A/N

Prepare yourself for another turning point in the story!

Chapter Eleven

Love? Hope? I don't even know the meaning of love anymore, let alone hope to find love again.

Go away, I told my little-freak-of-nature-somehow-animated-live-beings-that-are-supposed-to-be-inanimate-emotions-thingies.

I shooed them into a dusty corner room of my mind and shut the door.

You can't ignore us forever! They shouted.

Yeah, yeah, tell that to your kin, the one with the hammer.

XOXO

I was surrounded by fog. I didn't know where I was. I was all alone.

"Well, I've been alone for the past four days, I don't mind a bit of loneliness now."

I sat down on the ground, which I could not see, and drew my legs close to my chest.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared ahead. It was moving… walking… towards me. I couldn't make out who it was. I jumped up in alarm.

The figure was veiled by the white smog and its shadow's outline was blurred. Finally, the fog cleared and revealed the face of whom it had been covering with its hand.

"David?" I exclaimed in shock.

"Sam, we need to talk." His face was grave and serious.

"Oh David, I've wanted to talk to you so much! I'm so, so sorry. My emotions ran amok and I didn't even realize my feelings anymore. I'm still not very clear about them right now, but what I do know for sure is that I don't want to lose you. I want to stay…"

"…friends?" He asked with a sad smile.

"Yes," I replied. "Friends."

"It's too late for that now, Sam. If we stayed as friends, the hurt that I received, it would be too much for me, you know? Every time I see you I would remember when you loved me and despair at the fact that our love has dwindled down to mere friendship," he said unhappily.

My heart doubled over at the fact that David was this pained by my actions. Then, I suddenly found myself asking the question that I so longed to find the answer to… the question that would perhaps sort out my feelings for David at last.

"Do… do you still… love me? After all I've done… after I hurt you like that? Because… I never intended to hurt you! I was always hoping that somehow… my love for you would return someday if I continued to be with you… Do you love me?" I asked hopefully.

Maybe if David still loved me, I could love him back. Maybe we could get together again. Maybe everything would return to as it once was.

"Sam… I…" David started to reply.

Then suddenly, David disappeared. He was just… gone… without a trace. Fog filled the air again.

"David!" I shouted out frantically.

There was no reply but a cackle. An evil cackle.

"Who are you?" I asked fearfully. "What have you done with my boyfriend?"

"Your boyfriend? Don't you mean your ex-boyfriend? Well, too bad, but he's mine now!" The voice screeched back in glee.

The smog cleared once again to reveal… not David… but that girl who had embraced him at the Burger Palace!

She was cackling and aglow in all her beautiful, yet treacherous glory, her long, blonde hair flying in all directions, yet still making her look like one of the paintings of mighty goddesses in ancient temples.

Then, she held up a clear, crystal bottle, shut tight with a stopper adorned with glittering diamonds.

At first, I thought, "What the heck?" then as I looked closer, I was horrified to find that David was inside the bottle. Trapped. Under her control.

Furious, I lunged for the bottle in an ill-fated attempt to rescue David.

The girl, smirking, simply stepped out of the way.

Then I was about to hit the ground face first when the ground abruptly gave way.

I fell… and fell… and fell… into the unending chasm of goodness-knows-what.

XOXO

Sunday.

Two more days and on Tuesday, David would turn eighteen.

I was seriously going insane. This whole break-up was messing with my mind. First, I was talking to little beings inside my head that were supposedly my emotions, but who knows if they were some devil-sent demons come to possess me? Then, I had that total whacked-out psycho dream about spilling my heart out to David and having him snatched away by that blonde goddess girl.

Samantha Madison was losing it. Big time.

If only I could just solve this damned do-I-love-David-or-not issue, I would be at rest and actually do something about all this rather than talking to my own feelings or having crazy dreams.

I collapsed into the living room sofa and turned on the TV.

Oh please, I begged the television, brainwash me with all your crappy shows so that I might somehow forget that this ordeal never happened. Brainwash me. I am at your disposal.

The TV turned on to reveal a channel on which the president was giving a speech. I absentmindedly lent my ear to the president's monologue.

My eyes were vacant. I must have looked like a zombie with no soul.

All of a sudden, the camera briefly turned away from the president to scan the audience. And as it rotated back towards the president, the camera briefly lingered on… David.

David was right there in front of my eyes on TV. His hair was combed, his face composed, and he was wearing a suit. And his green eyes flickered over to the screen. I felt as if he was looking directly at me.

My heart did a flip.

Then it felt all warm and fuzzy.

Then it did another summersault, this one bigger than its predecessor.

Frisson.

XOXO

All these thoughts came pouring out at once.

That jerk, Bryant.

My frisson's dormancy.

Its return.

The blonde girl.

Jealousy.

Fear of losing him.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

…

Among the jumble of bits and pieces, one whole picture arranged itself in my mind.

And it became clear.

Clearer than that crystal bottle from the dream.

I loved David.

A/N

Huh... whoever knew frisson could be dormant? Like winter hibernation...sort of.

Well, spring must have come at last, since Sam's frisson is all blooming-and-up-and-at'em again!

Will David take her back?

Will Sam wallow in misery for the rest of her life?

Or... will she find another guy? Gasp.

Who knows?