kent

the flash

Clark and Carly are sitting on the steps in front of their school on an astonishingly warm day for the beginning of March. The buses have long since left the parking lot, but there are still not many open spaces. The students are unwilling to give up their parking spots before the big game. Already, some of the rival school members have trickled into the lot and devoured any opening that was still available.

Clark scans the rows of cars, and he shifts uncomfortably on the concrete, already anxious about the results of the game that will start in over two hours time. He is leaning backwards, the row of stairs digging into his back. One of his arms rests on the row above where he is seated while the other is tense by his side- his fingers drumming erratically on his thigh.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Clark says, not for the first time this afternoon.

“Nervous?” Carly asks.

“No shit,” he groans, leaning forward so that his elbows rest on his knees. He pulls his head down with his hands and his fingers root anxiously through his hair.

“Well, don’t be,” Carly tells him, trying to comfort her best friend. “You’re amazing at basketball. You and the whole team. You’ll blow those dumb losers of Oak Park to smithereens.”

A smile flitters onto Clark’s face. “Smithereens, huh?”

“Stop making fun of my word choice. I’m trying to make you feel better, oh my god,” Carly whines, crossing her arms over her chest. However her facial features mimic Clark as a smile manages to creep onto her face as well.

Clark shrugs. “It’s sort of working. I still feel like I’m going to die, but less so, I suppose.”

“That’s good,” she nods.

“I hope we beat them tonight. And I’m not just saying that because we’re rival schools. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if we lose.” His fingers resume their tapping on his thigh. “I hate them, you know? Like, I really hate them. They’re assholes. Really.” He frowns and he offhandedly  rubs the bridge of his nose. Despite the spring heat, Clark shudders in the sun. His fingernails bite into his palms.

“They are assholes,” Carly agrees. “Just don’t let them get to you, okay?” He doesn’t appear to be listening. His gaze is faraway and unblinking and he is catapulted into some unknown land. “Clark?”

He blinks, the mirage his eyes are focused on wavers slightly but fails to fade to completely. “It’s just not something that I can just forget, you know?” Drenched in sunlight and in lieu of upcoming events, his memories grow even more vivid. His facial features turn softer than usual.

Carly watches the way the sunlight strikes his blue eyes and turns his hair a lighter shade of blonde. She sees him blink slowly, sluggishly surfacing from his flashback. And for some reason she finds him so incredibly beautiful that she cannot help but feel heartbreak over something that never was. And for a few seconds Clark is trapped in a past that he can’t change, and Carly is trapped in a future that she can only envision.

Then, a wicked smile creeps onto Clark’s face, and he pops each of his knuckles.

“What?” Carly asks softly. He may have broken the surface and has hungrily taken his first breath, but she has yet to shake off the waters of her hallucinations.

Clark turns to look at her, which does nothing to still the lapping of waves in her mind. If anything, it stirs up more whirlpools and wild weather.

“I’ve just decided that we’re going to beat them. And that’s that. End of story. We’re going to beat them beyond smithereens.” His smile grows then, and Carly grins back at him, not sure if her heart is exploding in a good way or not.