Sixteen Vestal Virgins

There are some things you can't necessarily tell by looking at someone, like whether or not they'll be good in bed. Clark has the body, but he may not have the skills; and Pete may have the skills, but he may not know how to use them. Lana, with her soft voice and fragile hands, could turn out to be a dark horse; and Lex, well.

It's not as though Chloe thinks about this often, but observing her friends hanging out at the Talon, it suddenly pops into her head. For as well as she knows them, she also knows that she can't really be sure.

She's almost positive that Clark and Pete are still virgins, but Clark has been acting strange ever since that Jessie chick came to town, and Pete, well, she'd like to think that Pete would tell her, but maybe not. Pete and Clark have been hiding secrets from her recently, she knows they have; so maybe they've outgrown those sort of confessional confidences as well. As for Lana, Chloe really can't be that sure. The only person Chloe can peg for certain is Lex, but he's not really her 'friend'.

Point of fact, Chloe isn't sure what to call Lex, but she doesn't think that he's ever been a virgin. Not that she thinks about Lex and sex much. Okay, not that much, but the way he walks and talks, and well, looks, she can't see him having ever been a virgin. Even his voice sounds like sex. Chloe can't even imagine Lex being a teenager, or dealing with puberty, or fumbling with a girl's shirt in a darkened living room.

He's one up on Ian already.

Of course Chloe's seen the tabloids, and there are plenty of databases with Lex's name all over them. On the Metropolis Society website they have pictures from his eighteenth birthday party - the one that the press were allowed to - but even then Lex seemed to be all sex and no virginity. And all these thoughts about Lex and sex are making Chloe's coffee get cold, while the rest of her is getting warm, but she can always get more - coffee that is.

As she watches Lex over the edge of her mug, Chloe can't help but think that sex with him wouldn't be a bad thing. Not that she has anything to compare it too, but based on the smoothness of his head, and the clean lines of his hands in his pockets, Chloe would bet that everything Lex does, he does well. Especially sex. She kind of wants to find out. Of course, thinking about having sex with Lex is just sort of wrong, not in a wrong-bad way, more in the warm feelings and flushed face and crossed legs way.

She never gets this way when she thinks about having sex with Clark. At least not anymore, but these days she's not thinking too hard about that, because Clark is obviously a fuckwit who's good for nothing but messing her around and acting jealous when he never even kissed her. Chloe's a bit bitter about that, but it doesn't stop her from thinking about having sex with Clark. She's not dead from the waist down. Clark may be as thick as two planks, and a worse liar than the Rosenbergs, but he's still hot.

If Clark tried to climb into her bed, Chloe doesn't think she would say no. Not that that's going to happen while Lana is living with her, but it's a nice idea. Certainly a nice dream, and no one can blame her for dreaming. Once she even had a dream about Pete, but it's not as though she actually told him about it - that would just be too weird.

She's not blind though, Chloe knows that Pete is hot, but he's her friend and maybe that as Clark's problem with them. The whole friendship-getting-in-the-way-of-something-more mind block. Still, it's not as though Chloe's trying to give her virginity away, she's not planning on being celibate for the rest of her life. Chloe just wants to be on equal footing whenever she finally does 'the deed,' and doesn't that make her sound like her Aunt Caroline, who still thinks nice girls just don't?

At the same time, if Lex is ruled out by the sheer hotness and statutory rape factor, and Clark is ruled out by stupidity, and Chloe likes Pete too much, that doesn't leave Chloe with a lot of options.

Of course, there's Lana, but Chloe, well. She can't honestly say she's never thought about it; she's not a prude. Lana is pretty, but Chloe bets that Lana lost her virginity to Whitney. Not that Lana's ever told her so, but if she were going out with Clark for a year and nothing happened, well, Chloe knows she'd be a bit confused and upset. All the same, what Chloe might be proposing isn't the same. She doubts that Lana has been with another girl, and that might be nice.

A little experimentation never hurt anyone.

"Is there any particular reason that you're smiling like the proverbial cat, Ms. Sullivan?" Lex's voice calls from where he's talking with Lana and Clark. It interrupts her reverie.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she answers with a smile, before taking a moment to actually think about what she's said. The truth of the matter is that she would like to know. Maybe he would as well. Maybe they all would.

If Chloe doesn't want to be the last virgin on earth, maybe now is a good time to explore her options.