Philophobia

10. Philophobia

Philophobia - Fear of Love

*Norah Cohen*

  This morning, I got up remembering what had happened the night before at the party. How Sean had left me with no reason why. Kim says it might be because he felt hurt about being lied to. She said she was sorry that she created the fake me and encouraged me to use it. Kim also told me that maybe that was what he was after in a girl: girliness and beauty.

  Flo came back from the party beaming at the fact she was with Niall. But she instantly stopped as soon as she saw me and Kim curled up on my bed. When I told her, she wasn't happy. I felt kind of bad I got in the way of her happiness.

  Flo told me not to bother chasing Sean because he was never worth it in the first place. She told me that he was already dancing with another girl after I left. She said she had to tell me after I told her about Ross cheating.

  When I looked at my watch this morning, I noticed it was 10:30 and still Kim and Flo were asleep. I suddenly heard the doorbell. Remembering my parents were sleeping over at a friends house, I went to answer the door.

  I opened it to find Owen standing there with a smile on his face. The fact I was in my dressing gown didn't bother me much.

  "Hey Owen," I greeted him.

  "Hi Norah!" he said enthusiastically. "Um... I just came to say, sorry about last..." His hands were in his pockets as he shuffled his feet on the ground.

  "It's fine, I'll get over it," I faked a shrug, but Owen knew I cared.

  "Well... Sean is pretty stupid to dump you. He was with you and just threw it away," he grinned to make me feel better.

  "I guess..." I sighed.

  "Um... I was also wondering if you would like to... You know... Go to the park later... As friends of course... I mean... It's not date or anything... I me-"

  "Sounds good. I'm up for it," I smiled and nodded.

  "Great!" Owen's face lit up. "2 o'clock?"

  "Yeah, 2 sounds good. I'll see you later," I gently smiled at him before closing the door behind me.

  I guess one advantage of breaking up with Sean is that I talk to Owen again. I definitely didn't talk to Owen as much as I did when I dated Sean. Another thing, I could go back to reading my romance novels, the kind of romance which doesn't disappoint us in the end.

*Kim Franklin*

  'To Ash,

  After what I said to Jonah last night, I don't think I could ever talk to him again. It's so weird having a problem in my love life. Everything has gone perfect in the past. I had boyfriends, but when we split up, it never hurt too much. They were never a disaster.

  Maybe it was because I didn't let myself like them too much. I was almost philophobic. I never let myself fall in love because it's just too complicated for me to handle. For now, I just let myself have fun. I flirt but I never let myelf fall.

  Of course, I'm not in love now, that's just stupid. But this is a big crush I have right now and I will have to do something about it.

  It's the summer holidays in a week, time away from him will probably sort out my problem. Wish me luck for the summer.

  Love Kim x'

*Flo Cassidy*

  'I woke up the day after the party to a doorbell ringing. Norah was not in her bedroom so she was obviously going to answer the door. Kim was still asleep, so I got up and stretched my legs a little bit.

  As I walked around Norah's tidy bedroom, I examined everything on her shelves. One thing that caught my eye was a little notebook which had "Phobias" written in big letters across the front. Maybe Norah had written about philophobia?

  Out of curiosity, I pulled out the notebook and flicked through the pages to search for the word and see her notes on it. I finally found it and read what was on the page.

  "Philophobia could be caused by past experiences in relationships or other people's relationships. Philophobia is similar to Acrophobia (Fear of heights). It's not necessarily the height that scares people, it's falling. With Philophobia, it's not the actual love people fear, it's getting hurt from it. Everyone has a little bit of Philophobia in them because everyone is scared of rejection."

  This could be great to put in my book and that is just what I have done. But also decided that I would not enter my novel into the competition. It didn't seem worthy. I may have lost a camera, but I didn't need one.

  I don't know what did it, but I suddenly remembered I was with Niall now. It was at that moment I realised I was being very philophobic. Niall understands, he promised me the night before he would cure it. He is already halfway there.

  THE END

(Phew, glad that's over. Sorry for the dreadful ending, that's just how it is. I am trying to improve them. Haha you can hear the enthusiasm! This is quite short... No, I didn't make it short because I wasn't enjoying myself. I planned this story at the beginning and I have been sticking at the plan all the way through. It just so happened to be very short. Anyway, thank you for reading this quite short story!)

MirlyMe :)