The Reinvention of Harry Styles

The morning after Harry finished up his interviews for Dunkirk, he and Jeff were ready to head to the airport when Jeff got a ‘great’ idea.

“Let’s pick up Molly on the way there,” Jeff suggested to Harry. “Save her the cab fare.”

Harry's heart started beating faster and he tried to think of a way out of it. “I think her parents are going to drive her. They really miss her, I guess. She’s an only child, you know.”

“We’ve got some extra time to spare.” Jeff checked his watch. They had an extra two hours to spare, conveniently the length of the trip to Molly’s parents and back.

“I can ask her…” Harry pulled out his phone and frantically texted Molly. She was much better at coming up with these kinds of plans than he was.

M: Shit Harry this is not a good time

H: What do I say to him??

M: He’s obviously suspicious because I haven’t been around, so we’d better do it. I’ll try to get rid of my mom, my dad should be easy enough to deal with.

Harry swallowed hard. He was going to have to meet his ‘girlfriend's’ dad, and make it look real enough for his manager to believe.

Luckily for Molly, her mother was heading out to her weekly drawing class (the kind where they draw nude models) and she wouldn’t be back for a few hours. She kept going on about how nice the last model had looked, and hoped they had him again. Both Molly and her dad rolled their eyes as she left, and it was quiet for a while as the two finished breakfast.

Molly sighed. “Dad, I need to tell you something, now that mom’s not here. And you have to promise to keep it a secret, I don’t want her to know about this.”

He put down his newspaper and looked her over. “Did you get yourself knocked up at that new job of yours in London?”

“No, what?!” She shook her head. “Why do people keep thinking that? No, it is about that job in London though. I actually have a….boyfriend.”

Her father raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

Molly knew her dad had never paid attention to her One Direction obsession, beyond dishing out hundreds of dollars on concert tickets and memorabilia, so it’s very likely he doesn’t even know who Harry is. Especially with his hair shorter, it’s likely he wouldn’t recognize him from the posters she had in her bedroom in high school. “His name is Harry, and he’ll be here in 20 minutes to pick me up for the airport.”

“Oh, I actually get to meet this guy?” Her dad teased.

“Yes, and be nice to him. I have to pack, please wear something other than that robe when he’s around.” Molly left to pack her suitcase and texted Harry the details.
20 minutes later, she tapped her foot nervously as she sat in the living room with her suitcase. Her dad returned from getting dressed and motioned to his outfit. “There, no robe. I’m fully dressed for your new boyfriend.”

A car in the driveway startled Molly and she jumped out of her seat.

“I got the door.” Her dad was at the front door before Molly had a chance to interject. He opened the door and smiled broadly at his guest, and his guest’s manager. “I’m Stephen, please call me Steve.”

Molly was instantly at his side, trying to introduce Harry, and to catch his reaction. “Dad, this is my boyfriend Harry, and his, uh, friend, Jeff.”

Jeff smiled at the mention of his his name. “May I use your bathroom?” He asked, making an excuse for his presence.

“Of course, it’s just down this hallway,” Molly directed him, while trying to keep an eye on her dad and Harry. She was more nervous than she had ever been introducing a real boyfriend to her parents.

“You look a bit familiar, are you an actor?” Her dad eyed Harry closely as he tried to figure out where he might know him from.

Molly laughed loudly as she returned to them. “What? That’s ridiculous.” Harry joined her nervous laughter.

“I would be such a bad actor,” Harry agreed, and he and Molly both nodded.

“Harry has such a boring job, I couldn’t imagine him doing anything exciting like that.” Molly smiled at Harry, and he internally smirked at the irony.

“Do you two work together?” Her dad asked.

“Kind of.” Harry looked over at Molly.

“We work in the same building,” she lied, though it was partially true, in a way.

Just then, Jeff returned from the bathroom, so Molly decided it was time to leave. “It was nice seeing you, dad, say goodbye to mom for me!” She gave him a hug goodbye and grabbed her suitcase.

“It was nice meeting you Harry, hopefully you can visit again. I’m sure Deborah would love to meet you.” Stephen made eye contact with his daughter, and she knew, instantly, that he saw through their attempt at masking Harry’s identity.

“Nice to meet you too, sir, Mr. Winthrope.” Harry shook his hand before leaving, Jeff right behind them. On the ride to the airport, Jeff tried to make conversation, but Molly and Harry were too busy texting each other things they couldn’t say in front of Jeff.


***


Molly and Harry had some time off after they returned from New York before Harry had any other public appearances.

One afternoon, Molly was sitting on the couch with her laptop, typing away at the book she was ghost writing for her ‘real’ job, when her fake boyfriend walked by.

“I let you get whatever desk you want, and you decided to work on the couch?” He teased.

“Shut up, I’m having my period, this is more comfortable,” she replied, a little snappier than she’d intended.

“Oh, sorry to hear that. Do you want me to bring you some tea? Chocolate? Do you need me to pick up some tampons for you?” Harry sat down next to her.

“Wh-what?” Molly nearly dropped her computer. “No, I can get tampons on my own. Are you being sarcastic? Most guys I’ve been with get freaked out when I mention my period.” Molly assumed it was because she’s the kind of person to overshare information sometimes.

Harry shrugged. “I grew up with a mum and a sister, I know how these things are.”

“Okay, well, thanks for the offer, but I’m okay right now.” Molly tried to get back to work.

“Let me know if you need anything; sorry to hear you’re going through that right now.” He stood up to leave, but added, “Well, not too sorry, it’s good you’re on your period.”

“Ummm, I mean, I’d prefer not to have it, but okay?” Molly looked up at him, still very confused.

Now it was Harry’s turn to look confused, and maybe worried. “You’d prefer not to have it?” He knitted his brows and slowly sat back down next to her.

Molly shrugged. “I think most girls would prefer not to go through this every month, right?”

Harry was still confused. “But, the alternative would be-”

“Menopause?” Molly filled in, and Harry shook his head, and it suddenly hit Molly what he was talking about. She rolled her eyes so hard she thought they might get stuck. “Ugh, no Harry, not pregnant. I’ll take a thousand periods over that, thank you.”

He leaned back and seemed to visibly relax.

“Were you worried about that?” Molly asked, a little kinder this time.

Harry scratched his head. “Well, we didn’t exactly use a condom the first time…”

“I’m on the pill, but you’re right, we should have.”

“Normally, I would, but they’re in my room, and we didn’t get up to my room, we ended up…” Harry strummed his fingers on the couch cushion between he and Molly.

“Here.” Molly sat up and put her laptop aside. “Harry, you’re being weird about this. I’m sure you’ve hooked up with many women before, and I hope you used a condom with all of them - god I didn’t even think to ask you if you had any STD’s, fuck - but anyway, this is probably not new to you.-”

“I don’t have any STDs, for the record,” Harry interjected.

“Good to know. But why are you being weird about this?” Molly watched him, and he scratched the back of his hand for an awkwardly long amount of time.

Harry sighed. “There’s a rumor online from an ‘inside source’ that I’ve got some two year old kid, and they’re going to leak information on him in a few weeks.”

“Oh my god.” Molly sat up even more straight. “It’s not true, right? I mean, if it is, that’s fine, too, but-”

“No, it’s not. I don’t think so, at least.” Harry ran his hand through his hair. “It’s rumors like this that make me want to get a vasectomy.”

Molly giggled. “Do it, that’ll stop the rumors.”

Harry ignored her comment. “I kind of have a feeling that this ‘inside source’ is my management.”

“If it is, I will personally strangle Jeff for you. That is quite low, even for him.” Molly shook her head.

“I don’t think he would do that, it must be someone else.”

“Why would anyone on your team want that?” Molly wracked her brain for a logical reason. “To perpetuate the womanizer/ladies man/fuckboy/manwore image?”

“Were all of those synonyms necessary?” Harry chuckled self-deprecatingly.

“I could have just said ‘slut’ but that tends to have negative connotations, whereas the other terms are, I guess, less negative? More masculine, at least.”

“Are you calling me a slut?” Harry raised his eyebrows.

“If you’re a slut, I’m a slut,” Molly joked, and Harry looked even more surprised. “What? Neither of us is particularly celibate, or monogamous.”

“True.” Harry shrugged, and thought for a moment. “Anyone could claim to be an inside source, right?”

“Just ask Jeff if you’re concerned, I’m sure he’s going to want to deal with this. If it is him, you need get him to nip this in the bud. Get him to retract the statement or something. If it helps,” Molly added, “tell him I’m furious (because I am) and I don’t want to see my boyfriend’s reputation dragged through the mud for a bit of publicity. If you want I’ll even come with you and cause a scene, because I am properly fired up about this.”

“I appreciate that, and if I need you to play the angry girlfriend, I’ll let you know. For now, I think I’ll talk to him on my own, see what’s going on.” He stood up and straightened out his shirt before heading toward the door.

“Probably a good idea. Let me know how it goes,” Molly called after him, and tried to get back to work, but she was too angry. Instead, she decided to look into the rumor herself. She found it on a blog she often referenced when trying to work out Harry’s image problem, and it was exactly what Harry had described.

Then, another thought struck Molly: How did Harry come across this?

Notes

I’m not sure if any of you heard this too, but last month there was a rumor going around that soon there would be information leaked about some two year old son Harry had, the author just had to work out some legal stuff with the mother. It was (I think?) fake, and nothing came of it, as far as I know. Some people speculated it was his management who started the rumor, but I have no idea. It looked like it was supposed to go along with that “70s rockstar” image he’s purporting, but I have no idea where the rumor came from. I know after ‘Kiwi’ came out there was a lot of speculation, but this was more recent, like in August, I think. I can’t seem to find any information on this now, and googling ‘harry styles secret love child rumor’ was a really bad idea! To clarify, I have no idea if harry has any kids, nor do I want to know (none of my business).

Anyway, thank you for reading, commenting, and voting!! : )

PS. his tour has started! Did anyone go/see videos from it?