Everything In This World

By Viv

*~*~ Part Nine ~*~*


Clark was half-frowning, half-smiling in that unique way of his as he and Lana just stood and watched Chloe and Lex. They were having so much fun that it took their usually sharp instincts a while to realise that Clark and Lana were actually there, witnessing them in all their silly glory.

Chloe choked back a laugh when she spied Clark's bemused, though frowning expression. She looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Clark." Lex sat up quickly, managing somehow to look dignified, even though he was sitting in a dark pool of goo and covered in rapidly drying mud. "What a surprise." He noted dryly.

"I could say the same." While not openly hostile, Chloe was surprised by the coldness in his tone before he quickly covered it up. "I knew Chloe wanted to search the field, but she didn't say anything about mud-wrestling. Maybe I should have packed my gym uniform." He forced a smile that to Chloe was transparently fake.

Lana stared quickly between Clark, Lex and Chloe, before stepping forward and subtlety weaving her hand through Clark's. Smiling down at Chloe as if the tension that had suddenly arisen was no more than a faint twinge of the breeze, she said brightly, "I'm sorry we're late Chloe. I got held up helping Nell with some chores. You know how she gets."

Chloe nodded, grateful for Lana's smiling presence. "Yeah." She gulped as she picked herself up gingerly from the ground. "I think we're about done here anyway." She sneaked a glance at Lex, who was sporting an intense frown on his face. "I need to get cleaned up."

Clark held his hand out to Lex. Lex stared at it for a long moment, a look of intense concentration on his face before taking it and hauling himself up.

"I need to get going too, the siren song of work calls." If possible his frown got even deeper, although his face broke out into a smile as he addressed Chloe. "I'll call you about Metropolis okay?"

Chloe nodded hurriedly, not wanting to meet Clark's eyes. She didn't know why things suddenly felt so awkward, or why Clark suddenly cared who she spent time with even if it was in a deserted field in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't really any of his business, friend or no friend.

Clark blinked as Lex walked off . They were silent for a few moments, staring after Lex's retreating form. Clark broke the stifling stillness.

"What were you doing out here with Lex?" He asked abruptly.

Chloe sighed. Trust Clark and his brutal-as-hell honesty. "I ran into him, okay?" She started walking rapidly away from him.

"In the middle of nowhere?" Clark's normally smiling eyes squinted with suspicion, and if Chloe hadn't already smacked him a few months before, she would have been sorely tempted now. What right did he have to scrutinise her every move anyway?

"Yes." She huffed, as Clark and Lana kept up behind her. Chloe didn't know where she was going or even what she actually was doing at the moment, but she just wished that Clark would go away and leave her alone. And also grow up.

"In the middle of nowhere?" Clark asked again, as if saying it a second time might chang Chloe's answer.

"Can you please stop saying that?" Her voice rose as she began losing her famously hot temper. "Four words." She spun back towards him. "None. Of. Your. Business."

His eyes widened as momentary hurt flooded into his eyes. He opened his mouth but hurriedly clamped it shut again, obviously thinking back to the last time he had pushed Chloe beyond the edge. He sighed.

They walked on in silence until they caught sight of Clark's truck, parked neatly in a small clearing by the side of the road.

"You want a ride back into town?" Clark asked in a conciliatory tone, hoping to make some amends for his behaviour.

Chloe hesitated. She was on the point of refusing him when Lana interjected, "Come on Chloe, we can give you a lift back to your house."

Suddenly all the anxious energy drained out of Chloe. She felt tired - too tired to put up much of an argument, now that she had already had one with Clark. "Okay." She said quietly as she clambered into the truck.

Clark slammed the doors shut and started the engine.

They drove in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Chloe resolutely kept her gaze pasted to the rapidly rolling landscape as they headed back into town. The silence hung heavy in the air; it was almost tangible between Clark and Chloe in the small enclosed space of the truck. Chloe felt slightly sorry for Lana, who had ended up sandwiched between the two of them, although knowing Lana her positioning was probably by design in order to keep the peace.

Evidently Clark couldn't stand the silence as much as Chloe, because he burst out with, "I'm sorry." He added, "I was just surprised, that's all. About you and Lex."

Chloe gritted her teeth in irritation. What was it about her and Lex that made people think that there was a 'her and Lex'. He was a gazillion years older than her, heir to a billionaire fortune and more importantly, her father's boss. All factors that should have spelled 'not in this lifetime, not ever' to anyone with a passing interest, even if she had wanted anything to happen with him. Which she didn't. "There's nothing -" she forced herself to take a deep breath before continuing, "There's nothing going on, okay dork brain?" She glanced at Lana. "Can you inform your nosy boyfriend of this little fact? Because I don't think he's really going to get it."

Clark continued as if he hadn't heard what Chloe had said, while Lana frowned. "It's just that ... I know Lex." Chloe could see him swallow carefully as his Adam's apple bopped up and down. "He's one of my best friends and everything, but I've seen him with women. I just don't want to
see you get hurt."

Chloe blinked, rapidly fighting down a million images that suddenly sprung up in her mind, all involving her doing something horribly violent to Clark. What made him think ... argh. Chloe usually liked people who were direct and forthright, but even she found Clark's innocent honesty a bit trying at times. Would it hurt him to get a clue?

Clark is an idiot, she raged silently. And by the look on Lana's face, she thought so too.

"As much as I'm enjoying this big brother routine you've got going Clark - just drop it. I'm not going to get hurt because - for those of us who missed the first broadcast - there is nothing going on." Chloe sat back onto the seat and crossed her arms, effectively ending the conversation.

She was officially annoyed as hell with her best friend.

Finally they reached her house. Almost as soon as Clark brought the rumbling truck to a stop, Chloe opened the door and leaped out as if her very life depended on it. Clark undid his seatbelt and was about to go after her when Lana placed a restraining arm on his hand.

"You stay." She said in a tone that clearly brooked no argument. "I'll go." She leaped out of the truck after Chloe, hoping to catch the blonde before she had the opportunity to go into her house.

"Chloe." Lana called after her. "Wait."

Chloe paused in the act of opening the door and turned around. She spun around to watch as Lana gracefully walked up to her, an understanding smile on her beautiful face. "Are you okay?"

Chloe sighed, fatigue creeping through every sinew of her body. "I guess. It's just -" she hesitated as she looked at Lana, wondering whether it was entirely appropriate to say what she was about to say, but she swallowed and continued anyway. "It's just that he confuses me sometimes. One minute he's all ignoring me and taking me for granted and the next-"

"He's acting like he's jealous." Lana finished off matter-of-factly.

"Don't get me wrong," Chloe continued hurriedly, hoping to dispel the hurt look in Lana's eyes, "I don't think it's - I mean, he's taken me for granted for so long that it never occurred to him that someone like Lex - I mean, not that there's anything there, but ... you know, we've been friends for so long ..." She trailed off lamely.

For someone harbouring not-so-secret ambitions to become a big city reporter, Chloe was being surprisingly inarticulate.

Lana frowned, her downcast eyes gazing at an invisible spot somewhere in the vicinity of Chloe's muddy shoes. She seemed to be deep in thought, so much so that Chloe was beginning to feel like an intruder in her privacy.

"He is jealous." Lana said quietly, in a tone that made Chloe feel that she was confirming it to herself rather than wanting Chloe's opinion of it. She stuck her hands in her pockets as her frown deepened, although the rest of her face remained determinedly passive.

Finally she smiled, a strangely lopsided smile given the fact that it was coming from Lana. "Are you going to come by the Talon later?"

"Ah ..." Chloe looked closely at Lana, trying to catch any hint of what Lana was really thinking about at the moment but to no avail. "I think I'll just crash. Get an early night." She nodded, awkwardly pursing her lips in the silence that followed.

"Okay." Lana said at last, and Chloe was just sharp enough to detect a hint of false brightness in the other girl's eyes. "See you later Chloe."

Chloe watched Lana's retreating figure as she climbed back into Clark's truck. Maybe it had been a trick of the light, but it seemed to Chloe that a veil of sadness had descended over Lana's normally bright countenance. And she had the sinking suspicion that she was the cause of it all.

(c) July 2002