Cherophobia

12

Darien's POV

One thing I wouldn't tell K, is how I've been following her around since I came back.

I went to her house the day I came but she wasn't around, it was her sisters and her mom.

Her mom was so happy to see me and I told her everything that happened. I wanted to see K so bad that her mom could see how antsy I was so she told me K was in school.

I asked her which one and told me the one I was actually accepted in.

She didn't choose a college far away for which I was grateful. I had an idea to search for her on social media which I did.

I managed to get all her handles including Facebook because she had the same name on all her pages. I saved her pictures because she was just beautiful as always but now she had turned into a lady.

A young black sexy lady and I wanted to be with her well as her friend....first.

She had tons of pictures there, looks like she was living her life and even followed the two ladies she was always in pictures with and I'm glad I did.

K was the lady every one talked about on campus particularly guys.

They all wanted to date her and since she was hard and difficult to talk to, they joined her tutorial group she had for every course we took and that gave me the opportunity to join her group.

Every time I heard a guy talk about her, I had an unsettling feeling in my guts. I always brushed them of because they are not to see her as a sex object.

I always defended her when I heard such nasty comments but it got to a time, the twins started making the same comments immediately blowing me off.

I screamed in their faces and that was when I finally admitted it to myself.

I loved her.

I was a mess that day and apologized to my friends but they just shrugged it off and teased me.

I called Dr. Davies and told her what happened, it wasn't a surprise I did anyway because she was my confidante.

I told her how I felt about K and she teased me but felicitated me on my admittance.

And that was when I took it upon myself to... well stalk her more like getting to know her but from a distance. I knew she was working with ZBN after our second semester as freshmen, I always got home early to watch her with my parents, they always complimented her beauty and voice.

I was so happy she was living her life the way I wanted to live mine but I was on a slow progress, one step at a time and I didn't want to ruin that.

It got to a time it became a routine every evening and morning in the house. We'd watch her from the morning shows she sometimes hosted to the news she anchored. I took it upon myself to get every magazine and newspaper she had her stories in.

She had quite a huge ton of followers everywhere but she followed few, so I had to change my handles in order to get a follow from her.

What I didn't like was how she had some hair extensions and wigs on every time.

It took a long two weeks for me to get a follow back from her Instagram page which I didn't mind, I was the happiest and luckiest man alive.

My parents finally got to know about how I felt about her. Even her mother did but didn't push me because I was a coward.

I couldn't approach her because I was scared, that she'd reject me after everything I did to her so I loved her from afar.

When we got to our sophomore year, everything changed.

I could feel it in me that something bad had happened because when I went to her pages she had deleted all her pictures with only some few ones about work on her page. Her bio was also empty with only one word; YHWH.

I googled to understand the word on her bio but I wasn't get it.

Sure it was telling me something about God, but I simply didn't get why she had changed everything.

When she was in school, she looked and acted the same, like nothing had changed.

I was petrified and thought she'd found out I was stalking her. So I stopped checking her pages for a while but I just couldn't.

I asked my confidante what to do and she told me observe her closely and see if there were any changes in her behavior and I did.

She wasn't the happy girl I once knew, she was not seen even once on her friends' pages like she used to.

She looked like a robot if anyone observed carefully. I went back and told Dr. Davies and she asked me for anything that was off with Keturah. I told her everything I'd seen and she smiled sadly before breaking the news to me

" She has it Darien she has the same phobia."

I tensed and shook my head hoping she was wrong but it was true.

She was hurting just like I was but I vowed to my confidante that I'd help K, I wasn't going to let her go through what I'd been through.

She urged me to talk to her but I was too much of a coward to do that.

So she continued to play the good actress that she was till I couldn't take it no more.

I've seen her quarrel with her best friends because she wasn't going out with them like she used to.

I've seen her drop her position as a teaching assistant and I even heard she wanted to stop tutoring the group but she was so selfless to do that.

So I took the bold step and approached her and that was the best day of my life.

I screamed in my car after I dropped her off that day.

I was so happy, I told the twins and my parents and finally Dr. Davies.

I begged her to help me help her and pleaded to pay more to have sessions with her but she declined and told me she had a son my age.

I was grateful she wanted to helpbut I had a job to do even on my way to recovery. I had to save her, I had to save the girl who gave me hope to live.