He sighs and closes his eyes. "I ran off to China with Lana. She was on the trail of one of the stones that Jor-El sent me after, and I couldn't let her get her hands on it. I didn't tell my parents I was leaving or anything. Lex and Jason were there too, and Lana... she got possessed by Isobel again." The witch who had possessed her before, the one who stripped Clark of his powers and went in search of the stone he'd already found. "I had to fight her for it, and I had the stone in my hand, and I lost it. I don't know where it is now." He sounds like he's been beating himself up over it ever since.

"Mom and Dad are pretty mad. That I left without saying anything. Dad lectured me on trust. And not disobeying. And Jor-El lectured me for failing to keep the stone. I just... I screwed up."