Chloe brings up the other picture, blinks for a minute while she mentally compares both. Each has that familiar, winsome smirk, head dipped forward as the first sound of laughter erupts. One is taken within seconds of the next, a digital progression that captures two friends. The contrast of a farm tan versus a smooth, pale skull fades behind *that* radiant smile.
So which picture captures the perfect essence of cheekbones? Which should she choose? Screw that, she highlights both and hits the print option.
Chloe knows that Lex fired his housekeeper when her daughter’s fixation with him came to light. As she snips away at the white borders of the photographs, then tacks them to her wall side by side, she wonders what he’d think of *her* newest past time. Everyone may have thought her Wall of Weird was bizarre, but what would they say about her newest homage to obsession?
All of the subject matter was the same as the latest two additions: Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. Captured at school, at the Beanery, at Luthor manor. Here they are at Clark’s- blue sweater next to purple shirt like some bruise in front of Jonathon Kent’s barn. Chloe remembers the day of that one, Lex had told her to hurry up and take the damn picture, while Clark had nearly fallen over as he enacted some exaggerated pose for the camera /damn that boy’s a klutz/. They had both squinted against the autumn sun as leaves fell around them in every shade of gold. That had been the start of this little archival theory, the day when she began to suspect…
[glink]
Chloe notices the flash as a box appears on the computer screen.
AstralDevyl: [what are you doing?]
[Becoming a case study in American Psychiatric Digest] Chloe taps enter with her pinkie.
AstralDevyl: [Lose your script for Paxil again?]
Heh. [Playing mad paparazzi stalker.]
AstralDevyl:[Girl, you need to get a life. If you like him so much, just ask him out. Face your fears, or you’ll never get anywhere.]
[Your astute grasp of bullshit psychobabble, one again, astounds me.] A sudden flash of just that scenario flickers behind her eyelids, and the look of horror on his face causes her eyes to snap open. She furiously answers that challenge [WTF?!? Why the hell would I do that?] Definitely a bad idea.
AstralDevyl: [It might get you out of the house on a Saturday night]
[It wouldn’t matter, wrong anatomy. I’m an innie. Remember?]
AstralDevyl: [Oh, not this crackpot theory again? Have you ever *seen* him with a guy?]
[I’ve emailed you every picture; you’ve seen the undeniable evidence.]
AstralDevyl: [Well it seems that way if you’re *looking* for it.]
Chloe knows she’s not crazy. [Do I have to hit you with the Hammer of Slash? H.O.M.O.S.E.X.U.A.L. I knew their *relationship* was a sham, she is totally a beard.]
AstralDevyl: [Umm…yeah.]
This isn’t the first time she’s had to defend her argument to this cyberpal. [You don’t see them together. They can barely keep their hands off of each other, and I have to discreetly ‘notice’ something so I can stare off into space and silently wish I had a penis for God’s sake.]
AstralDevyl: [I’m telling you this for your own good-mix the Valium *with* the vodka, and have a nice lie down. At the most, he’s undeclared; you could still have a chance.]
[A chance for a face-to-face rejection. Forget it. Never!]
Her eyes roam the floor to ceiling collage, and she knows it’s hopeless. Near the bottom corner, there’s a cluster of pics she likes to call Winter Wonderland-: Kent and Luthor in Lex’s Porsche as he spins wild circles on a thin, but slippery layer of frost at the high school parking lot, there are several where they’re wearing coats and scarves, and then there’s one of the snowman they’d built.
She’d snapped them next to that dumpy pile of snow. When Clark had handed Lex a carrot. Mogul Junior had shoved it into the lower half of the snow figure’s anatomy so it stuck out at a perfectly upturned angle, looking so much like an erect penis. Clark had blushed, and yanked it out, all the while looking her direction in embarrassment. Were these the actions of two perfectly straight men?
AstralDevyl: [You are not a troll. You could get him.]
[Now you are just toying with me.] Jesus, the last guy who’d expressed interest in her had tried to suck all of the body heat out of her and turn her into a Popsicle. If that didn’t put a crimp in the old dating style, nothing would.
She doesn’t think she’s ugly, but she’s not getting any response. They can sit around a table at the Beanery, with hands wrapped around mugs of steaming coffee, and talk for hours. She can get that head nod thing out of him, the one he does when he’s listening intently, but it doesn’t matter, because she has a feeling she will never crack this super duo relationship between Lex and Clark. They have some weird, twisted soap opera of victim/rescuer that has already settled itself firmly into their lives.
Chloe finishes tracing an oval, and clicks on delete background. Blank, gaping smudges of white glare out from the two figures in the S&M photo onscreen. She inserts Clark’s face, then Lex’s. (Paste).
AstralDevyl: [You’re awfully quiet, are you doing manipulated photos again?]
[No.] Chloe guiltily deletes her work of the last few minutes.
AstralDevyl: [liar. Anyway, I have to go. Early day tomorrow.]
[On a Sunday?]
AstralDevyl [Some father/son bonding (lol)]
[Okay, I’ll put in a few more hours of moping and then call it a night myself.]
AstralDevyl: [Awww.]
[Later.] Even if the moping part was true, she still felt better talking about it. Thank God she’d found a girl her own age to talk to. It was easier to unload to someone who lived far away from Smallville, and would never meet any of the people Chloe was whining about.
***********
Something had crawled up Lionel Luthor’s ass, prompting his unexpected visit to Smallville in the morning, for what he’d described as a very important strategy meeting. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean. More like a lecture.
His IM partner’s message popped into the window: [Okay, I’ll put in a few more hours of moping, and then call it a night myself.]
[Awww.] It was probably ethically wrong to pretend to be a sixteen year old girl?
Tragic_Crab: [Later.]
Chloe is cute and all, with her misplaced affection, but she doesn’t know how right her theory really is. There’s nothing that’s going to come between he and Clark. And if he has to manipulate a little behind the scenes, well, it wouldn’t be the first time.
He really should turn in for the night, but with the prospect of Victoria already there waiting for him, like the bloodsucking leech she was turning out to be…maybe in a little while?
He opens the photo file where he’d saved every pic Chloe had mailed him.