Curing a Phobia (chapter one)
Curing a Phobia
Chapter One: Dandruff of a Wimp
“Alligator teeth, for sure!” Giggles laughed with an ecstatic look written on her face. Flaky heard herself yelp before she could even think of the thought. Sharp teeth crammed into her jaw? That’s an accident waiting to happen! What if she bit her tongue? It would be no more!
“Really? Cause I would love shark teeth,” Petunia added in her own answer. That was even worse, it felt like…! Losing teeth constantly, biting the cheek. If she drew blood with sharp teeth, would she want to eat others? Would sharks be considered cannibals? Not to mention if she died, they would only see the teeth! She learned it from wondering if shark week was a week to worry about sharks, so she did extensive research and regretted it.
The two were in the middle of a game of Would You Rather. Flaky, hearing both options, couldn’t help but overanalyze every option until the two grew bored and changed to the next round. They tried their best to include Flaky, but perhaps their choices were too much for her. Still, they offered sympathetic smiles to her, as they did every time she discussed the options.
“What about you, Flaky?” Giggles wondered. The porcupine felt her quills slant down. She grew worried and wondered if they would fall off.
“U-um…” she spoke up. Her mind raced like rapid waters and it felt as if her throat was being grabbed by two hands destined to end her life. “I-... it… um… does it have to… be just either…? I… I would like, um… bird teeth.” Giggles sighed with an eye roll.
“Birds don’t have teeth,” Petunia oh so helpfully pointed out.
“I-I know! I know that… let me just… think…”
“Flaky, it’s just two options…!” the chipmunk had tried to patiently tease but it came off a bit abrasive. “Alligator or shark?”
“N-neither…!”
They both groaned.
“Flaky, we’re really trying, really…” Petunia softly spoke. Feeling guilty, Flaky looked down. The skunk, sharing the reaction, huffed and took Flaky’s hand. “I didn’t mean it like that…”
“I-I know…” she nodded softly. Lammy waltz over with a few sandwiches and cups of tea.
“Aww is everything alright?”
“Yeah…” Giggles looked at her friend with a smile she mustered up quickly. “Thanks.”
“It’s just… you’re scared of so much and we don’t even know what the things are most of the time, or even the reasonings.”
“I-I wish I knew too,” Flaky rubbed her arm.
“Well we DO know some things,” Petunia said outloud. “Spiders, snakes, baby chickens.”
“Waterslides, ponds, airplanes,” Giggles continued, counting her fingers. “Is there anything you’re scared of most?”
The quilled friend tugged at one of her spikes, some dandruff falling to the floor beneath her. She gulped her dry mouth. “... Flippy…”
This got the two to nod understandingly.
“Okay that one I see,” she agreed. “But… Flippy’s a pretty nice guy…! Honest…!”
“Yeah! He loves playing games with us…!”
“N-no!” she shouted. “H-he’s a monster…! He’s hurt so many…!”
“Flaky! He’s not a monster…!” the pink one chastised. “We don’t and won’t know what he’s been through, but he’s a friend of ours, like you are to us…!”
“Besides,” the skunk shrugged, picking up her tea. “He’s neat, that’s a good thing to have in a friend.”
“And loves to laugh!”
“He’s scary to me…” Flaky’s eyes downcasted south again. The two could only share glances, wondering what isn’t scary to her.
“Pass him, pass him!” Toothy screamed.
“No, don’t even! Don’t you dare, I swear!” Cuddles reacted with intensity. Flippy grinned as he propped himself on his knees, controller in hands. He accelerated his character in the digital car, hugging the wall of the track. “I’m gonna make it! I’m gonna make it!”
But before his own character could fly over the checkered line, Flippy’s car flew right by, gaining speed from drift points. “NOOOOOOO!!!”
Defeated, Cuddles dramatically flung himself to the carpet. “Curse you! Curse you all to hell!”
“Ha! ‘The veteran isn’t that good at video games’, hm?” Flippy beamed with pride. Toothy bowed to Flippy on his knees.
“Ye are worthy! We are not! Ye are worthy! We are not!” he chanted. This caused Flippy to snort and erupt into laughter. Cuddles merely groaned on the floor.
“My highscore… My life… ruined!”
“Oh come on, it’s just a game.”
“It’s my livelihood!”
“Trust me, it isn’t.”
Flippy helped the dramatic rabbit up and then stood up himself. “Come on, I’ll let you beat me next time. For now, let’s get something to eat. I’m starving.”
“Let me!?” Cuddles feigned shock and offensiveness.
“Ooohoo! He got you!” Toothy grinned like a maniac, holding Flippy’s shoulders. “Now fetch something for the king.”
“Stahahap…!” Flippy snickered. “Let’s all just grab something out. My treat.”
“... you serious?” Cuddles lost his pridelessness for a few seconds to see if he heard that right.
“Yeah, I’ll even let you pick the-”
“Hell yeah!” he bounced back to life. “We’re going to Guppy Grub!”
With shared smiles, Toothy put the game on pause and followed Cuddles and Flippy outside.
“You sure you wanna pay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I don’t mind,” he shrugged. “Besides, I’m caught up with bills and groceries, so unless there’s a robbery, I think I’ll be alright.”
“Ya heard the man!” the bunny concluded.
Walking down the icy sidewalk, Flippy looked up at the sky, getting lost in the snow falling down and grabbing at his fur ever so gently. It was winder and while regular bears hibernate, he didn’t need to. Just on some days, he was lethargic and would pass out anywhere when the weather got cool. He once found himself in the hospital because he passed out at the top of stairs. The doctors remarked how he only got a broken arm from his body basically ragdolling down seven stories.
“Are you feeling tired?” Toothy decided to ask. Flippy broke out from his trance.
“Oh no, not today,” he shook his head. “Yesterday I caught up on sleep when you guys wanted to invite me over.”
“Probably for the best,” the bucktoothed friend looked at the eager rabbit. “Knowing Cuddles, he would draw a mustache on you.”
“I would not!” he defended quickly. “I would put you in the Ancenstor Fellow pose they always do.” Thinking about the though, he sniggered and trotted right next to the bear.
“Yeah, I feel like you would.” Flippy’s eyes went back up to the sky.
He was glad he wasn’t too tired. Winter was his favorite season. Everything was clean and beautiful and the snow falling was so hypnotic. He would watch it for hours while snuggled in his bed out the window. Admiring it while it made piles against the glass along with his thick fur made him tired and thinking about that feeling nearly got him stumbling.
“Woah!” the beaver caught his arm. “You alright?”
“I think it’s too slick for him,” Cuddles grabbed his other arm. But as if on cue, his wasn’t looking where he was going and felt his feet slide out from under him. A slanted sidewalk due to the incompetence of a certain blue moose and the ice made Cuddles fall into the powdery snow. Since he was clutching to Flippy’s arm already, he brought him and Toothy down.
“Pfft you wihihing nut!” Toothy clamped some snow and pushed it into his face. “Was that on purpose!?”
“I sweahahar it wasn’t!”
“Suuuuure sure, yeah I’ll remember that, garuntee!” he looked back at Flippy. “You alright?”
“Yes yes, I am,” he nodded, sitting up. “Just lost my thought for a second.”
“You sure? You aren’t tired?”
“Nah,” he shook his head, taking off some snow in the process. “... winter is beautiful.”
“It is,” the beaver smiled in agreement.
“I think the only person who would hate winter is Flaky. She always feared icicles.”
Cuddles looked at Flippy and Toothy for backup, but he saw Flippy looking a little saddened.
“... now you’ve done it,” the freckles beaver glared. “Flippy?”
“... just… thinking,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “... I wish I could get along with Flaky. She really seems nice.”
“Hey, it’s her loss man, you’re awesome!” Cuddles pointed out as he poked his arm. His jacket was noticeably more plush due to his fur thickening.
“No no, I… I think she’s just… scared of me,” he admitted. “Every time I’m around, she cowers or just hides. I… I think I’m doing something wrong, but I don’t really know what.”
The two best friends were silent now. They didn’t know what to say since… it was true. Flaky avoided Flippy like the plague. It kind of made sense, though. He was in the war, moving to this town right after deployment for unknown reasons. And there were his… episodes. He became a whole different person. Flippy was kind, clumsy, goofy, this other him was… not. He had the most menacing yellow eyes and a predatorial pair of teeth. It scared everyone, yes, but they knew Flippy wasn’t this monster. Well… almost everyone. “... I think I’m a monster to her…”
“That’s not true…!” Cuddles argued. “When I first came here, man, she was TERRIFIED! Just because I skateboard all around! She was scared of getting run over!”
“She didn’t like how big my tail was,” Toothy offered any comfort he could.
“Well it’s fake, anybody would be sca-ow!!” Toothy threw another pile of snow at the rabbit, then looked at Flippy.
“Point is… Flaky isn’t really a people person, but she’ll adjust…! It may take longer with you because she’s never been… to w-a-r,” he spelled out slowly as to not panic the already saddened bear. “But… she will. You’re really an awesome guy.”
This made him smile at him, give a nod and breathe in and out slowly.
“Thanks… I appreciate it…”
“Yeah, of course!”
“Can we go now? I’m freezing my butt off and I’m hungry…!”
They all stood back up, walking to Russell’s restaurant. Flippy was smiling, happy to have had that talk, but Cuddles and Toothy? They themselves were now the ones lost in thought.