the favor (A Harry Styles fanfic)

3/ photo booth

Mandy's POV:

I don't like dogs. At all.

I don't hate dogs, but I'm not a fan of them, either. They smell, they slobber, and they jump and scratch. Whomever claimed "a dog is a man's best-friend" clearly does not realize that a dog will lick your lips after cleaning his butthole and/or slurping out of a toilet bowl.

So as Crissy is standing in front of me with her clipboard, asking me to watch her poodle next Tuesday while she goes on an interview for an internship, I can't help but squirm.

"I'm not a big fan of the canine population." I murmur at the ground, avoiding her always radiant gaze. She always seems to have a smile on her face, and I hate to deny her the invitation and be the one to take away that joy.

"Don't worry, either am I. I hate dogs, but I don't have much of a choice. It's my parents. I'm supposed to be watching it while they're in Barbados for their anniversary, but I can't watch the darn thing while I'm at an interview. So would you mind watching him? He's old. They adopted him a few months ago, and he's really old. He doesn't do anything. He just sits there and sleeps. All you have to do is make sure that he eats and that he goes outside at least once to do his business. And you don't have to clean it up, I'll do it when I get back. I would pay you, and who knows? I need a younger sister to elect. I'm leaving next semester to go live in an apartment with a friend, and I need someone to take my room."

"You'd give me your room?" I am all wide eyes and shaky knees as I gawk up at her. Is she serious? That's the best room in the house. It has it's own bathroom... Why me?

"Well, it's not free. You'd obviously have to pay your dues like every other sister in the sorority, as well as rent for living in the house. And I'm telling you, it's not cheap. You'd be living on your own and you couldn't split the cost for the room like you would if you shared a room with someone. And I can't promise you the room, but you'd definitely have a good shot at getting it. I've seen you working over these past couple of weeks, and yeah, you're quiet, but you seem to be a hard worker. Majoring in chemistry is not easy, and yet you can still get all your school work done while still having time for us. You seem very committed to Alpha Kappa Phi, and I'd be happy to be your big sister. I was quite pleased with your work at the car wash. You seemed to be really starting to enjoying yourself." I nod, not being able to stop the smile on my lips.

Two weeks ago, we had hosted a car wash for a children's hospital located just outside of LA. I was in charge of rinsing off the cars after they had been washed. I was afraid of wearing a bathing suit, merely because I'm not exactly curvy, and having people seeing the outline of my ribs didn't sound very appealing to me, so I wore a bikini underneath my clothes. But after having my only pair of Chucks completely soaked, and my Grateful Dead shirt drenched, I decided to just take everything off and let go. The girls seemed to enjoy that, cheering me for my sacrifice, and took me out for drinks afterwards to celebrate.

After a few rounds of Passion Fruit Mojitos, I was finally able to talk to everyone and really get close to some of the girls. They weren't as bad as I had thought, and we spent the whole night gossiping about attractive professors and who was screwing who.

Who knew that with a little help from some fruity flavored juice and white rum, that I would be able to have so much fun? I found myself finally not caring what people thought of me, and I actually had fun.

And clearly after Crissy's offer, it has paid off.

"I guess I could. Did you really like having drinks with me?"

"Yeah, Mandy. You were adorable. I never thought I would see the day when you would have bar food and liquor. I see excellent potential in you. You're just like me when I was a pledge, all quiet and shy. But once you learned to let loose, you were a lot of fun. The girls really like you, and so do I." I feel my cheeks flush at the compliment.