Not Afraid (Harry Styles)

Chapter Two

**Harry's POV**

I watch Kelly walk out of the door with my mouth wide open. I'm suprised; girls are usually falling at my feet. Practically begging for me to pay them even the slightest bit of attention.

But not her.

"I'm not 'most girls'" echos in my head, the phrase repeating like a broken record.

She was completely right. She was different from all of the girls I've ever talked to, dated, loved, breathed next to.

She was just.. so.. Kelly. She was fresh and new and unique and better than all of the other girls. And I knew I had to have her. I'm not about to let another girl walk out of my life, never to be seen again. She wasn't perfect, but that was the point. Her flaws were what made her interesting and unique, special. No one can be or should be perfect.

I wasn't about to let this girl, this fresh face in this big, boring city, elude me, keep me biting my finger nails and thinking about the "what if"s and the missed chances.

No.

Not again. Not like the one before.

-I didn't want to be this way. I hated being the heart breaker, the player, the boy parents warn their daughters about. I hated that this was my reputation, and I hated that I never gave anyone any reason to think of me as anything else. But most of all, I hated the one that scarred me, that broke my already aching heart. The one person that had the ability to make me this way.

There was a girl, and I loved her, really loved her. I had all the reason to; she was beautiful, she was funny, she was kind and loving and smart. To me, she was perfect. For the longest time, I was perfect in her eyes, too. But, like so many people, she got bored with perfection. This girl wanted freedom. She wanted loud music and warm alcohol and the thrill of the chase. She wanted a challenge. She wanted something new. Something fresh and fun and exciting and not the same old routine she had been the captive of for so long. She wanted to run away -far, far away- and never look back, never come back again, ever.

So she planned. She planned out when she was leaving (whenever it felt right), where she was leaving to (wherever her gut told her), how she was leaving (a borrowed car), what she was bringing (as much as she could), and how she'd tell me. That took her the longest to figure out, but she got it eventually. She decided to just not tell me, to disappear as swiftly as she had first showed up. Two weeks later, I opened up the door to the apartment we shared to find all the lights off. All of her stuff, and some of mine, (the sweatshirt that she loved, my toothpaste, a couple DVDs and the Harry Potter books), gone. The shelf in our bedroom, formerly crammed with novels and magazines and the encyclopedia of British birds we found at a thrift shop (we lovingly called it the library), now more than half empty. Our joint closet trashed; clothes and shoes and jewelry and everything else stuffed in there thrown on the floor. The fridge beeped, alerting me that it was still open. I shuffled to it, still confused. I was pushing the door closed when he saw the note stuck to the freezer with the cow magnet: "it was great, it was fun, but it got old." And thats when I sank to the floor, holding himself as my body shook with sobs and my heart tore in two. And as my heart broke, something else in me snapped, too. But I could never quite put my finger on it, never pinpoint the ache, never figure out what it was.

I didn't know how to cope with the pain. I was lost, and hurt, and confused and angry and I needed to find a way to heal my broken heart. So I started doing the logical thing, the only thing that seemed like it would help.

I started breaking hearts.-

As I walk down through the streets of "The City that Never Sleeps", Kelly's words are brought to my attention once more. "I don't do guys, in any sense of the term." What I don't understand is why. She was obviously extremely fit, mysterious, and witty. She could have any man she laid eyes on, yet she chose none. Had someone scarred her like they had me? Had someone left her questioning her decisions? Judging her worth? Had someone dumped her like me?

I was determined to answer my questions, to get her to reveal herself to me. It was all about the chase, and I had to prepare.

-Kelly's POV-

As I stride across the sidewalk into my car once more, my mind races with thoughts of Harry. He was gorgeous, funny, and exotic. The thrill of something new soared through my veins, yet my conscious fought back. I can't deny that I hadn't thought about getting a new guy. Hell, I spent half of my insomnia-filled nights pondering it. I would be lying if I told you that I never dreamed of my Mr. Right. For as long as I can remember, I've been waiting for him to swoop into my life and knock me off my feet. A man's man who knew how to treat a girl right. A man to tell me I was beautiful and a man to hold me when I cried. For a long time, I thought Dan was that guy. Obviously not. The hard thing was deciding when it was right to let a guy back into my life. It's not like I couldn't find a new one. Harry made me do a doubletake when thinking about rebooting my love life. I was ready for the love... the question was: Am I ready for the heartbreak?