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The weekend was only two days away. Pete sighed as he loaded his backpack with the books he needed for his next class. It had been a strange week so far, with Clark unexplainably absent on Monday. He had been back in school on Tuesday and today, but had not said a single word to Pete other than the obligatory 'hey' when spoken to in the hallway. Clark was not at lunch, which Pete and Chloe both found strange. They took advantage of his absence to talk about him and why he was acting so strangely.

Chloe scrunched her eyebrows in a way that Pete had always found to be one of her most endearing habits. "Have you talked to him at all this week?"

He shook his head. "Not really. I saw him in the hall before third period, but he barely nodded at me, and that only after I made a point to speak to him. What is wrong with the guy?"

"Oh, I don't know, Pete. Could it have anything to do with the fact that the last, oh, three months or so have been pretty rough on him? I mean, I don't profess to understand the dark recesses of the brain of Clark Kent, but I'm thinking he might be depressed."

"Who's depressed?" Lana set her tray down next to Chloe's and sat down.

Chloe and Pete exchanged glances warily.

"Okay, so it's a big secret. Sorry to interrupt. I can sit somewhere else if I'm interrupting something."

Hurriedly, Chloe scooted Lana's tray away so that she would stay. "No, it's not a secret. Don't get up. I want you to sit here. In fact, I wish you'd sit with us more often."

Lana smiled. "Thanks. Okay, if it's not a secret, then who's depressed?"

"Clark." Pete said flatly. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

Lana was surprised, and for a moment, she thought guiltily back to Sunday night at the Talon, her welcoming party. She had seen Clark, all right. She had seen him and she had seen the fragile hope in his dark blue eyes. Then, she had deliberately turned her back on him. Of course, after Chloe had filled her in on the failed attempt to rescue Lex from the asylum, she had felt badly. She of all people knew how personally Clark took his failures, especially when he failed a friend in need. Out loud, she managed to mumble, "No, I haven't seen much of Clark lately."

"No one has. He's not talking to me, he isn't coming to lunch, he was absent on Monday, and when I drove out to visit, his parents told me he was out in the barn, but he wasn't. I left his homework and books with his mom and looked around for him a little bit, but I couldn't find him." Pete's shoulders slumped dejectedly. Clark had been his best friend since grade school. Why was he suddenly withdrawing?

Chloe gave Pete a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Maybe when he gets back, he'll be better."

"Back? Where's he going?"

"My dad ran into his dad in town last night. The Kents are leaving for a mini-vacation, just the three of them."

Pete shook his head in confusion. "A vacation? I've known Clark since we were little kids, and in all that time, the Kents have gone on a vacation exactly once. His dad isn't the vacationing type."

"Well, they're taking one. Mrs. Kent was doing quite a bit of shopping last night, and she was buying things like flashlights, batteries, a first aid kit, and two life jackets. They must be going camping or something like that. I didn't get a chance to talk to her, but I waved on my way out and she waved back." Chloe took one last bite of her sandwich and looked at her watch. "I need to get back to the Torch. If either of you makes contact with him, I want to know about it. My guess is that whatever is wrong with Clark, it's serious enough that his parents are getting away from Smallville to deal with it. I hope nobody's sick ... " She covered her mouth. "I'll check on the internet to see if maybe somebody died. I hate reading the obits."

After Chloe left, Pete was left alone with Lana. Neither of them were finished eating, but Pete found that he could not think of anything to say to her.

"Come on, Pete. I know you're mad at me."

"What? Why do you think I'm mad at you? I haven't even seen you since the Talon Sunday night."

She sighed. "You're mad at me because you and Clark are like conjoined twins with the way you're always together, always of the same mind about things."

Pete chuckled at the mental image of himself and Clark as conjoined twins. "Last I heard, not even Ripley's Believe It Or Not has ever heard of conjoined twins, one black, one white."

"It was a figure of speech, Pete. Come on, are you telling me he didn't mention what happened at the Talon?"

"The Talon?" Pete asked. "Sunday night?"

Impatienly, Lana tapped her foot. "Yes, Sunday night at the Talon."

"Clark wasn't there, Lana. He didn't come. Chloe and I were talking about that before you sat down."

Lana shook her head. "No, he was there. I saw him. We made eye contact, and - and then I turned away and walked off with some other people."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you walk off and turn your back on him? He probably wanted to talk to you, see how you're doing."

The green bean on Lana's fork slid free and fell to her plate. She set down her fork, suddenly disinterested in the food. "I turned away because I didn't want to talk to him, Pete."

The bluntness of her answer startled Pete. "Why not? It wasn't that long ago that you were willing to throw away your friendship with Chloe to be with him."

More sharply than she meant, Lana snapped, "Well, that was before my leg was broken in four places!"

Pete closed his eyes, thinking of how badly Clark would feel if he knew that Lana blamed him for her injury. "Please tell me you didn't say anything like that to him."

"I didn't ... only, I guess, at the hospital when he visited me, I told him that being around him was too dangerous, that I couldn't do it anymore."

"So, you basically gave him a restraining order to stay fifty feet away from you at all times?"

"My leg is broken, Pete. If he hadn't called me to bring food for Lex, this would not have happened. Whenever he's around, things happen!"

The idea of how much Clark would be hurt by the things Lana was saying made Pete feel slightly queasy. He had told Clark how keeping his secret worried him, Lana had told him to stay away from her, and God only knew how much of their friendship Lex could even remember. No wonder Clark was depressed.

Pete stood and gathered his trash onto his tray, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "It isn't Clark who attracts the weirdness that happens around here. Clark is the one who stops it, and one of these days, he's going to get himself killed trying to rescue you! He'd throw himself off of a cliff if he thought it would save you -- wait ... " Pete snapped his fingers. "I forgot. He already did that." With that, he left Lana alone to finish her lunch, determined to be a better friend to Clark when he returned from vacation.

Lana sat alone, too shocked at the vehemence of Pete's words to think of eating another bite. Was it true? Was she the one who attracted danger? Did she have a sign across her back that read, 'somebody save me'? Clark seemed to always be present when she was in danger, but in retrospect, he was usually rescuing her at great personal risk. From everything she had heard from Pete and Chloe, Lex had not been insane. Clark had risked everything to help a friend, and when his everything was not enough, he had called Lana to bring food and stay with Lex. The only thing Clark was guilty of was trusting in her friendship. Lana had no doubt of how far Clark would go to help a friend. How far was Lana willing to go?