The Reinvention of Harry Styles

On their last day before leaving for the next location on Harry’s tour, he and Molly just hung out at home relaxing before the upcoming hectic months

“Harry, can I ask you something?” Molly asked. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

“Okay,” Harry’s mind instantly flashed back to the ‘cupcake’ incident, and hoped her question had nothing to do with that topic.

“At the ‘Dunkirk’ premier-”

“Wow, you have been thinking about this for a while,” Harry interrupted, and relaxed a little now that he knew her question wasn’t about ‘them’ and more likely about him - or his career.

“Yes, kind of. But, at the premier, whenever someone asked if you were going to do another movie you said you were “one and done” that this might be the only film you do,” Molly paused and bit her lip as she tried to word the next half of her question. “Did you really mean that? Or did you not want people asking you when you were going to do another movie, so they would focus on the album instead.”

“Umm, yeah, kind of.” Harry tried to come up with a response to that. “There’s that, but also...I wanted to hear what people had to say about ‘Dunkirk’ first. Like, if I said I wanted to do more films, but then everyone though I was shit in ‘Dunkirk’ and I then decided not to act anymore, then it might look like I was giving up because of the negative reviews.” Harry grimaced as he realized that answer made him sound a bit shallow.

“That makes sense,” Molly nodded. “So, I guess my real question is - would you actually want to do more? Have you ‘caught the acting bug’ as they say?”

“Uhh…” Harry laughed and glanced at her. “I don’t know, it would depend on the project, but I enjoyed ‘Dunkirk’, and I would like to do something like that again. Maybe not exactly like it; I could do without all the swimming and the cold.” He gave Molly a cheeky grin, but she still looked serious. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just thinking ahead,” she started, then added: “For your career. Not, um, not like, for ‘us’ just, in terms of where you’re going next. Now that we’ve turned things around for your solo image, I think the next step is to focus on what’s next. It might be a good idea for you to consider taking a year off again to do another movie, and work on the next album. Then, when you come back you’ll have this new image more solidified, and you can match the album to that image.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Jeff too much,” Harry joked,.

“Has he made a similar suggestion?” Molly asked and raised her eyebrows.

“Not really, he just wants to know what I’m planning on doing for the next album. I think Sony wants to know because this album...hasn’t exactly done as well as planned.” Harry sighed. “The next album is going to have to do better to make up for it.”

Molly nodded. She’d seen the sales, and poor charting positions, and wondered how Sony felt about this. “So the next album is going to be a bit less ‘Harry Styles’ and a bit more ‘whatever’s going to sell well’?”

Harry shrugged. “I guess.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject,” Molly smiled apologetically.

“No, it’s fine. You’re right, we do need to start planning ahead.” Harry didn’t sound very enthusiastic about this, and Molly hoped she hadn’t hurt his feelings. He knew it was her ‘job’ to tell him this kind of thing, but it hurt so much more now hearing it from his girlfriend.

“I have a suggestion, which you might like.” Molly paused to see if she should continue, or wait until he was in a better mood. Harry looked up, and seemed interested, so she carried on. “Do you have any more songs recorded that didn’t make it onto the album?”

Harry blinked a few times as he thought. “Um, yeah, I think so. They’re not like, perfect, we’d have to work on them a bit. But yes, we definitely wrote more than 10 songs.” He had to laugh at that last bit, since they’d spent how many months working on the album?

“This is of course something you’d have to talk about with Sony and whomever else needs to be involved, but, I think you should consider releasing a ‘deluxe’ version of the album, with a few extra songs on it. Maybe some more behind the scenes stuff, too, people like that.” Molly bit her lips and waited for his reaction. “Perhaps, in December, in time for Christmas?”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “You really have been spending too much time with Jeff,” he joked, and a teasing smile started to form on his lips.

“Hey, If Jeff had these kinds of ideas, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place,” Molly laughed and returned his teasing grin.

“Well, then I’m glad I have a shitty manager, or I wouldn’t have met you,” Harry leaned in and kissed her nose.

“He’s not shitty, exactly, but you’re right.” Molly hadn’t thought about it that way, and paused as she realized the circumstances that had led to her and Harry dating. It was odd, definitely not normal, but if Harry’s solo career had taken off like they’d planned, she never would have whispered in his ear before interviewing him back in July. Okay, maybe she still would have, but she would have said something different, something that probably wouldn’t have led to this - and probably would have resulted in her being escorted from the building.
“How was your...baby sex party?” Harry asked, trying to remember what it was called.

Molly giggled. “It’s a gender reveal party. Baby sex just sounds so wrong.”

“Sorry,” Harry laughed.

“It was okay. I didn’t know anyone there besides, um, my friend who is pregnant.” Molly answered. Harry didn’t need to know it was Daisy. Not yet, at least, not if Daisy didn’t want him to know.

“So, you just like, talk about the fact that the baby is a boy or something?” Harry asked, still not sure of the point of a gender reveal party.

“No, it was just a party. We had mimosas and played a name suggesting game where you write two names - a good suggestion, and the worst suggestion you can think of.” Molly explained. “The names were drawn randomly, and we had to guess if it was one of the good name suggestions, or the bad ones. It sounds lame, but it got pretty funny.”

“Really? How so?” Harry was intrigued.

“Most people stuck to actual names, but someone submitted ‘Potato’ for their bad name suggestion,” Molly laughed.

“And what was your bad name suggestion?”

“‘Harry’ of course,” Molly teased, and he playfully hit her arm.

“Thanks.” He replied sarcastically.

“No, I actually think the name ‘Donald’ is pretty fucking terrible,” Molly bit her lips. “There were a couple of ‘Donalds’ actually…”

“I can’t disagree with you there. What about your other name suggestion?” Harry asked casually, even though he was actually quite curious.

“Niall,” Molly teased.

“Really?” Harry couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

“No, I actually said ‘Joaquin’.”

“Oh,” Harry cocked his head. “So, that’s a name that you would want to name your kid?”

“No, not really. I haven’t really thought about that too much. But, it’s a name I thought my friend would like,” Molly explained.

“And did she?”

“I think so. She didn’t pick a name for him at the party, but she seemed to like my suggestion.”

“That makes sense...she’d probably want to talk it over with her...the guy involved.” Harry wasn’t sure how to word it.

“Actually, there isn’t really a guy involved, it’s just her.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Harry looked genuinely upset, considering he didn’t know who they were talking about. “What a jerk - unless he’s passed away, I guess that would be acceptable. That would be really sad, actually.” He seemed to be very bothered by this thought, so Molly tried to change the subject.

“It was just a one night stand, I think. So, your next stop is in Nashville-”

“You’ve gotta have two, for the symmetry.” Harry grinned cheekily, and Molly just stared. “You can’t just have one night stand, you need one on either side of the bed, so it’s symmetrical.”

Molly’s eyes rolled so far back in her head she thought she could see her brain. “That’s….” She sighed, but couldn’t help laughing. “That’s really bad Harry, you really crack me up; nice pun there, honey.”

“But yes, the next stop on the tour is Nashville.”

“Hey, I got another question,” Molly suddenly said.

“Uh oh,” Harry raised his eyebrows.

“I thought you were only going to sing ‘Girl Crush’ in Nashville? You sang it at the first two shows, is it a permanent part of your set list now?”

“Oh,” Harry knitted his brows. “Well, for now I guess it is. It mixes things up a bit, I guess, but also...it’s kind of like penance, I guess.”

“What?” Molly did not understand that at all.

“I was such an ass about how I decided to tell you that I had feelings for you - you know, the sun and moon metaphor which you threw back in my face - and rightfully so.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Molly nodded and recalled that conversation in the shower.

“And, the thing is, you were maybe right about how I felt about Daisy.” Harry admitted, and glanced over at Molly’s face just in time to see her curious expression melt into disappointment. “At first, at least. That’s why I was so eager to meet her, and wanted to bring her on tour, and...honestly, if I hadn’t had to maintain the pretense of dating you around my team, I think I may have possibly taken that a step further.” He couldn’t look at her, and felt ashamed just to admit this. Saying it out loud almost felt like he was admitting to cheating on her.

It was quiet for a moment, and Harry grew more uneasy with each passing second as he waited for Molly to reply. “Well, if you had, we would have found out much sooner that she was gay.”

“That’s…all you have to say to that?” Harry was surprised, and had expected her to be mad.

But Molly just shrugged. “It was pretty obvious how you felt.” She didn’t look very happy, but she certainly wasn’t mad.

“Oh,” Harry hung his head and bit his lip as he tried to think of a response, some kind of explanation or apology.

“But you’re right, I was jealous of her long blond hair, her, um, what is it? Magic stare?”

“Magic touch,” Harry quietly corrected.

“But yeah, I guess you could say I had ‘girl crush’ on her.” Molly looked down at her hands, and they both felt awkward, and maybe a little embarrassed, waiting for the other one to say something to break the tension.

“So, yeah, to answer your question, it’s penance. To remind myself that I was a dick to you, and that I don’t deserve a girlfriend like you.” Harry mumbled.

“Hey, that’s not true,” Molly took his hand and he was finally able to meet her eyes. He thought they would be filled with pain or disappointment, but she seemed at ease. “Yeah, you definitely didn’t go about it the best way, but in a way it kind of brought us together? It was that push we needed to go from ‘friends with benefits pretending to date’ to, this.” She leaned closer and rested her head on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t have realized I had feelings for you - like, actual feelings - if I hadn’t gotten jealous of seeing you and Daisy together.”

“Then I guess I could say the same about you and Tom,” Harry added, sounding a bit bitter at the memory.

“Harry, that was a long time ago,” Molly looked at him, confused, but mainly surprised.

He smiled back and shrugged. “I told you, it was that night that I saw you in that black dress at the ‘Dunkirk’ premiere that I knew it was going to be hard to continue just pretending to date.”

Molly thought back to the night he’d said that, and looked down at the ring he’d given her after dinner that night. She didn’t know what to say, so she leaned into him for a hug, and let him wrap his arm around her. “I wish I could say the exact moment when I realized that, but it’s a little different for me. I mean, I’ve liked you one way or another since I was 16. When I was jealous of you and Daisy, I assumed it was like when you dated Taylor, or anyone else, and I was jealous of them. I don’t think it was until you were singing ‘If I Could Fly’ to me that I properly realized that that perhaps this was a different kind of jealousy.”

“This is what I get for dating a fan,” Harry joked.

“And this is what I get for dating a sap like you - hearing you play ‘Girl Crush’ every night of your tour, just because you feel bad about maybe hurting my feelings,” Molly smiled up at him “I appreciate it, though.”

“Thanks,” Harry leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Notes

This chapter got a little deeper than intended, but I’m happy I finally finished it today because it’s my birthday! And it’s snowing : D This is the first time in 8 years I have not spent my birthday studying for/taking finals, writing final papers, or dying in any other way. Good luck to everyone taking finals and finishing up the semester!

If you haven’t heard ‘Girl Crush’ I’d recommend listening to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rroc2y9if_Q

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