Everything In This World

By Viv

*~*~ Part Eighteen ~*~*

Chloe slowly opened her eyes.

Sunlight streamed unmercilessly through the slit in the heavy curtains framing her window, permeating her room with the luscious warmth of spring - that delicious mix of hay and flowers and freshly mowed grass that could only be found in the countryside. She obviously at some distant point in the past had forgotten to close her window, because the annoying chirp of a perky sparrow as it sang its lilting song of 'you're never going to be able to sleep with me around - ever' grated at the edge of her consciousness, threatening to send her foggy mind over the edge into sparrowcide.

Chloe rolled over, trying to shield herself from the outside world by sticking her head under the pillow. She resolutely shut her eyes, willing herself to sink into the mindless oblivion of sleep again. Her entire body ached, but not from any unpleasant or strenuous, like actual exercise. She was just taxed out - mind, body and soul, but not in the Suzanne Somers fitness video kind of way.

Her day in Metropolis had taken a lot out of her. On top of the long list of factors that had served to drive her into this state of fatigue was, of course, that certain bald headed individual who had given her the best kiss of her life and to which she hoped she would be subjected to future encore performances - and very soon at that.

Chloe smiled insanely into the pillow, inhaling the smell of the freshly washed linen. Thinking about her kiss with Lex prompted her heart to start rapidly beating again and she knew that she would never get back to sleep. She sighed as she rolled out from under her pillow, squinting painfully as the blinding morning sun light pierced her sensitive eyes. She definitely didn't resemble any form of morning person whatsoever.

Her mind was racing as Chloe adjusted her comforter, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. The primary thing that jumped out at her in the early morning silences of her mind was the single undeniable fact that yesterday had taken on a dream-like quality that she had been partly afraid to awake from.

After their initial 'kiss' yesterday (she was using this term loosely, since technically speaking the entire affair probably constituted actual individual kisses numbering a lot more than just a single 'kiss') Chloe had felt like she was drifting in a wonderful, intoxicating dream. The hapless driver who Chloe didn't really feel the least bit sorry for had stood outside for god knew how long, while she and Lex had indulged in more tongue-related activities.

Yes, she was a nasty, nasty person who put the pleasures of the flesh before more weighty considerations in this world, such as the plight of drivers to rich bald billionaires-to-be. Shame on her.

Chloe had no way of telling how much time had passed until they successfully dragged themselves out of the car and back into Lex's apartment where they basically planted themselves for the rest of the day, watching movies from his bewildering assortment of DVDs and overdosing on copious amounts of junk food, before he reluctantly drove her all the way home.

She giggled into her comforter, inciting a string of bewildering thoughts to race across her foggy mind at light speed. She had been surprised by the force of emotions that one kiss from Lex had unleashed within her. Even now, Chloe was startled at how much of her obviously developing feelings for Lex she had managed to hide from everyone, including herself. Although - Chloe mentally went back and revised her internal memo - Lana had not-so-subtly hinted at the possibility to her at the Talon. And then of course, there had been Clark with his insane innuendoes after the mud-wrestling incident and wow, was she the last person to find out that she had actually been attracted to Lex for at least the past few weeks?

Chloe blinked, trying to wrap her confused mind around the discovery. She did want to be an investigative reporter eventually, right? Maybe if she managed to wrangle a job this summer, she could use her wages to buy some perception - because she obviously didn't have any, especially when it came to these little important details about herself.

Another thought that was disturbing her and which she had been desperately putting off was the question which would be on everyone's lips once they discovered the Chloe and Lex situation. Namely - why the hell was Lex Luthor, heir to his own billionaire fortune, Metropolis sophisticate and devilishly handsome in his own, bald-headed sexy-as-hell way, even interested in someone like Chloe? Chloe was no shrinking violet afraid to trumpet her own considerably positive qualities, but she was, to put it mildly, still very confused as to why Lex would even be interested in her in the first place given the smorgasbord of women he undoubtedly could choose from. Especially - and she was just making a wild guess here - when his feelings had obviously developed sometime during the Clark phase.

Chloe frowned at thin air, biting her lip absently. Sure, she was kind of smart and kind of witty. She had zingers for almost every situation and snarkyness to spare. She had been assured numerous times that she was pretty in that zany, unconventional way that was uniquely Chloe-like, with her flyaway blond hair, hazel eyes and slim build. She could claim her place in the pantheons of that unique category of 21st century teen who could actually converse on remotely intelligent terms with the over-20 crowd, and of course, what made her really interesting (according to Clark, Pete and Lana at least) was her overriding determination to achieve something she set her mind to. All very cool positives, to which she mentally made a note to give herself a big red tick.

But really - what did Lex see in her? Chloe vaguely recalled Clark telling her of one of Lex's socialite girlfriends that had inhabited his house for a time last year. What was her name again? Victoria something-or-other. Clark had described her in detail for some reason but Chloe hadn't really been listening because - why would she be interested in whoever Lex was seeing when Clark Kent happened to be staring at her with those big, round puppy dog eyes?

She mentally kicked herself for her lack of foresight. Of course she should have foreseen that one day in the not-so-distant future, she would have totally gotten over the farm boy charm of Clark Kent and moved on to the bald-headed, sexy-as-hell charm of Lex Luthor, because duh, that just made complete and utter sense.

Chloe closed her eyes as she tried to form a picture of what Victoria must have looked like. She remembered Clark saying something about her having been a brunette, tall and slim. She attempted to extrapolate the rest of the details herself. She imagined someone like Cindy Crawford, maybe skinnier but leggier, but with the same lustrous hair. She would have all the necessary accoutrements of high society, like money and a make up case that resembled Chloe's suitcase, fabulous clothes that probably cost more than Chloe's entire house, and a chest the size of Mount Everest.

Hmmm. Way to make yourself feel better Chloe, she chided herself.

She shook her head mentally. Imagining what Victoria McChesty looked like was probably not going to help anything, least of all her self-esteem.

All this thinking so early in the morning genuinely made her head ache. She knew this would happen. It was part of the reason why she had been so stubborn about not going to sleep until 4 am, ingesting copious amounts of instant coffee and anally detailing every single event about the day on her notebook, because she knew that when she awoke to a bright new day she would have to begin to deal with the consequences of the day before and then some. Namely - all the aforementioned issues, plus dealing with clarifying the nature of her and Lex's whatever-it-was, plus catch up on the assignments she had missed yesterday, as well as confronting Clark about his sensitive little disclosure about certain feelings he sort of had for her.

Okay, she should indulge in a little calming down right about now. Hyperventilating herself towards an early grave wasn't going to help.

Chloe stretched her arms out, yawning in the process. She dragged herself up to a sitting position and rubbed her hands over her tired eyes, hoping to brush off the mental cobwebs that still clouded her brain. If she wanted to get as much done as possible on that long, long to-do list of hers, she should conceivably get a start on it now.

Okay, this was what she was going to do today - get coffee and breakfast, in that order, preferably without her actually making said coffee and breakfast because that would require too much energy. That should allow her to muster up enough energy and brain power to alternately confront or talk to Clark about the feelings thing; then onto Lana's to get her assignments and hopefully to again, clear up the Clark feelings thing, then if she hadn't been drained out of all energy and if the task didn't assume hard-as-hell proportions, she would take herself over to Lex's ancestral mansion and have it out with him, except without the sexual imagery that immediately flashed across her mind at the thought of 'having it out' with Lex.

She should really learn to keep those famous teenage hormones under control.

She nodded to her reflection in the mirror. That sounded like a sane person plan. She just hoped that she could pull it off without unnecessary emotional trauma.

Author's Note: Hi! Just a quick note to say a huge thanks to all the nice feedback I've gotten. Really keeps me going through the boredom hours (known as work).

I did notice that this part was a bit short, but hopefully I'll be able to write some more once the weekend hits.

(c) August 2002