"Friendship is constant in all other things

 Save in the office and affairs of love."

-Shakespeare

 The day seemed both endless and yet empty for Clark. He spent a lunch hanging out with the very happy Pete and a few of his other friends, who thankfully were more enthusiastic conversationalists than Clark, and kept the birthday-boy happy with talk of the gifts he'd received from his parents (including a very nice sum towards a car), and which girl each of them were going to have their eye on at the party that night.

  He couldn't bring himself to speak to Chloe. He felt full of self-loathing and yet could just not see any way that she would be able to accept the truth if he told her. Not to mention the fact that he felt he had no right to say anything without discussing it with Lex – after all, if any of this got out he would be the first to suffer for it. Most likely at the receiving end of Jonathon Kent's right hook.

 Any conversation would feel fake and taste bitter in his mouth; he hated himself for considering going and 'confessing' that he was in a relationship with Ella Rosenberg after all…for the more he thought about it, the more it made sense as a temporary solution to all the suspicions and as some sort of remedy to the tattered remnants of their friendship…Ella could be an answer to almost every question – the difficulty in finding time to see each other would explain his always being away, and for being tired and run down whenever he was around. The stress of keeping the relationship secret due to the age gap would explain his bad moods and stress. It would all be so perfect, because it was all so very nearly true.

 The only problem was of course, there would be no proof; he'd only be forced to give more specific lies that could be more easily disproved than whatever general suspicions Chloe seemed to have at the moment.

   For then was Chloe herself…how could telling her a story like that give her any more comfort than she had now? He couldn't show her how happy he was, she couldn't be forced to see him with someone else until she was forced to admit that things were better off like this…

      Round and round and round the problems spun in Clark's mind. A storm was brewing and what was worse was that he'd seen it coming all along…and he'd let it. He'd been too busy enjoying himself this week to really stop and think about how he was going to keep all his secrets in check.

    He could try and limit the amount he used his superpowers to when they were needed in an emergency. But he couldn't stop himself from spending time with Lex. This was all going wrong before it had even properly started…

~ ~ ~

Lex was being plagued by the same worries, as he'd gone about his business that day.  After spending a few hours at the LuthorCorp Plant, he was just walking back to his car, accompanied by Mr. Sullivan when he'd tried to casually ask after his daughter. The genuineness of his concern though had somehow shone through and the poor man had look surprised and unbearably grateful for the unusual attention.

 "My daughter? Well she's fine thankyou for asking Mr Luthor!" When Lex continued to give him his full attention instead of nodding vaguely and swanning off, he continued, helpless to prevent himself from telling the world about his daughter, with all the pride and care of a father that Lex had never witnessed in his own. "She's a real good kid – she's still got that spark of Metropolis in her – I just know she's going to really get somewhere with her journalism..."

 He watched Lex smile wryly,

 "Yes, she's certainly got all the making of the intrepid reporter."

 Sullivan laughed embarrassed and proud at the same time,

"Oh, of course, I keep forgetting you've met."

 "Yes, well interviews apart we share a mutual friend…" Lex didn't know why he'd mentioned that to someone who was basically just an employee to him – he could even see it in his face for a second, that sudden recollection of just how young Lex Luthor really was…a shift in the way this particular employee perceived him, as he saw before him his boss - he who had power over the very future of his family – as someone who spent his time with his teenage daughter's friends.

 Lex had made his exit very swiftly after that, making sure his final words were weighty ones about the running of the plant. It would do no good to have his top employee harbouring fresh doubts about his ability to run this business, after all his hard work of the past year.

 He did find himself feeling genuinely sorry for Chloe; he saw drive and intelligence in her that he could respect, while at the same time she was yet another innocent, good-natured and charming part of Clark's life. He would have wished for such a genuine friend as her in his teenage years, but all his friends had ended up as jaded as him, if not worse. And of course, he could never blame her for falling in love with Clark Kent. When he saw the two of them together, with her eyes following her friend everywhere, and him taking her so much for granted, mostly oblivious of her beauty and her devotion to him. First there was Lana, and now there was him – and while, from what he could gather, there had been some thawing of hostilities between Chloe and Miss Lang, he knew that her opinion of him had far from improved the past months. Yeah, the poor girl really did not deserve what life had been throwing at her lately. But while she may deserve Clark far more than him, Lex wasn't about to give him up. Clark was his, and he was going to keep him now no matter what. And that meant that Chloe Sullivan, with her damned curiosity spurred on by her jealousy was going to be a problem.

Later that evening Lex would give anything for Clark's besotted best friend to be his one and only problem again.

~ ~ ~

"I love this guy!"

 Clark tried not to splutter out his coke. Oh man, he thought, One day Pete's really going to regret shouting that out to the entire room.

 But shouting Pete was, and after another two minutes of declaration of love, respect and "you da man!"s  he finally settled down enough to ask where the hell Clark managed to get tickets for The Metropolis Shark's hugely important and supposedly sold-out game next month.

 "I have my sources." Clark said, grinning.

The party was in full swing around them, and was so far a raging success. And, obviously, Pete was highly appreciative of Clark's gift. But now a sad smile was on his face,

 "Yeah, well, if you happen to know the owner of the Sharks I guess you should take advantage of it."

 Clark's own grin fell. It was always there…always this sad, pitying disapproval of his and Lex's friendship. If it wasn't Pete's party and he wasn't so tired, he probably wouldn't have been able too keep the bitterness out of his voice as he did now;

" Pete? For one thing, technically it's Lex's dad who owns the team. And second.." He smiled, " …I got those tickets by standing for two hours in the pouring rain after school one night."

After a second or two of staring down at the tickets in his hand embarrassed, Pete was grinning again.

 "I'm sorry man, I totally deserved that. Thankyou – these are great."

 He sat down next to Clark at the coffee bar and leaned back happily.

 "So – you got three tickets huh? Any suggestions for who I should take with me?" He was teasing, and Clark knew it, but still he hesitated before answering. It had bee the three of them for so many years now; Pete, Chloe and him. They'd done some serious growing up together, but lately, he'd just felt like he was growing apart. And it wasn't just this thing with Lex; it was strange but at least when he himself didn't know the reason for his great strength and speed, it didn't feel like he was keeping so much from them. But since he'd knew the truth – well, at least as much of it as his parents did – he'd felt the weight of his decision not to share this all-important revelation with his best friends. He knew he couldn't' tell them, he knew it….they'd never look at him the same again – after all, he'd be the source of everything that had ever appeared on the Wall of Weird. How could he ever just be 'Clark' again? Nope, he'd be Clark, their favourite extraterrestrial.  But that didn't stop him from wondering if he deserved their friendship after deceiving them so much…

 A gentle punch on the arm from Pete brought him happily back to the carefree atmosphere of the celebrations.

 "C'mon Clark, I'm just kidding. It'll be good; you me and Chloe in the big city! Can't you just see her now, showing us all her old haunts?"

 They both allowed their gazes to wander over to the happy blonde laughing with a couple of girlfriends on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, I can see it…" Clark said quietly.

Pete glanced across at him before turning back to watch the oblivious Chloe, all bright-eyed and happy, the life of the party, looking beautiful in her own unique way. He sighed,

"Well, there's just one problem."

Clark looked back at him quickly but he didn't meet his eye – just kept staring out casually across the room as he spoke,

" See, despite their best efforts to hide it, it's pretty obvious that something's gone down between my two best friends. And from where I'm sitting it looks like you were the one to cause it."

 "Pete, I-"

" Hey, listen Clark – you're my best friend. And it's my birthday. I honestly don't want to get into an argument tonight okay? All I want is to say this.." he spoke as quietly as he could amidst the music. " I ..I know that people grow up. Hey, tonight should prove that. And I know that sometimes that can cause problems – Problem one for example, being that some people might feel there's something else out there better than smalltown Smallville..they might  go looking for new experiences...and new friends. But that's okay, because I think I can realise now it's kinda naive –and selfish- of me to expect otherwise. I just want the people I care about to be happy."

 As the laughter and conversations went on all around them, Clark sat humbled and full of hope at the same time. They couldn't look at each other, neither wanting the moment to tip on its balance; for it half felt like the beginning of a new era in their friendship and half like all they had built together was caving in.

Pete was the one to shift in his seat after a moment and speak again.

"… And that, Clark, brings us problem number two."

He made the faintest of nods out towards Chloe.

" Because you see, what with all this growing up, there might be this girl who finds herself falling for a friend who- " he turned to Clark for a moment, with a sort of sad resignation in his voice, "-for some strange, utterly unbelievable reason of his own -doesn't feel the same towards her; doesn't want the commitment, or whatever…"

 " I can't make you see sense Clark, and  I can't tell you how much I would give to have her look at me the way she looks at you.  But somehow you've finally managed to not only break her heart, but loose her friendship. And I care about both of you too much to allow things to stay like this. Go. Fix things. Somehow, you have to at least try…because if you don't… then, Clark, then we'll have a problem between us."

With that, he stood up and walked away quietly, head down as he left his stunned and heavy-hearted friend behind.

~~~

TBC