Persona Non Grata

Sep 13, 2010 18:50

 Persona Non Grata 1/1

Darkness shrouded Smallville as the storm continued to rage outside.

Lex ignored the chaos outside the mansion as the sound of thunder filled the billiard room.
His mind did not register the angry drums of thunder or the lashes of rain against the windows
as he hit the ball into a pocket.

His hand was about to grab the glass of scotch he left on the side of the pool table and when a
figure walked inside the room.

“Lex?”

The voice was soft and hesitant. Lex refused to acknowledge the owner of the voice and instead
continued with his game.

“Lex, please.”

Lex ignored her, and instead walked to the bar and poured himself another drink. Chloe Sullivan walked
closer until she was side by side with him.

“Lex, talk to me. Please.”

“Shouldn’t you be with your boyfriend?” he asked instead and watched in satisfaction as she flinched

“You haven’t answered any of my messages.”

Lex sneered as he looked at her. “I would’ve thought that a brilliant woman like you would have figured
out what that meant. I guess being with Queen has dumbed you down.”

“I didn’t come here to fight” she pleaded, looking at him. “I just want to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing for us to talk about.” Lex replied as he nodded his head towards the door. “I trust that
you can find the exit yourself.”

Chloe walked closer until they were face to face. “Don’t shut me out, please. Lex, you know how much
I care about you. You’re my best friend.”

“Am I?” he asked “Last time I checked, best friends don’t stab each other in the back.”

“I never did that; I would never do that to you!”

“What do you call being with Oliver Queen?”

Chloe took a deep breath before she spoke again. “Please, Lex. I never meant to fall in
love with him...” she trailed off.

“Well you did. And now, you can consider our friendship terminated. I don’t have any inclination
to continue a friendship with someone I can’t trust.”

“You can still trust me. You can always trust me.” Chloe whispered. “Lex, you’re my best friend.
I need you in my life.”

“Do you remember Isabella Walters?”

Chloe looked at Lex in surprise at the sudden change of topic.  She’d never seen or heard about
Isabella since they graduated from Smallville High. “I do.”

“She would’ve been a great asset to me, to LuthorCorp. My father advised that I pursue Isabella. I
knew that she would be interested- she never hid the fact that she wanted me. Marrying her would’ve
increased my shares with Chase Metropolis Bank and increased my other portfolios. But I chose not to
listen to my father.”

He walked over to the other side of the room. “Do you know why?”

Chloe shook her head. Lex never mentioned this to her.

“Because I remembered how she treated you in high school. How hurt you were when she and the
other cheerleaders convinced the football team to ransack the Torch Office.”

Chloe stayed silent as Lex finally turned around to face her.

“Contessa Annalisa di Mondici? Do you remember her?”

Chloe nodded her head as she remembered Lex’s ex-fiancé. “I broke my engagement with her
the second she called you a tramp. Her family connections in Europe would’ve been a bonus for
the European arm of LuthorCorp. I chose you over her. Even after you told me you could never love
me more than a friend, I chose your friendship over the success of LuthorCorp.”

Chloe could not speak. She didn’t know if she could say anything at Lex’s admission.

“Clarissa Von Kamp? An alliance with her would’ve secured my political future. But I chose you the
moment she embarrassed you in front of the world at the Children’s Hospital Gala. No matter what
the consequence was, I chose you. My friendship with you came before my wealth, LuthorCorp’s
benefit and my ambition because my loyalty was to you. Clearly, you don’t have the same inclination.”

“Lex...”

“When I admitted my feelings for you and you turned me down, I thought I had screwed up. I was afraid
that I would lose you as a friend, because I didn’t think I could stay beside you knowing that you would
end up with someone else. So I thought, maybe it was better if we just stayed as friends. That way I would
always be with you, even if you did fall in love with someone else.”

He waved his glass of scotch in her vague direction as he spoke. His voice was cold, his chest feeling hollow-
almost as if his heart vanished completely.   “I thought to myself, that I could accept almost anyone. Someone
you work with, like that photographer from the Planet. Even that barista from that coffee cart you love going to.
I would have even accepted Bruce Wayne. But out of all the people in the Metropolis, in the entire world, you
had to choose Oliver fucking Queen!”

Lex threw the glass of scotch against the wall and Chloe almost jumped back as he radiated with pure rage
right in front of her.

“You knew. You knew exactly what he did to me. You knew everything he put me through back at Excelsior.
I can accept that you can never love me the way I love you, but I will never, ever forgive you for choosing
Oliver!”

“It was a long time ago, Lex. He’s not the same person anymore...”

He turned his back on her, and stared out the window. He watched as raindrops dribbled down the glass-
they were nature’s tears, showing sadness for him.

Chloe however, looked like she was about to cry.  “Lex, please...” she pleaded

He turned around to face her. “What do you expect me to do, huh, Chloe? Forget it? Forget that my own
father called me a coward when I didn’t want to go back to school? For him to tell me that I don’t deserve
the Luthor name because I used to wet my bed at night in terror? Or maybe you want me to forget how he
posted my picture throughout the academy when he and his friends tied me up in the goal post and dressed
me up as a clown? How am I supposed to forgive and forget?”

“I would’ve been happy to see you with anyone else.” He continued, his body shaking in anger. “It doesn’t
matter that you didn’t love me, but for you to choose Oliver. After everything I told you, after everything that
he put me through, you chose to be with him.”

Chloe took a deep breath before she spoke again. “I care about you- you’re one of the most important
people in my life.”

“Don’t!” he cut her off, fuming “Don’t stand there and tell me how important I am to you, because if I was,
you never would have chosen him!”

“I never wanted to fall for him, Lex. I swear. I know what he did to you was wrong, and so does he. He’s
sorry for everything he did to you.”

Lex let out a harsh laugh at Chloe’s words as he slipped his hands inside the pocket of his pants as he
shook his head. He sat on the edge of his desk as he looked at her. “After all this years, who knew my
father would be right at something?”

At Chloe’s silence, Lex continued to speak, his gaze never wavered as he spoke. “He warned me about you.
How you would just use me, and when you couldn’t get anything out anymore, you would leave. I’m sure he’ll
be pleased to know that he was right all along.”

“No! No! Lex... I never used you,” Chloe exclaimed. “I’m still your friend Lex- being with Oliver won’t change that.”

“Friend?” Lex asked his tone mocking. “You call yourself my friend?”

“Lex, we’ve been through so much, you know how important you are to me, I would never hurt you...”

“And yet, you did.” Lex cut her off as he stood up and walked closer to the window. The storm had not
passed, but continued its reign over Smallville.

Chloe took a deep breath before she spoke again. “I love him, Lex. I know what he did to you was wrong,
and that there’s nothing he can do to change the past. He’s a changed man, Lex. He’s not the same bully
you used to know back at Excelsior. I swear to you, I never tried to get his attention. I never planned to be
involved with him, but...”

“The heart wants what the heart wants, correct?” Lex asked bitterly.

Just to hear her defend Oliver made Lex realize that his friendship with Chloe was over. He could never
accept her relationship with his old schoolmate.

A streak of lightning flashed across the sky, and Chloe waited for the roar of thunder to pass before she
spoke again. “Lex, you have to believe me when I say that I don’t want to lose you. Just because I’m with
Oliver it doesn’t mean you can’t trust me anymore. Please don’t push me away Lex. I promise I won’t leave you,”

“I’m quite certain you won’t miss me with Oliver around, if his reputation with the ladies is anything to go
by. Just leave and go back to him.”

“Don’t be like this.” Chloe begged as she made a move to touch him, but Lex just moved away and
glared at her.

“Don’t touch me, don’t ever touch me again.” Lex said coldly as Chloe drew her hand back. “You’ve said
what you have to say. You can leave now.”

Chloe had never heard Lex speak to her this way. His bitterness, his anger was so intense, and she could
only stay still as she looked at him.

“Lex...”

Instead of speaking to her, Lex punched a number on the phone and he gazed at Chloe as he spoke.

“Come up in the billiard room.”

Chloe just looked at Lex in shock as his security personnel walked in.

“Mr. Luthor?”

“Escort Miss Sullivan out of here. Consider her a Persona non Grata in all of my properties.”

The Security guards looked at each other. When they saw Chloe Sullivan, they expected Lex to ask
them to escort her for her safety, not kick her out.

“I’m sorry that you feel that I’ve betrayed you, but I would never do that to you. Please Lex, trust me.
You know you can.”

“I believe I gave you all a direct order.” Lex said coldly to his staff instead, not bothering to look at Chloe.

Grayson Peeke was the first to move as he walked closer to Chloe. “Miss Chloe? I’m really sorry, but we
need to escort you outside.”

“Lex...”

“Get out.” Lex said harshly as he ignored the plea in Chloe’s voice.  “I don’t need you or your friendship
in my life”, he said with a tone of finality.

“Lex, listen to me...”

“I will fire every single man in this room if you don’t leave right now.”

She watched as Lex walked away from her to walk towards his bar to pour himself another drink. He
refused to acknowledge her further and kept his back to her and Chloe knew that there was nothing she
can do or say.

Lex embraced the solitude as he heard the doors shut close. He didn’t need anyone. He should’ve listened
to his father from the beginning. He should’ve known, but he was foolish to have expected loyalty from
someone who wasn’t a Luthor.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

-The End-

And once again, a big thank you for chloesilvers  for being my beta!

Also, I have good news, bad news. Good news (for me) is that I recently am in a different department at work, kind of like a promotion, but it’s only temporary. Still, it’s a chance to learn something new, so I’m grateful for the opportunity. The bad news is that I don’t have regular net access. I got transferred to a different city all together for this period, so no net access! It’s $13 bucks for 2 hours, so until I get an alternative, there’s going to be silence from me for a while.

There’s so many good fics out there, I don’t have a chance to review them all.

Hope you enjoy this one, and I’ll try to post something next week for Anything for Love and my other fics!

lex, chloe, oliver, rating: r, one shots

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