Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Thirty ~*~*
Chloe burst into a smile that threatened to split her face when she caught sight of Clark and Lana hurrying across the front yard of Lana's house. She was being an insanely happy lunatic masquerading as a normal person tonight, but she didn't really care.
"Hey." Lana greeted them breathlessly as she climbed into the limo, managing to tug Clark after her gracefully. Clark grinned at Chloe as he settled onto the luxuriously appointed seat, his smile almost as wide as Chloe's in the darkness. Although she admitted that she totally understood the look of wide-eyed adoration that graced his handsomely chiselled face; one look at Lana and frankly, Chloe was surprised that Clark still retained the ability to function as a normal human being.
Chloe caught Lana's eye and winked, making the other girl giggle. Judging by the almost vacant look of adoration on Clark's face, it looked like Lana had accomplished her mission of reducing Clark into a dribbling mass of atoms - and then some.
The two girls were a study in contrasts. While Chloe was a vibrant cacophony of blond and crimson, Lana was decked out in an elegant sapphire ensemble that seemed to make her entire being shimmer in the pearly moonlight. Her long raven hair cascaded in loosely defined curls down her back, framing the delicate contours of her face like a softly trickling silk waterfall. Her strapless sapphire gown was overlaid with a soft diaphanous material that added to the softly muted elegance that clung to the ex-cheerleader. A wrap of the same material finished off the ensemble.
All in all, Chloe reflected, they didn't brush up too badly. Although she was sure that in Lana's case 'brushing up' had never really been an issue.
Chloe's mind suddenly plunged back to Earth. "Hey, where's Pete?"
Clark's expression of open worship quickly dissolved, replaced by a look that Chloe could only describe as mildly disturbed. "He said he was picking up his date and driving straight there." His brilliant blue eyes surveyed hers uncomfortably, flittering quickly over to Lex as he shrugged.
"So he still hates my family I take it?" Clark opened his mouth in protest, but Lex quickly overrode his objection. "It's okay Clark, I'm used to suffering for the sins of my father. Comes with the territory." He turned casually, opening a compartment that was filled with soda and what to Chloe looked suspiciously like scotch, although she wasn't really sure, not being an aficionado of alcohol in general. "Drink?"
"Lex -"
"Don't worry Clark, the scotch is for me."
Lex didn't catch the look of faint annoyance that crossed Chloe's face. Far be it for her to be an advocate for underage drinking, but his vastly superior tone grated at her. He was treating them like kids which would have been irritating enough as it was, but add to that the fact that he wasn't really all that much older than them, and what gave him the right to use such a tone anyway, and - well, let's just say she was potentially well on the way to being annoyed-as-hell, if careful containment procedures weren't employed immediately.
Chloe squashed her irritation down by concentrating on the matter at hand.
"That wasn't what I was going to say Lex." Lex had the good grace to acknowledge Clark's look of mild reproof, a look that jolted Chloe to once again realise that Clark wasn't as clueless as he sometimes pretended to be. In fact, given his freakishly accurate memory, she was surprised that he wasn't constantly going through life reminding people of facts and figures like some tall, farm boy Palm Pilot. "You just need to give Pete time to get to know you. He can be stubborn sometimes." Clark's frown suddenly dissolved into a brilliant smile, a uniquely patented Clark-like smile that was capable of brightening any room he walked into, including a fairly modestly sized limousine cruising comfortably on its way to the junior prom. "Once he finds out how nice you are, he'll come around for sure."
Clark's blazing smile drew Lex to smile irresistibly in return. He sighed in mock resignation. "If you say so Clark."
"I do say so."
"Okay."
"Okay." Clark and Lex grinned at each other, seemingly oblivious to their less-than-manly stare-a-thon.
Chloe's brow shot heavenwards. "Okay." She scoffed audibly. "I hate to interrupt this intense love-fest, but you," she looked pointedly at Lex, her gaze stopping him drinking mid-motion, "stop being martyr boy and feeling sorry for yourself. And you," Chloe swivelled, wiping the knowing smirk off Clark's face, "stop feeling so satisfied with yourself for a job well done." Off their slightly stunned looks she continued, catching Lana's eye as it twinkled in the dim light. "And both of you, treat your dates better."
Clark laughed sheepishly, taking the not-so-subtle hint as he quickly wrapped his arms gently around Lana's bare shoulders, giving her a somewhat chaste kiss on the cheek. Lana leaned into his broad frame and sighed happily, staring out at the darkened landscape as it rolled silently past.
Lex however, decided to be much more dexterous. With a devilish smile on his face he leaned into Chloe, melding his body into hers until the friction between them almost caused her to have a coronary, albeit of the extremely pleasant variety. He whispered in a tone that Chloe could only vaguely describe as scintillatingly sexy, his breath wreaking havoc on her sensitive skin as it travelled up the crook of her neck to settle beside her ear. "Point taken. I promise," he said, as their gazes met in a searing flash of passion, his eyes trailing slowly from her face to the bare skin of her chest, "it won't happen again tonight."
"Oh - ah huh?" Chloe half-asked, half-mumbled, not show whether it had meant to be a rhetorical statement or not. She was more than a little dazed and weak-kneed, and if she had been asked to stand at this instant, she felt sure that she would have promptly dissolved into a pile of extremely sweaty jello-goo.
Oh boy. For the second time that night, she wondered what she had gotten herself into with Lex.
(c) October 2002