respected what Victor did and she constantly strived to show that, which showed him that she was perfect for Victor.
"Good thank you," Christine replied, the conversation carried on but Chloe zoned out.
"I'm going to get some air," Chloe said trailing off and pointing to the computer.
Victor walked over to Oliver.
"Is she ok?" Victor whispered to Oliver.
"I'm not sure, she was fine this morning then all of a sudden she went silent on me," Oliver said.
"Did something happen?" Christine asked. The three of them had sat down at the table and continued to talk.
"This is very unlike her," Christine said, Chloe was always nice to her and was thrilled to have another girl around that wasn't her cousin. As much as she loved Lois she could be a lot to handle, so herself and Chloe had got on like house on fire.
"Well she did stay the night," Oliver said.
"You finally did it," Christine said excitedly, she had been waiting for Oliver and Chloe to get together; so had most of the team.
"Damn it that means I owe Lois $50," Victor said.
"What no! We'll get to the betting later," Oliver said glaring at Victor, "we just had a movie night and we both fell asleep, it's happened before," Oliver said.
"Maybe she freaked out," Victor said.
"I think you should talk to her," Christine said.
"Yeah," Oliver said turning around and headed for the door.
Unfortunately he didn't get the chance and although they spoke to each over the comm.'s as Watchtower and Green Arrow, it was hardly the time to ask what was the matter. Himself, AC, Bart, Victor and Clark were on a mission but something was clearly the matter as she didn't respond to any of the team's jokes. Instead she just spoke the directions and answered the questions with either a 'yes' or a 'no' where possible.
After the others had gone home and it was only Oliver and Chloe in watchtower, she had been working non- stop since she had re-appeared.
"Chloe you look tired, you should get some rest," Oliver said. Chloe finally broke, she had held in all day but she couldn't anymore. She fell into a sitting position on the stairs. Seeing that she was upset Oliver rushed over and put his arm around her.
After five minutes Chloe mumbled, "Jimmy died, a year ago today."
"Oh Chloe, I'm sorry," Oliver said, not knowing what to say.
"And I forgot, I forgot the anniversary of my husband's death. He was murdered because of me and I forgot," Chloe said, her tears subsiding enough for her to speak.
"Chloe it wasn't your fault, you know that right?" Oliver said.
"But it was, if I had just been honest with everyone from the beginning this would never have happened," Chloe said.
"You can't blame yourself," Oliver said, he didn't know what to say, crying girls, even if the girl was Chloe, really weren't his thing.
"I forgot. How could I forget?" Chloe said gesturing her arms around.
"Chloe you've had a difficult year," Oliver said, rubbing her back.
"That's not a reason," Chloe said, breaking down into a fresh batch of tears. Ollie looked at her, before taking her softly and pulling her into his arms. They didn't say anything more and Chloe soon fell asleep.
Oliver took her in his arms and took her home.
"I'm sorry about yesterday; I don't know what happened, it was just bubbling at the surface you know. It must have just all got on top of me, anyway sorry for crying on you, "Chloe mumbled. Oliver just nodded.
"Of course, I'm glad you've let it out," Oliver said, noticing how Chloe wouldn't even look him in the eye.
"I actually feel a lot better now and thanks for looking after me," Chloe said, looking glancing at the ground and shuffling her feet.
"No problem," Oliver said trying to catch her eye but she looked uncomfortable.
"Anyway Lois invited me to dinner with her and Clark and told me to invite you along," Chloe said, changing the subject. She felt almost embarrassed about what happened yesterday, sure she had a reason for crying but the fact that she fell asleep and Oliver had to take her home was embarrassing. She needed to learn to look after herself, Oliver shouldn't have to worry about her; he had enough on his mind without having to worry about her as well.
"When?" Oliver asked.
"Tonight if you can make it, you're not patrol," Chloe said. She realised it seemed like she was forcing him to come so she quickly added, "but if you have plans that's ok."
"No I can make it," Oliver said. Why did Chloe seem worried, they met up all the time, it was practically a daily thing.
"I'll meet you after work," Chloe said and Oliver nodded. Things seemed to be awkward now, after Chloe had broken down yesterday. Oliver wasn't sure why she acting odd, yes she had cried and he had taken her home but nothing had happened. She slept in her bed and then he went home thinking it would make her feel awkward if he stayed.
The two worked mostly in silence only talking about work. They were currently researching the location of Lex's latest lab and neither were having much luck. They were both getting more and more frustrated at finding nothing.
Eventually Oliver decided that it was time to call it a day much to Chloe's protests, besides they had to meet Lois and Clark for dinner. Chloe knew that she needed to stop being awkward about Oliver, she had done nothing wrong, her friend had comforted her. Yes she was a bit embarrassed, but Oliver was her best friend, so decided to forget about yesterday, she was being stupid anyway. So what if she had cried? She had a reason, and Oliver didn't seem to feel uncomfortable about it so neither would she.
A/N: Hey so this is my first Smallville fanfiction, so feedback would be appreciated, I am currently looking for a Beta, so if anyone would volunteer that be great, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it.