The Phantom || Smallville

08|Agreements

Lana took her arm and the others cheered as they walked down the steps and Andrea Queen, meanwhile, was completely focused on not falling flat onto her face since for the first time in ages, she was wearing heels and she was very much regretting it.

Andrea sighed with relief when the staircase part was over and she was getting herself a drink. "Nice save." Lex said and she was shaking her head, barely having stopped herself from doing the instinctive thing of throwing whatever was in her hand at whoever scared her. "Did I almost get doused in the punch?"

"Yes!" Andrea muttered and Lex was shaking his head. "You would have done the same thing, Lex, I'm absolutely sure of it."

"Well, you would know that better than anybody else here." Lex pointed out as he drank some of the punch as well. "I wonder how much sugar they put into this stuff." He said as he winced at how sugary it was.

"That's what I was going to say." Andrea muttered and the next time that she was going for some punch, she cut it with water as it was both less sweet and less sugary, almost automatically.

"Were you really going to steal a suit from me if Lana didn't like the dress?" Lex asked and Andrea looked over at him.

"Well, I sure as hell was not going to be able to make it to Star City and back, just to steal a suit from Oliver. So, yeah." Andrea replied and Lex was nodding a little bit. "You don't seem surprised." She noted.

"That is because, I'm really not. You have always been much more comfortable in the suits like mine and Oliver's, then any sort of dresses like the one that you're wearing now." Lex said as he drank water. "How hard were you focusing on not tripping and falling on your face?" He asked and she was scoffing quietly.

"Of course you noticed that." Andrea murmured and she was shaking her head, feeling sheer embarrassment now rushing through her. "I was absolutely terrified to embarrass myself and Lana. I didn't want to ruin her birthday pictures, down the steps... Just because I decided to look like a beached whale." She said and Lex stared at her.

"You wouldn't have looked like a beached whale. You would have looked like someone who had too much to drink..."

"Oh thanks a bunch, Lex." At the suddenly angry tone of her voice, Lex knew that he'd made a sudden mistake. "Now if I fell over, you're saying that I would look like Oliver."

"Shit. Andrea, that isn't what I meant..." But Andrea was already disappearing into their crowd of people and Lex sighed, lowering his head as he went back over the ever too brief conversation in his head and he knew that she was right. That he wasn't paying enough attention when he spoke and now, her pain had been evident.

"Hey Lana?" Andrea asked quietly as she tapped the birthday girl on the shoulder, as she felt sick when she saw the flash go off and realized that they were probably being photographed right now.

"Andrea, hey, what is wrong?" Andrea realized that her emotions must be written on her face and Andrea was barely holding it together, as she was closing her trembling hands into fists.

"I need to go, all right?" Andrea asked quietly and Lana looked at her. "I'll be in the gym if you need me, Lex can give you the directions. But I cannot be here with all of this, not anymore, I'm sorry." She said and Lana was nodding.

"Feel better, okay?" Lana asked softly as she watched Andrea go, moving quickly into the crowd.

After Andrea had gotten out of the dress quickly she was yanking on a sports bra and a pair of exercise shorts, before she was walking into the gym with two water bottles as she was on her own.