It's been a month since the six friends went on their outing to the picnic in Smallville. The month of September was beginning to show its weather. It was pretty rainy and windy leaving some parts of Kansas feeling chilly. Lana, Lois, and Chloe had confirmed their spa date for Saturday of September 10th which was tomorrow.

Lana was settling into her side of the bed. She combed her hair with her fingers and fixed it neatly behind her ears before pulling the yellow feather-cushioned comforter up to her chest and laid her head on her pillow. She and Clark had a nice relaxing evening at their house. It was quiet and they had no other company in the house so Lana called for Chinese food and they had that for dinner, along with a few horror movies. Clark came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth. He had a white t-shirt and long royal blue pajama pants on. Lana turned over to look at him. She flashed a smile at him and he gave her a sheepish grin, not even showing one of his pearly whites.

Lana visibly frowned. She had a feeling that something was up. "Sweety, what's wrong?" Lana asked. Clark was sitting on the edge of his side of the bed rubbing his eyes. "Huh? Oh, I'm just tired. Watching movies at night does that to me." Clark lied. Truly, he didn't really watch most of them. The gore and special effects made him feel unusually nauseous and it didn't seem to go away. Laying his head on the pillow, he excused the feeling for the Chinese food they had. Maybe the sushi he had wasn't so fresh. He sighed and leaned over to give Lana a soft peck on her forehead. "Goodnight, Lana." Clark said before shifting his body on his side and drifting off to sleep. "Goodnight" Lana whispered. She reached her arm over to their alarm clock on her side-table and set the alarm for 9:00 am. The clock read 11:53 pm. She pulled the chain that was connected to the side table-lamp and it clicked off. She inched her body over to where Clark's back was and pressed hers against his. His back was steadily rising and falling, telling her that he was already fast asleep. Her silky gown was warm. She smiled to herself. She yawned and closed her eyes, lightly stroking Clark's leg with the sole of her bare foot.

It was quiet. All Chloe could hear were her and Jason's silverware clinking on the plates. Tonight, Chloe had attempted to make a home cooked meal. She spent about two hours straight on the whole thing and successfully made a pasta, simmered in alfredo sauce, and mixed with grilled chicken and broccoli. She even had a basket of garlic bread in the center of the table. Chloe took a bite and looked up at Jason, who was sitting across from her. He was twirling his fork slowly, then stabbed at a tiny piece of chicken and put it in his mouth. He chewed it slowly. Chloe swallowed then said, "Wow, this came out pretty good." she chuckled. " I think I feel confident enough to start cooking more often instead of us just eating fast food all the time."

Jason didn't seem to be paying much attention to what she was saying. He was mostly trying to concentrate on swallowing the food in his mouth. He had to admit, Chloe's chicken broccoli alfredo was delicious, but he didn't really want to eat anything right now. He hadn't been feeling well the whole day. It started with a headache when he woke up, then body aches, and now that food was in front of him, nausea was involved too. He thought it was just from all the long days at work and just not getting a proper sleep. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that caused his immune system to slump and got him some kind of virus. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Chloe's voice calling him. " Jason," Chloe said in a sing song voice. "Huh?" He said in with a dazed look on his face. "I was asking you if you liked the idea of me cooking more often. Was this," gesturing to her plate, "good?" she asked eagerly. "Oh," Jason said in a somewhat overlyexaggerated voice. "Its delicious." He smiled, but Chloe wasn't too satisfied with his expression. It didn't look too convincing and honest.

He looked a little pale to her and in that silent moment, he was swallowing constantly ,as if he was trying to keep the little food he had eaten, down. He isn't telling the truth Chloe thought to herself a little disappointed. She frowned. " Jason, is there something wrong?" She asked, just to make sure. " No, no, nothing's wrong. The foodis great." Jason shrugged nervously and shifted in his chair. This is definitely not a good time to feel nauseous, especially when my fiancé is interrogating me. "Jason," Chloe's voice was steadily rising. Jason could sense the anger in her voice. "How am I supposed to know how my cooking is if you can't tell me the truth?" She stood up and grabbed both her and Jason's plates and walked over to the kitchen to toss the dishes into the dishwasher. Jason watched her come back into view, pacing the dining room/ living room with a frustrated look on her face. Jason tried to tell her but she looked as if she didn't want to listen. "Chloe... baby, I told you the dinner was great and it was... but.." He was cut off. "But what, Jason? I saw how uncomfortable you looked while we were eating. If you're telling me the truth, then what's wrong?" She asked. She looked right in his eyes waiting for an answer. "Well, I just...hadn't had the appetite." Jason replied simply but still nervously.

He was still sitting at the dining table, fidgeting with his fingers, his stomach churning. He wanted to just get up and take in some fresh air for a while, but the situation he was in wasn't guaranteeing it. "And when did you lose this appetite of yours?" Chloe asked suspiciously. Jason thought about it, then sighed sadly. He had to tell her the truth or this would go on for hours. "Er, w-when...we started eating," He said quickly. " But it wasn't"- Chloe cut him off again.

"Jason, how am I supposed to know what to do if you can't tell me the truth? I'm sorry if my cooking isn't good enough for you but what do you want me to do? We can't live our whole life just eating fast food all our lives. I don't want our kids to be fat and unhealthy because their mom can't cook for them."

Chloe's face had fallen with no emotion on it. Her shoulders drooped and she paced again back and forth. She raked through her hair frustratingly with her right hand while Jason still sat. The difficulty he was putting her through was tearing his heart apart. How did a dinner end up like this? He wondered. "What should we do, Jason?" Jason had to think about what he should say again. He wanted to tell her that her cooking was truly great but he knew she wouldn't buy it, especially while he was feeling like crap. And he knew he couldn't say he wanted fast food all his life. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. Chloe groaned. "Fine, I won't cook anymore. Plain and simple." Jason finally got up. He clumsily walked over to her to hold her in his arms and explain but she wouldn't listen. She simply pushed him away and said, "Just... sleep on the couch tonight, okay?" Jason just stood there while Chloe walked into the hallway and got a blanket and pillow out of the closet and shoved them at Jason's chest. He quickly caught them and said a fast "Goodnight" before he heard a loud but quick slam of their bedroom door.

"Fine," said Jason as he hobbled over to the suede sofa, one hand holding the pillow and blanket and the other resting on his stomach. "Didn't even get a chance to explain the whole situation. I was too telling the truth if you would just listen to what I had to say." he muttered to as he plopped on the sofa and tried to get comfortable. He ended up curling in a ball and stared at the coffee table in front of him until his heavy eyelids finally gave in.

Lois and AC were in their living room resting on their red love-seat in front of the fire. The french doors, that was the entrance to their deck, were open leaving a nice breeze through the house. Lois had her feet on AC's lap in which he was massaging one of them. She was turning through a magazine when she stopped on a page that caught her attention. It was one of those pages that showed the advertisement of something. What she was looking at was an advertisement for bridal dresses. She looked longingly at the model couple with their perfect happy smiles. The bride was wearing a white silk gown with peach colored roses beaded at the bottom at the dress that fitted her body perfectly. She was on a beach with her groom and they were both barefoot on the sand holding hands. The wind was in her hair and she was gazing at her husband.

Lois was probably staring at it for quite some time because Arthur had stopped what he was doing and had gotten up and went to the fridge. He came back with half a glass of water and stopped in front of Lois. He was beginning to wonder what she was reading and leaned in over the magazine curiously. Lois closed it quickly, afraid Arthur might catch what she was daydreaming about and feel bad. She smiled nervously at him. " Got tired of being my servant?" Lois said, plopping the magazine on the floor next to her and sitting up. " How long did you expect me to sit there and slowly feel my fingers cramp?" Arthur said, smiling and gulping the last of his water. "Until is say 'that will be all' and I wave my hand and you flee." Lois answered smiling. "As you wish, m' lady." AC said and started to walk off when Lois pulled the back of his shirt toward her. Before he toppled over her, he caught himself, turned around and bent over to kiss Lois on the lips. Lois kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck. They continued their little playful banter until finally, they decided to go to bed. Both of them had already eaten dinner and were just lounging around. Lois glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It read about a quarter after twelve. She reached out her arm to turn off the light in the kitchen and then walked to the bedroom.

Lois slipped into a light yellow tank top and some lime green pajama pants with Hershey kisses printed them. She plopped onto the bed and grabbed her current romance book from her side table. She unfolded the 147th page book 5 of the Forbidden Kiss series and began reading. After 5 minutes passed, AC appeared from the bathroom in his orange and green striped pajama pants. Lois looked up and shook her head, sighing. What does he see in those colors she thought. AC just smiled, with his white teeth shining in front of her.

He bent over and pulled out the corner of the comforter so that he could get on the bed and pull in some covers. He cuddled up to his reading girlfriend and used his fingers to softly caress her arm.

Lois just smiled and read on.

Clark woke up to find it was still dark out. The lights were still off and Lana had her back facing him, her silky, dark brown hair was splayed all over her pillow and she was sleeping soundly. He finally realized that he probably woke up because of his stomach. It wasn't giving him a break. Even curling into a ball didn't help. He wrapped his arms around his abdomen and took deep breaths. He flopped on his back and stared at the ceiling fan over the bed, but got dizzy and closed his eyes. He kept his eyes closed for a while more at an attempt to will away the nausea. To his shock, he felt perspiration forming on his forehead. He pulled the covers off of his side and began to feel the cool air coming from the fan. It wasn't long until he started shivering and brought the covers back up to his shoulders. He curled back into a ball and wrapped his arms around his stomach, closing his eyes.

Suddenly, his stomach lurched and he shut his eyes tighter, gritting his teeth. He let out a silent whimper as the cramping slowly passed. Taking slow and deep breaths, he inched over to where Lana was and gently pressed his back against hers. He felt oddly clingy to her. Surprisingly, Lana didn't even stir from his tossing and turning. The calmness and the warmth radiating off of her back comforted him. He slowly uncurled and kept one arm wrapped firmly around his abdomen, careful not to trigger any sudden pains. What's wrong with me? Clark thought to himself, a little panicky. He glanced at the alarm clock on his side. It read 12:57 am. Clark audibly groaned. He'd only been sleeping for less than an hour! " It's going to be a long night." Clark whispered to himself, miserably. He sighed and closed his eyes, praying for sleep... at least until the sun comes out.

TBC

Author's Note:

Well, that's thethird chapter of my story. I haven't gotten any reviews from my last chapter and I'm kind of disappointed that maybe I didn't do a good job. I tried hard on Chloe and Jason's argument, but I don't think it was as good as I thought it would be. But, anyway, I bet you can tell that Chloe's a little emotional about how she and Jason should live in the future. She doesn't want to end up like her mother and be a broken family, so Jason has to suffer this phase until he can talk to her.

So, if I can get more reviews, you can stay tunedfor part 2 of A Long Night. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!