Minnesotagirl
06-04-2006, 12:24 PM
Hey! Long time, no see! *squints and waves back to Akuma*
I know it's been a while, so here's a link to the previous chapter to refresh your memory Chapter 26 (http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2015190#post2015190).
O.K. Here it is...finally!
Chapter 27
“Hi,” he said again.
“You already said that.”
“Oh, yeah…Sorry.”
“So…”
“So…”
There was a silence between them. Clark ended up shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket and staring at his shuffling feet.
“Ummm…You want to walk for a bit?” Lana asked nervously.
“Sure.”
Lana stood up from the bench and they started walking slowly towards the school’s playground. It was a few minutes before either of them said anything. They walked side by side with a distance between them. Clark felt the need to reach out and touch her, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to scare her away. It was up to her to make the first move. Clark waited for her to start the conversation, but she kept looking back and forth at him and nearly starting to say something, but then stopped.
‘Come, on, Lana! Say something!’ she thought to herself. But she didn’t really know where to start.
“So…How’s coaching going?” she said, just trying to start a conversation.
“Good. I’m learning how to handle all the kids, but I think it’s going well.”
“Yeah…The kids seem to really like you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Especially Katie.”
“Katie?”
“Yeah, the little blonde girl…She seems really nice.”
“She’s a good kid…She’s been here every day this week so she can walk her little brother home.”
“That’s not the only reason.”
Clark looked at her with a questioning look.
“She’s sweet on you.”
“Katie?...No!” he said in disbelief.
“Yes! She even told me she was going to marry you.”
“Marry me?!” Clark cheeks suddenly flushed. ‘He does that a lot,’ Lana thought to herself. ‘Is that a Clark-thing or a someone-from-another-planet thing?’
“Well, you can tell her she’s not my type…I prefer brunettes,” he said gazing over at her. That last comment even made her blush. She smiled nervously at him, but then looked back down to the ground when she saw the intensity in his eyes. There was another long pause of silence between them. The kept walking and ended up at the playground.
“I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t know if you’d ever want to see me again after-,”
“After I found out what you are?” she said, completing what he was saying.
“Yeah.”
“I won’t lie to you, Clark. I wasn’t sure if I should come here or not…I even went to see Professor Willowbrook.”
“You did? What did he say?”
“Not much. You know how he is. He said if I want answers, I should get them from you.”
“Oh.”
“And I need answers, Clark. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. If I want any semblance of getting my life back together, I need answers. Understand?”
Clark nodded and stared at the ground.
“I want to know it all, Clark. I want to know everything.”
Clark took a deep breath and let it out. He then looked her in the eyes. “Then, you’d better sit down,” he stated, motioning to the swing.
Lana looked next to her and sat down on the swing. She looked up and waited for Clark to say something, but he looked lost in thought.
“Clark?”
Broken out of his thoughts, he spoke. “Do you know that this was where I saw you for the first time?”
She nodded her head ‘No.’
“It was the first day of Kindergarten, and it was recess. I had just met Pete and we came out to the playground, and there you were…Sitting in that swing with Emily right next to you. You were wearing a pink sweater and had pig-tails tied up with pink bows. I thought you were the prettiest thing I ever saw…I don’t know why or how, but even though I was only five, I knew I was in love with you…And I had to talk to you. So, I walked over to you. I was so nervous I thought the butterflies in my stomach were going to fly me away. Anyway, when I got within ten feet of you my head started to spin and I felt weak and-,”
“You fell face-first in the sand.”
“You remember.”
“Not until you mentioned it…I remember Emily laughing at you.”
“So do I,” he replied, flushed with embarrassment. “But you didn’t laugh, did you?”
“No…I didn’t…I never laughed when you tripped…And you tripped a lot back then...Actually, up until Freshman year. Somehow I knew that there was more to you behind the clumsiness.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t until Freshman year that I found out why I couldn’t get close to you.”
Lana looked up at him questioningly. Her brow furrowing.
“I have kind of an allergy to the meteor rock,” he admitted.
Lana then remembered and touched her neck where her necklace once resided. “My necklace.” Clark nodded. “How bad of an allergy are we talking here? Is it a break-out-in-red-itchy-spots allergy or the swell-up-like-a-balloon allergy?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then what happens to you when you get close to them?”
“I don’t know if I can describe it, but I start to feel dizzy and sick and weak. The closer I get, the worse it gets. If I’m too close and the rock is large enough, I feel pain all over my body so intense I can barely stand. Sometimes I even pass out from the pain. The rock seems like it drains all my energy and I lose my powers. If I could equate it to anything, the closest thing it comes to is that I feel like I’m-,”
“Dying?”
“Yeah.”
“Could you die from it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not willing to find out.” He saw the look of concern on Lana’s face and wanted her not to worry. “Besides, I’m pretty careful. At the first sign of feeling sick I back away, and little pieces aren’t as bad. I just seem like a big klutz around them…like with your necklace.”
“And here I thought you were just really nervous.”
“Oh, I was…Every time…but even without your necklace I would’ve still been tongue-tied and felt like I had two left feet.” Clark gave her a little smile. Lana looked down at her feet and rocked a little back and forth in the swing. Clark stood there in silence, not really knowing what to do next.
“Clark?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we gonna really talk about this or what?”
“Right…O.K. You said you want to know everything?” Lana looked up and nodded.
“Everything,” she stated firmly.
“O.K.” Lana watched him begin to pace back and forth in the sand. His breaths came in short, nervous pants. Clark rubbed his hands and felt his palms start to sweat from nerves. He took off his cap and ran his hand through his hair before putting it back on. To watch him, you would think he was having a panic attack, which in his mind wasn’t far from what he was feeling.
“Ummm…You don’t know how many times I’ve gone through this in my head, and it never seemed to come out right. I actually tried to tell you once.”
“When?”
“Before you left for Paris. Remember the dinner we were supposed to have?”
“You mean the one I missed because a psychotic clone stuck me in a gigantic display case?” She saw Clark nod his head. “Wait…You really were going to tell me, weren’t you?” Clark nodded. “To stop me from going to Paris?” He nodded again. “But I came back to the barn the next day. Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“Something happened with Pete. Someone started asking him questions about me, and when he didn’t give them answers, they hurt him.”
“Is that why he left Smallville?”
“Yeah…he was afraid that one day he’d slip up and he couldn’t bear it if he ever betrayed my trust. I didn’t want you going through the same thing…That’s why I chickened out.”
“So…this is what you meant by ‘protecting’ me.”
“Yeah.” Clark took a deep breath and let it out. Clark sat down in the swing next to her and rocked from side to side. “This feels so strange…being so completely honest.”
“With me?”
“With anybody. I’ve never opened up this much with anyone before…Not with Pete or Chloe or even my parents. They all knew about what I am and what I can do, but I never told them what I felt.”
“O-Oh,” Lana responded looking back down.
“Ahhh…I’m not sure where to go next…Maybe you should ask me questions and I’ll answer them.”
“O.K.” Lana thought for a moment about the first question she would ask. “Ummm…have you always known?”
“About where I came from?” Lana shook her head. “No. I was really little when I was sent away…But I knew I wasn’t ‘normal.’ I just didn’t know how different I was until my dad told me four years ago after Lex hit me with his car.”
“So…Lex was right. He really did hit you.”
“At 60 miles an hour.”
“And you weren’t hurt at all?”
“I felt the impact, but I didn’t get injured.”
“Incredible!” she said under her breath.
“That was the day I knew something was happening to me. I’ve never really gotten hurt growing up…Like the time I fell out of the treehouse and I was fine. My parents just chocked it up as being really lucky, but now I know that wasn’t it. I had strength and speed for a while by then, but this was something new…and scary. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. So, when my dad told me the truth…That I wasn’t from around here…I got angry and scared, so I ran away. That was the night you found me in the cemetery.”
“So…that’s what you were upset about. I had no idea.”
“Well, when all you wanted in life was to be normal and then to find out you’re not even human, it kinda brings you down…I realized that I would never be normal,” he said sadly.
“Must not have been easy growing up.”
“It wasn’t. Until I learned to control my strength and speed, I wasn’t allowed to play with anyone…No playdates, No parties. My parents were afraid I’d hurt someone and someone would find out and take me away. Growing up, I barely saw anyone for the first few years, but then school started.”
“Yeah. Some of us wondered if you even existed. Nell said that your mom told her the reason we never saw you was that you were really shy.”
“Well…that, too. I was really shy. I guess some things you just don’t grow out of,” he confessed, looking at her.
“How did your parents deal with it? I mean, it must have been difficult raising a child of the super-powered persuasion.”
“My parents were great,” he answered smiling and folding his hands in his lap. “They never tried to stop me from using my abilities. They actually helped me to develop them…to control them. Although, the first time they crept up they were a little concerned.”
“What happened?”
“I was only with my parents a few months and my dad and I were playing hide-and-seek. I had crawled under my parents’ big oak bed and when my dad found me, I didn’t want to come out. He tried to get me out, but when I stood up, the bed lifted up with me…I’ve never seen my dad’s eyes so big…My parents didn’t know what to do…they didn’t know what was happening to me, so they decided to take me to a scientist…But when we pulled up to the facility, my mom said they couldn’t do it. If they brought me in, then the scientists would want to keep me and my parents would never see me again. So, they took me back home and decided that no one could know about me…Not even their families. I never even saw my grandfather until I was 16. The only other family I’ve met is my mother’s sister and son when they came to visit when I was 10, but that was only after my parents were sure I could control my abilities.”
Lana listened as Clark told her about his childhood. She realized that although he could do extraordinary things, he was lonely growing up. He could never really be himself around anyone, could never really confide in someone. Although his parents were supportive of him, he could never really tell them everything that he was feeling. For the next few hours, she caught a glimpse of what it was like for him…about being scared he’d hurt someone if he ever lost control. He could never do some of the things others could do in fear that if someone suspected anything, that he’d end up locked in a lab somewhere to be studied or experimented on for the rest of his life. He’s had to hold back his entire life. Clark watched Lana’s eyes soften as he told her how as a child how many eggs he broke trying to learn to control his strength. He also saw how flushed her cheeks became, as well as his own, when he finally told her how his heat vision came about. Then, he told her about his escapades in Metropolis that one summer, confessing everything he had done. Lana’s features hardened as she listened to him tell her about the robberies, the clubs, and about how the red kryptonite brought out his true self, the part of himself that he keeps buried, the part of himself that if he had been raised as a Kryptonian, it would have been his true personality. Lana remembered back to her dreams and the description Naman told Leotie of his people, that they were a race devoid of emotion.
“Clark, do you remember anything about where you came from?”
“Of the place, no. I was just a baby when my parents sent me away, but I remember my mother.”
“Really? What do you remember about her?”
Clark looked up to the sky and closed his eyes for a moment. “I remember…that she had long red hair and the most vibrant green eyes you could ever imagine.”
“She sounds beautiful.”
“Yeah…She was,” he said with sadness in his voice. “And I remember her crying.”
“Crying? I thought that people from your world didn’t show emotion.”
“She was different…kind. I remember that she was worried that no one would love me in this place. The last thing I remember is that she told me that she loved me and then she kissed me good-bye. Then, they closed the ship.”
“Ship?”
“It’s how I came here.”
“Clark, when did you come here? I mean, you were were a baby when you came here, and I don’t remember seeing anything about any UFOs 19 years ago.”
This was the part of the conversation that Clark had wanted to avoid his whole life. He knew that telling her about how he came here was going to hurt her. Clark pursed his lips together and looked away from her.
“Clark? Come on. I said I wanted to know everything. Tell me.”
He stared at the sand at his feet and began to speak. “I wasn’t a baby when I came here. I was a baby when I left, but I was about three years old when I arrived here.”
“Three? But that would mean-,”
“Lana, I came here during the meteor shower 16 years ago,” he said ashamed.
Lana stared at him for a moment with her mouth slightly opened. When she didn’t say anything, Clark hesitantly looked over at her and saw the look of pain in her eyes.
“The meteor shower?”
“Yes.”
“The meteor shower that practically destroyed this town?”
He nodded.
“The meteor shower that created people like Tina Greer and Ian Randall?”
He nodded again and hung his head.
“The meteor shower that killed…that killed my parents?” she choked out. At this point hot tears were trailing down her cheeks.
“Lana, I’m so sorry.” He reached over to touch her, but she quickly rose from her swing. She spun around and looked down at him.
“Sorry?! You are always saying you’re sorry. Sorry isn’t going to bring my parents back!”
“Lana-,” He stood up from his swing and took a step towards her. She was so angry.
“No! Clark, just stay there.” She turned her face away from him and wiped her tears away. “I have to go.” She turned to walk back to her car.
“Lana, wait!”
She looked back towards him. “No, Clark. I think I should go before I say something I’ll regret,” she replied, trying to hold back any more tears.
“Lana, I know you’re upset and that nothing I can say can change what happened, but…” Clark then walked up to her. “I need to know…Can we go back to the way things were before? Can we at least be friends again?”
The tears began to flow again as she looked up into his eyes and answered him honestly. “I don’t know, Clark. I really don’t know…I’m sorry, I have to go.”
Clark felt like his heart sank to the ground. He watched her turn away and run back to her car. He saw her drive out of the parking lot and down the road, all the while he listened intently as he heard her sobbing the whole way. Clark turned around and slumped back into the swing. He stayed there well past sunset wondering if she would ever accept him and come back to him.
********************************
Just when you thought everything was going to be O.K., I toss in more angst!
Chapter 28 (http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2523628#post2523628)
I know it's been a while, so here's a link to the previous chapter to refresh your memory Chapter 26 (http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2015190#post2015190).
O.K. Here it is...finally!
Chapter 27
“Hi,” he said again.
“You already said that.”
“Oh, yeah…Sorry.”
“So…”
“So…”
There was a silence between them. Clark ended up shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket and staring at his shuffling feet.
“Ummm…You want to walk for a bit?” Lana asked nervously.
“Sure.”
Lana stood up from the bench and they started walking slowly towards the school’s playground. It was a few minutes before either of them said anything. They walked side by side with a distance between them. Clark felt the need to reach out and touch her, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to scare her away. It was up to her to make the first move. Clark waited for her to start the conversation, but she kept looking back and forth at him and nearly starting to say something, but then stopped.
‘Come, on, Lana! Say something!’ she thought to herself. But she didn’t really know where to start.
“So…How’s coaching going?” she said, just trying to start a conversation.
“Good. I’m learning how to handle all the kids, but I think it’s going well.”
“Yeah…The kids seem to really like you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Especially Katie.”
“Katie?”
“Yeah, the little blonde girl…She seems really nice.”
“She’s a good kid…She’s been here every day this week so she can walk her little brother home.”
“That’s not the only reason.”
Clark looked at her with a questioning look.
“She’s sweet on you.”
“Katie?...No!” he said in disbelief.
“Yes! She even told me she was going to marry you.”
“Marry me?!” Clark cheeks suddenly flushed. ‘He does that a lot,’ Lana thought to herself. ‘Is that a Clark-thing or a someone-from-another-planet thing?’
“Well, you can tell her she’s not my type…I prefer brunettes,” he said gazing over at her. That last comment even made her blush. She smiled nervously at him, but then looked back down to the ground when she saw the intensity in his eyes. There was another long pause of silence between them. The kept walking and ended up at the playground.
“I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t know if you’d ever want to see me again after-,”
“After I found out what you are?” she said, completing what he was saying.
“Yeah.”
“I won’t lie to you, Clark. I wasn’t sure if I should come here or not…I even went to see Professor Willowbrook.”
“You did? What did he say?”
“Not much. You know how he is. He said if I want answers, I should get them from you.”
“Oh.”
“And I need answers, Clark. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. If I want any semblance of getting my life back together, I need answers. Understand?”
Clark nodded and stared at the ground.
“I want to know it all, Clark. I want to know everything.”
Clark took a deep breath and let it out. He then looked her in the eyes. “Then, you’d better sit down,” he stated, motioning to the swing.
Lana looked next to her and sat down on the swing. She looked up and waited for Clark to say something, but he looked lost in thought.
“Clark?”
Broken out of his thoughts, he spoke. “Do you know that this was where I saw you for the first time?”
She nodded her head ‘No.’
“It was the first day of Kindergarten, and it was recess. I had just met Pete and we came out to the playground, and there you were…Sitting in that swing with Emily right next to you. You were wearing a pink sweater and had pig-tails tied up with pink bows. I thought you were the prettiest thing I ever saw…I don’t know why or how, but even though I was only five, I knew I was in love with you…And I had to talk to you. So, I walked over to you. I was so nervous I thought the butterflies in my stomach were going to fly me away. Anyway, when I got within ten feet of you my head started to spin and I felt weak and-,”
“You fell face-first in the sand.”
“You remember.”
“Not until you mentioned it…I remember Emily laughing at you.”
“So do I,” he replied, flushed with embarrassment. “But you didn’t laugh, did you?”
“No…I didn’t…I never laughed when you tripped…And you tripped a lot back then...Actually, up until Freshman year. Somehow I knew that there was more to you behind the clumsiness.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t until Freshman year that I found out why I couldn’t get close to you.”
Lana looked up at him questioningly. Her brow furrowing.
“I have kind of an allergy to the meteor rock,” he admitted.
Lana then remembered and touched her neck where her necklace once resided. “My necklace.” Clark nodded. “How bad of an allergy are we talking here? Is it a break-out-in-red-itchy-spots allergy or the swell-up-like-a-balloon allergy?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then what happens to you when you get close to them?”
“I don’t know if I can describe it, but I start to feel dizzy and sick and weak. The closer I get, the worse it gets. If I’m too close and the rock is large enough, I feel pain all over my body so intense I can barely stand. Sometimes I even pass out from the pain. The rock seems like it drains all my energy and I lose my powers. If I could equate it to anything, the closest thing it comes to is that I feel like I’m-,”
“Dying?”
“Yeah.”
“Could you die from it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not willing to find out.” He saw the look of concern on Lana’s face and wanted her not to worry. “Besides, I’m pretty careful. At the first sign of feeling sick I back away, and little pieces aren’t as bad. I just seem like a big klutz around them…like with your necklace.”
“And here I thought you were just really nervous.”
“Oh, I was…Every time…but even without your necklace I would’ve still been tongue-tied and felt like I had two left feet.” Clark gave her a little smile. Lana looked down at her feet and rocked a little back and forth in the swing. Clark stood there in silence, not really knowing what to do next.
“Clark?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we gonna really talk about this or what?”
“Right…O.K. You said you want to know everything?” Lana looked up and nodded.
“Everything,” she stated firmly.
“O.K.” Lana watched him begin to pace back and forth in the sand. His breaths came in short, nervous pants. Clark rubbed his hands and felt his palms start to sweat from nerves. He took off his cap and ran his hand through his hair before putting it back on. To watch him, you would think he was having a panic attack, which in his mind wasn’t far from what he was feeling.
“Ummm…You don’t know how many times I’ve gone through this in my head, and it never seemed to come out right. I actually tried to tell you once.”
“When?”
“Before you left for Paris. Remember the dinner we were supposed to have?”
“You mean the one I missed because a psychotic clone stuck me in a gigantic display case?” She saw Clark nod his head. “Wait…You really were going to tell me, weren’t you?” Clark nodded. “To stop me from going to Paris?” He nodded again. “But I came back to the barn the next day. Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“Something happened with Pete. Someone started asking him questions about me, and when he didn’t give them answers, they hurt him.”
“Is that why he left Smallville?”
“Yeah…he was afraid that one day he’d slip up and he couldn’t bear it if he ever betrayed my trust. I didn’t want you going through the same thing…That’s why I chickened out.”
“So…this is what you meant by ‘protecting’ me.”
“Yeah.” Clark took a deep breath and let it out. Clark sat down in the swing next to her and rocked from side to side. “This feels so strange…being so completely honest.”
“With me?”
“With anybody. I’ve never opened up this much with anyone before…Not with Pete or Chloe or even my parents. They all knew about what I am and what I can do, but I never told them what I felt.”
“O-Oh,” Lana responded looking back down.
“Ahhh…I’m not sure where to go next…Maybe you should ask me questions and I’ll answer them.”
“O.K.” Lana thought for a moment about the first question she would ask. “Ummm…have you always known?”
“About where I came from?” Lana shook her head. “No. I was really little when I was sent away…But I knew I wasn’t ‘normal.’ I just didn’t know how different I was until my dad told me four years ago after Lex hit me with his car.”
“So…Lex was right. He really did hit you.”
“At 60 miles an hour.”
“And you weren’t hurt at all?”
“I felt the impact, but I didn’t get injured.”
“Incredible!” she said under her breath.
“That was the day I knew something was happening to me. I’ve never really gotten hurt growing up…Like the time I fell out of the treehouse and I was fine. My parents just chocked it up as being really lucky, but now I know that wasn’t it. I had strength and speed for a while by then, but this was something new…and scary. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. So, when my dad told me the truth…That I wasn’t from around here…I got angry and scared, so I ran away. That was the night you found me in the cemetery.”
“So…that’s what you were upset about. I had no idea.”
“Well, when all you wanted in life was to be normal and then to find out you’re not even human, it kinda brings you down…I realized that I would never be normal,” he said sadly.
“Must not have been easy growing up.”
“It wasn’t. Until I learned to control my strength and speed, I wasn’t allowed to play with anyone…No playdates, No parties. My parents were afraid I’d hurt someone and someone would find out and take me away. Growing up, I barely saw anyone for the first few years, but then school started.”
“Yeah. Some of us wondered if you even existed. Nell said that your mom told her the reason we never saw you was that you were really shy.”
“Well…that, too. I was really shy. I guess some things you just don’t grow out of,” he confessed, looking at her.
“How did your parents deal with it? I mean, it must have been difficult raising a child of the super-powered persuasion.”
“My parents were great,” he answered smiling and folding his hands in his lap. “They never tried to stop me from using my abilities. They actually helped me to develop them…to control them. Although, the first time they crept up they were a little concerned.”
“What happened?”
“I was only with my parents a few months and my dad and I were playing hide-and-seek. I had crawled under my parents’ big oak bed and when my dad found me, I didn’t want to come out. He tried to get me out, but when I stood up, the bed lifted up with me…I’ve never seen my dad’s eyes so big…My parents didn’t know what to do…they didn’t know what was happening to me, so they decided to take me to a scientist…But when we pulled up to the facility, my mom said they couldn’t do it. If they brought me in, then the scientists would want to keep me and my parents would never see me again. So, they took me back home and decided that no one could know about me…Not even their families. I never even saw my grandfather until I was 16. The only other family I’ve met is my mother’s sister and son when they came to visit when I was 10, but that was only after my parents were sure I could control my abilities.”
Lana listened as Clark told her about his childhood. She realized that although he could do extraordinary things, he was lonely growing up. He could never really be himself around anyone, could never really confide in someone. Although his parents were supportive of him, he could never really tell them everything that he was feeling. For the next few hours, she caught a glimpse of what it was like for him…about being scared he’d hurt someone if he ever lost control. He could never do some of the things others could do in fear that if someone suspected anything, that he’d end up locked in a lab somewhere to be studied or experimented on for the rest of his life. He’s had to hold back his entire life. Clark watched Lana’s eyes soften as he told her how as a child how many eggs he broke trying to learn to control his strength. He also saw how flushed her cheeks became, as well as his own, when he finally told her how his heat vision came about. Then, he told her about his escapades in Metropolis that one summer, confessing everything he had done. Lana’s features hardened as she listened to him tell her about the robberies, the clubs, and about how the red kryptonite brought out his true self, the part of himself that he keeps buried, the part of himself that if he had been raised as a Kryptonian, it would have been his true personality. Lana remembered back to her dreams and the description Naman told Leotie of his people, that they were a race devoid of emotion.
“Clark, do you remember anything about where you came from?”
“Of the place, no. I was just a baby when my parents sent me away, but I remember my mother.”
“Really? What do you remember about her?”
Clark looked up to the sky and closed his eyes for a moment. “I remember…that she had long red hair and the most vibrant green eyes you could ever imagine.”
“She sounds beautiful.”
“Yeah…She was,” he said with sadness in his voice. “And I remember her crying.”
“Crying? I thought that people from your world didn’t show emotion.”
“She was different…kind. I remember that she was worried that no one would love me in this place. The last thing I remember is that she told me that she loved me and then she kissed me good-bye. Then, they closed the ship.”
“Ship?”
“It’s how I came here.”
“Clark, when did you come here? I mean, you were were a baby when you came here, and I don’t remember seeing anything about any UFOs 19 years ago.”
This was the part of the conversation that Clark had wanted to avoid his whole life. He knew that telling her about how he came here was going to hurt her. Clark pursed his lips together and looked away from her.
“Clark? Come on. I said I wanted to know everything. Tell me.”
He stared at the sand at his feet and began to speak. “I wasn’t a baby when I came here. I was a baby when I left, but I was about three years old when I arrived here.”
“Three? But that would mean-,”
“Lana, I came here during the meteor shower 16 years ago,” he said ashamed.
Lana stared at him for a moment with her mouth slightly opened. When she didn’t say anything, Clark hesitantly looked over at her and saw the look of pain in her eyes.
“The meteor shower?”
“Yes.”
“The meteor shower that practically destroyed this town?”
He nodded.
“The meteor shower that created people like Tina Greer and Ian Randall?”
He nodded again and hung his head.
“The meteor shower that killed…that killed my parents?” she choked out. At this point hot tears were trailing down her cheeks.
“Lana, I’m so sorry.” He reached over to touch her, but she quickly rose from her swing. She spun around and looked down at him.
“Sorry?! You are always saying you’re sorry. Sorry isn’t going to bring my parents back!”
“Lana-,” He stood up from his swing and took a step towards her. She was so angry.
“No! Clark, just stay there.” She turned her face away from him and wiped her tears away. “I have to go.” She turned to walk back to her car.
“Lana, wait!”
She looked back towards him. “No, Clark. I think I should go before I say something I’ll regret,” she replied, trying to hold back any more tears.
“Lana, I know you’re upset and that nothing I can say can change what happened, but…” Clark then walked up to her. “I need to know…Can we go back to the way things were before? Can we at least be friends again?”
The tears began to flow again as she looked up into his eyes and answered him honestly. “I don’t know, Clark. I really don’t know…I’m sorry, I have to go.”
Clark felt like his heart sank to the ground. He watched her turn away and run back to her car. He saw her drive out of the parking lot and down the road, all the while he listened intently as he heard her sobbing the whole way. Clark turned around and slumped back into the swing. He stayed there well past sunset wondering if she would ever accept him and come back to him.
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Just when you thought everything was going to be O.K., I toss in more angst!
Chapter 28 (http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2523628#post2523628)