Summary and disclaimer in prologue
[A/N] Robyn - thanks so much for the review, its great to know that I'm on the right lines with this fic. Hope you like the new chapter!
Chapter 2
A kind of stupefied trance was the only rest that Chloe had achieved for the fourth night running, and she was feeling less than human. Forcing herself out of her crumpled sheets half an hour earlier than usual, she pulled on her oldest and most comforting bathrobe and started downstairs in hopes of having a quiet breakfast before anyone else got up. A glance in the hallway mirror told her that she looked as terrible as she felt, with large dark circles under her eyes and hair sticking up at random. Walking like a zombie, she was half way downstairs before she heard voices coming from the kitchen.
"Chloe?" Lana's honeyed tones drifted out to her, and Chloe let out a hiss of frustration. In her haste to duck back up to her bedroom her left slipper had fallen off and clattered down the steps. Her slipper clearly hated her, most likely due to her walking all over it for years. 'Mental note: buy new slippers. Why does the world hate me?' She stomped downstairs, only to be greeted by a scene that could almost have been calculated precisely to add a whole new level of shit to her compost heap of a mood.
If her life had been a film, this would have been one of Lana's many slow- motion moments. The kitchen window showed a perfect autumnal scene, all New- England-y golds and reds. Falling leaves drifted past the glass, picked out against a breathtakingly clear cobalt sky. Framed against the window, lit by a halo of golden sunlight like a pair of renaissance angels, sat Lana and Clark. Lana was wearing a pristine white shirt and laughing softly at something Clark had just said. He was looking at her hand, which she had just dropped onto his arm. Following her arm up with his eyes, he looked like a penitent at the knee of God, there was so much adoration in his gaze.
It took them a couple of seconds for Chloe's presence in the room to register, during which she had time to take inventory of just how horrendous she looked. She couldn't help but let her chin fall as she glanced down at the frayed bathrobe and ratty old slippers she had pulled on for comfort's sake. Looking up, she saw that Lana had turned her head and seemed to be following her train of thoughts. Clark, on the other hand, having eventually managed to drag his attention away from Lana to see what she was looking at, seemed fixated by Chloe's extreme bed head. She suddenly realised that she'd been standing under their scrutiny for a couple of heartbeats too long, and unwillingly dragged herself towards the fresh coffee in the percolator.
"Chloe, you look awful!" Clark's voice was full of concern, but his words inflicted a further painful little flaying on her self-image. She could almost feel Lana shooting him a cautionary look. Spinning around with her newly acquired coffee, she fixed him with the closest approximation of a withering glance that she could muster up at such a god-awful hour of the morning.
"Clark, you're a moron. But we don't all go around commenting on it when the mood hits us." Both halves of love's young dream stared at her with their mouths open, before flicking their eyes to exchange a 'what the fuck?' look that only inflamed her temper.
"What are you even doing in my kitchen at this time of the morning?" Clark looked downcast, and he started shuffling is feet on the floor in what he undoubtedly hoped was an adorable manner.
"I, uh, brought your Dad's usual order." He indicated the crate of farm produce on the counter with a twitch of his head. "Lana was awake, so...." His voice drifted off as he once more fixed his gaze on the wonder that was Lana Lang. For her part she shook her head slightly at him and nodded towards the door.
"Oh, well, I'd better go. I've got chores to... Anyway, bye Chlo." He started out the back door, but couldn't resist one last lingering glance at the object of his adoration. "Thanks for the coffee, Lana." Giving her a grin that could have run a small solar power station for a week, he shut the door behind him. Lana turned to her grumpy roommate, a spark of annoyance clear in her eyes.
"What was that about?"
"Oh, God, I don't know. I just don't need him of all people telling me I look bad." Chloe's mood had changed, and she was starting to feel rather sorry for herself. She stared down into her drink gloomily, its muddy brown color seeming to reflect her feelings rather too accurately.
"Because you still feel something for him?" The slight catch in Lana's voice betrayed her emotional investment in the question, and on looking up, Chloe saw Lana had caught her bottom lip between her teeth and was turning her cup in her hands, seemingly fascinated by the slogan 'If you wake up feeling like you've had it... be grateful!'
"No. That's definitely not it." Lana caught and searched her eyes for any sign that she was being less than truthful, but could find nothing. "My crush on Clark is long gone. Its just that..."
"You don't want him to think that you're anything less than perfect. I know." Lana smiled at her friend and hopped off her barstool. "Can I get you some more coffee? You look like you need it!"
"No. Its ok. You make coffee for a living..."
"Don't be ridiculous. I want to. Now sit down relax for a minute." Chloe perched herself on an adjacent stool and watched Lana bustle about. She felt her mood lighten a little as she remembered Clark's face when she'd told him off.
"How come you guys are talking again? I thought he was still in your bad books?" Mentally Chloe changed that to 'list of things not to do', but didn't risk saying that to her friend. Lana put a fresh cup in front of Chloe and settled back down across the counter.
"Well, I saw him yesterday and he apologised for letting me down." Chloe shot her an incredulous look and she continued swiftly. "I know, I know. He always does. But he just has this kicked puppy look about him when he's sorry for something and I can't help but forgive him." Lana chewed her bottom lip again, and looked at her friend. "I promise I won't invite him in before ten o'clock ever again." That drew a low chuckle from Chloe and the last vestiges of tension in the kitchen disappeared. After a couple of minutes of companionable coffee sipping, Lana broke the silence.
"So, what were you dreaming about last night? You were making quite a racket." Just as Chloe was trying to come up with a PG-13 version of her dream, she was saved by her father's entrance.
"I'll tell you later" she shot to Lana, before greeting her dad with a smile. "Hey Dad."
"Hey sweetheart, morning Lana. Sleep ok?"
"Yes thank you Gabe." Lana was always at her most sickly sweet around him, and on previous occasions it had almost made Chloe gag. This morning she was glad of it. Anything to keep the attention off herself. Unfortunately that didn't hold out for long.
"Chloe, you look awful. Maybe you shouldn't go to school today." Gabe stopped trying to straighten his tie and moved to rest his hand on his daughter's forehead, his own creased with concern.
"I'm fine, dad. Honestly." Ducking out from under his hand, Chloe fled towards the door. "In fact I'd better get ready or I'll be late." Her absence the previous week had led to a backlog of work at the Torch, otherwise she would have been very tempted to accept the proffered day off.
"OK, well. Meet your old dad at the Talon for a coffee after work?" A soft smile lifted Chloe's features as she regarded him from the doorway, and a small flood of affection for her father threatened to bring a tear to her eye. 'Christ, I must really be over-tired!'
"Sure daddy. See you there about six?" At his affirmative Chloe nodded and ran upstairs. A look at her alarm clock told her she was already running late, and she looked around her bomb site of a room with something akin to panic.
'What the fuck am I going to wear?'
[A/N] Robyn - thanks so much for the review, its great to know that I'm on the right lines with this fic. Hope you like the new chapter!
Chapter 2
A kind of stupefied trance was the only rest that Chloe had achieved for the fourth night running, and she was feeling less than human. Forcing herself out of her crumpled sheets half an hour earlier than usual, she pulled on her oldest and most comforting bathrobe and started downstairs in hopes of having a quiet breakfast before anyone else got up. A glance in the hallway mirror told her that she looked as terrible as she felt, with large dark circles under her eyes and hair sticking up at random. Walking like a zombie, she was half way downstairs before she heard voices coming from the kitchen.
"Chloe?" Lana's honeyed tones drifted out to her, and Chloe let out a hiss of frustration. In her haste to duck back up to her bedroom her left slipper had fallen off and clattered down the steps. Her slipper clearly hated her, most likely due to her walking all over it for years. 'Mental note: buy new slippers. Why does the world hate me?' She stomped downstairs, only to be greeted by a scene that could almost have been calculated precisely to add a whole new level of shit to her compost heap of a mood.
If her life had been a film, this would have been one of Lana's many slow- motion moments. The kitchen window showed a perfect autumnal scene, all New- England-y golds and reds. Falling leaves drifted past the glass, picked out against a breathtakingly clear cobalt sky. Framed against the window, lit by a halo of golden sunlight like a pair of renaissance angels, sat Lana and Clark. Lana was wearing a pristine white shirt and laughing softly at something Clark had just said. He was looking at her hand, which she had just dropped onto his arm. Following her arm up with his eyes, he looked like a penitent at the knee of God, there was so much adoration in his gaze.
It took them a couple of seconds for Chloe's presence in the room to register, during which she had time to take inventory of just how horrendous she looked. She couldn't help but let her chin fall as she glanced down at the frayed bathrobe and ratty old slippers she had pulled on for comfort's sake. Looking up, she saw that Lana had turned her head and seemed to be following her train of thoughts. Clark, on the other hand, having eventually managed to drag his attention away from Lana to see what she was looking at, seemed fixated by Chloe's extreme bed head. She suddenly realised that she'd been standing under their scrutiny for a couple of heartbeats too long, and unwillingly dragged herself towards the fresh coffee in the percolator.
"Chloe, you look awful!" Clark's voice was full of concern, but his words inflicted a further painful little flaying on her self-image. She could almost feel Lana shooting him a cautionary look. Spinning around with her newly acquired coffee, she fixed him with the closest approximation of a withering glance that she could muster up at such a god-awful hour of the morning.
"Clark, you're a moron. But we don't all go around commenting on it when the mood hits us." Both halves of love's young dream stared at her with their mouths open, before flicking their eyes to exchange a 'what the fuck?' look that only inflamed her temper.
"What are you even doing in my kitchen at this time of the morning?" Clark looked downcast, and he started shuffling is feet on the floor in what he undoubtedly hoped was an adorable manner.
"I, uh, brought your Dad's usual order." He indicated the crate of farm produce on the counter with a twitch of his head. "Lana was awake, so...." His voice drifted off as he once more fixed his gaze on the wonder that was Lana Lang. For her part she shook her head slightly at him and nodded towards the door.
"Oh, well, I'd better go. I've got chores to... Anyway, bye Chlo." He started out the back door, but couldn't resist one last lingering glance at the object of his adoration. "Thanks for the coffee, Lana." Giving her a grin that could have run a small solar power station for a week, he shut the door behind him. Lana turned to her grumpy roommate, a spark of annoyance clear in her eyes.
"What was that about?"
"Oh, God, I don't know. I just don't need him of all people telling me I look bad." Chloe's mood had changed, and she was starting to feel rather sorry for herself. She stared down into her drink gloomily, its muddy brown color seeming to reflect her feelings rather too accurately.
"Because you still feel something for him?" The slight catch in Lana's voice betrayed her emotional investment in the question, and on looking up, Chloe saw Lana had caught her bottom lip between her teeth and was turning her cup in her hands, seemingly fascinated by the slogan 'If you wake up feeling like you've had it... be grateful!'
"No. That's definitely not it." Lana caught and searched her eyes for any sign that she was being less than truthful, but could find nothing. "My crush on Clark is long gone. Its just that..."
"You don't want him to think that you're anything less than perfect. I know." Lana smiled at her friend and hopped off her barstool. "Can I get you some more coffee? You look like you need it!"
"No. Its ok. You make coffee for a living..."
"Don't be ridiculous. I want to. Now sit down relax for a minute." Chloe perched herself on an adjacent stool and watched Lana bustle about. She felt her mood lighten a little as she remembered Clark's face when she'd told him off.
"How come you guys are talking again? I thought he was still in your bad books?" Mentally Chloe changed that to 'list of things not to do', but didn't risk saying that to her friend. Lana put a fresh cup in front of Chloe and settled back down across the counter.
"Well, I saw him yesterday and he apologised for letting me down." Chloe shot her an incredulous look and she continued swiftly. "I know, I know. He always does. But he just has this kicked puppy look about him when he's sorry for something and I can't help but forgive him." Lana chewed her bottom lip again, and looked at her friend. "I promise I won't invite him in before ten o'clock ever again." That drew a low chuckle from Chloe and the last vestiges of tension in the kitchen disappeared. After a couple of minutes of companionable coffee sipping, Lana broke the silence.
"So, what were you dreaming about last night? You were making quite a racket." Just as Chloe was trying to come up with a PG-13 version of her dream, she was saved by her father's entrance.
"I'll tell you later" she shot to Lana, before greeting her dad with a smile. "Hey Dad."
"Hey sweetheart, morning Lana. Sleep ok?"
"Yes thank you Gabe." Lana was always at her most sickly sweet around him, and on previous occasions it had almost made Chloe gag. This morning she was glad of it. Anything to keep the attention off herself. Unfortunately that didn't hold out for long.
"Chloe, you look awful. Maybe you shouldn't go to school today." Gabe stopped trying to straighten his tie and moved to rest his hand on his daughter's forehead, his own creased with concern.
"I'm fine, dad. Honestly." Ducking out from under his hand, Chloe fled towards the door. "In fact I'd better get ready or I'll be late." Her absence the previous week had led to a backlog of work at the Torch, otherwise she would have been very tempted to accept the proffered day off.
"OK, well. Meet your old dad at the Talon for a coffee after work?" A soft smile lifted Chloe's features as she regarded him from the doorway, and a small flood of affection for her father threatened to bring a tear to her eye. 'Christ, I must really be over-tired!'
"Sure daddy. See you there about six?" At his affirmative Chloe nodded and ran upstairs. A look at her alarm clock told her she was already running late, and she looked around her bomb site of a room with something akin to panic.
'What the fuck am I going to wear?'