Tino lay down in the grass and looked over at Lor who was sitting down next to him. Their eyes were locked together and a happy smile spread across their faces.
"Ahhh, do you know how long I have been waiting for this moment?" Tino said to Lor.
She just smiled and said, "Well now it is here so you no longer have to wait."
He smiled even wider. Lor giggled at how pleased he was.
"I love you," Tino said to her.
"And I love you too," Lor responded and bent down to kiss him.
Tino lifted his head slightly and closed his eyes waiting for the splendid feeling of her lips, but it didn't come. He opened his eyes to see himself hovering in darkness. He didn't feel like he was falling but he knew he wasn't on solid ground.
"What in the world? What's going on? Where's Lor? Lor! Where are you?! She's not around, I'll have to look for her."
Tino tried to move and found that it was possible to get around if he tried swimming. However, the darkness seemed to stretch on forever. Even after swimming around for what felt like an eternity Tino was no closer to finding Lor.
"This is getting ridiculous. My arms and legs are killing me and Lor doesn't seem to be anywhere. What am I gonna do? I can't just abandon her out here. I don't know what to do. I guess the only thing I can do is... sleep. Maybe I'll wake up back with Lor again."
Tino let himself float again, trying his best to drift off to sleep. He found it hard to get into a good position for sleeping. Tino was wishing for his bed now. Eventually though he began to fall into slumber if for no other reason than he was too tired to stay awake. With Tino at a standstill an eerie silence washed over the darkness. It didn't last, though.
"Asleep already? I thought you would have put up a better fight than that," a voice said.
Tino groggily woke up looking around to see who had talked to him. His eyes focused as well as they could, but he still couldn't make out who was talking to him. He only knew the direction of the voice.
"Who is that? Who is here?" Tino asked.
"You know who I am. There is no need for me to say," the voice responded.
Tino looked again. This time he could make out a person. It was one of his friends. He wasn't sure which one but it was one of them.
"Hey, what's goin' on? Where is this place?" Tino asked.
"Why were you sleeping?" The voice quickly replied.
"What? I was just-"
"You were just sleeping, resting at a time like this. Lor is somewhere out there and you are sleeping like nothing is wrong. I thought you cared about her."
"I do care about her. I was looking for a while out there."
"But you gave up, and decided to sleep instead. How pitiful."
"I couldn't help it! I was too tired, I couldn't keep going on. I wanted to. I want to find her."
"Hmpf. You are weak and unwilling, and proof of the emptiness of love. It gave you no strength, only disappointment. Or maybe you don't love Lor after all. Maybe you are just lying."
"What?! I do love her. Why are you saying this? I thought you were my friend."
"I am your friend. That's why I am saying this, you need to understand."
"Understand what? I love Lor and that's all there is to it. I don't know what kind of friend you think you are."
"I'm the best friend you could ever have, and you'd best remember that. You have to understand what love is, the pain that comes with, and the emptiness it can leave you with."
"Emptiness? I don't know how you think of love but it's certainly different from me. There is no emptiness in my love."
"Ridiculous. That's far too idealistic. You cannot escape it."
"It's not escaping, it's overcoming. I won't let there be emptiness. You watch I'll prove you wrong. I'm going to look for Lor right now!"
"Why bother? You don't understand love, you don't love her."
"I'm not gonna say this again. I do love her. You don't understand and you are no friend of mine!"
"Words... They are useless, even more useless when they are nothing more than thoughts. It all means nothing."
"Grrrr, I LOVE HER, DAMMIT!!"
Then everything went white.
Tino sat up in his bed drenched in sweat. Everything was back to normal. He was in his room in his house. Tino sighed and wiped his face.
"Uhhh, it was that dream again. Man, I have seriously gotta stop havin' that one. It will drive me insane if it doesn't stop," Tino thought to himself.
It had been a few months since Tino started having that dream. The first time he thought it just an odd occurance and dismissed it, but after it happened repeatedly he began to worry. Was it possible that he liked Lor as more than just a friend? A question like that would have sounded very weird to him a few years ago, but now he was beginning to change and he thought of girls in a more serious manner. His first year of high school had been quite a change for him. He found himself growing more "aware" of Tish and Lor. Sure, that was natural, but he began to notice Lor quite a lot, though he hated to admit it.
"That damn dream. What is it trying to prove? It's some type of conspiracy, that's what it is. Like I would really like Lor. Ha! I know she is all about Thomson, plus she is my friend. She is like a sister to me, right? Right! I think..." Tino thought as he walked down to breakfast.
"Hi honey," Tino's mom said from behind a paper as he entered the kitchen.
"Huh? Oh yeah, hi," Tino muttered.
His mom looked up at him and said, "Something on your mind?"
Tino didn't answer, but instead walked to his seat and sat down looking at the odd culinary treat in front of him. His mom walked over to him and waved her hand in front of his face, but got no reaction. It was only when she knocked on his head that he snapped out of his daze.
"Wha-what? Geez, mom you're giving me a headache!" Tino exclaimed.
"Sorry, but I had to get you out of a coma, but now that you are fine, mind telling me what has you so riveted?" she responded.
Tino became slightly nervous and stammered, "W-W-What are you talking about? Nothing is wrong! I didn't have any dreams! Nothing rivets me! Nothing! I'm outta here." He ran out leaving his mom shaking her head.
"Man, that wasn't smooth at all. I gotta be more careful. That dream... what do you want Fate?! What do you want me to think?! Damn, could I really like Lor? I hate dreams," Tino wondered in his room.
The idea seemed absurd to him, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. He was well aware that she liked Thomson, plus she was completely different from him. Why would he be falling for her? No, it couldn't happen, yet he could not deny the weird feeling in his stomach every time he looked at Lor these days.
"It's pointless to even think about it. I don't have feelings for her. Nope. Not in the least. Love? I don't even know what that is. Ha! Not I. Love is nothing to me.... Geez, I'm not even convincing myself here. Well, even if I did like her, she likes Thomson. I mean she is all into him since both are sports fanatics. Yeah I would never stand a chance so no point in thinking about it." Tino thought.
It was useless he couldn't convince himself. As much as he hated to, he had to be realistic. He could no longer deny the feeling after having thought about it this time.
"That dream has happened too many times, and that person talking to me. Could I really care about Lor that much? Nothing more than thoughts..., no, I can't let it go."
Tino took a deep breath and then said aloud to himself, "I love Lor."
He felt like such a fool saying it, but he had to acknowledge the truth about his feelings.
"Man, I have a bad feeling about this," Tino thought preparing himself for the days ahead dealing with this new feeling.
End of Chapter One
So it begins again. There is a reason behind this. The reason being that after having finished The Feeling, I began to dislike it. It grew to a point where I couldn't stand reading it save for a few parts. Therefore, I decided that I should revisit the story and make it so I don't dislike it anymore. So various parts will be changed or removed plus new parts will appear. Once I finish reposting every chapter I will remove the original story from FFN. In each of these little author's notes from now on I will point out changes and possibly why I changed what I did. This chapter's changes are obvious enough so I don't feel the need to point them out. Overall I expect to be done before Christmas, but don't quote me on that. Catch ya next chapter.