Perfect | Harry Styles

Chapter Twenty Six

Harry's POV

"Where have you been?" Christa reached for my collar, but her hands missed as he stepped closer to me. She was watching me like a hawk.

"With me," Elodie answered for me, and snaked her arm around my waist. She locked me in tight despite the fact that I was way taller than her.

Christa smirked at Elodie before directing her attention back to me.

"Can we talk?" She pleaded with puppylike eyes. I almost felt sorry for her.

"I'm going to get us some drinks," Elodie pecked my cheek before stepping back. "Meet you at the booth in five?"

"Sure," I nodded my head her way and watched her until she disappeared into the sea of people.

"So that's why you won't take my calls?"

"Not exactly," I directed my attention back to Christa. "Five minutes. Outside."

Christa led the way out of the dank dive bar into the cool summery air. The stars twinkled and I wished I was out here with Elodie instead of getting ready to give Christa the infamous break up speech.

"I know that I haven't been the easiest person to get along with sometimes, but really? Elodie?" She folded her arms in defense.

I shrugged my shoulders. There wasn't an answer that I could give her that would satisfy her right now. Or maybe ever. I felt wedged in this weird limbo between the two of them that I never should have stuck myself in. Literally.

"I don't think this is going to work anymore, Christa," I twirled a piece of my hair between my fingers. I needed to cut this mane. "To be honest, I don't think it was ever fair to Elodie to begin with. Since things have changed, it wouldn't be fair to you either to keep this up."

"So this is it. You're breaking up with me?" She tried to take my hands into hers.

"I'm sorry, Christa," I unlaced my fingers from hers.

Elodie's POV

I sat in the booth with a pitcher of lager and two empty pint cups in front of me. I played around with the pretzel bites and cheese before tossing them to the side. Harry had been outside for almost 10 minutes. I shouldn't be as paranoid as I was, but I knew he was out there with Christa and who knows how she was sinking her hooks into him.

"Didn't expect to see you here tonight," a familiar voice greeted me before shifting the weight of the booth as they took a seat next to me.

"Niall!" I squeaked. "How are you?"

I leaned in for an awkward sideways hug. I hadn't seen him since that unfortunate night at the beach house.

"Good, good," he looked around. "Zayn and I decided to pop in for a bit before we head out to another function."

"Zayn's here?" I reflexively scanned the room for his face.

"Zayn's here?" A boomy voice echoed mine and Harry's eyes met with mine uncomfortably.

I snuggled in close to him as he slid in the booth. He greeted me with a tight lipped grin before tossing his arm around my shoulders. I knew he wanted to assert dominance over Zayn and I'd say he was achieving it.

"Zayn's here," Zayn declared matter of factly as he slid into the booth next to Niall.

"What's up, mate?" Harry nodded at him.

Zayn didn't answer and turned to me instead, "You alright?"

I silently nodded and gave him a tiny smile. The conversation flowed and so did the drinks. As the night went on, Zayn and Harry seemed like they were finally on the way to getting back on good terms. The dreaded feeling of having to tell Harry that I hooked up with Zayn crept up on the back of my neck as the night progressed. I didn't want to be the one to ruin the dynamic again. I swallowed my worries with another pint of beer and danced on. As the night wound down, Harry and I were in our own little world. He played in my hair, traced shapes on my skin, and whispered dirty sweet nothings in my ear the whole night. I tried not to pay attention to the puppy dog look on Zayn's face, but he seemed to be everywhere I turned. At the point that I couldn't take the guilt anymore, I asked Harry if he was ready to go back to my place. Thankfully, he was.

I kicked off my boots as soon as I walked in the door. My parents were gone again and Nat and Louis were already moved in. Harry and I had the place to ourselves, but we were honestly too drunk to make good use of it. That was probably for the better.

"Do you need any water?" Harry yelled from the kitchen as I plopped down on the sofa.

My head was pounding and the last thing I needed was him yelling and making it worse.

"I want to cut my hair," Harry stated matter-of-factly as he passed me an open bottle of water and shook two pills of aspirin out of the bottle.

I almost choked despite the fact that nothing was in my mouth yet. I didn't think I'd hear him say those words at this moment, let alone tonight. I was elated, because Harry always looked hot with his hair coiffed and short. But then again, this long hair really suited him and it made great to hold onto during certain...activities.

"Your body, your choice," I retorted back. "When are you thinking of doing it?"

"Tonight," he pulled a pair of kitchen scissors out of his pocket. "Like, right now. I want you to do it."

"You've gotta be kidding me," I sobered up a little. "First of all, we are not doing this with my kitchen scissors. Second of all, are you crazy? Do you not remember my big bang cutting fiasco of 11th grade? This isn't happening again."

"It'll be easy, trust me." he pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Come on."