Chapter 5: Break so Easy

Martha arrived to the Smallville High School gym with the thoughts of her son on her mind.  She didn't want to be here, but with the promise that she made the booster club there was no way not to get out of it.  As Martha made her way over to the table she noticed that neither Lex nor Desiree had arrived.  She had to wonder if her e-mail made Lex think about what was really going on with Desiree Atkins.  When Clark had told them about the new Biology teacher she thought that Clark was exaggerating, when she finally met the woman at the weekly PTA meeting she was amazed that some one that looked like Desiree would ever be in the backwater town of Smallville, it was then that she realized that Clark was jealous of the woman that had the possibility of catching Lex's eye.  Martha had chuckled at the thought that her own son was so in the river of de-nile that even he didn't know where the bottom was.  Martha was brought out of her thoughts as the women at the table began to talk about the going ons of Smallville.

“Josey, did you see the helicopter that left from Ridley Field this morning?”

“I sure did Patty, but since we all know that Lionel Luthor didn't come for a visit who was it?”

“I have no idea.  I wish that I knew.”  The conversation would have carried on in that vain, but Jason Teague came up to the table asking the question of:

“Have any of you seen Desiree Atkins?”  Martha had to stop herself from asking ‘why' to the young man that stood in front of the table.  Later in the evening she would kick her self for not asking.

            An hour into the dance and the doors to the gym were thrown open by Desiree Atkins with Lex by her side.  Martha could tell that Lex was not happy about something, and could only hope that it had something to due with his date and not about the MIA Clark Kent.  Martha watched as Desiree made the rounds of the gym with Lex at her side getting more angry about being dragged around the room.  Lex and Desiree finally made it to the booster club table, and Martha could see the glint in Lex's eye while he looked at her.

“Mrs. Kent, how lovely it is to see you.”  Desiree started the conversation with.

“Ms. Atkins” Martha could not respond in kind since it was this woman that had broken Clark's heart with the break up for the friendship with Lex.

“And just how are you and your husband doing?” 

“Fine, and how are you?”  Martha was trying to keep up a conversation with the woman but was failing miserably in her opinion.

“Great!”  Desiree said and then snuck a look to Lex; Martha didn't fail to notice that.

“Mrs. Kent, I noticed that your son Clark isn't here.  Is he alright?”  Desiree asked in mock concern.

“Clark is just fine.  If you will excuse me it seems as if I need to go and make sure that Patty Jones doesn't forget to bring more ice.”  Martha said while moving away from the two people that stood in front of the table that she had just been working at.

“Mrs. Kent?”  Lex called out to her.  Martha at about this time could shoot Patty Jones for not taking her place for a few minutes, now she would have to fight with Lex Luthor once again about where in the world her son was.

“Lex” was Martha response.

“Where is Clark?”  Lex asked in a truly concerned tone.  Martha was very tempted to tell Lex where Clark was, but knew that it would not solve the problems between the two young men.  Martha was saved by having to give a response when Chloe and Pete made their way past them talking loudly about Ms. Atkins.

 “Pete!  Can you believe what she has on?  Can you even call that on?”  Chloe bubbled with excitement and disgust at the same time.  She seemed ready to write a story on the dress that Miss Atkins was currently barely wearing.  

“Yeah Chloe, I don't think she has much on under there.  Wouldn't you agree?”  Pete said not even to bother to check to see if Lex was close by.

“Pete?  What is the deal with the assistant football coach hanging off her?  What's that guys name anyway?”  Chloe asked while eyeing the whole thing trying to look for a scoop.

“Jason Teague” Pete said while drooling over Desiree Atkins and the small bit of clothes she had on.

“Does there look to be trouble in paradise for Lex Luthor?”  Chloe questioned Pete. 

“Chloe who cares just as long as she continues to honor this dance with her presence.”  Pete said while not taking his eyes off of Desiree and the bit of fabric that was called her dress. 

“You think it is over the famous farm boy, Clark Kent?”  Chloe asked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

“Yeah, whatever Chloe.  Look I am going to go over and say hi, wanna come?”  Pete said and asked as he made his way over to where Desiree and Jason were standing extremely close to each other.

“No thanks.”  Chloe said as she went in the other direction of where Pete was going.  Lex watched the whole conversation with a hint of intrigue.  He didn't think that Chloe and Pete would have brought up Clark in the context of breaking up Desiree and Lex's relationship.  If any thing he would have thought that they would have made some comment about him stalking the woman, but that didn't seem to be the case.  This just made Lex all the more aware of the game that Desiree was playing with him. 

            Meanwhile, Martha had taken her leave of Lex when his attention had been switched to Chloe and Pete.  Martha was glad that the two ex-friends of Clark's had made an appearance when they did.  Martha quickly said her good byes and made her way to the Kent Farm.  She could only hope that Lex would not stop back to the farm anytime soon.  She could wish, couldn't she?  After she arrived home, she had to wonder on if Lex could not see that everything with Desiree Atkins was not as simple as she made it.  Martha fell asleep awhile later to the thoughts of what was going to happen once Lex realized that Clark was the best thing he had in his life.

            Lex on the other hand continued to follow Desiree around the gym with Jason Teague on her arm.  He could not quite figure out how she planned to continue the charade that she had been playing with him.  As the end of the dance neared, Lex made his way over to where Desiree stood alone for the first time of the night.

“Desiree” Lex said as he walked up to Desiree that had a truly sappy look on her face.

“Lex, there you are.  I have been looking for you all night.” 

“I'm sure.  Are you ready to leave?”  Lex asked as if he didn't already know that she was going to beg off coming with him.

“I am, but Jason Teague was nice enough to offer me a ride home and since I haven't seen you pretty much all night, I accepted the offer.”  Desiree, Lex could say almost looked sad.

“That is quite fine; I have an early morning meeting in Metropolis so it would be better if you would not come home with me.”  All that Lex said was a complete lie, but Desiree seemed to lap it up.

“Okay, I understand. I will see you tomorrow right?”  Desiree asked anxiously.

“Sure” was all Lex could get out, before he saw the back of Desiree walking toward the gym doors.  Lex had to wonder why the woman was so anxious all of a sudden.  Lex followed her at a respectable distance until they got outside, what he saw was Desiree getting into her own red convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse, with Jason Teague behind the wheel.

When Lex arrived after following Desiree and Jason to Center Street in the heart of downtown Smallville, he took a deep breath and slowed the Aston Martin down to the speed limit, which in and of its self would show the level of concern that Lex was having.  He never drove the speed limit, unless Clark was there to remind him that even though he was a Luthor, there was a speed limit for a reason such as women with small children and animals that would not be able to get out of the way fast enough.  Lex grinned at the thought of Clark and the last time that he reminded him of the speed limit on Center Street.  The grin was quickly wiped away when he saw Desiree's red convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse sitting on the street in front of small house on Kensington.  The house looked at if an old lady lived there, but with Desiree's car sitting on the street Lex had the feeling that Jason Teague was residing in the house, since Lex knew for a fact that Desiree had ridden home with the man.  Lex pulled his sunglasses down a little to make sure that he was not in fact seeing things.  The scene did not change.  By this time Lex had come to two conclusions about the situation, the first being that Desiree was only visiting and the second was that she was screwing the guy and thought she would string Lex along for the ride.  Lex got out of the car and made his way over to the house before he even really thought of what he was doing.  Lex knocked on the door and waited for it to be answered; he did not have to wait long.

“Yes?”  Jason Teague answered the door with only a pair on boxers on.  Lex looked him over and could smell Desiree's flowery perfume all over him.  He did not have to wait long for the voice of a woman to call to him.

“Jason?  Who is at the door?  Honey, come back to bed.” 

            Jason could only stand in utter shock as Lex Luthor stood on his doorstep and his girlfriend calling out to him.  He did not speak only stared at Lex like if he stared long enough he would disappear. 

“Jason?”  This time the voice was closer and more concerned.  Lex only raised an eyebrow at Jason as if challenging him to say something to warn the woman of her impending demise.

“Yeah?”  Was the only response that Jason gave.

“Who is at the door, honey?”  As this was said Desiree appeared at the door in a red silk robe that if you looked hard enough you would know that there was nothing on underneath.

“Lex Luthor” was Lex's response to her question.

“Lex!”  Desiree said as she made her way over to try and stand by Lex.

“Lex, it isn't what it seems.”  Desiree continued on breathlessly.

“And what does it seem?”  Lex shot back.

“I was just changing into something more comfortable here and then I planned to go home.”  Desiree said looking at Lex and Jason at the same time.

“I see” Lex said in response.

“So you see it is just bad circumstances that you happen to see all this.”  Desiree said as she tried to mold her body to Lex's. 

“So you naked under that robe and calling Mr. Teague here, honey was all part of “changing”?”  Lex was having a hard time reining his temper in, but he was doing a fairly good job for now.

“Ahh” Desiree faltered when asked that.

“I see” Lex said.

“Lex, please!”  Desiree said as she threw herself at Lex one last time.

“Miss Atkins, I would like to inform you that our relationship or lack there of is over.”  Lex said as he made his way over to his car.  As Lex closed the car door he finally let out the breath that he had holding since turning away from Desiree.  He was certain that she would have made one last play to get back in his good graces, but it seemed that it would not be today.

            The next morning found the Kents and Lex worrying about the same person, Clark Kent.  Lex had not seen the young man in weeks now and was truly worried that something was going on when he didn't see Clark at the dance.  What worried him even more was that the Kents seemed to be holding back information about where Clark currently was.  He expected the Kents to be angry with him, but he never thought that they would withhold information about Clark even when the two of them were not speaking.  Lex still considered the younger Kent his best and only friend.  Lex decided he needed to find out from the source what was going on; his father striding in with his hair fanning out behind him interrupted him.

“Alexander” Lionel said standing in front of Lex sitting at his desk.

“Dad” Lex said sarcastically.

“It has been brought to my attention, that you are no longer seeing Ms. Atkins.”

“And this concerns you, why?”  Lex asked truly confused on why his father would care if he seeing someone or not.

“Alexander” Lionel snapped angrily at Lex. 

“Father” Lex reply trying to hold him tempter in.

“I expect to see Ms. Atkins at the gala.”

“You do understand why I broke off the relationship?”  Lex questioned his father.  Lex could never be too sure with what his father wanted from him or why the man cared about certain things.

“Of course I do, she called me in an uproar about how you have broken off a perfectly good relationship with just a misunderstanding.”  Lionel said as he smirked at his son.

“Oh and so you believed that the reason she was calling Mr. Teague honey was because they are just “good friends?”  Lex couldn't believe that Lionel had to the gall to tell him that what he saw was to totally be disregarded for the gala event that would occur in a few months time.

“Lex, can the same be said about you and the Kent boy?”  Lionel said while walking over the bar to get a drink.

“Dad, you will leave Clark out of this.  This does not concern my friendship with Clark.  Desiree Atkins is sleeping with Jason Teague, if she wants to go crying to you then why don't you take her to the gala you are so intent on me taking her to.  I will find my own date, dad.”

“Alexander, will you quit being so difficult.”  Lionel said in an almost weary voice.

“Dad, why don't you just leave me to my destruction as you are so apt to do, and I will make my own decisions about who I will take to the gala.”

“Fine, Lex you disappoint me once again.”  Lionel said as he made his way over to the double doors to the office.

“Just one question for you, dad.” 

“What?” Lionel snapped yet again at Lex.

“Why are you so concerned with who I take to the event?  I would think that since I am the one that has donated the money; I would be able to pick out any one I choose to take.  Why the interest?”  Lex asked his father, trying to sound uninterested.

“Alexander, it would be hove you to take someone that is of proper standing and with the quality in this town being limited, such as it is, you need to make sure that your date is up to societies standards.”  Lex knew actually what his father was trying to imply, that is friendship with Clark Kent was something that his father did not approve of.

“If you are trying to tell me that my friendship with Clark is unacceptable, than just say that there is no need for you the beat around the bush.”  Lex was angry that his father would imply that Clark was beneath him.

“Alexander, there is no need to get angry.  I am just stating the truth.  Clark Kent is a farm boy plain and simple, and his dealings with you have left you some what open to the unavoidable “charm” of Smallville.”   Lionel said with a grimace on his face.  He still couldn't believe that sending his son to this small town would result in Lex's drastic change in lifestyle.

“Dad, my friendship with Clark is my own.  Why don't you leave me to my dealings in this town and I will see you in Metropolis in a couple of days.”  Lex said with a dismissive air about him.  He absolutely hated when people implied that his friendship with Clark was not good for either party.  He knew that they had their own set of problems, but what friendship didn't?

“I will leave you now, Alexander but don't think that this is the end of it.”  Lionel said as he made a sweeping gesture out of the room.

“Bastard” Lex murmured under his breath as his father closed to the doors to the office.  Lex sat at his desk for a few minutes before booting up his laptop, to find out more information about Clark.  As the computer sat booting, Lex was composing an e-mail in his head to Clark.  He could only hope that the younger man would answer his questions as to his whereabouts.

To: Clark_Kent@KentFarms.net

From: Destinysfoil@hotmail.com

Subject: What is going on?

Clark,

As you can see by the subject line, I am writing to find out what you have been up to these last few days.  Is there any way that you would be available to meet me at the Talon for a cup of coffee? 

Things have happened between Desiree and I, and I would like to talk to a friend about it.  I realize that in the past weeks, I have been less than a good friend but I would like to try and make it up to you.

Clark, please talk to me.

Lex

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