Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Fourteen ~*~*
Someone banged incessantly on the door.
"Coming." Chloe called, glancing at the clock and grabbing a piece of toast from the plate in front of her. She hurriedly putting her coat on and cursed loudly. What kind of a person was Lex Luthor, to actually be alive and well at 8 o'clock in the morning? As well as being rich, smart and charming, he had to be punctual as well. Either that, or he was a real morning person.
Which made her wince in even more discomfort. Unfortunately for Chloe, she was definitely not of the morning person variety - quite the opposite. She could pull an all-nighter at the drop of a hat, or an all-night coffee brewing mega cram session for finals, but if someone asked her to get up early out of her own free will, it simply would never happen - the her actually getting up part that was.
She was of course, only doing this because of her career ambitions. Anything less and Chloe would be fast asleep in her bed even now.
Grabbing her keys off the table, she opened the door to find Lex waiting impatiently outside, his slim frame leaning casually against the side of her house. "Do you always take this long to answer the door? Or am I just special?" He smiled crookedly as he led her to his waiting black Ferrari.
"Sorry." Chloe apologised sheepishly, hoping he wasn't too annoyed at her. She couldn't really tell. She was kinda slow on the uptake without actual caffeine in her system, one of the hazards of being a coffee-dependent creature of the night like she was.
"That's okay. I figured you weren't really a morning person."
Chloe stopped in her tracks. "How did you figure that?" She asked him curiously. Never the mind the bizarre concept of Lex actually thinking about her at all.
He shrugged casually. "You drink so much coffee that frankly, I'm surprised you can even get to sleep at all." He grinned at her as he unlocked the car. "Get in."
Chloe clambered into the car, mindful of the relatively low roof as she hauled her shoulder bag in after her. She sank gratefully onto the soft leathery comfort of the seat.
Lex keyed the ignition and the engine roared to life.
Chloe stretched out her aching muscles and yawned loudly as they sped away from her house, making Lex chuckle. "Are you always so cheery in the morning?" He asked as sarcasm dripped off his voice.
She shrugged, wiggling her fingers in an attempt to wake herself up at the microscopic level. Her personal theory was that if she woke herself up progressively, starting from the smaller parts of her body (like her fingers and toes) and worked her way up, her brain might eventually be able to achieve full functionality - maybe even before midday.
"You know," she spoke up, stifling a yawn in the process, "in case I get too stressed out today and forget to thank you - thank you." She smiled through bleary eyes. "It was nice of you to give me a ride and everything."
"You're welcome." He smiled, his eyes twinkling in the morning sun light as they sped through the town. "Your father didn't try to talk you out of it?" He asked curiously.
Chloe chuckled. "You know my dad." She turned towards him impishly. "We came to an agreement."
"What kind of an agreement?" He asked, clearly intrigued.
She waved his question away airily. "Oh, you know. The standard. No sex, drugs or rock and roll." She laughed suddenly at his startled reaction as she clarified. "I just promised not to get home too late, and to get my assignments from Lana on the weekend."
Lex expelled a breath before letting out a quick chortle himself. "Sex and drugs I could have dealt with." He retorted in a tone that was decidedly more Lex-like. "It's the rock and roll that I would have been worried about."
"Oh yeah?" Chloe asked, eyeing him curiously. "You mean you're not a fan of the rock and roll, Elvis hip swinging thing?"
"Chloe. I'm 21 - not 201." He paused at a traffic light. "As a matter of fact, I'm actually a bit of a rock guy myself."
Chloe couldn't suppress a chortle in surprise. "You? Like rock?" She asked incredulously.
"Don't look so surprised." Lex said defensively. "Listen." He took one hand off the wheel long enough to press the play button on the CD player. Music blared loudly from the speakers.
"Okay." Chloe swivelled sideways, training her full attention on to him. "What kind of rock? Area 7 or Creed?"
Lex frowned, perplexed. "Neither ... I think."
Chloe rolled her eyes, secretly enjoying the confused look on Lex's face. At last she had found something that he knew absolutely nothing about. He obviously did not have as tight a hold on the pulse of young America as she had previously thought. At least, not the still in puberty portion of young America. The feeling was surprisingly refreshing. "One's alternative and the other's mainstream." She cocked her head to the side, listening carefully to the song that played loudly inside the car. She nodded her head sagely. "As I suspected."
"What?" Lex stared at her intensely. He seemed to actually want to listen to her opinion, which still surprised Chloe more than she would have admitted.
"You're more of a mainstream guy."
"What's the difference?" He shouted over the increasing volume of the music.
She blithely ignored him. It was definitely fun to hold the upper hand in this instance. "It's funny, I always thought you would have been more into the classical stuff."
"What, like Bach or Tchaikowsky?"
Chloe's face broke into a rueful smile. "Ah - more like the Beatles or the Bee Gees."
"Oh." If Chloe would have known it as an impossibility, she could have sworn that he was blushing. She silently congratulated herself for at least making him feel less sure of himself than he usually did.
It was official. She was a horrible, horrible person that did not deserve to sit in this luxuriously appointed car, legitimately staring at the bald head of the richest person in Smallville.
Did it make any difference that she was one happy horrible person, she asked herself silently.
She watched the scenery roll past behind him. They were approaching the central business district of Smallville, if indeed it could actually be called that. She was of course using the turn very loosely.
"Stop." The suddenly urgency of her voice nearly startled Lex enough to swerve.
"What?"
"Sorry." She apologised off the irritated look on his face. "I just saw the Talon. I need to grab a coffee or I'll never wake up. Sorry." She apologised again, prepared to humble herself by extended grovelling as well. That was how important an artificial coffee pick-me-up was to her right now.
He looked irritated and annoyed, but Chloe flattered herself in thinking that he may have also looked indulgent. Indulgent was good. She still needed him to drive her to Metropolis today. "Er - do you want one? A coffee I mean."
"Make it a tall black - extra strong." She raised her brows in surprise. Who knew that Lex was such a hard core coffee drinker like herself? Or maybe he had just decided that he needed some caffeine fortification to deal with her personality. She hoped it was the former.
"You got it." She jumped out of the car and jogged lightly inside.
She emerged a minute later, expertly balancing two Styrofoam cups as she backed out of the door. Expertly that was, until she bumped into Clark and Pete on their way in.
"Chloe." Clark said in a tone that Chloe could have described as delighted surprise, if not for the whole not having fully woken up due to no caffeine thing. "What are you doing here?"
"What's the hurry?" Pete asked. His eyes narrowed as he spied the two cups in her hand. "Who's that for?"
Chloe carefully ignored him. She really didn't want to go into the Lex thing right now. Besides the fact that she hadn't really told anyone about her job interview, in the most probable case of her not getting the job and thereby not having to feel unnecessary humiliation in the eyes of her friends. She hadn't even told Lana - she had only told Lex and her dad.
She turned to Clark. "I just came here to get some coffee."
He nodded dubiously, still clearly puzzled at running into her. She made to leave. "Well, see you at school?"
"Ah ..." Chloe trailed off, glancing surreptitiously at the other side of the street where Lex was parked. "I um, I'm not going to school today." She mumbled.
"Why?" Clark's enormous blue eyes widened in surprise. This was virtually unheard of. While Chloe could be a bit lackadaisical about punctuality, she had never really blown off school before. She was the type of person who took responsibility and commitment very seriously.
Chloe cast her eyes down, staring at her feet in the pavement. She could almost feel the awkwardness creeping up on her, almost tangible in its inevitability. "I ... I need to go to Metropolis today."
"Why?" Pete asked, his curiosity clearly peaked. "What's at Metropolis?"
She chewed on her lip while Clark and Pete looked on, identical frowns on their expectant faces.
A honk came from the other side of the street, and all three turned to spot Lex hanging impatiently outside the window, waving her on. Sudden comprehension dawned on Pete's face. "You're blowing off school to be with Lex?" He asked incredulously, the sense of betrayal making his voice rise in pitch, while Clark looked on, hurt clearly forming on his handsome features.
Chloe rolled her eyes. Pete was nice, but he still had that certain blind spot where Lex was concerned, namely, the blind spot that didn't allow him to conceive of Lex as being anything but an evil corporate magnate in the making. He also apparently had a sense of the melodramatic. "No dork brain." She sighed, wishing that the conversation hadn't taken such a tension-filled turn. "I have an interview at the Metropolis Beagle." Off their blank looks, she continued, "Remember all those applications I was writing during the summer? Well ... I got an interview. It's today."
Clark broke out into an bright smile. No matter what his personal issues were with Chloe, he was first and foremost her friend. He was truly happy for her and his expression showed as much. He knew what this meant to her. "That's great Chloe."
"Yeah." Pete chorused, still glancing murderously in Lex's direction. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"
Chloe glanced across the street again, noting Lex's increasing impatience. "Hey look guys, I really have to go." She checked her watch as she started backing away. "I'll fill you in on the details when I get back, okay?"
"Promise?" Pete asked, watching thoughtfully as Chloe crossed the street.
"Promise." She shouted back, knowing full well that Pete would be logging calls into her answering machine tonight in order to ascertain what time she got back.
Climbing into Lex's car, she heard Clark shout after her, "Good luck Chloe."
She smiled and waved before she slammed the door, allowing Lex to speed off.
Chloe was silent as they pulled away from the town, allowing the frantic beat of the music to invade her consciousness. She could almost hear Lex's curiosity at what Chloe had talked about with Clark and Pete coming off him in waves. She resolutely kept her silence. If he wanted to know, he would ask her. She certainly wasn't in the habit of forwarding any information that strictly speaking was really none of his business.
Almost as if he had read her mind, he suddenly piped up. "So how did Pete take it?"
"Take what?" She asked, feigning ignorance.
"Take the fact that you're going to Metropolis with me today. Given his intense hatred of me, I would have thought that he wouldn't have been too happy with that little detail. At least, he didn't look happy." He emphasised.
"You're really good at making everything about you, aren't you?" She bit back, slightly irritated at him for being irritated at Pete. Pete was one of her closest friends, and Lex was - well, whatever he was, and it really irritated her to think that they couldn't get along if the fate of the world depended on it.
She took a moment to collect herself. "Sorry." She bit her lip. "Anyway, it's not Pete you should be worried about."
"What do you mean?"
Chloe hesitated, wondering whether she should disclose to him what Clark had told her a few days before. True to Pete's advice, she had kept herself away from both Clark and Lana, allowing them to deal with whatever issues they were so obviously having. Which didn't mean that Chloe stopped obsessing about it, tossing and turning the simple fact that Clark still might have feelings for her over and over in that confused space of hers that she liked to call her brain. At least, when it was fully functional.
She was also hesitating because of something else, but she resolutely kept that out of her mind. She was obsessing about it enough as it was. "Ah ..."
"Come on Chloe, spill it." Lex smiled crookedly, a playful glint in his eyes.
"Well ..." Her voice wavered with hesitation. She ran a hand through her hair in agitation, before letting them clamp down on her knees. "Clark kinda ... told me he kinda still maybe had some feelings for me." Chloe lifted her eyes to gauge Lex's reaction, but he didn't seem to have one at all.
Damn his well-trained facial muscles. There must be a school for that somewhere.
"I see." He said quietly in the sudden silence, as the CD came to an end.
The silence dragged on while Chloe nervously bit her lip, trying to not wonder what Lex was thinking about right now. He probably wasn't even thinking about anything to do with her.
"And what did you say?" He suddenly asked, with only a hint of casual curiosity in his voice.
"Nothing." She cast her eyes down to the floor of the car, suddenly noting the soft feel of the carpet even underneath her boots. Talk about expensive fabric. "I mean, he said he still loved Lana, but he also had 'feelings' for me. What could I say to that?"
That finally brought a reaction more substantial than a facial twitch from Lex. "The guy you've been pining over the past two years says he's having second thoughts, and you said nothing?" He asked incredulously. "I find that hard to believe."
"Now you sound like Pete." She said, knowing that the comparison would irk him. "Firstly, I don't pine. Secondly, he never said he had 'second thoughts', he said that he had unresolved issues regarding our brief period of what would qualify in bizarro world as dating. Thirdly, is it so hard to believe that I'd be even slightly conflicted due to the small but significant fact that Lana is actually my friend, and even though she's gorgeous and smart and has about a million guys waiting on the boyfriend bench, she actually truly likes Clark and I don't want to be the reason she gets hurt." Chloe expelled her pent up breath.
Lex's brows were raised heavenwards. "Sorry if I touched a nerve. I just thought that this was what you always wanted - Clark giving you a lifeline so to speak."
Chloe rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Please. Could you make me sound any more melodramatic?" She sighed as she leaned back into the seat. "Besides, I don't even think it's what I really want any more."
"Really?" Chloe was surprised to hear the genuine astonishment in his voice, not to mention the bizarre fact that she and Lex were actually discussing her social life. "I just thought Clark has always been your Holy Grail. So to speak." He added covering his astonishment.
"Well, maybe he's not what I really want any more." Her face brightened. "You know, there are more things in this world than Clark Kent."
His smile widened to mirror hers. "I certainly hope so." He replied quietly, as their eyes met in a blaze of understanding.
(c) August 2002