Chapter 9: Nothing With Cherries

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"Come on, Lex... Working in double digits has never been your style, let's up the stakes!" Vic called from across the crowd. He made a small jump onto a park bench to put himself in the spotlight. "You and I aren't part of this quaint little cow town. I'd hate to see a man like you bid against common farmers."

Lex clenched his jaw, and glared at his challenger. Only one of them was going to walk away with the cherry pie, and it was *not* going to be Vic!

The auctioneer reigned his composure, "I-I heard a one thousand... do I hear a-"

"Two thousand!" Lex called out, not averting his gaze.

"What the hell are you doing?" Chloe hissed. "You're not spending that kind of money on pie!"

"I know what I'm doing," Lex stated as Vic rose the bid.

"Three thousand!" a voice sneered.

"I'm not letting you do this." Chloe said, her eyes widening.

"Do you really want to have lunch with this guy? After what he did to you?" Lex snapped. "Four thousand!"

"No... but-"

"Five thousand!"

Chloe groaned. The thought of seeing Vic again made her want to throw up... again, but the thought of Lex loosing all that money for her was just-

"Seven thousand!" Lex called out, his eyes burned furiously. He was not going to let Chloe down.

"Lex please don't do this... please!" Chloe said with a slightly more controlled but stern tone

He wasn't looking at her, his eyes were fixated on the stage and that sorry excuse for a pie that lay on the table. The Prize.

"Don't worry, Chloe, I promised that I would -nine thousand!- buy your pie and a Luthor never goes back on his- mphhh..." his words were muffled as something slipped over mouth... Chloe's bandanna.

The small blonde girl wrestled the man to the ground before stunned onlookers and pinned his shoulders to the ground. Chloe wouldn't let Lex bid any higher. She looked into Lex's shocked eyes as she sat on his chest.

"Stop bidding, dammit!" she yelled at him. This was a highly awkward position, but it did the job.

"Ten thousand!" Vic called, not noticing Chloe's battle to keep Lex down and out of the race. Lex struggled roll Chloe off him without hurting her, but it wasn't working.

"I hear ten thousand, are there any higher bids?" There was a pause and the auctioneer breathed a sigh of relief, "Going once... going twice... gone to the man in the suit! Er... the other man in the suit."

"Victor Neufeld of Neufeld Industries," Vic introduced himself smugly. He gave himself an egotistical smile. He'd won. He'd beaten Lex Luthor and won the pie... and the girl.

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"Hey Clark, who's the other guy bidding on Chloe's pie?" Pete asked squeezing through the crowd to get to his friend. They were far away from the front of the stage and couldn't really see what was going on.

"I think he said his name was Vincent or something," Clark answered, "I wonder how Chloe knows him?"

"I have no idea," Pete shrugged, "Whoever he is, he's been bidding against Lex for a while now. They must be pretty high."

Clark laughed, "Please... I paid eighty-five dollars for Lana's pie... I doubt Lex is going to pay more for Chloe's"

"I don't know Clark... the guy *does* carry around more cash in his back pocket than the whole town of Smallville earns in a year... That guy seems to be in Lex's league too."

Clark frowned, "I think Chloe's making to many billionaire friends."

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"Wait!" Lex rolled from under Chloe and scrambled onto his feet, waving to the auctioneer, "Twenty thousand!"

"I'm sorry, Mr Neufeld gets the pie."

"Thirty thousand!" Lex yelled, trying hide the desperation in his voice.

"Sir, the auction is now closed. Will Miss Sullivan please step forward?" The auctioneer asked. "We have a new record high bid!"

Lex grasped Chloe's hand before she went up to the stage, "Wait! You can't go with... *him*." Lex stated, sneering slightly. He didn't handle failure very well... he'd never dealt with it much, especially when it came at such a high price.

Chloe gave Lex a slight smile and tipped her hat up. "I have to go, if I don't Lana might beat me up for breaking tradition." Chloe joked to lighten the dark mood that had crept into Lex's features. It didn't work

"Thanks for bidding so high by the way." she turned around quickly to avoid Lex's steely eyes. She'd never seen him look so... angry yet insecure at the same time. Did he really care that much?

Slowly, Chloe made her way to the platform where Vic stood holding a piece of her pie. "Jerk... I hope you choke on it." Chloe mumbled as she faced him.

Vic grinned, handing a cheque to the auctioneer. He'd never expected things to go so well... revenge was sweet. He'd finally got Lex back for all those sour business deals... even if he'd only done it on a personal level. He enjoyed making Lex Luthor furious and weak.

"Nice to see you again," Vic said snaking his arm around Chloe's waist. Chloe shuddered a little from the sheer creepiness of it all. Vic looked up to the back of the crowd; at the Luthor who was reduced into a vicious glare.

"And now for the finale," Vic said to himself. He closed his eyes and took a massive bite out of the piece of pie he held, savouring the taste. Suddenly he stopped and started coughing and spluttering.

Chloe's eyes widened in horror as she sprung away from him. She hadn't meant what she'd said about him choking!

The auctioneer ran up to Victor and proceeded to give him the Heimlich manoeuvre.

"I'm not choking you idiot!" Vic yelled between coughing. "What the hell did you put in that pie?!"

"Ch-cherries." Chloe stuttered. *Smallville reporter murders multimillionaire Victor Neufeld because she couldn't bake pie.*

"Were they red cherries?" Victor asked reaching into his jacket for some pills.

"They were more of a dark pink colour... a very dark pink." Chloe said guiltily.

"Ugh! I'm allergic to them! If I so much as look at a cherry I get..." Vic couldn't go on and fell back into a chair. "Someone call an ambulance... that's of course if they have a descent hospital in this hole of a town."

"Ambulance is on it's way," Lex said, coming up behind Chloe and slipping his cell phone back into his pocket. Chloe sighed in relief when she felt him brush up against her. She'd never been so relieved to see anyone.

"Luthor..." Vic seethed. "I won the auction!"

Lex had to give a small laugh, "Yeah, Vic you won the auction, and the cherry pie... but you lost ten thousand dollars and the girl."

"You knew that I was allergic to cherries! You made sure that they were in the pie!"

"Sorry... I can't take the credit for it. The evil mastermind of a teenage girl came up with that one; and it wasn't even on purpose."

"You realise that I'm going to sue you and this godforsaken hick town for this!"

Lex leaned closer to Vic, "As soon as you do, I'll sell my shares in the Neufeld Industry to my father... he's been wanting to shut your company down... for good."

The paramedics rushed to Vic and hauled him away, "This isn't over, Luthor!" Vic yelled.

Lex smirked, "That sounded like the villian's line from a bad comic book." he glanced at Chloe who didn't look like she'd processed all the information yet.

"Chloe! Are you okay?" Lana rushed to her, closely followed by Clark and Pete.

"Wasn't that the guy you ran into in Metropolis? Victo-"

"Yeah," Chloe cut her off, "That was you-know-who from you-know where." she really didn't feel like hearing that name.

Clark looked confused, "Was that *the* you-know-who from you-know-where?"

Pete's eyes widened, "Who did you-know-what with you!"

Chloe paused, "I'm going to go with *yes* for all questions, but everyone can calm down now, I'm fine. Really."

"Wow," Lana said appreciatively, "You-know-who is pretty good looking, I understand why you were attracted to him at the you-know-where."

Lana stopped when she saw everyone's expressions, "What? I'm a red blooded female! Let's go have pie, Clark." Clark gave Chloe a small smile before heading off with Lana.

Pete didn't move, "I can't believe you'd use Chloe as a pawn in this little game between you and Neufeld... I don't know why I'm surprised though." he stated glaring at Lex.

"It wasn't like that Pete-" Chloe began.

"Chloe, I'm your friend and I'm telling you that the Luthor is bad news. Take my advice or leave it, I'm going to have banana pie with Erika." Pete stalked off.

Chloe sighed and spent an uncofortable few moments of silence with Lex.

"Mr Ross doesn't like me." Lex stated simply.

"What on earth gave you that impression?" Chloe said with a small smile.

Lex returned the grin, "Maybe he's jealous of my fabulous people skills?"

"I doubt it... so I guess since the pie has been contaminsated and bidding is over you'll want to go home, huh?" Chloe asked looking down at her short leather boots.

"Actually, if it's okay with you, I'd still like to go somewhere and have lunch... nothing with cherries in it though." Lex said moving a little closer to her.

"That would be perfect." Chloe said. She grabbed his hand before leading him and his expensive clothes down the dirt road.

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Thanks for all the reviews ppl, I really do appreciate them, even the one- liners... *especially* the one-liners!

If anyone was wondering. yes, the paramedics of Smallville took a shortcut through a black hole to get there so fast.