"Oh.. oh my God! I can't believe you really did that!!!" said Chloe, while she and Clark walked through the Daily Planet's desks. She just couldn't believe what her best friend had just told her.
When he talked to her about his plans of breaking up with Lana, she didn't actually thought he would do it.
But he did.
"Yeah. It's really over. And this time is forever." answered Clark. Chloe could just look up at him. "Stop looking at me like that. I made the right decision."
"I..." she started, confused. "I'm just... Wow. It's just I never thought you'd do that." Clark nodded. "What... what exactly did you say?"
Clark sighed. "I told her my feelings for her had changed." Chloe opened her mouth in shock. "Then I guess she didn't believe me, because she walked near to me and asked me to look at her in the eye and tell her I didn't love her."
"And... what did you do?" asked Chloe, almost desperately.
"I did it." Chloe's mouth opened even more.
"You... you tell Lana you didn't love her?"
"Yes."
"How... how... Clark, please tell me that you babbled."
Clark looked at her seriously.
"I didn't. Not even a word."
"Clark I know you. You're not such a good liar, what---"
"I don't know. I don't know what possessed me that time. All I know is that I just... when I saw she didn't believe me, I somehow had to assure her of that. I needed to end---"
"But you do love her!" she protested.
"I don't know." he said. Chloe raised her eyebrows.
"You... don't know?"
"Not anymore. I'm not... I'm not sure." Chloe sigued, watching Clark. "It was for the best. We've never had a normal or healthy relationship... We just hurt each other so much. Specially her. As long as I lie to her about what I really am, that will crush her. I couldn't do this anymore. I've been wanting to end it for a long time now. I just didn't have the guts to do it myself." He paused.
Chloe couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I'm sorry, Clark."
He smiled. "It's okay. I just... I just want her to be happy."
"Yeah." Chloe nodded. "Did you tell your mom?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"She told me I'm a grown up now, and adult relationships almost never end the way we want them to." Chloe nodded, smiling a bit. But she thought it was very weird when Clark frowned in a strange way. "She also asked me if I thought I didn't tell Lana the truth about me because... maybe deep down I... I didn't think she was the one."
Chloe raised her eyebrows at this new possibility. She surely had never thought about that one.
"Do you think it was that?"
"I don't know." said Clark, confused. "I was just afraid she wouldn't react like Pete or you did."
"Clark, I don't want to put anything on your head... or you to be mad at me for this but..." she hesitated a bit. "But if you really thought she was the one, do you really would have broken up with her?"
He thought about that for a while, as he frowned even more.
"No." that's all he answered, low.
Chloe smiled simpathetically. Mrs. Kent sure knew her son.
"Sorry, Clark." said Chloe, once more.
"I'm okay. I just hope she's okay too." he said, worried.
"She will be." said Chloe.
"I should go. I still have some chores to finish at the farm." he said, tired.
"Uhum. And I have to finish this little big article here." she said, while they arrived to her desk. "Bye, Clark, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye, Chloe."
He looked around to see if anyone was looking and left.
She smiled as she watched him superspeeding away.
That was the last thing she would expected him to do. Break things with Lana.
But she was sure it was sort of a relief to both of them.
Chloe couldn't help but think who'd be Clark's next love.
Herself? Oh, she was over him for a long time now.
Besides that, she hadn't the faintest idea.
Well, she guessed they would just have to wait and see.
Clark was finishing to fix the tractor with Shelby around him.
He had just bended the last metal pin when he heard that annoying feminine voice he knew so well behind him.
"'Night, Clarkness. Finishing your last exausting farm chores of the day?" she asked. He turned around, tired.
"Hey, Lois."
"Any other knocking-down-tap up your sleeve you might wanna give me?"
"Oh, God, yeah, I'm so sorry about that, Lois... you know I wasn't myself---"
"Yeah yeah yeah, skip the apologizing part." she cut him off. "Exorcized from your nice-little-love-slave condition, then."
"Yes, thank God." he said. "Thanks for trying to stop me back there, by the way."
"Anytime. As long as you don't leave me with another concussion."
"I can't promise that." he joked.
"Ohh, careful there, Kent. Last time you caught me on surprise, I can assure you it won't happen again." she said. Clark smiled. She looked at the tractor then at him. "You fixed this huge thing all by yourself?"
"Yeah, uh, it was just a little pin out of it's place." he answered, feeling that sensation he always felt when somebody who didn't know about his powers asked a compromising question.
"Where are your tools, steel man?" Lois asked, looking around.
"I have already picked them up." he said.
"Oh." she examined him. He felt unconfortable, and hoped she didn't ask any other questions. "Not even a drop of sweat. Very nice, Kent, very nice."
He smiled a little bit as Shelby ran to Lois's feet and started to yelp happily.
"Hey, Shelbs, how you've been doing?" greeted Lois, caressing Shelby's head, and holding back a sneeze. Clark smirked.
"Shelbs? I thought you didn't like him in the first place. Now you're even calling him by nicknames?"
"Yeah, but let's make it clear," said Lois, putting one hand on her nose to hold back another sneeze. "That's only a grant for dogs and you."
"How flattered I am." mocked Clark. Bickering with Lois always felt good. It was sort of... relaxing, in the lack of a better word. The only normal thing on the last days.
Lois glared at him and then finally sneezed, unable to keep it anymore.
"Bless you." said Clark.
"Thank you." said Lois. Shelby yelped too. "And thank you." she added, smiling. "I swear this dog can understand what we say."
Clark nodded. They stood in silence for a second. Lois's smile faded a little.
"Hey, Chloe told me about... the things between you and Lana." she said, hesitantly. "Are you allright?"
"Yeah, I'm just... I..." he stopped for a second, searching for the words. "I've just never seen her so angry like that..." Lois watched him carefully.
"Did you... did you REALLY break up with her?" she asked.
"Yes." he answered.
Lois faced him with a strange expression on her face. She seemed to be struggling with something inside herself.
"I'm proud of you, Smallville." she finally bursted out. Clark raised her eyebrows, surprised.
"You are?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah. You just felt it wasn't working out anymore, you noticed you two just hurt each other, and as hard as it was, you still broke up with her for good." she said, fastly. "It was very... very grown up of you."
Clark frowned. "Thanks." he said, quickly. Clark faced her for a moment then smiled with the corner of his mouth.
"You have no idea of how strange was to hear that from you." he said. Lois rolled her eyes.
"Don't get used to it, it was a one-time thing." she said. He laughed a little bit. The first time that day.
"Don't worry, I won't." he assured her.
They stood in silence for a second. Lois seemed to be struggling with herself once again.
"I'm really sorry, Clark." she said. "We all know you loved her very much---"
"I don't know." he said.
"What?" she asked, frowning.
"I'm just not so sure about that anymore." Clark said.
Lois stayed in silence for a moment. "It's normal." she said.
"Yeah. I guess we just... fell apart."
"Yeah... I'm sorry." Lois repeated.
Clark just kept facing the wall behind Lois.
He wondered who would it be the next woman he would truly love. Because he didn't know if what he felt for Lana was love, after all.
That was the question haunting him lately.
Was it love? What if it wasn't? What if it was just an obsession?
What was love, after all?
He had the sudden feeling he had never actually known that.
Would he ever find the woman meant to be with him?
He wondered if that woman ever existed.
"You'll find her someday, Smallville."
Lois's voice broke Clark's thoughts, and he looked at her, noticing she had been watching him.
"What?" he asked.
"One day, you'll just look into some woman's eyes, and you'll just think 'That's it. She's the one.'. And as soon as you find out, you'll see this whole thing had been left behind long time ago, a thing as old as Matusalem."
Clark was really stunned by Lois's sentence. He would sure add her to his list of the things he'd never thought he would hear from her.
But he did.
And he was really glad.
"I hope so." he said.
"You will." They smiled for a second, then she looked at her watch. "Well, as you're not the only one who actually works around here, I shall go too. I have to close the Talon."
"Yeah."
"I just hope I don't find another hypnotized guy hooking up with a slut around there."
Clark felt his neck getting warmer. "Never mention that again, allright?"
"I can't promise anything?"
"Or I'll tell the world about a certain birthmark of yours I happened to see while you were possessed on Chloe's eighteen birthday party last year."
With a smirk, he thought he saw her cheeks flush a bit.
"You pervert." she said, pulling herself together. "I'll see you around, Smallville."
"Bye, Lois."
She smiled at him as she turned around to walk out.
He thought about Lana, and all the times he doubted she was the love of his life.
Well, who would have thought, he doubted right.
He would keep searching, though. Maybe the right woman was right under his nose and he was just too blind to see it.
"And be okay, allright?" said Lois, who was almost at the barn's door, and had turned to face him once more. "I don't want to see you all bumped out."
"Aww, how very sweet of you." he said, in a joking tone. But deep down, he knew he meant it.
"It's not like I care," she assured him, raising her both hands. Then, she smirked. "It's just with that puppy-dog sad face, you look a lot like Shelby."
She turned around, leaving the barn.
Clark rolled his eyes, grinning.
She was great.
But he wanted to strangle her sometimes.
He really did.