Lex had no idea what he’d actually given me.
He had handed me my greatest weakness on a silver platter, along with protection from that very same weakness.
A genuine King’s Gift.
It would be stupid not to take advantage of it.
Not the box itself, obviously.
The knowledge.
Lead.
Meteorites.
I vaguely remembered that lead was used to shield against radiation and X-rays.
There was even a special kind of lead-lined rubber used to make protective aprons in X-ray rooms.
Well, now I knew exactly what I would spend the next money I earned from coding on.
But there was still one problem.
The meteorite hurt.
A lot.
When I opened the box and brought my hand close to the pendant, it actually began to glow faintly.
Green veins started bulging beneath the skin of my hand, and a wave of pain and weakness shot through me.
It was an absolutely horrible sensation.
Yet the moment I slammed the lid shut, the pain disappeared and my hand returned to normal.
Strange.
I couldn’t even come up with a decent hypothesis for why it worked that way, let alone how.
But one thing was certain.
It worked.
Lost in thought, I returned to my barn.
And immediately realized I wasn’t alone.
Lana Lang was standing on the upper level beside my computer.
And she was looking through my telescope.
The telescope I’d carefully positioned so that it was pointed directly at the porch of her house.
Well.
Getting caught peeking through someone’s keyhole was incredibly awkward.
Although…
What had Lex called me?
The Tempter?
Maybe I should live up to such an impressive title at least a little.
“Lana,” I greeted her as I climbed the stairs, still carrying the box.
“Your mom told me to wait for you here.
Do you mind?”
“What an amazing place.”
She stepped away from the telescope eyepiece, looking like she had absolutely no idea what to do with her hands.
She was nervous.
Embarrassed, too.
Hmm.
“What’s the highest level of embarrassment?
When two people meet each other’s eyes through a keyhole?”
Maybe.
“Father built it,” I said.
“He calls it my Fortress of Solitude.”
“I didn’t know you were interested in astronomy.”
She shifted her attention back toward the telescope.
Hmm.
Apparently this wasn’t the highest level of embarrassment after all.
“You know you can see my house from here, right?”
“Really?”
I pretended to be surprised.
“That’s interesting.
I’ll have to remember that.”
Although, logically, it made perfect sense.
We’d lived barely a mile apart our entire lives.
“But you’ve never come here before.”
“And you’re wondering what I’m doing here now…”
She lowered her eyes.
“Well…”
I deliberately dragged out the answer as though I were thinking very hard.
“A boy and a girl.
Alone.
In a barn.
At sunset…”
I smiled.
“Oh.
I definitely like where your thoughts are going.”
Her cheeks immediately turned pink.
“Clark!”
She punched me lightly in the shoulder.
“Actually, I came to apologize.”
Her teasing expression disappeared, and she lowered her eyes again.
“Apologize?
For what?”
I genuinely pretended not to understand.
“For Whitney’s behavior.”
She sighed.
“He hung you from that post in the field and made you into the Scarecrow…
and you…”
“And I broke his nose at the school dance.
I’d say we’re even.”
I shrugged.
“…and you saved his life!”
She finally finished what she’d been trying to say.
“Well, life is too good a thing to let someone lose it over something this stupid.”
I shrugged again.
“Anyone would have done the same thing in my place.”
“Not anyone.”
She looked at me seriously.
“Lex Luthor told me about Jeremy Creek.”
I sighed tiredly and looked up at the ceiling.
“Seriously, Clark.
If Jeremy hadn’t shown up, would you still have gone to the dance intending to beat Whitney up?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t believe it.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure myself.”
I answered truthfully.
“At that moment, on the stage…
hitting him felt good.”
“Why do you say things like that?”
She spoke with genuine frustration.
“Why do you keep trying to make yourself look worse than you really are?
You saved everyone there!
If you hadn’t…”
I placed my index finger gently against her lips.
She froze in surprise.
Her eyes widened.
Then I leaned closer.
I removed my finger and touched my lips to hers.
It was the lightest, most innocent, careful kiss imaginable.
The kind of kiss children share the first time they ever kiss someone.
I could have been more insistent.
I probably could have gotten away with it.
But I didn’t.
Why rush?
I liked this game.
The sharpness of these emotions, the violent reaction my body was having to them…
Even the butterflies in my stomach were apparently alien, because judging by the sensation, they were flapping their wings at supersonic speed.
No.
There was no way I was going to end this game right at the beginning.
“Sorry.”
I pulled away from her lips and pretended to be embarrassed.
Although maybe I really was embarrassed.
My face was certainly red enough to make me look like a boiled lobster.
“You were so close, and you were so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself…”
“Clark…”
Her voice suddenly became weak.
Then she flushed even deeper than I had.
Her eyes darted around, and her hands seemed incapable of finding a comfortable place to rest.
“I…
I have to go.
I’m sorry…”
She hurried toward the exit of my Fortress of Solitude.
“Wait.”
I stopped her, managing to catch her fingertips with mine.
God.
The instant our skin touched, it felt like an electric current shot through me.
Oh.
I was already losing my head.
For someone with all the experience of my previous life, I was starting to think like a brainless teenage boy.
“Luthor found your pendant when he took me down from the post.”
I held the box out to her.
“I don’t know how it ended up there…”
“I gave it to Whitney as a good-luck charm before the game.”
She turned around and looked at the box in my free hand.
“He didn’t know who it belonged to.
He asked me to return it to its…”
I hesitated.
“…owner.”
I still hadn’t found the strength to break the contact between our hands.
“Only, Lana…”
I looked at her.
“You’ve worn it ever since the tragedy.
You never take it off.”
I took a breath.
“But you wear it as a reminder of the pain, not as a memory of them.”
I stepped closer.
“Maybe it’s time to let it go.”
I finally forced myself to release her hand.
But I didn’t break eye contact.
“Maybe…”
Her voice was almost hypnotized.
“Maybe it is time.”
God.
If this was what was happening to me, with all the experience I’d brought from my previous life, how badly was this affecting her?
Clark, you’re an asshole.
Playing with someone else’s feelings like this.
Unfortunately, knowing what the right thing to do was didn’t make it any easier to actually do it.
My head slowly lowered.
Our eyes drew closer.
Our lips drew closer.
This time, I wasn’t the one who moved toward her.
Lana stepped forward on her own.
She rose onto her toes and pressed her lips against mine.
Her eyes were closed.
The second kiss was bolder than the first.
Bolder.
Longer.
It only ended when we heard footsteps approaching the entrance to the barn.
Lana jerked away from me, freeing herself from my arms.
At some point, my arms had apparently wrapped themselves around her back without me even consciously realizing it.
Her cheeks were burning.
Her eyes were bright.
“I have to run, Clark,” she blurted out.
Then she hurried toward the exit.
She stopped halfway down the stairs and turned back.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt, Clark.”
Then she disappeared.
I slowly followed her downstairs to meet our new visitor.
Well.
Life certainly knew how to surprise you.
And not always pleasantly.
Our visitor was Whitney Fordman.
He had arrived just as Lana was slipping past him on her way out.
The guy looked completely lost.
I walked over and prepared myself for a fight.
Or, more accurately, for him to try to hit me.
I definitely wasn’t going to hit back.
I was still far too excited and worked up from what had just happened.
I might not control my strength properly.
Actually, I definitely wouldn’t.
My hands were still shaking.
And speaking of Lana…
I should probably slow things down with her too.
If things got too heated, I might accidentally break something important.
So if there was going to be any continuation of what had happened today, it would have to be gentle.
Slow.
Careful.
As if I were handling the most fragile flower in the world.
And definitely no sex.
Absolutely not.
No way.
“Hello, Whitney.”
I greeted him with a sigh, using his full name rather than the way people around here normally greeted each other.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
He still looked lost.
“Just some bruises and a couple of scratches.
The doctors say I won’t even miss the next game.”
“That’s good, right?”
I asked.
“Clark, let’s be honest.”
Fordman finally pulled himself together.
“You saved my life.” Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
He paused.
“And you stole my girlfriend.”
He looked genuinely conflicted.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
Thank you for one thing and then pick a fight with you over the other?”
“Today you’re thanking me for one and cursing me for the other.”
I sighed.
“But maybe someday it’ll be the other way around.”
“Philosopher, huh?”
The football player frowned, clearly starting to get irritated again.
“First of all, Lana isn’t a cow that someone can steal.”
I looked directly at him.
“She’s the one who decides who she wants to be with.”
“And second?”
Whitney’s irritation eased slightly.
“There is no second.”
I sighed.
“Yesterday, you screwed up, and I ended up on top.”
I made quotation marks with my fingers.
“I became the ‘hero.’ The center of attention.”
I shrugged.
“But what about tomorrow?”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“A month from now?”
“A year?”
“Ten years?”
“Do you honestly think anyone will remember our victories and failures from today?”
I looked at him.
“I’m alive.
You’re alive.
That’s what matters.”
“And Lana…”
“What about Lana?”
“Scaring away every guy she talks to isn’t going to keep her with you.”
I shrugged.
“Be yourself.
I’ll be myself.
And whoever she chooses in the end…”
I smiled faintly.
“Maybe it’ll be someone like Lex.”
“You’re a strange guy.”
Whitney snorted.
“You’re really not going to fight for her?”
“Of course I will.”
I shrugged.
“I’ve been in love with her since I was ten.”
Then I looked at him seriously.
“But think about something else.”
“Winning someone over is one thing.”
“Keeping them is another.”
“But living with that person afterward?”
“Every day.”
“Month after month.”
“Year after year.”
I shook my head.
“Eventually everything comes back.
Every lie.
Every trick.
Every little thing you left unsaid.”
“That’s why I’d rather be myself from the beginning instead of pretending to be something I’m not.”
I shrugged.
“That’s about it.”
“I don’t like smartasses.”
Whitney grimaced.
“But you’re right about one thing.”
“Lana isn’t a cow.”
“Let her choose.”
“Probably.”
He nodded.
“Where’d you learn to fight like that?”
“My father taught me.”
“Mr.
Kent?”
Whitney’s expression changed immediately.
He looked at me with genuine respect.
“Mr.
Kent can fight.
He was the captain of the Ravens.”
“I know.”
I smiled.
“You’re lucky to have a dad like that.”
“He’s a good man.”
“Thanks.”
“Then why don’t you join the team?”
Whitney looked confused.
“Your dad must’ve taught you how to throw a football.”
“He also forbids me from playing.”
I shrugged.
“Says I’m too strong and I’ll hurt someone.”
“Is that why you haven’t fought anyone all this time?”
“Yeah.”
“Happens.”
Whitney nodded with an expression of exaggerated wisdom.
“Just don’t drink if you’re too strong.”
“I don’t drink.”
“Good.”
Whitney extended his hand.
“All right, Kent.
Don’t hold a grudge.
And thanks for saving me.”
“And you don’t hold a grudge either, Fordman.”
I shook his hand.
I may have squeezed a little harder than I intended because, for a brief moment, Whitney’s face twisted in pain.
He quickly recovered.
“You’re not a bad guy, you know.”
“Don’t hurt Lana.”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“I won’t.”
I answered seriously.
We released each other’s hands.
Whitney left.
A few minutes later, I heard the light sound of footsteps disappearing in the distance.
That little sneak.
She’d been listening the whole time.