The Reinvention of Harry Styles

“Hey, it’s actually going to be a bit more than a few days, so I guess I’ll just use up the rest of my vacation time, and then take some unpaid time off once that’s through,” Daisy bit her lip as she thought of what else to say in her voicemail. “Would you mind canceling the doctor’s appointment I had for Tuesday? The number should be on my desk, thanks! I miss you!”

***

The morning of ‘Two Ghosts’s release as a single, Harry and Daisy sat outside with their guitars, ready to film a video of them playing the song. Molly, Jeff, and a couple others were present as well, and they set up the camera to record them.

“Do we have to be outside? The sun is in my eyes,” Harry complained and squinted.

“I have your sunglasses if you want.” Molly pulled his sunglasses out of her purse and handed them to Harry.

“Thanks, mum,” he said sarcastically as he put them on.

“Did you just call me mom?” Molly turned back to face him and didn’t know if she should laugh or be offended.

“I’m joking.” He laughed, and Daisy snickered.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Jeff announced, and they hit record.

“Hi, I’m Harry Styles, and this is my new friend Daisy.” He pointed at her and smiled.

“Hi!” She waved.

“And this, is ‘Two Ghosts’.” With that, they both started playing. It was clear Daisy was a bit better at guitar than Harry, so she took the melody while he backed her up. Yet when they started singing together, Daisy harmonized with Harry perfectly. Their chemistry was almost palpable, and by the end of the song, all Molly could think was ‘get a room’.

“‘Two Ghosts’ is out today as a single, so check it out.” Harry smiled as they ended the video. “How was that?” He asked, and everyone said they were fantastic. However, he looked specifically at Molly, since he knew she would give him an honest answer.

“You two sound perfect together.” She smiled at him, and Harry sighed in relief.

“Good, we don’t have to do it again. There was a bee buzzing around my head, I was worried it was going to sting me.” He swatted away the bee as it returned.

“Well, you know, bees are attracted to flowers, and I’m a daisy,” Daisy joked, and Harry nearly fell over in peels of laughter.

“I don’t blame him, it’s not hard to be attracted to you,” he said quietly with a smirk.

Molly rolled her eyes and left to sit in the car to wait for them. Someone in Harry’s PR team was editing the video to put on his youtube channel, instagram, twitter, facebook, and anywhere else they could think of. “This was a great idea, you know,” they said to Molly. “People are going to love this! I can only imagine the ship name they’ll come up with. No doubt there will be fanfiction up by tomorrow!” They laughed and left Molly on her own with her stormy thoughts. Surely they forgot that she was his ‘girlfriend’, right?

Regardless, they were right. ‘Haisy’ was trending on twitter by that evening, and Molly dared to check her old fanfiction accounts for anything on the two. Sure enough, there were dozens of new fics about Harry and Daisy. ‘It worked’ she sighed, since they were hoping to bring him some more publicity to promote his single. She just didn’t realize how well it would work, or how much it would hurt.

Being Harry’s ‘girlfriend’ over the past month, Molly was used to filling the spot Daisy now occupied. Her role as the ‘friends with benefits fake girlfriend’ in Harry’s life was even more ambiguous now, and she tried to just focus on the one thing she’d come here to do: fix Harry’s image. Yet in doing so, she was inadvertently making herself redundant.

As usual, Harry tried not to pay attention to fan reactions, and Molly relayed him the important/interesting parts at breakfast. However, the next morning he seemed to be ahead of her.

“They’re calling us ‘Haisy’ isn’t that cute?” He sat down across from Molly and grabbed some coffee.

“Sounds like ‘hazy’ as in, hot, humid, and hazy,” Molly commented. “Like the weather we’re having right now.”

“We’ll be in New York soon, for our next secret show, so maybe it won’t be so hot and humid, though it’ll certainly be hazy,” he added with a wink and Molly wanted to roll her eyes. “What’s gotten into you? Are you jealous of our ship name? Because we can come up with one for us if you want,” Harry offered, and Molly was shocked that he remembered they were supposed to be an ‘us’.

“Shipping is usually left to the fans, and since the fans don’t know we’re ‘dating,’ I don’t see us getting a ship name.”

“It’s easy, we could be ‘Holly’ or ‘Marry’,” Harry suggested.

“Uh uh, nope. Don’t even say that word around me.” Molly held up her index finger and wagged it at him.

“What, marry?” He cocked his head.

“I signed up to be your fake girlfriend, and that’s it. I don’t want you getting any ideas, even if it is just a silly nickname.” Molly tried to sound stern, but Harry could not take her seriously.

“Okay, we can be Holly,” he offered.

“How about, we’re just ‘Harry and Molly who pretend to date, unless Daisy is around and then Molly is invisible’. How’s that?” Molly didn’t mean to sound so passive aggressive, but she was not in a good mood this morning.

Harry raised his eyebrows, still not taking her seriously. “Molly Winthrope, are you jealous of her?”

“Maybe I’m jealous of you, and not Daisy, did you ever think of that, Styles?” Molly winked and stood up from the table with her empty plate.

Harry nearly dropped his fork as he sat at the table, mouth wide open. “Wait, what? You’re into Daisy?!”

Molly tried to keep a straight face as she watched this spectacle. “No.” She finally burst out laughing. “But not everything is about you, Harry, keep that in mind.” With that, she left and the two didn’t discuss the subject any further.



When they landed in New York a couple days later, Harry expected Molly to find an excuse to visit her parents again, like she had last time, considering how distant she had been with him the past few days. Yet, she got right on the elevator with him and rode up to ‘their’ room together without any indication that she would be leaving. She sat on the bed and bounced a few times to test its comfortableness.

“This is a nice bed.” She fell back and laid there for a moment until Harry joined her.

“So, are going to stay with your parents like last time?” He asked.

“Nah, this bed is too soft, I’m not going anywhere.” Molly smiled, and turned her head toward Harry on her right. “Besides, Jeff would get suspicious.”

“Makes sense you’d want to see your parents, though, doesn’t it?” He asked, turning to his left see her.

“My mom and I are getting lunch tomorrow, since she’ll be in the city anyway looking for an apartment.” Molly returned her eyes to the ceiling and felt Harry shift on the bed.

“Are they moving into the city?” He leaned up on one elbow and looked at her.

She shook her head. “No, just my mom.”

“Oh.” Harry laid down again. He’d been through his before, he knew what it meant, and realized maybe that’s why Molly’d gone off at the mention of the word ‘marry’. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Molly sat up suddenly. “Harry, I told you a week ago they were getting a divorce. Guess you forgot.” Molly slid off the bed and grabbed her purse.

“Sorry, I don’t rememb- wait, where are you going?” He sat up and watched her head to the door.

“Out.”

Harry stared at the door as it shut behind her and sat for a moment as he tried to figure out what the heck had just happened.

‘Is she mad at me? Yes, she’s definitely mad at me. Should I go after her?’ He stood up and moved toward the door, but stopped. ‘No, she probably wants to be alone.’ He remained stationary as his brain seemed to spin with thoughts, yet kept coming up blank. He found his feet carrying him to the door, and ran into the hall in time to see the elevator door close behind Molly.

‘Shit, Harry, you couldn’t have acted a little quicker?' He chastised himself and slammed the down arrow at the elevators several times.

Molly stepped off the elevator and through the crowded hotel lobby without anyone taking notice, because why would they? She’s just Molly. She stood in front of the hotel for a moment and took a deep breath. ‘Still hot and humid, and yup, still hazy,’ she rolled her eyes and had just hailed a cab when she felt a hand slip around her waist.

“Hey,” he said, and Molly looked up. Of course it was Harry; like a puppy he had followed her out here, so she grabbed him and pulled him into the cab with her before anyone saw him.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone.” She looked around, and so far no one seemed to be paying any attention.

“I’m not alone, you’re here.” He half smiled, but it disappeared quickly. “I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been a little distracted…”

Molly closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “It’s okay, it’s not your job keep track of my personal life.”

“I know, but I could at least try? I’m your fake boyfriend, your friend with benefits, or whatever. I could at least try to be a friend.” He tried smiling again, and this time it stuck.

“Do you guys just want to chat, or are we going somewhere?” The cab driver looked back at them.

“Where were you going?” Harry whispered to Molly, and she shrugged.

“I just want some alcohol, and to forget everything for a moment. Maybe a club?” She replied.

Harry looked her over. “In that outfit? No, luv, sorry. But, the hotel has alcohol, why don’t we just stay in?”

Molly sighed, and shrugged. “Okay.” She didn’t really want to change her clothes, or deal with other drunk people out clubbing, and Harry was as good enough person to get drunk with as any.

“Can you just take us around the back of the hotel?” He instructed the cab driver.

Once they returned to their room, Harry and Molly did not hesitate to raid the mini bar. Molly changed into her pajamas and let her hair down before settling in on the bed next to Harry as he flipped through the channels to find something to watch on tv.

“Should we just search romantic comedies on Netflix and see what we find?” Molly laughed, and this time, it was Harry’s turn to roll his eyes.

“That again?” He joked. “I can if you want…”

“No, let’s not have this become ‘Netflix and chill’.” Molly shook her head.

“As you wish.” Harry continued flipping channels.

“‘Princess Bride’! That’s from ‘Princess Bride’; I haven’t seen that movie in ages, can we watch it?” She turned to him.

“Well, paradoxically, it is a romantic comedy on Netflix, so we would have to-” Harry started to explain, a smile forming on his lips.

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Molly interrupted him with a laugh. “You can search Netflix for a romantic comedy.”

As Harry pulled up the movie, Molly refilled their drinks. “So, did you need to get permission from Netflix to use them in your song?”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know, someone might have.”

“It’s like we’re having an adult sleepover.” Molly smiled at Harry and handed him his drink.

“What? Adult like…?”

“It’s like the slumber parties we had as kids. You had sleepovers with your friends, right?”

“Yeah, I get it now. I just thought you meant ‘adult’ as in, ‘adult movies’ or something…”

“No, Harry.” Molly put her glass down to hit him with a pillow. “I mean we’re grown-ups. Or at least some of us are.”

“Hey, I’m older than you,” he retorted. “Right?”

“Yes, like a year, but that doesn’t make you a grown up.” Molly laughed.

It was quiet for a while as they watched their movie, slowly working their way through the second or third drink of the night. “I’m sorry I called you mum the other day.”

“It’s fine.” Molly shrugged and laughed tiredly. “I knew you were probably joking.”

“And I’m really sorry about your parents.” He added.

Molly sighed. “I think it was bound to happen. There’s been tension for years, and when I left for college they were on their own for the first time in 18 years, and didn’t know what to do with each other.”

Harry nodded, he’d been through this before. “I was much younger when my parents got divorced, but if you want to talk about it, I might not have much advice, but I’ll listen.”

“Thank you, really, I do appreciate that. It’s funny, Gemma said the same thing, and we did end up talking about it for a while.”

“You talked about it with Gemma before you talked to me?” Harry seemed insulted, but more upset with himself for not paying enough attention.

“I told you about it first, and then I went to your sister because you were, occupied elsewhere.”

Harry knew exactly what she meant by that, and he did not have a response for her.

“She’s supposed to be my pretend ‘best friend’ right? So that makes sense,” Molly continued.

“Yeah, but I’m supposed to be your pretend ‘boyfriend’, doesn’t that come before ‘best friend’?” He asked.

“Your sister and I are close, but we’re not that close.” Molly joked, and Harry just stared at her.

“What?”

“Oh, you meant ‘come’ as in ‘c-o-m-e’.” Molly grinned as Harry face-palmed.

“Jesus, Molly.” He laughed. “I don’t have a response to that.”

“Well, I suppose ‘who came first’ would depend on whether or not you’ve slept with Daisy yet, because…”

Harry shook his head. “No, I haven’t even tried, why would you think that?”

“Really Harry? You’ve been looking at her like she’s the first girl you’ve ever seen.”

Harry shrugged.

“Well, if you’re not getting any from Daisy, you know I’m always available.” Molly giggled and set her drink down before she accidentally had too much.

“Always?” He laughed.

“Really, you just have to ask. Or, you don’t even have to ask, just a look will do.” Molly smiled, and Harry couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

“I didn’t realize I was that alluring.” He joked.

“You’re Harry fucking Styles, who wouldn’t want to fuck you?”

“Um, probably lots of people. What are you getting at?” Harry realized Molly may not be joking.

“Just, that, there are hundreds, probably thousands, of girls, myself included, that would get on their knees for you if you asked.” Molly glanced at him. She was sure this was the alcohol talking, right?

“But I don’t want that,” Harry replied, and shook his head.

“Then what do you want?” Molly turned to look at him completely. She watched his green eyes search her face, as if the answer was on it.

And really, it was, and Harry tried to force himself to say the words, any words, but his mouth would not move. “I don’t know.”

Notes

This chapter is longer than I intended, but I just wrote a very sappy epilogue for my other harry fic, and needed to write some fun/witty banter between ‘Holly’

Thank you for reading, commenting, and voting! : )