CHAPTER ONE:

My Fear

My name is Lira Treviso. I'm a Junior at Livonion Prepatory School. And I have an interesting problem.

I have a phobia, well, it's not a complete phobia, but it doesn't have a real name. It should though, I mean considering there is a phobia for just about everything. There's a phobia for beautiful women called Venustraphobia. And there's the phobia of men called Androphobia.

So have you got a clue yet what really freaks me out?

Beautiful men.

Like the type of beautiful where they could probably dress up as a woman and be just as incredibly good looking. Not the masculine, manly, I-pump-the-iron-seven-days-a-week type of man. No, the beautiful man. The type with smooth, clear skin, silky hair, and a lean, but not too thin body. He dresses well and wears just the right cologne. Girls swoon over him and plaster their binders with his pictures while other guys complain that he looks like a girl. He's just enough man with just enough doses of feminine beauty to create a concoction known as the beautiful man.

And that is the very thing that I fear.

So I've created my own name for that phobia. I call it Vandrophobia. Yeah.

I don't know how this fear developed. I don't get it. Yet, whenever I see a pretty boy I can only stare – not in admiration or in awe, but the same way you keep staring at something freaky and somehow can't make your head turn away. Then I go through stages of feelings.

First, I get freaked out. Freaked out that there is in fact a beautiful man in front of me. I stare until he catches me and looks at me oddly. I proceed to freak out more because the guy is probably thinking I'm interested in him when it's the complete opposite.

Next, I get hypnotized. I just can't stop staring! It's almost as if I'm trying to figure out the secret trigger that makes the boy so pretty. Is it the eyes? The hair? Nose? Mouth? What is it? And then I stare so long that I move onto the third stage.

Which is digust. I get digusted. I can't stand the beautiful man. Not only does he scare me, but he disgusts me for some reason. I become repulsed by his every action, while fascinated at the same time. Simply put, he's scaring the living daylights out of me while drawing me in even more.

And finally I combust. I can't take it anymore and I run away. It's the only way to feel normal again.

So there you have it. My phobia.

I am scared of beautiful men. Also known as pretty boys.

Luckily there aren't very many in the world, but when I arrive at school the next day, a very pretty boy is in my class for some reason. I learn he has just transferred in from Asia and he even has bleached blonde hair. I mean bleached. It looks almost a little white. But you know what? It works for him. Why? Because he's pretty. And I'm supposed to sit next to him.

Help me.