Clark rapidly tried to determine if a) Nell knew that Lana knew Lex or b) if she wanted her talking to Lex. "She's outside," he said finally. "I'm just waiting."
"Lost in thought, it seems from the way you were burning a hole through that door," she said jokingly. Clark tried to laugh, but it came out as a kind of cough. "Wonder what she's doing out there." Nell had her arms folded and looked every part the mother: concerned and out of place in her child's life.
"Oh, something important, I guess," Clark said dismissively. "I just came to talk to her about, you know, Whitney."
"What about Whitney?" Nell asked innocently. Clark felt a knot form in his stomach.
"Um-"
The door opened and Clark turned to see Lana looking harried and disturbed.
"Clark, you need to go," she said shortly, hand automatically brushing her hair back as she closed the door. Before she did Clark could just see Lex getting into his car.
"Lana," Nell protested. "That's no way to talk to a guest."
"No, it's all right, I'll go," he said quickly, though he was anxious to know what Lex had said to her. He got the feeling she wasn't going to tell him.
At her words Lana noticed Nell for the first time and just as her mouth opened to give an explanation, Clark said without stopping to think, "Silly of you to leave that hose running, Lana."
She looked at him, and was minutely relieved. "Oh, I know." She smiled sheepishly at Nell. "I never do that."
"Well, there's a first time for everything," Nell said crisply, knowing full well there was a secret being passed around that a parent was not supposed to be a part of. "Say hi to your parents for me, Clark."
"I will," he said, and headed out the door.
He'd only been to Lana's house twice, he mused as he walked home, and each time something infinitely weird had happened. His thoughts turned to Lex, wondering if he would tell Clark what he and Lana had talked about. His common sense told him probably not, but knowing Lex, he was probably expecting Clark to ask.
Lana had looked pretty upset. So had Lex. Clark wondered what could possibly upset both of them so much. Did somebody die? Wait, did Lex and Lana even know each other well enough to talk about anything? Clark chewed on his lips, thoroughly befuddled, until he thought of a horrible idea that he immediately spit out like a bad taste in his mouth. The idea was that something had… happened between them. But of course that was crazy, and Clark felt ashamed for even thinking it. It was just ridiculous on so many levels. Lex wasn't stupid, he knew about the age of consent and all that. Plus he would never do that to Clark. And besides, Lana had just broken up with Whitney, less than twenty-four hours ago. Even if she was the kind of person to do something like that, they hardly would have had enough time to do anything.
Satisfied that he had argued the point out of his mind, he concentrated on taking long strides towards his house, practicing walking like a normal person, so that he wouldn't have so much time to kill when he ran to the bus stop in the mornings.