Chapter 12

"It's nice of you to stop by, Chloe. Sorry I wasn't here yesterday. Hate to think you made the trip all the way out here for nothing."

"Well, I should have called first." Chloe's mind wasn't really on their conversation. She was still reeling about her conversation with Clark. "Are you mad at me?" he had asked. We've known for each other for years and he has to ask if I'm mad at him...

"Chloe?" Chloe snapped out of her thoughts. "Am I keeping you from something?"

Chloe tried to laugh it off. "No, Lex—it's not you. I just... it' s just a lot of things."

Lex stared at her for a second. "You've had a few hard months. I know—I did, too."

"You know things are bad when you actually dread summer vacation because of what might happen to you."

Lex smiled at that. "It does seem like everything big happens then."

Chloe laughed, too. "Yeah."

"You know, if you wanted to talk about it..."

This is not the conversation she wanted to have right now. Yes Lex was her friend, but she still wasn't sure how much he could be trusted. "Thanks, but—it's more my style to keep busy than to sit and have a conversation."

Lex nodded. "Then why are you here?"

Chloe shrugged. "Just wanted to see how you're doing. Like you said—you've had a hard couple of months, too."

Lex nodded. "Those months could have been long enough to be years."

Chloe understood that. "I know."

"But you know what I learned from it all?" Chloe looked up at him. "Throughout everything all I could think about was getting back to Smallville and seeing my friends for the last time."

Chloe tried to lighten the mood. "You must have really missed the corn, or spent too much time in the sun."

"No, but really, you guys mean the world to me. I've been to about every man-made wonder there is, and even some that are made by nature—but it never compares to the people you care about. So that's what I learned—I learned this is my home."

Chloe paused. "My home's been a little broken for a while now."

Lex looked at Chloe. The past few months had been harder on her than she led people to believe. "You know what else I learned? It kind of goes hand in hand with what I just said." Chloe looked up. She was on the verge of tears. Lex went on. "I thought to myself—I have been to all of these places that not everyone can get in. I have all the money in the world. I'm protected by the best security in America—even better than the President, I suppose."

"Is this supposed to cheer me up?" Chloe asked. All the things he had that she didn't...

Lex sat down in his chair. "Then I asked myself—why do I hang out with all these teenagers? I know Clark saved my life, but you and Lana and Pete— I can have anything I want with little effort, and yet I choose to go after your friendship, which at times can be hard."

"I heard you and Clark are smoothing things over."

"Yes we are, but don't change the subject." Lex smiled so she would know he wasn't purposely yelling at her. "I realized that anything valuable is something you can't create or buy. It comes from outside of you. It has since the world began, and I'm assuming it will be like that until the end of time, too. Maybe that's why people always want what they don't have—because a part of them knows this." Lex shifted. "Friendships are valuable. They're like families. There is nothing more valuable than relationships like that. You guys are my family. I might be way off base here, but that's what I learned when I dreaded this summer."

Chloe had to say what she was thinking. "It's the friendship part I'm worried about now."

Lex looked puzzled. "Something you'd like to share?"

Chloe sat down. He could be trusted for this. "Clark invited Lana and me over to his loft to 'talk' tonight."

"Is there a reason you put talk in quotations?"

Chloe looked down. "He said he was going to tell us his secret."

Lex's eyes looked shocked, but he was trying to not to show any emotion. There was a long pause again. "Is there a reason you're speaking in the past tense?"

Chloe tried to choose her words. "I sort of told him I wasn't going to go."

Now Lex's face showed he was shocked. "I have to say that surprises me."

"Yeah, well it surprised him, too. I know, I'm the one who's always telling him to open

up and trust people..."

"Then why did you tell him you weren't going?"

"Because--he always does this, over and over. He builds up this wall, supposively protect us, and when we finally get cool with that he tells us he's ready to open up," Chloe wiped a few tear drops away, "and then—then we get excited. We think, you know, 'this is finally it. He finally trusts us. This tension can finally be released, and things can go back to the way they were before.'" Chloe looked at Lex who was still looking at her. "But the truth is it's never going to be the way it used to be. Too much has been said—too much hasn't been said, and as long as we're all playing "My secret is bigger than yours", we'll be stuck like this forever."

Lex wasn't sure what to say. That didn't happen very often, but when it did it sort of comforted him. It meant there was someone who talked to him when something personal was difficult. Not many people, if any, did that.

Chloe tried to laugh. "I'm sorry. Here I am crying over a boy like a little girl—and not just any boy, Clark. I mean, how juvenile is that?"

"You have no need to apologize, Chloe. Clark hurt you." Lex moved over next to Chloe and sat on his desk. "He's your friend and he keeps messing with your emotions. Friends are supposed to share."

"I know, that's what Lana keeps telling him..."

Lex looked down, "I'm not talking about Clark, Chloe—I'm talking about you." Chloe looked up at him confused. "This obviously means more to you than you were letting on.

How often have you discussed this with Clark or Lana?"

Now it was Chloe who tried to choose her words carefully. "I didn't come here for advice, Lex."

Lex looked at her curiously. "Then why are you here?"

Chloe paused and shrugged, then gave him a little smile. "I guess I just needed to talk to a friend."

Lex paused. Not many people said that to him, meaning him. "How about you talk to two others?" He paused. "Chloe, as flattered as I am by you coming to see me, the problem will only go away when you confront it. Secrets may be shared tonight, but if any are, they should be yours. Then no matter what Clark decides, at least you can have some peace."