How can I get over my fear?

So let me give you the “tragic backstory” and why I’m very reserved with dating.

Back in middle school I had gotten up the courage to ask a girl to a dance. What I didn’t know was she was a psychopath and wanted nothing to do with me. She verbally attacked me by spreading rumors about me saying I was stalking her and spying on her while she was changing, and all kinds of crap. When I tried to ask a different girl to the dance, the first girl started sending me death threats.

We got the whole thing sorted out and she moved away at the end of that year. But ever since I never wanted to approach anyone. This was in 7th grade. I never went to the dance nor any other dances. But ever since I didn’t have much luck. One girl knew I liked her and played with my emotions before asking me out in public as a joke, another girl actually agreed to go to homecoming with me my sophomore year and never showed up for our day date, and one other girl only wanted to go to prom with me because she had no other options, according to one of her friends. There’s also just a bunch of other “tragic” stories of failed attempts, but it’s whatever.

This was all in high school almost three years ago. I’m 20 now, and have been in college for 2 and a half years. I thought the best part about going to college would be it’s a new school, with no one from my high school going there so I’d have a fresh start. But every time I got the courage to talk to a girl from my class, something would just hold me back. I did “go out” with one girl, but it was 100% under the context of us working on a project together (and later I found out she had a boyfriend, so it was 100% just two classmates working on a project together), and that’s the most luck I’ve had.

It’s not like I CAN’T talk to girls. I can. In high school I had a lot of friends who were girls, and I have a strong friendly relationship with a girl from work (she’s a few years older than me and married but super fun). Hell, I’ve even had girls over at my house for one of the rare parties I hosted. And, two summers ago two girls came over to my house to help me with something. I was making a video game (I had been working on it years) and they agreed to be voice actors for it. Earlier that summer I had surgery on my foot from a sporting injury, and a month into recovery my two friends came over while my parents were out (both the girls knew they would be alone with me and my parents knew they were coming that day), and we spent the day recording our lines for the game I was making.

But when it comes to a romantic sense, I can’t. I can’t do it. I just don’t want to go through what I went through years ago. Is there a way to overcome this or am I just stuck this way forever?