Title:
Ashamed
Part: VII
Author: Elizabeth Goode
Disclaimer: Don't
sue me. I have no money.
Chloe didn't feel hungry at lunchtime, so she went back to the Torch to try to get some work done. She had spent the morning thinking about Clark. Not that that was unusual - she'd only had a crush on him since the first day she met him after moving to Smallville from Metropolis. This was different, though. After what she had seen, knowing what Clark could do, she was fascinated with him in a whole new way. Anger that he had not told her his secret had lasted for only a matter of minutes. Why hadn't Clark trusted her? Well, the answer had been plastered all over the Wall of Weird. God, he probably thought that if she knew, he might end up all over the Wall of Weird as well. She wondered if there hadn't been times that he had come close to telling her, and she might have ruined it in one way or another. Lionel Luthor. She had assisted Lionel Luthor in investigating Clark. Willingly, at first. A wave of sickness washed through her, and she was glad that she had skipped lunch.
The door to the Torch opened, and Lana Lang entered the room. "Chloe? Is everything all right? You weren't at lunch."
Chloe turned to face her, offering a weak smile. "I just wasn't hungry."
Lana held out a small paper bag. "I brought you a bagel and cream cheese. Just in case you feel like a snack later on."
"Thanks."
Lana started to leave, then stopped. "Chloe, are you sure you're all right? You don't seem like yourself."
How am I supposed to act? I just found out that one of my best friends is some kind of meteor freak! I saw him lift a car, for crying out loud! And, I just realized that he probably never told me because some of the things I've done pretty much make me the last person on earth he should trust!
Aloud, she replied, "I'm fine. Just worried about Clark. I ran into Mrs. Kent at the coffee shop this morning."
Incredulously, Lana rolled her eyes. "I can't believe the Kents have let him miss four days of school over something like this! Are they going to let him hole up in that barn forever?"
Something in Lana's tone triggered a torrent of anger in Chloe. "Something like this? He found the murdered body of his girlfriend hanging in a stable. Even if it had been the body of a complete stranger, that's pretty traumatic. Having never found any of my loved ones hanged from a rafter myself, I can't begin to imagine how horrible he must be feeling."
"I didn't say it wasn't bad! It's just that it was Alicia. She tried to kill me once, if you remember?"
"No one is likely to forget anytime soon, the way you keep bringing it up! She tried to kill Clark, too. I didn't like her - I thought she was a psychotic b, if you want to get technical about it, but the point is that this time she was innocent. She did her time, she got released, Clark forgave her - he always does, with everybody. No surprise there. She didn't do what everyone thought she did. Clark believed in her and got ostracized by all of us for his trouble. Then, he lost Alicia, too."
Lana sighed, clearly still annoyed with the situation, but willing to discuss it further. "Did Mrs. Kent say how he's doing?"
"Not good. He wouldn't even come in the house until last night. He just sat out there in his loft, alone. She said he still can't hold it together well enough to last a day at school, and she doesn't want to rush him."
"Four days seems like enough. Kids who have lost parents have come back to school faster than that."
Chloe was losing her patience. "I'll bet none of those kids found the dead bodies swinging in the breeze. God, Lana! Have some compassion! Do you want him to come to school and break down in tears in the hallway when he sees the memorial photograph and obituary? For whatever reasons, this thing is hitting him hard, and what he really needs are friends, not interrogations. When you're ready to just be a friend, pick up the phone."
With that, Chloe turned on her heel and left Lana in the room alone.
