Bring It, Bitch ➳ Harry Styles {completed and editing}

Chapter 26: The Truth Hurts

Rayla's POV

"So you guys watched porn together?" Claire's eyes were as wide as saucers as I recounted what had happened yesterday. We were sitting on my bed, facing each other with our legs crossed.

"Yeah," I blushed, biting my lip. I had purposely left out the part where Harry had taught me how to touch myself, because that was just way too awkward to tell her about.

"Was it like...weird or anything? I mean, it's not like you guys are super close or anything so..."

"It was awkward," I admitted, playing with the edge of my bedspread. "But I got through it. Now I only have three more tasks and I win."

"I can't believe you've actually done all these things. It's totally not like you," Claire remarked, picking at her nails.

"I know but...I kind of like it. I feel different, like brand new."

"Brand new?"

"Yeah. I feel like a whole new Rayla, one that's not afraid to take chances."

"I suppose that's one upside to this bet."

"That's not the only upside," I conceded, smiling to myself. "I think I've found a friend in Harry."

"A friend? You still don't see it, do you?" Claire's voice was a little condescending as she shook her head. "He obviously likes you as more than a friend."

I was silent for bit before I parted my lips. "I know," I said quietly.

"You know? Then how come you've been denying it all those times that I've told you?"

"Because I didn't want to believe it. I know he likes me as more than a friend, I have ever since that party we went to together when he took me away from Zayn and tucked me in to bed. But I want to be friends with him. I feel like dating him would just bring the drama and baggage that he carries around and I don't want any of that attaching itself to me."

"Baggage and drama? You mean like Lindsey Harrison wanting to claw your eyes out with her hot pink acrylic nails?"

"Yes, and-and just the fact that he's slept with so many girls. I don't know, I guess I'd always be wondering if I was just another one of those girls that he shags then leaves."

"That's a pretty big and serious worry, you know," Claire said uneasily, picking at her fingernails. "But he clearly likes you."

I shook my head slowly. "He can like me all he wants. But I still think it would be best if we just stayed friends."

"Are you sure? I mean, you guys make a really cute couple. Even Louis thinks so."

"We're friends," I insisted, fiddling with my phone that lay beside me. I hit the power button and the screen lit up, making me smile. My background was a picture of Harry and I, a selfie I had taken several weeks ago. It was a picture of me smiling in the corner and Harry in the background holding up a roll of toilet paper with a shit-eating grin on his face.

I looked up from my phone to see Claire was studying me. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You're looking at me funny."

"You're smiling at a picture of you and Harry."

"And?"

"I told you it was nothing."

I let the subject drop, pressing my lips together as I turned my phone off. "Harry and I are just friends," I repeated, though it sounded more like I was trying to convince myself rather than Claire.

That's all Harry was to me after all, right? Granted, he had seen me naked and we had watched porn together (a memory that will forever traumatize me) but friends could do all that and still be friends, right? The feelings I had for Harry were purely amicable. I no longer hated him like I used to, in fact I actually really liked him.

He showed me a side that he probably didn't show a lot of other people. He could be caring. He could also be sweet and attentive. Yes, he was vulgar at times, but perhaps that was just me being, dare I say it? Uptight. Perhaps Harry had been right. Perhaps I had been uptight and a goody-two-shoes.

But I had broken out of that shell and done things that I would have never even thought of doing before. I had Harry to thank for that, and it's something I'll always be thankful for.

"Harry and I are just friends," I said again, more firmly this time. "I honestly can't imagine liking him in any other way."

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That last sentence killed me a little bit :'( That awkward moment when you ship your own charaters so hard #authorproblems

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Lots of love and a Horan Hug,

-Bliss xx