CALAMITY PHYSICS

Summary: AU. What if senior year had ended differently? What if Clark and Lana had never made up? What if the second meteor shower hadn't occurred? What if Clark had chosen the University of Miami? Eventually Chlark.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville/Superman characters, nor do I own the U. of M.

Part I
Clark kept his eyes trained on his sociology textbook as Jack and Sara came through the door. The couple was giggling about something, Jack's laughter deep and rich, a stark contrast to Sara's high-pitched giggles.

"Oh, hey Clark," Jack greeted flatly. He didn't sound mad, just unsurprised, as if he had wanted something but wasn't shocked that reality didn't match expectation.

Clark sat propped up against the headboard of his twin bed, one of two beds in the small dorm room. A pillow cushioned his back. His textbook rested against his bent legs. He waved a hand absently, his other hand gripping a bright yellow highlighter. He was half-way down a page, scattered words highlighted in brilliant yellow. .

"I thought you were going to go to the library," Jack added, his wish vocalized. Jack may have been unsurprised to find Clark in their dorm room, but he wasn't about to hide what he had wanted. Honesty was part of Jack's charm.

Clark lifted his eyes from his book. "I thought you guys were going to be at Sara's," he retorted, trying to keep his voice neutral and non-accusatory. He wasn't mad at Jack's comment, only vague annoyance tugging at him.

Jack was a decent roommate. Jack could be a bit of a slob, but the mess stayed on Jack's side of the room. He was polite enough, although occasionally verging on vulgar with the jokes he makes. Usually he was fairly decent and fairly tactful. Jack didn't try to use the dorm room for parties, didn't try to make the room a dorm floor hotspot. He was accommodating of Clark's need to study and respected Clark's privacy. He didn't pry, and Clark appreciated that.

The only slightly annoying part about Jack, besides Jack's sense of humor, was Sara. Clark didn't begrudge Jack a girlfriend. Sara was a sweet girl, annoying laugh aside. Sara's constant perkiness sometimes made Clark want to pull out his hair, but that was rare. Usually he was fine with the always-smiling, always-happy girl.

Thus, Clark didn't mind Jack and Sara dating. They seemed happy and Clark was satisfied enough with his life that he didn't resent that.

It wasn't the dating aspect of Jack and Sara's relationship that annoyed him. It was their desperate need to have 'time alone'. Those were Sara's words. Jack tended to be a bit blunter, taking his cues from teen movies which hold back nothing. Sara was a bit more old-fashioned, a fan of Jane Austen novels and old sitcoms.

There was nothing wrong with Jack and Sara wanting to have sex. Clark just didn't like being kicked out of his and Jack's dorm room so that the couple could get in on. Not that Jack and Sara ever kicked him out. They just made he want to leave.

Lately this hadn't been an issue, but apparently the issue was about to rear its head again.

"We were going to hang out there, but then Sara's new roommate arrived. We figured she'd prefer us to get loss while she unpacked," Jack said, dragging Clark back to the present.

Clark nodded, feeling vaguely disappointed. Sara's original roommate had dropped out in early November, citing homesickness. Since then, Sara had been the sole occupant of the dorm room, which had made Clark's life much, much simpler. Jack and Sara had spent most of their time in Sara's dorm, leaving Clark his and Jack's dorm to himself.

He had liked the solitude. Dorm life wasn't exactly quiet and sedate. It was loud, students coming and going at all hours of the day. But with Jack gone, Clark could tune out of the noise and just focus on his studies.

Plus, it was easier to slip into the room early in the morning after patrol when Jack isn't around. Jack might not pry now, but Clark didn't want to hedge his luck. Eventually Jack would feel compelled to comment—it always happened. People could only let odd occurrences past without comment for so long. Then they feel required to say something.

Once they say something, he has to come up with a plausible lie. And while Clark could lie, he wasn't exactly a fan of lying. He preferred not being put in a situation where he had to lie.

It seemed that the days of Jack spending most of his nights in Sara's dorm were over. The arrival of Sara's new roommate saw to that. Resigned, he closed his textbook. He swung his legs over the side of his bed, glad he got had gotten dressed after his shower instead of spending the morning lounging around in his plaid boxers and white shirt he had slept in last night.

"I'll be at the library," he said. He knew his quick exit would be appreciated by Jack and Sara. As long as the couple didn't routinely force him from the dorm room, he could live with being inconvenienced on occasion.

"Well, have fun," Jack said.

Jack threw himself down on the bed, the bed creaking in protest. Jack's large frame was not exactly meant for pummeling such a small bed. Jack wasn't fat per se, but he did was a bit round in the middle. He was also broad-shouldered and his neck was almost non-existent.

Sara giggled again, the sound still grating to Clark's sensitive ears. She sat down on the edge of Jack's bed. "You know, Clark, maybe you and my roommate could hook up," she suggested sweetly, once the giggles were over. She was hundred percent sincere, as Clark knew from experience.

He groaned silently as he considered Sara's suggestion. The last thing he wanted was for Sara to play matchmaker. Again. She had already set him up on half a dozen dates. He had went on them dutifully, did his duty because Sara was a sweet girl and hard to say no to. But he had no intention to be suckered in again. He had had enough of Sara trying to find him a girlfriend. He wished she would give up the quest. Unfortunately, Sara seemed determined to find him a girl. Even more unfortunate was the fact he had been raised to be polite. He couldn't hand out an outright dismissal. He wasn't Lois, unable to speak like that.

"What's she like?" he asked instead of saying 'no', forcing the words to leave his mouth. There was a slight internal protest, but the words leave nonetheless.

Sara smiled, one of those pleased sort of smiles that have long terrified Clark. He had seen that sort of smile on Chloe and Lois before, and it never ended well.

"Hmm, blonde hair, medium height, green eyes. She's pretty." Sara tilted her head, adding, "She's a transfer from Met U, wherever that is."

"Kansas," Clark supplied absently as he stuffed his sociology textbook and laptop into his backpack. It was an automatic response. It probably wasn't the best thing to say.

"Oh, isn't that where you're from" Sara said causally, a bit too causally. Clark chose to ignore her tone.

Clark nodded. He grabbed two highlighters and two blue ink pens. After a moment's contemplation, he added the novel he was reading. He wanted to be gone for a while. He didn't want to go back and discover one of Sara's scrunches on the doorknob. Sitting outside the door waiting for Jack and Sara to finish was about as much fun as mucking out a horse's stall.

"Maybe you could drop by and say hi, share stories about Kansas, cow-tipping tricks or whatever," Jack suggested jokingly. Jack had this odd fixation with Clark being from Kansas. He made, on average, one farm boy joke per day.

Clark didn't appreciate the jokes, although he supposed he's partially at fault. He could have told Jack he was from Metropolis. He didn't have to say he was from rural Kansas, from a small town named Smallville. He didn't have to say his parents were farmers. If he hadn't said nothing, he could have avoided the stupid farm jokes.

He had learned his lesson. He was careful about oversharing these days. If someone asked where he's from, he just said, "Kansas" and left it at that. No one ever asked for more information.

The zipper of the backpack made a soft sound as Clark zipped the bag shut. He turned towards Jack's bed, discovering that Sara had moved so that she and Jack were resting against the headboard of Jack's bed. Their bodies were pressed up against one another, the only way they could fit together on a twin mattress. They looked silly, ridiculous clowns sealed together, impossible to know where one ended and the other began. They looked ready to tumble off the bed, their joined bodies nearly too wide for the bed's narrow width.

"What's her name?" Clark asked, directing his question towards Sara. He didn't plan on stopping in right now, but there was a chance he might know the girl. If so, then he might be tempted to stop by at some point in time. At some point in the future, not right now. He wasn't in the mood to socialize.

Sara had to think for a moment. Sara wasn't stupid, but she was horrible at names. "Chloe," she said decisively after a minute. "Chloe something. I think it started with an S."

Clark paused, standing near the door. "Sullivan?"

He glanced over his shoulder. Sara nodded, smiling brightly. "That's it," she confirmed.

"Do you know her?" Jack asked, his attention focused on Sara.

Clark was already through the day by the time Jack uttered his question. He heard it as he shuts the door firmly. Jack and Sara had left the door open a crack. He closed it for them, giving them their privacy.

The dorm room Sara would be sharing with Chloe was located on the fifth floor of Stanford Hall. Clark's dorm room was on the sixth floor of Stanford Hall, one floor above Chloe's.

He had been to Sara's dorm room a couple of times. Sara had tried to fix him up with her former roommate, a freshman named Mandy. Mandy was gone, but Clark could still remember the room number.

The dry-eraser board stared at Clark when he came to stand in front of the dorm room's door. The board had yet to be updated. Its pink-colored pen declared this to be Sara's Room. There were smiley faces in the 'o' letters. Chloe's name had yet to be added.

He knocked.

The person inside yelled, "Come in," and the voice was clearly that of his best friend from Smallville.

He opened the unlocked door—students were always forgetting to lock their dorm doors. In the far right corner of the room, where the bed opposite of Sara's was located, was Chloe. Her back was turned towards him. She was spreading an orange comforter across the twin bed. The orange color clashed with the pink and purple comforter on Sara's bed.

How does one say hello to a person who has unexpectedly appeared? Clark wondered this and derived no solution to the question. So he just said the first thing that came to mind.

"You know, it's not really safe to just say 'Come in' to whoever knocks on the door."

Chloe spun around, the orange comforter falling harmlessly to the mattress. She smiled at him, but her smile was nervous, hesitant. It wasn't Chloe's typical smile. "Hey Clark," she greeted brightly, her tone not betraying the same level of nervousness that her smile was.

"Hey."

The three feet separating them felt like a gap the size of the Grand Canyon. He had seen Chloe in Smallville just a few weeks ago. Now it was the Sunday before classes started and she was suddenly in Florida, suddenly a student at the University of Miami. He was startled, not unhappy, but definitely surprised.

Their visit in Smallville had been punctuated by awkward silences. Four months apart and they had no longer known how to click. The easy element of their friendship, regained in their senior year of high school, had been lost. Sporadic and short emails were simply not the same as spending hours each day with someone.

Drifting, Clark knew, was a normal part of growing up. Friends drifted. It happened. He hadn't like how much he and Chloe had drifted in just four months, but it had been expected.

What wasn't expected was Chloe showing up to attend the university he attended. She hadn't said anything. The only thing she had said in regards to schooling was that her classes at Met U had all gone well.

He could feel the tension between them still and he knew Chloe could feel the tension too. He could tell by the way she shifted her weight from one foot to another. It was in the way she bit her lower lip, just slightly.

He wished he had something witty to say, something that would break this awkward silence. He would even take one of Jack's off-color jokes. But there was nothing, his mind blank. He was surprised and unprepared. Unprepared and so he had no fancy words, no funny words, no words at all in fact.

Chloe was the one who broke the silence. "I thought I'd be the one tracking you down, not the other way around," she said uneasily. The bright tone was gone.

"Your roommate is my roommate's girlfriend."

Chloe moved and took a seat on the edge of her bed. Clark remained standing.

"They kicked you out of the room, didn't they?" Chloe said teasingly, but the tension remained in place. She did get points for effort. It was the tension that stole from the words any levity they might have possessed.

Clark shook his head. Jack and Sara would never kick him out. At least they would never say the words of 'get out'. They would just appear and he would remove himself, because he definitely didn't need to witness anything that went on between Jack and Sara. "Not exactly," he said. "I left voluntarily."

Chloe smiled and brushed her hair behind her ears, in a gesture he had seen on too many occasions to count. At Christmas, her hair had been straight and below her shoulders. Now it was shoulder-length and fell in soft waves. It was far more attractive. It gave her a relaxed appearance, despite the stiff position she had adopted, sitting on the bed, orange comforter rumpled around her. Back too straight, an attempt to give the illusion of being at ease when one was clearly ill-at-ease.

"I'm guessing they'll miss having this room to themselves," Chloe said lightly.

Her attempt fell a bit flat, again, but Clark appreciated Chloe's ability to struggle through the sea of awkwardness between them. "Yeah, I'm sure they will."

"You too, I bet," she added. She said this with a wide smile, another attempt to ease the tension between them.

Clark thought it might be better if she didn't try, at least not so hard. He didn't say this. Instead, he replied, "Maybe a little." He inhaled, exhaled; thinking about his words, and then let them go, just as Chloe began to look worried. "But I'm glad to see you."

The smile that tugged at Chloe's lips was still cautious, but far more genuine and confident than any of the smiles she had given him so far. "Really?" she asked, standing again. She took five steps forward, which put her close enough to Clark that he could smell the vanilla lotion on her skin.

"Yeah, it's nice to see a familiar face."

It wasn't a lie, thankfully. He had made friends, but those friends weren't members of the student population of U. of M. Friends, yes, but not fellow students, at least not anymore.

The only one of his friends who was a student at U. of M. decided to take a leave of absence this semester. Having Chloe here will give him a friend on campus. As well, Chloe's presence might just give Clark a viable excuse to escape Sara's latest matchmaking schemes.

Part of the current tension between him and Chloe had been created by physical distance. With them both attending the same school, they should be able to grow closer and the tension should become prominent. They should be able to recapture the easy friendship they had during their last year of high school. It was the sort of easy friendship they had had in junior high and during the early part of freshman year at high school. They managed to overcome Lana and Lionel in the past. They should be able to overcome four months apart. They had before.

He was hopeful.

Clark suspected a small part the tension between them would always remain. As long as he continued to keep the truth from Chloe, there would be tension. Chloe knew there was a secret and knew that Clark refused to divulge the secret. Tension was inevitable in this sort of situation.

They had managed to find a way to due with her not knowing but suspecting something during senior year. Tension and awkwardness had sometimes sprung up during that year, but nothing seemed to derail this friendship to any great extent. After Lionel had stolen his body, Chloe had refused to speak to him. But even that had ended rather quickly and their friendship had returned to what it had been before the Lionel-incident.

Clark doubted there would be another case of body-snatching. Even if there was, he could probably just tell Chloe the truth about that and she would believe him. Strange things were easy to accept after spending time in Smallville.

"I'm glad I can be that familiar face," Chloe said. Her smile had grown a bit wider, a bit more relaxed. She looked like she did back in freshman year, back when they were young and carefree. So much had changed since then, but her smile gave Clark a measure of relief. Not everything had changed.

Things do change, but some things remain constant. Chloe had been a constant presence in his life. They've been closer and farther apart, emotionally, but she had been a part of his life for years. He knew a lot about her, from random facts to the exact way her face looked when she was happy. Her smile was familiar and comforting.

It reminded him of home.

The space between them no longer felt like a huge gap. The gap was shrinking, the space no longer filled with the same level of awkward tension.

"It'll be like old times," Clark said.

"Well, not exactly like old times," Chloe pointed out. "But we can, you know, seek refuge in whoever's dorm Jack and Sara aren't using," Chloe said, but then her smile faltered. "That is, if you aren't busy with other friends. Or a girlfriend, although you didn't mention one-"

Clark closed the distance between them, placing his hands upon her shoulders. The gesture stopped her rambling. Chloe tilted her head upwards, and he smiled at her. She returned the smile.

There was no longer a space of awkwardness between them. There was still a space and it did feel full, but it didn't feel awkward. It felt oddly good, like a tingling sensation going down his spine. A good feeling but slightly odd, a feeling he isn't used to.

"That sounds fine, Chloe. It sounds nice, actually. I've been lonely."

He had been lonely. He had been alone for the most part. Solitary confinement had fallen upon him without his permission. He didn't have a huge circle of friends. The friends he had made since arriving in Florida were far away and weren't due for a visit any time soon.

"Me too," Chloe admitted softly.

Clark slid his hands from her shoulders down her arms until he reached her hands. He squeezed her hands gently before pulling away, his arms hanging limp at his side.

There was something about revealing loneliness that made a person uncomfortable. It was vulnerability voiced, hard to do when the person was something you had known intimately in the past but didn't know intimately any longer. It was stripping away barriers, the last layers of protections.

Chloe had never been good at admitting vulnerabilities of this sort. Clark had seen her anger, had seen the problems her anger created. She had cried at those times. Other times, when it came to voicing certain emotions, he had seen her pull back, erecting a barrier once more.

Hindsight does bring clarity. He had gone over his memories of his time in Smallville systematically since he had been in Miami. Looking back, he examined events with an eye only time could bring. It had been enlightening, to say the least. He had learned about friends, and his family.

These days he could recognize Chloe's patterns. It had taken years, but now the patterns were familiar and no longer mysterious.

Chloe had already started construction on a new barrier. She took an emotional step backwards, saying, "So, how about giving me a personal tour of the campus?"

He let her back off for now. He wasn't about to push her, not yet. But he had plans to make her smile again, a true smile, not the impostor of a smile on her face currently.

"Let's go," he said. He held out an arm, gentleman-style, with a smile he knew would border on dorky. It was a grin too wide, possessing a hopefulness impossible to turn away from.

Chloe laughed lightly and looped her arm around his. He pulled her to his side. She went willingly enough, soft and warm against his side. Their fingers brushed.

"Lead on, McDuff," Chloe commanded jokingly.

So he led, Chloe just a step behind. It was utterly familiar and completely different than before.

Things change, Clark told himself, and left it at that.

For now.

TBC.