The Reinvention of Harry Styles

Harry opened his hand to see what Molly had given him, and it was exactly what he thought it was: the matching ring he’d given her so she’d remember him when they were apart on tour. He stared at it for a while and tried to figure out if this meant what he thought it meant. She said the only way to fix it, was to end it.

But was it really over? Just like that?

As Harry pondered this, he rolled the ring around in the palm of his hand.

‘It can’t be over, not yet.' He thought as he slipped her ring on his pinky finger, and left the airport for his hotel. He’d gotten used to her soft breathing at night, and found it nearly impossible to sleep without it, so he got up around midnight to look into something he should have a long time ago.

The next evening he tried to clear his head as he got ready for the show, and wore something similar to what he’d worn in the last few concerts. Rupert came in at the last minute with a t-shirt for Harry and held it up for him to inspect.

“That’s wonderful!” Harry grinned as he read the words on the shirt: ‘Central Perk’, the coffee shop the characters of Friends had often met at, and the six of them were shown underneath it on that orange couch from the opening credits.

“I thought you’d like it,” Rupe smiled and tossed him the shirt, leaving him so Harry could change in private.

Now fully dressed, Harry took a deep breath before going on stage. He felt anything but confident after Molly’d left him in the airport like that, but he had to put that aside and do his job. Once he got on stage and heard his screaming fans, his mood lifted, and he was able to go about the show as normally as possible - despite the uncertainty that loomed over him like a dark cloud.

Halfway through playing ‘Girl Crush’ Harry’s eyes met with Molly’s and he stopped mid sentence. His throat hitched and he tried to swallow and continue with the song, but the shock of seeing her in the audience left him frozen in place. He stepped back from the microphone and grabbed some water. He cleared his throat and finally managed to continue with the song, but he was still very tense, and it didn’t sound the way he’d hoped.

Harry did not think Molly would be at his show - especially not in the audience. He glanced back over at her and saw her talking with someone, and remembered she’d told him a while ago that she had bought tickets with her friends months ago. He tried not to stare at her, and got through the next song okay, but paused before the next song. He turned back to his band and spoke to them for a moment, before returning to the microphone.

“This is the part where I usually play ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, but I’m going to mix things up a little tonight, because I have a special guest in the audience tonight, and I think they’d appreciate this song.” Harry tried to relax and sound calm, but at the moment he was anything but calm.

Molly’s friend Alexa turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “What is he talking about? Who’s here?” She pulled out her phone to see if anyone had been spotted.

“He’s probably just being dramatic,” Molly shrugged.

“What has gotten into you?” Her other friend, Lilly, asked. “You’ve been such a grump all night.”

“Sorry, I’m just tired. Work is...complicated right now-” Molly stopped as the first few notes of the next song started playing.

“If I could fly,” Harry started, and the audience squealed, drowning out the rest of the line.

Molly stood frozen, staring up at him as if it was just the two of them, as everyone around her had some kind of fit. It was suddenly that day in August, when Harry surprised Molly with this song, and ended it by asking her out. They were alone in their own little world, oblivious of the screaming fans around them - including Molly’s friends who were both in tears by the end of the song.

“Here,” Alexa handed Molly a tissue as she and Lilly carefully wiped their eyes so their makeup wouldn’t run.

“What?” Molly blinked a few times, and hadn’t even realized she had started to tear up. She patted her eyes dry, and when she looked back up at Harry he had his back turned to the audience and seemed to just be standing there.

When he finally turned around, Molly saw his eyes were glistening, and she wanted to climb up on stage and give him a hug. He wiped his eyes and smiled before stepping up to the microphone.

“Sorry, that song gets to me sometimes.” He introduced the next song, and carried on as if nothing had happened - though he did seem a little distracted. After a few songs, he paused again to talk.

“I’ve complained enough, and Sony has agreed that ‘Kiwi’ will be our next single!” The audience erupted in cheers at this news, and Harry finally smiled. “Before we start, I would like to set the record straight first.” He looked directly at Molly, and she knew he was going to do it. “There have been some rumors going around about me -” He stopped suddenly and looked off stage. Molly could only assume Jeff was telling him to shut up. “And, um, just want to say that they’re not true, and I’d like to apologize to the lovely Daisy Rutherford for putting her in this situation. She doesn’t deserve this kind of unwanted attention, so I ask you all to please let her be and deal with this unfortunate situation in peace.” Harry glanced back at Molly, and she nodded. A small smile slid onto the corners of his lips at her approval, and he seemed to have regained his confidence. “Now that that’s cleared up, here’s ‘Kiwi’!”

He seemed revitalized for the last two songs, and almost played ‘Kiwi’ a second time at the audience’s request, but he thought it would be tacky, so he decided not to. He caught Molly’s eyes one more time before leaving the stage, and she smiled back. She and her friends left to hit up a few bars after the show, and for the first time since the pizza incident in Chicago, Molly relaxed.

“I think he’s lying; I think he just said that to save face.” Lilly said, and looked at Molly for her opinion.

“What?” She had not been paying attention.

“The thing about that girl he supposedly knocked up? I don’t buy his lame explanation.” Alexa shook her head.

“Why not?” Molly was genuinely interested. Perhaps being on the inside made her see things differently now.

“Um, it’s obvious?” Alexa stated, and Lilly agreed. “Okay, so this Daisy girl shows up out of nowhere in August, then suddenly and publicly says she’s gay - which seemed very staged to me - and now it comes out that she’s pregnant?”

“I don’t see how any of that has to do with anything,” Molly interjected. “She’s like four months pregnant; Harry didn’t even know her four months ago.”

“We don’t know that,” Lilly added.

“Yeah, I think he did know her - like, in the biblical sense.” Alexa added and the two cracked up, but Molly rolled her eyes.

“Com on, Molls, you used to love talking about stuff like this.” Lilly complained.

“I’m just tired, sorry.” she shrugged. “Carry on.”

“Okay, so they hook up, maybe it was a one night stand, and she gets pregnant. Then, in August, she tries to blackmail him or something, and to appease her he says he’ll help her with her singing career.” Lilly paused to make sure they were following her theory. “Once that was established, she plays the ‘lesbian’ card to get out of there before she started showing, so people wouldn’t know she’s pregnant.”

“Okay, but why go public with it now?” Molly asked skeptically.

“For the ‘Kiwi’ promo, obviously.” Alexa explained.

“You think Harry knocked up a girl four months ago, just to use it as promo now?” Molly raised her eyebrows.

“No, it was an accident.” Lilly corrected. “Maybe Daisy planned it, but I don’t know.”

Molly stared back at her drink in shock and disgust. Had she really been like that? Nothing like this had ever happened before, but she was sure she would never have speculated these kinds of crazy ideas if she were still a normal fan, right? She downed her drink and left to get another one. When she returned, her friends were still talking about ‘Harry’s’ baby.

“Guys, come on, he denied it, doesn’t that mean anything?” Molly asked.

“He’s probably just saying that because he’s getting a lot of backlash from it.” Alexa shrugged.

“Then what would it take for you to believe it isn’t true?” Molly asked as a last ditch effort.

Her two friends exchanged glances and shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s hard to forget something like this. Like, you can’t unlearn something, even if it’s not true.”

“So, nothing Harry, or Daisy, could say would change your minds?” Molly asked, hoping for any kind of inspiration for Harry’s next move in this debacle.

“I mean, if the baby is a different ethnicity, then it might be obvious it’s not Harry’s,” Lilly joked, and Alexa giggled.

“It might be obvious?”Molly sighed. She was fighting a losing battle. “You know what, let’s just get drunk, and hit the dance floor. I want to forget about everything tonight.”

Harry tried texting Molly several times after the show, but got no reply. He assumed she was out with her friends, but he really needed to know if she was going to continue on tour with him or not. He heard Jeff coming, so he slipped his phone away and reached into his pocket for Molly’s ring. He took it off before the show because it would look weird if he had two identical rings on one hand.

“No Molly tonight?” Jeff asked, and had a look in his eye Harry didn’t like; it was almost like he was testing him, trying to provoke him

“She’s visiting her mum,” Harry answered quickly and tried to move on.

“That was some speech you had before ‘Kiwi’. I didn’t appreciate that.” Jeff stopped him.

“Well, I didn’t appreciate you going behind my back like that,” Harry spat back and turned to walk away.

“I didn’t go behind your back - you knew about it.” Jeff corrected, and Harry stopped in his tracks.

“And I said it wasn’t a good idea.” He said coldly. He wished Molly had been around for that discussion, because she would have known what to say to Jeff to stop him from going through with this plan involving Daisy.

“You didn’t have any suggestions, so we went with mine.” Jeff shrugged, as if to say ‘case closed.’ “Get over it - this’ll buy you a lot of attention and get ‘Kiwi’ charting.”

Harry didn’t even have a response for that, and couldn’t believe these words were coming from his manager’s mouth, someone he’d known for years and spent countless hours with planning his solo career. Harry blinked a few times as he realized his only option. It was exactly as Molly said: the only way to fix this, was to end it. “You’re fired.”

“What?” Jeff took a step closer, though Harry was sure he’d heard him.

“You’re fired. I can’t have someone like you messing up my career any more.” Harry took a deep breath to steady his nerves and tried to sound confident.

“We have a contract, there will be consequences.” Jeff reprimanded, but he didn’t take Harry seriously.

“This is a breach of contract. Yeah, I actually read it,” Harry added sarcastically when Jeff gave him a doubting look. “This is a breach of Daisy’s contract as well - or did you already forget you signed her?”

Jeff’s smug smiled wavered at the mention of Daisy, and Harry wondered if Jeff really had forgotten about that. “Yes, she’s my client, I’m getting her some publicity-”

“No, you’re ruining her career, just like you nearly ruined mine,” Harry shot back, and Jeff flinched at his harsh words. “You cannot promote one client at the expense of another without their permission. It’s stated quite clearly on page six, and I’m sure Daisy has a similar clause in her contract.”

“You’ve already been in contact with a lawyer.” Jeff nodded and knew he’d better call his lawyers too.

“Of course I have, this is practically libel!” Harry took another step toward Jeff so he wouldn’t have to shout this.

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Jeff stated more than asked, and crossed his arms.

“No, we can settle this out of court easily. I’ll have my lawyers talk to your lawyers and we’ll get it all sorted out.”

Jeff smiled to himself and shook his head.“Did Molly put you up to this? That girl has you so whipped-”

“Don’t talk about Molly like that,” Harry growled between his teeth. “I’ve put up with a lot from you, but I will not tolerate this.” Harry turned and left Jeff balking in the hallway before he could say anything else. As Harry left Jeff he got an idea and hoped his band was still around.
“Hey, just the people I wanted to see!” He smiled brightly at his band when he found them hanging out and having a drink together. “I have one more song I’d like to play at an upcoming show. Maybe not at the next show, but soon. I hope that’s not too much of a bother?”

“Depends on the song, what is it?” Adam asked.

“It’s another One Direction song,” Harry smiled.

Notes

Just to be clear, I don’t know Mr. Jeffrey Azoff, nor do I know much about him, so my portrayal of him in this story is a fictionalization (as is all other non-original characters.) Someone had to be the bad guy (sorry Jeff!). I’ve been wanting to write Harry telling Jeff off for a long time, so that was fun xD

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely holiday! : D

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting : )