I don't want to confess this but I have a big fear of balloons. It's a common thing for balloons to be around. It's also common for people to be scared of balloons popping. But it's not just that for me. I'm fine with a deflated balloon but inflated is a different story. It's because of the sound of it expanding. It's so scary. I have anxiety even thinking about it. The first time I encountered the fear was at my little sister's third birthday. My best friend, Noah, was there. Like my mom, Kate, my sister, loves horror. I hate it. I get scared really easily. 

Noah and I seen IT with Jim Carrey last night as a sleepover thing. Noah noticed I was a bit nervous. He looks at me and says, "You should take a walk. I'll watch the kids."

 I decided to consider what Noah suggested and said, "Thanks, Noah."

I go inside my house and head to the bathroom. I splash my face a few time. "It's just a movie," I kept telling myself.

Kate had the fear of clowns after this incident. I took a small wall sound the front yard and seen a white van arrive. The kind of white van that gives you those types of creepy vibes with someone not good. I immediately go inside and head outback to tell my mom. She says, "I hired him. I want to see if Kate likes clowns or not."

 "If she gets scared, we're getting rid of IT. Book and movie, Mom," I said.

 "Deal," she agreed.

The clown came from behind me and yelled, "Hello!"

 That made me jump scared. Noah giggled a bit. I noticed the clown had a box. Kate looked curious. The clown comes around and says, "Where's the birthday girl?"

 Kate hesitantly stands up and says, "That's me."

 Please, don't hurt her, I thought.

The clown doesn't move toward her but he says, "Let's do a trick."

 He gets on the table we use for a stage. Then to be funny he falls off the table. The kids laughed. Noah came next to me as he chuckled, "Who is this guy?"

 "Beats me," I replied uneasy. "I just hope he doesn't scare Kate."

 He jumps back on the stage and the kids for some reason clap. What he does next kinda freaked me out. He grabs a balloon that looked long. He starts blowing with his mouth. He takes very deep breaths as if his soul was leaving. I turned away immediately. I peek again with the balloon growing. I started to breath heavily and cry a bit. My mom looks at me and asks, "Are you okay?"

"What's wrong, Andy?" Noah asked.

"I don't like the clown blowing the b-balloon," I whined.

"Do you not like balloons, Andrew?" Noah questioned.

"Shush," I said.

The sound of the clown making shapes of something is horrible. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Ugh. It's horrible. It makes me squirm do much.

When he was finished the kids looked excited. Next thing you know, Kate raises her hand and asks, "Can you make a balloon crown?"

 He freezes and looks at her creepily. "Why of course, Kate."

Oh no, I thought. "I don't think we should trust him, Mom," I whispered.

 "Let's wait," Mom said.

 He blows two long balloons. When he tried to connect one side to the other, one of the balloons popped. The sound of a balloon popping was like a gunshot, making me scream. The kids ran inside Kate ran to Mom crying. I held Kate as well. "It's okay," I said. "I know. That was scary wasn't it."

 I hold her and wipe her tears. My mom confirmed that no clowns were allowed.