Chapter 10
Lois plodded along the sidewalk, her shoes slapping the wet concrete as she held her hands behind her back. Her spine tingled and her breathing was ragged. All she could feel was elation and joy. It hadn't taken more than ten minutes to walk to the downtown heart of Aspen, unmindful of the cold that had settled into the night. She was going to tell Clark that she loved him. She had been so blindly stupid with her stubborn ways that she was risky losing him every minute they were apart.
In truth, she didn't really know when she had fallen for him. There had been so many occurrences between the two of them that it was hard pin pointing a specific time. She knew when she had started feeling differently about him though. It was his senior prom, and watching him ditch her for Lana was an insult. Sure, she had goaded him into doing it, but it had hurt to know that he hadn't put up much of a fight against it. From that day forward she had began to watch him more closely, even spying on him secretly when he was doing something. No one knew, but sometimes in the middle of the night when she was sleeping over at the farm, she would sneak downstairs and grab a snack. She wasn't surprised he was a heavy sleeper, a man that big didn't do anything lightly. During those snacks she had actually managed to turn the television on and watch it and him until she felt sleepy enough to go back to bed.
Those seemed like innocent times though. Now things had progressed to an almost intolerable level. Their day on Valentines had put the final stamp on everything. She hated that she couldn't remember anything, and she hated that he remembered something but wouldn't tell. It would have been in her normal nature to goad him about it until he said something, but she had been struggling so hard with her feelings that she couldn't keep her cool around him.
While everyone, including Clark, was dreading Lana marrying Lex, she had been happy. Well, happy wasn't the word, but she had been satisfied. Lana marrying the bald billionaire put a final stamp on Clark's fascination with the small girl. That's what Lana was, a small girl with a small head and a complete lack of common sense. The woman was selfish from wanting more out of Clark than he could give. It always surprised her how he could put up with a woman like that, but in the end her cousin had said it was only to keep her from marrying Lex. She didn't know if she believed that, but in the ensuing days after she came around to that thought. Clark had changed after that day. No longer was he spending all his time moping, well, he seemed somewhat downtrodden, but he didn't spend his time brooding in the loft anymore. Instead he spent all his time with Chloe working on one thing or another. She was glad that Chloe and Clark were such close friends, or she would have thought that Smallville had a thing for her cousin.
It soon became somewhat of an obsession with her. Every time she saw her cousin back at their apartment she would always ask about Clark before anything else. She was sure her cousin had picked up on it, but she had been oblivious to it for a long time. It wasn't until she had been riding in the car with them to Colorado that she had came to. One minute she was all confused about Clark and the way he was dressing, and then the next moment she had felt things come rushing into her like a tidal wave. Her cousin's talk only escalated everything, but she knew she had given in much before that. It was Clark's demeanor that pushed her over the edge. His new attitude and dark clothes threw her for such a large loop she almost did a double take. And when he stared at her with his sunglasses on his nose, she almost wet herself in pleasure. Never in a million years did she think a man could make her so nervous, yet so horny with a simple stare.
Lois kicked a stone out of her path as she got nearer to the restaurant where Chloe and Jimmy were. They had told her to wait outside while they finished. Usually she would have gotten upset about them telling her to do something, but her mood had her in a high place. With a still lingering smile, she stopped in front of the restaurant and waited patiently. Again she allowed her mind to drift back her Smallville.
Well, he wasn't hers, but the name was. She was almost certain he wouldn't allow her to call him Clark. There was something simple, yet incredibly unique about the name. She had originally called him by that name to tease him about the way he always went around trying to save people. In time she had come to admire it, but only after he had saved her. She couldn't recount how many times he had saved her from death, but somehow she knew he had done it even more times when she hadn't been watching. He always seemed to be in the right spot at the right time.
Of all the things that she had come to admire about him over time, there was one thing that put a stamp on it. Their bickering was that one thing that kept them both level headed and close. She knew that it was because of her that Clark slipped up and showed his emotions sometimes. When she had first met him she thought he had been a simple farm boy, but after getting under that thick skin of his she had found a complex enigma that confused her to no end. One to never back down from a challenge, she tried for two years to dig even further under his tough exterior, but he eventually grew a backbone to her words and gave back just as well as he received.
Thinking even farther back, she remembered vividly the first signs of jealousy he had shown towards her. It was when a man named Arthur Curry had come to town. Smallville had been dating Lana at the time, and they seemed happy, but once A.C had shown an interest in her, Clark went all protective and even warned her about him. Back then she hated it, but in retrospect she understood why Clark had acted the way he did. He was genuinely concerned about her safety, but deep down there was something else that played into it. The look that would pass across his eyes when he saw her and A.C together hinted at jealousy in its smallest forms. Their talk after Arthur had left town was coming back into play. She remembered what he said word for word. His promise of telling her she would meet another, more special person than Arthur had made her skeptical. Looking back on it now she couldn't believe how blind and stupid she had been. It was Clark, and she had known it for over a year, but she had gotten so scared about thinking about it, she had completely shut her mind off from it.
Then there was Oliver, but then again that has been a strenuous relationship in the end. The man had secrets like Clark, but she wasn't one to prod and poke for answers, so she let herself believe she was happy. For a time she was, but in the end Oliver's disappearing acts had caught up with him, and not telling her the truth had put an end to their relationship. Who was there to help her when she went on the rebound? Chloe? Martha? No, it had been Clark. It all started on Valentines Day, and even if she couldn't remember anything, she knew one thing for a fact. Clark had taken her mind off everything, allowing her to open up and express herself fully. She didn't even do that with Chloe, her blood cousin. There was a little piece of herself she kept hidden from everyone else, and that was her desires, yet she willingly spoke them to Clark. She tried hard for a month to deny the feeling that there was more to everything than just the drugs, but in the end she had come to the conclusion that it was only hopeful wishing. She loved Clark, but she had been blind to it for so long. Now she was making things worse by being stubborn.
She laughed to herself. It was just like the two for them to act like they were. They may have been different in so many ways, but their similarities were so convincing they couldn't be ignored. Like him she put everyone in front of herself. Clark probably didn't see it that way, simply because of the way she put herself in front of him, but that was only for her personal enjoyment of seeing him squirm. She grew up raising a sister and putting Lucy ahead of herself. Sometimes she had just felt like giving up and running away, but like Clark, she never did. She would bite the bullet and take it all in stride. When she got upset, she kept it to herself a let it gnaw away at her gut. The only other person she knew who did that was Smallville. She couldn't believe how many times he let others walk all over him, and then simply shrug it off and help that person the next minute. Either he had the biggest heart in the world, or he could expertly block his emotions better than she could.
A sudden ding brought her out of her thoughts.
"Lois." Chloe exclaimed.
"Hi!" She replied excitedly. Jimmy walked out the door behind her cousin, his hand sliding his wallet into his back pocket.
"What's up?" Chloe asked. "You sounded pretty excited about something on the phone."
"I love Clark." She got out in a hurry. She smiled widely as she saw two jaws fall suddenly, tongues and teeth showing in the street light.
"You do?" Chloe asked. She knew Lois did, but she thought it would have taken longer before her cousin had admitted it out loud.
"Yes Chloe. I love him. Now where is he? I need to tell him." She was spouting her words in a hurry as she felt her excitement rise to a new level.
"Hold on hold on." Chloe said as she reached into her purse and drew out her cell phone.
-
His mind screamed no, but his groin told him otherwise. Things began to vibrate below, her moaning driving him further from his mental scream. It all felt so good, but instead of him pulling away, she did. He was relieved she did. He would have eventually, but there was the slightest bit of doubt embedded deep within his mind.
"Clark?" She asked breathlessly.
"Huh?" He asked, his eyes still closed in confusion.
"Is that your phone or are you really that happy to see me?" She grinned as his eyes flickered open suddenly.
"Oh." He exclaimed, quickly rummaging through his jean pocket and finding his phone. Flicking it open, he said. "Hey Chloe." He listened to her ask him where he was. "Main Street." He answered. She asked him to meet her and Jimmy somewhere. "Jacks Pub?" He asked Candice while he put his hand over the phone. "You know where that is?" When she nodded, he lifted the phone back to his ear. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few." He nodded at something she said. "Bye." He flicked his phone shut and held it while he let go of a held breath.
"Who was that?" She asked.
"The friend who knows my secret." He said with a sigh.
"What's she want?"
"Can't rightly say, but she said it was important."
Candice looked at him and his soft complexion. "What about what we were doing here?" She asked suddenly. His eyes flipped up to her.
"I don't know, it's so confusing I don't know what to think." He rubbed a shaky hand through his hair as he leaned against the wall.
"Are you thinking about Lois?" She asked.
"Yes." He admitted, his eyes falling to he ground instinctively.
"And you're feeling guilty aren't you, even if you're not actually together?"
Clark bobbed his head again.
"You love her." She said pointedly.
"What?" He asked in shock, his head snapping upwards to stare at her.
"You love her."
"But I thought you said-."
She cut him off with her laughter. "Clark, I think the fact that you're thinking about her instead of about me is all the evidence I need to ascertain to come to my conclusion. You're feeling guilty, yet you're not dating her. That only means one thing."
"What?" He asked.
"You're not that dense are you?"
Clark shrugged and gave her sheepish grin. "No, but I see your point."
"Good." She laughed. "Now, let's find your friends and I'll let you introduce me."
Clark frowned. "So we're just friends?"
"I swear Clark; I think you really don't get it sometimes. I may have only known you for a couple of hours, but I can see why this Lois woman makes fun of you. You're so unsure of yourself that you come across as a dolt." When he continued to frown, she rolled her eyes and said. "Yes Clark, we're friends."
Clark let out a held breath and relaxed. "What about the kiss?" He asked.
"Never happened." She waved it away without a second thought.
"But it did." He reiterated.
She stepped up close to him and poked her finger into his chest, backing him up against the wall. "No it didn't. Got that?" She asked with a grave tone.
Clark held himself up against the wall and looked at her nervously. "Yes ma'am." He said in all seriousness. She quickly flashed a smile and tugged on his arm.
"The pub is a little ways down Main Street." She almost had to drag him along. Even his feet seemed to go stupid. "This is like having to carry a baby around on my hip." She exhaled in frustration, finally getting him to move with her.
"I am not baby." He said with a slight chuckle.
"Liar." She exclaimed, her arm interlocking with his as they finally exited the alley. "Let's go, my knight in shining armor." She laughed as he chuckled with her.
"Knight in shining armor?" He asked.
"Yeah, what else are you good for? You certainly can't keep your head straight; all you're good for is a glorified bodyguard." She smiled wide a she put her right hand on his right arm. Her left arm was still interlocked with his.
Clark felt slightly uncomfortable with her touching him, but she simply saw it as a friendly gesture. He could accept that in the end. She was an interesting woman, and even with all the trouble with Lois, it would be nice to have another friend to hang around while he let Jimmy and Chloe spend some time alone. He didn't want to be a third wheel.
"So," Candice said. "do I have to watch my mouth around your friends, or can I trust them to keep my secret." She was being serious.
"Around Chloe you can be open about everything, but not around Jimmy. He doesn't know anything about me, and I'd like it to stay that way."
"What about Lois?"
Clark cringed at the name. "Lois? She knows nothing, but knowing her she would likely think I was joking if I ever told her."
"How come you've never told her? You told your friend Chloe, why not Lois?" She looked at him as they continued down their path. The lamps on the sidewalk lit up the streets, their transparent glow accenting the soft shadows on his face.
"I never told Chloe, she sort of found out." He looked back to the sidewalk.
"How?"
He flinched, but explained. "She saw me catch a car in mid air." He said, leaning close so that only she could hear him.
"Really?" She asked with sparkling eyes. When he nodded, she smiled. "I haven't done that, but I can certainly lift them." She enjoyed having someone around that understood what having abilities was like. Even if she could never have his heart, she was content in knowing she had a friend for life.
"I surprised myself the first time I did that." Clark admitted. "My parents were even more freaked, but they did the right thing by not exposing my gifts to the world."
Candice smiled and nodded in sync. "It seems that our parents would get along swimmingly. Maybe we should set up a play date?" She laughed loudly.
Clark got swept up in her mirth as he plodded along. Her sense of humor was infectious, her laugh even more so. "Let's introduce you to my friends before I set up a couples date for our parents." She laughed again, her soft tone filling his ears.
"What am I to expect from your friends? I kind of like to know what I'm walking into." When he frowned, she squeezed his forearm. She couldn't tell if he feigned the pain, but he squirmed none the less. "So, what can I expect?" She asked again when he hadn't answered.
"They're normal people." He said in response. Her glare signified she wasn't going to be satisfied with just that. "I'm not a very good judge of character." He admitted.
Closing one eye, she peered at him strangely. "I can understand that, but at least tell me something."
Clark sighed. "Well, Chloe's one of the best friends anyone could ever have. She's had her troubles with loyalty in the past, but that was when she was in love with me."
"What?" She asked in surprise. "She loved you?"
"For almost five years." He said with a low voice.
"Did you ever-you know?"
His eyes shot to her quickly, their roundness larger than baseballs. "No!"
Candice patted his arm. "Calm down Clark, I just asked a simple question."
"You call that a simple question?" He asked with a frown. "I call that inappropriate." He wasn't comfortable talking about sex in public. She obviously was, but she didn't quite know him all that well.
When he went silent, she picked up the dead air. "So, did you ever date?"
Clark shook his head after he finally got past his initial shock of her original question. "No. Well, we did go to a dance together, but that was high school and I got preoccupied by something else."
"Are you going to elaborate on that?" She asked.
He once again shook his head. "You'll have to ask Chloe about that one. She laughs about it now, ever since she's found someone, but I don't like talking about the past anymore. I'm pretty disgusted with the way I acted that day and the many days after that."
She picked up on the pain in his voice, but she couldn't place it. He seemed upset because he had ditched his friend, but there something else to it. She resigned to the fact that she would ask Chloe. "Fine, I'll make sure to ask her." She said.
"You will?" He asked in surprise. "I just said that so we could drop the conversation."
"The more I know about you Clark the better. I like having the upper hand on any friendship. This way I can abuse it by making you do things for me." She smiled devilishly as he grinned back at her joke.
"I think that if you decide to bug me, you can get quite a bit back in return." He said with a chuckle.
"Are you saying that there is actually a brain in there somewhere?" She asked, taking her right hand off his arm and tapping his head with her knuckles.
"You keep hitting me like that and I'll be liable to tap you back. Trust me; if you want to avoid a headache, I suggest you stop." He smiled wildly as she let her hand fall back to his arm.
"There's some sass. I was wondering what it took for you to grow a backbone."
"I have a backbone." Clark argued.
"I know, I just said you did."
"You didn't sound like you think I do."
She shrugged and looked forward. "What about Lois, do you have a backbone around her. You show me it now, but are you a bumbling dolt when you're around her?"
Clark didn't like that she brought Lois back into the conversation. He needed to get the brown haired woman off his mind for the night and just have some fun with new and old friends. "I really don't want to talk about that." He said truthfully.
"You can't just avoid it Clark. One of these days you'll have to get it all out in the open or its going to eat you up."
"I'm good at holding things in." He replied.
"You really are stubborn." She said suddenly.
He smiled as he stopped walking. "We're here." He said.
"Oh. Well, what are you waiting for? Open the door for me sir."
Clark laughed and nodded. "Ma'am." He replied sarcastically as he held the door open for her.
-
Lois sat at a table with Chloe and Jimmy, her hands rubbing on her pant legs nervously as she watched the door in anticipation. She had specifically seated herself so that she could see him come through. Her heart was beating a mile a minute as she shifted in the seat for the hundredth time.
"Calm down Lois." Chloe assured her, grabbing a hold of her cousin's hand to keep her steady. It didn't work, her nervous and sweaty hands just caused her own to shake. She quickly let go and wiped the sweat on her palm off on her pants.
"I can't Chloe; my heart feels like it's going to burst."
Jimmy watched them both with a tight smile adorning his lips. "You can just jump him the second he comes through those doors. This is a public place."
Lois looked to him as her eyes widened. He was right, she couldn't jump him, no matter badly she wanted to. There was no doubt in her mind she was going to make his night, but the fact that she had forgotten about other peoples peering eyes had her angry. She knew she should have waited until he got back to the hotel, but she had gotten caught up in her excitement. There was a beer in front of her, but she hadn't drank any of it yet. She was using the cold bottle to keep her hands busy, but she was too scared that she might let the bottle slip in her shaky hands.
Chloe watched as Lois moved the beer bottle around the table, not once putting it to her lips. She shared a special smile with Jimmy. He knew, much like she did, that the vacation was about to go from painful to joyful for Lois and Clark. It helped their situation too, it meant they wouldn't have a third wheel. If they wanted to be alone, they could be.
With her eyes still focused on the door, Lois spied a few people come through. A large figure entered next, and she almost jumped out of her seat, but it wasn't Clark. Sighing to try and relax herself, she felt her cousin's hand rub her knee in a reassuring manner. "I'm scared as hell." She admitted.
"I believe you've said that about ten times already." Chloe replied.
"Sorry." Lois said back, turning her head and smiling helplessly. Her eyes quickly snapped back to the door as a young, tall, black haired woman entered. Behind her stood Clark, holding the door open for. She smiled at his chivalry. Her heart almost leapt out of her chest as he entered. Sitting in a booth had its drawbacks. Chloe blocked her escape, but she knew for fact that her cousin was doing it for her benefit. She didn't want her running at him like a hysterical woman.
Her eyes widened as he saw Clark say something. She didn't know who he was talking to, but suddenly the tall woman in front of him turned around and slugged him in the chest. Her eyebrows drew into an arch of confusion as she saw him laugh loudly and smile wide. Her mind ran a mile a minute as she watched the two of them. They were talking animatedly as he closed the door. She watched in horror as Clark gently removed her coat from her shoulders. The look the woman gave Clark, and the smile he returned, caused her heart to skip a beat. As the woman took her coat and draped it over her right arm, Clark extended his. Confusion settled in, but as soon as she saw the woman interlock his arm with hers, her heart broke.
Chloe, seeing her cousin's once smiling face staring at the door in pure terror, she looked. At the front door was Clark, his arm tightly interlocked with a very beautiful young woman who was smiling and talking to him. She was stunning, her jeans and tight sweatshirt accenting her natural curves.
Jimmy followed both women's gazes. Slowly he looked back to Chloe, her eyes wide and frightened. He wanted to tell them both not to jump to conclusions, but his girlfriend's eyes already told him she had. Lois was a different matter. She looked as if her heart had been torn asunder and trampled on. He could have sworn she was dying; the pain etched on her face was more than enough to ascertain she had already accepted the worst. "It's not what you think." He assured them. Chloe looked at him pleadingly, but Lois couldn't tear her eyes off the front entrance.
Lois jumped head first into the skepticism pool, her emotions catching the best of her and making her decision for her. Normally she would have waited things out, she was usually one to know things sometimes didn't seem what they looked like, but in this case she was in no mood for waiting. Every second that passed both Clark and the woman continued to smile. They seemingly enjoyed each others company. It struck her suddenly. She had been too late. She had been acting so stubborn that she had lost her chance to tell him she loved him. If he was enjoying himself with another woman, that meant deep down he didn't love her back. "You lied!" She said with tears running down her cheeks, her stare directed at her cousin.
"What?" Chloe asked in confusion.
"You lied." She said between sobs. "How could you make me believe he actually loved me?" She quickly pushed Chloe out of the booth and got out. All the anger in pain that was welled up inside of her released itself as she walked right up to Clark. "Are you happy!?" She screamed at him.
Clark ripped his eyes from Candice as he felt his ears burn in pain. When he saw Lois in front of him, yelling, he blinked in surprise and said. "Lois! I didn't know you were going to be here." He couldn't hide his surprise at seeing her. Her cheeks were littered with tears as she looked crestfallen.
She didn't bother responding to him as she brushed them aside and exited through the front door. How quickly her happiness had come to an end. She was angry, upset, but most of all she was furious for having been so stubborn. Maybe he had loved her, but she blamed herself. She cried uncontrollably as she walked briskly back to the hotel, happiness seeming like a distant memory.