Chlexville

Season 1

Episode 11 : I DESERVE A HUG

"So I just finished talking to Clark," Lex narrated on his cellphone.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at her toes. "Apple green, shimmering red or hot pink?" she asked, finding the three shades better than the other two. "And you did, huh. So what happened?"

Lex didn't ask what she was talking about. "The hot pink will make you look like a cheerleader. The shimmering red will make you older. The apple green is too teenybopper, don't you think?" He could picture her biting her lower lip in indecision. "And it went pretty well, but I still don't know what I did during the entire thing with Rickman. Clark is a very closemouthed boy."

"Oh he is!" Chloe agreed enthusiastically. "It's too bad we don't see any evidence of your actions while you were under that freak's control. At least I had a minty sensation as a clue," she teased.

Lex grinned. "At least you finally kissed your crush."

"Hey what do you think of me, a coward?" Chloe protested. "I am a woman of action. You know that! I kissed Clark Kent years ago!"

"You did? What happened?"

"Veni, vidi, vici," she answered simply.

"Meaning you went to school, saw the hot farmer boy and did everything necessary so the opportunity would present itself?"

"Exactly. When it popped up, I just kissed him."

"Poor guy."

"Hey!"

Lex shook his head. "I mean he never knew what was coming. I bet Smallville hadn't seen the likes of you before you arrived."

"I am unique, yes," Chloe considered.

"Of course you are."

"So if he won't talk about what happened, then what did you talk about?"

Lex drove through familiar roads carefully, not wanting a repeat of his first day in town. He had left Clark safely at home in his loft. Lex doubted even Clark would be fast enough to rescue him this far from the farm. "He seemed particularly interested in the fact that Kyle Tippet and Rickman used to be best friends," Lex replied thoughtfully.

Chloe tipped some acetone over the cotton ball and removed four of the five colors gracing her toenails. "It is pretty scary, don't you think? I mean, things can change just like that. One minute they were inseparable and the next, they were bitter enemies. What did you tell Clark?"

"I told him the truth. That wouldn't happen to us."

"I'm glad. Clark… He needs friends."

"Everyone needs friends, Chloe. Even people like me."

Chloe smiled at the voice on the other end of the line. "That's why you have me, Lex," she pointed out. "Who else in the world would put up with you as much and as long as I have?"

"I'm doing a lot of putting up myself," he reminded her.

"Well that's why we're perfect for each other. We jive really well. I bet if we danced together we'd execute the movements perfectly."

"That remains to be seen," was his answer.

Chloe looked down at her now perfectly manicured toenails. "Lex," she said uncertainly, "do you think we won't change? I mean, like Kyle and Rickman. I would venture to propose that you and I are closer than you and Clark in some ways," she continued hesitantly.

"You and I." He allowed his voice to trail off. "We're definitely different than Clark and I, Chloe. Our relationship will change."

"Soon?"

"Not too soon."

Chloe picked up the bottle of nail polish again and applied some to her fingernails. "You really think we can't go on like this forever?" She was disappointed at his answer. She was practical enough to know that Lex would eventually leave her to pursue friendships with people closer to him in so many aspects. But she had fantasized of being connected to him forever.

"As much as I enjoy what we have, Chloe, I know it's going to change. The best things always do."

"I don't want the time to come when we pass each other in the street and we barely even acknowledge each other."

"Believe me, Chloe, that's not going to happen. My friendship with Clark will be the stuff of legends. People will talk about it everywhere for a long time. It's going to be such a famous story. My relationship with you, on the other hand, that's words and entries reserved for the most private journals and memoirs. No one is going to exploit it while we live."

"Are you ashamed of it?" she whispered.

"It's private, Chloe. That's what makes it… more." Abruptly, he shifted their conversation. "Look out your window."

Intrigued, she stood up and padded to the window, careful to lift her toes from the floor. She elbowed the curtain open and looked out.

Lex leaned against his silver car grinning up at her, his phone on his ear. "We have three hours of light left. I was hoping someone would hop in and drive with me to Metropolis for some very exclusive ballroom classes."

"Really now?" she teased back on the cordless in the crook of her shoulder. "Reporters hound you in the city. What happened to our very private friendship?"

"I'm pretty sure we can sneak in and out undetected for two hours of dancing. Besides, how else would we prove your theory about executing movements perfectly? I'll even add my two cents in. We can dance in perfect coordination blindfolded and without music."

"We'll look like fools!" Chloe protested laughingly.

"We'll look like fools together. That should count for some, don't you think?"

She grinned at the young man in her driveway and waved a little. Chloe opened her closet and pulled out the short red dress hanging in the back of her closet. "Are my red stilettos still in the trunk?"

"Where else would they be?" he replied. "Now aren't you glad I made you pick shimmering red?"

"How did you—" Chloe gave an unlady-like snort. "I won't even ask."

"So do I get a hug?"

"If you get me home tonight before my dad goes ballistic, I think you deserve one."

"Good, because I already told Gabe I might take you out tonight."

"Even before the whole dancing in rhythm thing?"

She peeked out the window and saw his smirk blinding her from that distance. "So I really deserve a hug."

Chloe shrugged on the dress and said, "Later." She tossed the cordless phone on the bed and hurried to meet her tango partner.

fin