ANTONY’S GUIDE TO BREAKING UP Page 1

I remember when Antonia and I first fell in love. I fell over her books at school and everyone laughed – but Antonia didn’t. She picked me up and dusted me off. And that’s how our love started.

We’d been dating for around six months when it all started turning bad. She liked my haircut so much she wanted to copy it, she liked my habit of chewing my lip and even liked wearing my shoes. She loved everything about me so much that sometimes I thought she wanted to BE me! It was starting to freak me out.

And then I cooled it down and we hardly saw each other for the next few weeks. Ok, so I was avoiding her, but I was sick of hitting my head against a brick wall. We were in each other’s pockets all the time.

In the end I had to leave town. You know, when you just can’t handle another minute of it?

So I jumped on my bike and said goodbye to everyone and never turned back… well, maybe just once.

Why do you fall out of love?

There can be lots of reasons why a relationship doesn’t work. Everyone has different personalities and we’re attracted to a certain personality – but then there can be personality clashes. Like when Violet wears pink and red. That’s a big personality clash.

Sometimes the person you’re with just drives you absolutely up the wall. Everything they say or do makes you mad. You stay in the relationship hoping things will get better but instead you get all messed up inside and start feeling as bitter as a lemon.

Then there are people that get in the way of your relationship. It might be a friend that doesn’t want you to be together or it might be in-laws that do everything in their power to cause trouble. It could even be a poltergeist that starts messing with your feelings. Sophie really liked me and I knew she was getting madder and madder at Antonia. She just couldn’t keep her poltergeist under control.

But whatever it is – you just know in your heart that it’s not right. So then you have to do something about it.