Thank you to Carol for being the best beta ever!
From Chapter 8
“Do you think… do you think when we show up together everyone is going to think we're together?” Maddie asked me.
I wondered for a second – I had thought they might, but I no longer knew that I cared. I wasn't even sure that they'd be wrong. If it was going to bother Maddie, though, I guess they would be.
“We can just tell them we're not,” I said. I glanced over at Maddie and something flicked across her face. “Or we can tell them that we are,” I said, letting my voice trail off.
Maddie stopped walking and looked at me intently. “Are we?”
I felt myself flush, but it was dark enough out that I doubted she could tell. “Do you want to be?”
Maddie didn't say anything at first, then gave a small nod of her head as she said, “If you do.”
I leaned down, kissing her lightly. “Well then, that takes care of that,” I said. Maddie smiled widely at me as I pulled away.
“I guess so,” she said.
I took her hand as we started walking again and we went to meet everyone else.
Chapter 9
Lois had thrown me a dirty look when Maddie and I showed up at the theater holding hands. I'm sure she thought I had lied to her earlier. Not that I really cared what she thought. Besides, the feeling of Maddie's hand in mine was a much better place to focus.
I had walked her home after the movie, and then went back to my room after a gentle kiss and plans to meet up for breakfast the following morning. I was glad I had breakfast to look forward to as my night did not go well. I was fast asleep by the time Steve came in, but as opposed to his normal behavior – which ranged from some small attempt to be quiet so as not to wake me and no real attempt to be quiet as if he had forgotten he had a roommate, this time he came and shook me awake. I stared up at him blearily.
“Hey man, sorry to do this, but could you get out for a little while?” he asked me.
I didn't say anything for a moment, still trying to wake up, but I was thinking that if he really hated to do this, he wouldn't, and would let me sleep.
“It's early still,” he said. “Way before the four o'clock curfew we put on locking each other out, and I have a girl out there.”
I swung my legs out of bed, not saying anything. I was thinking, though, that when we set that curfew, I hadn't realized it included the right to throw each other out of bed. I threw him one more annoyed glance before leaving.
The girl waiting for him outside was not the one from last night, and I wondered for a moment – was Steve really that attractive? I was too tired to really care, though, and walked dejectedly to the math building so I could sleep in Smallville again. My dad really was going to kill me for making him spend so much money on tuition so I could spend all my time at home.
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“Are you sure you're okay?” Maddie asked me for the third time while we studied.
“Yeah, just tired,” I told her. I hadn't gotten very much sleep at all last night. On the way to Smallville, I had seen a car careening off a highway in Indiana and had stopped to help. While I'd been helping them, though, I had heard on their car radio that there were wildfires raging out of control in California. So, once they were settled, I had flown to southern California.
I had spent most of the middle of the night there, helping some of the families who hadn't yet evacuated to get some of the most important things out of their homes. I tried to tell myself that they appreciated the help, and I'm sure they did, but I did wonder a little – how much more would they have appreciated it if I had actually used my powers to help put out the fires so their homes would be saved.
Since I didn't actually do this, the relief efforts were still going on when the sun came up, and I realized that given the time difference I was going to be late for breakfast with Maddie if I stayed any longer. I started to head for home when I caught sight of the little girl in the house I was in trying to make a desperate reach for her teddy bear. I spent a little more time helping them pack their home and then flew out of the range of the fire to find a payphone.
“'Morning,” came a voice I didn't recognize with a yawn.
“Hi, this is Clark. Is Maddie there?” I asked her roommate. Or at least, I assumed that was her roommate.
“Mad, get up. Some guy on the phone for you,” the roommate said.
There was silence on the line for a moment before Maddie answered. “Hello?”
“Hi,” I said. “Do you mind if we change breakfast to lunch?”
“Not at all, I actually want to keep sleeping,” she said, and I could hear her smiling into the phone. “Meet at noon?”
“Sure,” I said. “I'll pick you up in front of your dorm.”
“Sounds good,” Maddie said, before yawning and hanging up.
I had flown back to the frontline of the fire, or the second-line I guess since the firemen were at the frontline, and gone back to helping people move things out of their homes, all the while trying to think of the different ways I could put the fire out if I were to openly use my powers.
“Okay,” Maddie laughed at me now. “What's with you?”
“I'm just tired,” I said.
“You said that. But this is ridiculous. Didn't you sleep until nearly noon?” she asked.
I didn't say anything at first and finally Maddie asked, “Weren't you in your room when you called me?”
I sighed. “No, Steve kicked me out last night,” I finally said. That was the truth although when I got back to the dorm at eleven the sock was gone from the door, so I suspected I could have gotten back in at four had I wanted to. Or rather, if I had been around, as I definitely wanted to.
“What do you mean Steve kicked you out?” Maddie asked me, her eyes wide.
“It's not really his fault,” I said, not wanting to fuel her annoyance at Steve. On the other hand, I was still thinking it was sort of his fault, given that I had already been asleep when he kicked me out this time.
“What does that mean?” Maddie asked. “Is that like "He's a loud snorer' or "He walks in his sleep and kept bumping into things?' or "He's my roommate and our friend, and I'm trying not to hate him for kicking me out of the room we share?'”
I laughed. “I guess mostly the last one.”
“That's what I thought,” Maddie said with a sigh. “Is this the first time?”
I shook my head. “I don't know. Maybe. The girl from the party? He brought her home, too.”
“This was a different girl?” Maddie asked.
I flushed slightly. I had a feeling Maddie and Steve were never going to be friends. “Yeah,” I admitted. “But anyway, we talked yesterday and laid out some ground rules so things should be better now,” I told her.
“But he kicked you out again last night,” Maddie pointed out.
I nodded. “We said that was okay until four on weekend nights. It was just… I don't know, I guess I was feeling annoyed at him still for kicking me out, and I didn't even bother going back to our room until eleven.” I flinched just slightly. Both of those were mostly true – I was still annoyed at Steve and I hadn't gone back to our room until eleven. However, the implication that those things were at all related… well, that was not so true.
“Why did you agree to these rules if they were going to annoy you?” Maddie asked.
“I didn't realize they involved actually kicking me out of bed,” I explained.
“Wait,” Maddie said, putting her book down now. “He kicked you out of bed? As in, you were asleep when Steve came in and he still asked you to leave?” I didn't say anything, but I could see Maddie realizing that meant the answer was yes. “Who does that?” she demanded.
“Steve,” I offered lamely.
“Ugh!” Maddie groaned.
“He's really not all bad, Maddie,” I pointed out. “I mean he did agree to abide by ground rules when I brought it up yesterday. And he even apologized when he realized that I had a class yesterday morning.”
“I can't believe you're sticking up for him,” Maddie said.
I sighed. “I can't hate him. I mean, even if I could, that wouldn't be good, would it? I still need to live with him for the next eight months. But I just don't. I don't think he's all bad. He's probably not someone I would have been friends with in high school, but he's not mean spirited.”
Maddie smiled, but didn't respond.
“What?” I asked, not able to read the look on her face, but suddenly happy to know that at some point I would.
Her smile widened before she leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “I just love your Kansas sensibilities, that's all.”
I laughed. “So, I sound naïve?”
“A little,” Maddie said.
“And that's a good thing?” I teased her.
She shrugged, “It makes it much easier to take advantage of you.”
“Oh really?” I asked. “And just how do you plan to do that?” I was happy to find that I wasn't blushing this time just because I had said something vaguely suggestive. Besides, she started it.
Maddie shrugged again. “I don't know. I'm sure I'll think of something.”
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“So,” a voice said from behind me as I was rushing to class on Monday. I turned around and tried not to groan. It was Lois and she did not look happy. “All that talk on Friday about how you and Maddie weren't together…” she started, her voice full of accusation.
While I knew I would be late for class, I stopped anyway. “Look, Lois. When you and I talked on Friday, I wasn't dating Maddie. But we had dinner together that night and now we are. End of story. Why do you care anyway?”
She flushed bright red, but I couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment that caused it. “I don't care,” Lois said. “I'm just annoyed that you lied.”
“I didn't lie,” I reminded her. “When we spoke, Maddie and I weren't going out.”
“You must have known it was an option, though, given that you were going out just a few hours later,” Lois pointed out triumphantly.
“I'm sorry,” I said, shaking my head, trying to understand the gall of this girl. “When did we become such good friends that I had to let you know I might be dating Maddie later even before I had discussed it with her? Am I supposed to alert you to any crushes I have from now on?”
Lois flushed again, slightly, but stood her ground. No surprise there. It seemed entirely possible that if a tornado dropped down on the Met U campus while Lois was in the middle of an argument, she would stand still and the tornado would move out of her path. “Why?” she asked me, the challenge clear in her voice. “Do you have any other crushes? I mean, you just started dating Maddie.”
I sighed audibly, not caring if my frustration was showing. “No, I don't. And if I did, I wouldn't tell you!”
“Clearly,” Lois said with an eyebrow raised.
“I need to go. I'm going to be late for class,” I told her, my voice still cold, but I still wasn't caring.
I spun around and was glad that for once, Lois let me have the last word.
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As I made my way through the buffet line at lunch, I couldn't decide if I was happier to be seeing Maddie in a minute or more annoyed at having to see Lois again. When I made my way to the table and saw Maddie sitting there, though, I knew it was the former.
“Hi,” she smiled up at me as she moved over to make room for me to sit next to her.
“Hi,” I said.
“You two aren't the only ones here,” Lois said loudly.
I rolled my eyes, and turned towards her, all saccharine sweet. “Hello, Lois.”
To my surprise, Lois giggled. “Hello, Clark.” Sometimes I didn't understand her at all. Okay, make that most of the time.
“Hi,” Alicia said as she approached our table. The guy I had seen walk her home on Thursday night was right behind her. “This is Chris,” she told us. “Chris, this is everyone.”
We nodded as Chris took a seat next to her. I had to admit, I thought I might like Alicia better when in a relationship. She seemed softer somehow.
We all introduced ourselves to Chris as Joshua and Steve joined us. Maddie threw Steve a dirty look, but true to form, Steve didn't notice at all.
“So, how was the movie?” Alicia asked us. We hadn't seen her the rest of the weekend, but then often none of us saw that much of each other on weekends. During our first week, we had tried to meet up for brunch on Sundays, but then as everyone started sleeping in later and later, those fell by the wayside.
Josh shrugged. “It was okay. I guess better than it would have been if we had to pay full price for it.”
“I liked it,” Lois said and for a moment I thought she was just being contrary, but then I realized she was serious. Interesting. I wouldn't have put Lois down as the mushy romance type.
“Me, too,” Maddie piped up, but then that didn't surprise me at all. Not only would I have guessed that Maddie was the mushy romance type, but she had told me she liked the movie on the way back to her dorm Friday night.
“Of course,” Steve said, his mouth half full. “It was a chick-flick.”
“Could you not do that?” Maddie asked him.
“What?” Steve asked.
“We don't really want to see your food in mid-chew, man,” Josh said.
Steve rolled his eyes as if this tip on manners was petty. I almost laughed out loud, but managed to prevent myself from doing so. Maddie poked me in the side, so clearly she had caught on that I thought Steve's response was funny, but when I looked at her she was smiling, so at least she wasn't annoyed by it.
“What did you guys do this weekend?” Josh asked Alicia and Chris.
“I took him to see all the sights,” Alicia said.
“You're not from Metropolis?” I asked, embarrassed as soon as I voiced the thought. I didn't mean to sound so surprised, but I couldn't believe Alicia would date someone who wasn't from Metropolis.
“No,” Chris said. “I'm from New York.”
“Where?” Steve asked. “I'm from there, too,” he explained when Chris looked confused.
“Chelsea,” Chris said. “You?”
“SoHo,” Steve said. “My mom's an artist.”
“What kind of art?” I asked. Steve had never really mentioned his parents before now.
“Impressionist painting,” he shrugged. “She's pretty good, I guess, but I'm not into art.”
“Wait,” Maddie said, her eyes alight and I had a feeling she knew of Steve's mother. “Your mom is Yvonne Michaelson?”
“Yeah,” Steve said, his mouth half full again. This time, though, Maddie didn't seem to care.
“I can't believe it,” Maddie said. “She's brilliant.”
Steve shrugged again. “I guess. Like I said, she does pretty well for an artist.”
Maddie looked at him in surprise, but decided to drop it although I could tell she didn't really want to. Clearly, she was very impressed that the doofus she could barely stand was the son of her idol.
