Author's Note:
Sorry for the long pause between updates. I've been so busy with work and other pressing matters. Thanks to the following for your reviews:
BelleThePhilosopher's Cookie
WiccaChica
Ditey
Specs-88
Margoks
The Die Hard
Btab12207
MidnightQueen6
"Okay, I'm telling you this up front Clark." Chloe turned to face Clark with her hands on her hips and her stern you better listen to me face on. "We are not renting Showgirls. I refuse to sit through two hours of mindless drivel again. Once was too much for me."
"Oh come on Chloe. Showgirls was great. I mean the way she kicked that guy's ass for raping her friend. You have to admit that that was way funny." Pete grinned.
Chloe shook her head in exasperation. "Whatever Pete. Who invited you along anyway?"
Pete clutched at his chest. "Oh you wound me deep Chloe. I thought we were the best of friends. Now I realize that you're just using me for my good looks."
"What? Who ever told you that you looked good? They're as delusional as you are." Chloe laughed.
"Ha! Ha! Funny Sullivan. You know all the females want a piece of Pete."
"Every female needs a pity date every now and then." Chloe quipped.
"Alright children. That's enough. Play nice." Clark laughed. "Pete, no Showgirls tonight. We'll watch it later when the movie critic is not around. Chloe, we will not be watching chick flicks all night long. We at least want to see just one action flick."
"Long as the action doesn't involve some blonde dancing around in a thong the I'll be fine."
Pete pouted. "The least you can do is to volunteer to dance in a thong for us."
Chloe rolled her eyes at her friend and started to walk off. She chose to ignore him as he loudly whistled the tune to Sisqo's the Thong Song.
Clark watched as Chloe walked over to the drama section. "That was totally uncalled for Pete."
"Come on man. I can see the look in your eyes. I know you're wondering whether or not she wears thongs or grandma panties?"
Clark turned to face Pete with a mischievous grin on his face. "Believe me when I say there are no grandma panties in sight."
Pete laughed. "Tell me you didn't?"
Clark only blushed.
"Man you're shameless." The two boys went quiet for a few minutes as they looked through the shelf of movies. "Why do you continue to lust after someone you don't really want?"
Pete continued to speak despite the look of confusion on Clark's face. "We've been friends for years man. I know you. I know all of your secrets. You're no more in love with Lana then I'm in love with Whitney."
"What are you talking about man. Lana is like my dream woman."
Pete shook his head. "That's just it. She's a dream. Just an ideal woman to be put on a pedestal." He cut off Clark's protest. "I'm not saying that she wouldn't make a good girlfriend, because she does have some charms. I'm just saying that she isn't the girl for you. There will always be something in the way, blocking you from being with her. Admit it man. Your heart, heck even you libido, isn't into her."
Clark sighed. "You're right but, when you've chased after a dream for so long it's hard to admit that you never really wanted it in the first place. But Pete, the girl I really want will never see me as anything but a friend. I don't want to spoil a perfectly good friendship by begging for more."
"Sometimes friendship develops into more." Pete spoke. "My parents were the best of friends since kindergarten. They fell in love in their senior year of high school. But they would never have gotten together if my dad didn't come out from hiding behind his pride."
"I don't know Pete. It all seems so simple when it's happening to other people."
"Man, come on. Everything in life will not be easy. I'll make it easy on you. I'll make myself scarce so you can make your move. O.K?" Pete urged. "Besides, you never know, your feelings might be reciprocated."
Clark turned to Pete. "What do you mean? What have you heard?"
Chloe walked up waiving to videos. "I picked out one chick flick, as you call it, and a comedy. Are you two ready?"
Clark pulled a movie off the shelf without looking at it. "Yeah I'm ready."
"Umm Clark, man, you just picked up Moulin Rouge. Do you really want to subject us to that horror?"
"I love that movie." Chloe gushed.
Clark shrugged his shoulders at Pete and handed the movie to Chloe. "Let's go. The pizza should be ready for us to pick it up."
Pete grabbed Showgirls off the shelf. "Okay, judging by the movies you have in your hand I'm not going to enjoy movie night. So I'll just rent this copy of Showgirls and leave you two kiddies on your own."
"Your loss." Chloe said as she took her selections up to the counter to pay for them.
Clark turned to Pete. "I know what you're doing man but nothing will come from this. I value our friendship too much ruin it on raging hormones."
"Whatever man. Just go for it and stop dwelling on nonsense."
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After leaving the video store Pete headed over to the Talon. The place was semi packed when he walked in. His eyes were drawn to the dark haired young woman working behind the counter.
"Hi Pete. How's it going?" Lana asked as he sat down on one of the counter seats.
"It's going great. Who's the new talent on the stage?" Pete motioned to the a dark coffee complexioned beauty with shoulder length black hair and big brown eyes.
"Penelope Harris. She just moved to Smallville a week ago."
"How did I manage to miss her?" Pete turned to get a better look at the girl who was currently singing Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'
"She hasn't started school yet. I've been showing her around town." Lana noticed the growing interest in Pete's eyes. "Don't even think about it Pete. Let the girl have some breathing room before Smallville's Casanova tries to jump her."
"Hey, I resent that." Pete grumped playfully. "I do not try to jump every female I meet. I never tried to jump you. Have I?"
"True." Lana tried to look offended. "And why is that? Am I not babeliscious enough for you?"
Pete grinned sheepishly. "Believe me when I say that you are more than babeliscious. But I would never infringe upon someone else's territory."
"I am no one's property. Besides, haven't you heard that Whitney and I broke up two weeks ago?" Lana huffed.
"So what? You want me to hit on you?" Pete teased.
Lana sputtered. "No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just…"
"Putting your foot in your mouth?" Pete happily filled in. 'Could the lovely Lana Lang actually be interested in him? And if she was, would he be a bad friend if he decided to investigate that interest a little further?' He decided to change the subject before things got a little too weird but the arrival of Whitney beat him to it.
"Lana, we need to talk." Whitney said completely ignoring Pete.
"Whitney there's nothing to talk about. Besides I'm too busy at the moment."
"Please Lana this is important. How about we talk when you get off work?"
"I'm sorry Whitney but Pete is taking me to the movies after work." Lana said jumping on the first available excuse that came to mind. "Isn't that right Pete?"
"Sorry Fordman. You snooze, you loose." Pete agreed.
If looks could kill. "Okay, so it's like that now? Well, I guess I'll see you later then. Bye Lana."
"Thanks for going along Pete." Lana smiled loosely. "It's just that I'm trying to get Whitney to see that I'm serious about us not dating any longer. The chemistry just isn't there anymore. You know?"
Pete nodded. "But you do know he'll be waiting, when your shift ends, to see if we actually are going out?"
"Yeah I know. Would you mind…"
Pete was shaking his head before she could even finish. "Not at all Lana. I haven't seen LOtR 2 yet and Chloe says it was quite good. What time are you closing?"
"In about an hour." She answered.
"Okay. Well you get back to work and I'll just go find an empty table to hang out at until it's time for us to go."
"Thank you so much, Pete."
"Think nothing of it."
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Chloe set the movies on the kitchen counter so that she could grab two plates out of the kitchen cabinets. "So why did Pete really leave."
Clark shrugged his shoulders as he filled their glasses with ice. "There's no telling with Pete. He probably remembered some hot date or something. Coke or Sprite?"
"Sprite. Do you want some parmesan cheese for your pizza?" Chloe picked up the canister of cheese and carried it along with the plates and movies into the living room.
Clark set the glasses on the coffee table and reached for a slice of pizza. "What are we watching first?"
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Chloe bossed.
"So sorry mom." Came his sarcastic reply.
She scooted down next to him on the couch and grabbed a slice of pizza. "We're watching American Pie 2 first. I'm not going to subject you to the chick flicks just yet."
Three quarters of a way into the movie and four slices of pizza later Chloe found herself stretched out on the sofa lying comfortably against Clark. "This movie is totally crazy. I can't believe he was stupid enough to get his hands stuck to his crotch."
Clark lost focus on the movie some time ago when she first curled up in his arms. He had been too busy basking in the pleasure of holding her to take any notice of the movie. He laughed whenever she laughed just to play it off. He couldn't resist tracing silly patterns up and down her arms.
"Chloe?"
"Hmm?" Came her sleepy purr as she reveled in the pleasure Clark's wandering hands were causing.
"I've been thinking."
"Do you need some Tylenol?" She teased.
"What?"
She just grinned . "Never mind. What's been on your mind?"
"Well I was thinking that maybe we could…" His voice trailed off. He chickened out.
Chloe sat up and faced him with an eager look upon his face. "Could what?"
"Nothing."
"Come on Clark, what were you going to say."
He took a deep breath for courage. "I was wondering if we could sign up for the Talon's talent show as a duet. What do you think?"
Chloe sighed in frustration but then put on her best smile. "Sure Clark. I was going to suggest that to you myself. I think we'd make a great team."
"Then that's settled then." He smiled on the outside but on the inside he was kicking himself and calling himself all kinds of names. 'Man I'm such an idiot.' "Anyway, we can go through some songs to find out what would be a perfect song for us to sing."
"Okay we'll go through my dads collection later." She sat up and walked over to the VCR. "Do you want to watch another movie?"
"Sure but let me call my parents to let them know that I'll be spending the night." He stood up and cleared away their dirty glasses and empty paper plates.
He returned from the kitchen only to find the living room empty. He heard the unmistakable sound of water running so he assumed that she was taking a shower. Grabbing his duffle bag he decided to make use of her offer to use her dad's shower.
Twenty minutes later he walked into the living room wearing a pair of pajama pants and a plain tank t-shirt. Chloe found her self short of breath as she took in the mesmerizing sight of his muscular frame. "Wow! Working on the farm sure agrees with you."
Clark blushed and then smiled at her own pajama set. "You're not too bad yourself."
Chloe modeled her pajamas for him. "You like?"
He found himself enthralled with the tempting view of the short satin bottom and the barely there top. "Your dad let's you wear that?"
"Well yeah. What's wrong with it?" She stared down at herself.
He gulped. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
She started taking the pillows off the sofa. "Come on help me open out the sofa bed. Then we'll start the other movie."
"I'll pull it out. You just go get the blankets." He pushed her into the direction of the hallway and then proceeded to pull out the sofa bed.
She came back into the living room and set the blankets and pillows onto the sofa bed. Then she set up a makeup kit on the bed before crawling next to him and sitting Indian style.
"What's with the box?" Clark asked.
She just grinned and pulled opened up. She pulled out a cuticle set as well as a bottle of nail polish, and cotton balls. "You're going to let me paint your toes."
He yanked his feet away from her. "No I'm not."
She glared at him, baring her teeth, as she spoke slowly and clearly to him. "Yes… You… Are."
Despite his powers Clark realized he didn't want to go up against that look. He settled his feet in her lap and lounged back onto a pile of pillows. "Please don't paint them loud red like last time."
"Don't worry." She grinned evilly. "I'll use pink instead. Start the movie."
TBC
Author's Note: I've rewritten this chapter so many times. That's one of the reasons it took me so long getting it out. I'm still not satisfied with the final results but anyway.. Tell me what you think but in a constructive way. J