The Reinvention of Harry Styles

~Holly and the boys of One Direction sat in the ice cream shop with their cones, eating the ice cream quickly before it melted.

“Why’d you get vanilla, Liam, that’s such a boring flavor?” Louis teased.

“I like vanilla, okay? You got, what, pistachio? A nut, just like you.” Liam returned his bandmate’s teasing.

“Good one, Liam.” Zayn laughed at Liam’s joke. “Strawberry’s where it’s at, though.” He licked a drip of pink ice cream before it reached his hand.

“And you two both got chocolate?” Louis asked Harry and their new friend Holly.

“I just wanted whatever she was having,” Harry smiled shyly and glanced at Holly. “You’ve got some ice cream on your nose.” He turned to reach for a napkin for her, but Niall beat him to it.

“Let me get that for you.” Niall said and leaned over to wipe the smudge of chocolate ice cream of her nose with his thumb.

“Thanks,” Holly giggled and blushed.~

Harry bit his lip and put his phone down. He’d forgotten how smitten Molly seemed when she had met Niall at his concert in London. He had forgotten that Molly said she had written fanfiction about all of them, not just him. For a moment, Harry felt jealous, almost angry, that he had to share her affection .

Harry shook his head and snapped out of it. “It’s just fanfiction,” he sighed and laughed to himself. He had been reading this story on and off as he traveled to his next tour stop in Germany because he thought it would help him keep his mind from wandering, and wallowing at Molly’s absence. Yet it only made him miss her more.

‘It’s just a story’ he reminded himself - a story he shouldn’t be reading. Harry turned his phone off and closed his eyes, hoping to get some sleep.

***

Molly laughed when she saw Gemma’s response to their first ‘Ask Gemma and Molly’ column. It was a good way to set a precedent for further questions, and they both hoped it would deter their readers from sending in Harry-related questions. Yet, they knew they would probably still get a few.

She had just sat down to start writing when her phone buzzed with a text from Harry.

*Is chocolate your favourite flavor of ice cream?

‘What?’ Molly laughed to herself.

*It’s one of them, why?

Harry didn’t respond right away, so she put her phone down and got back to her writing. The question sent in was about a girl wanting to go to college to study English, and one day become a writer- yet her parents wanted her to study something more useful. They suggested she study something in the sciences, or maybe economics, or business, but she didn’t want to. The girl ended her question with a plea for their help, signing off as ‘Modern Jane Austen’.

‘Dear Modern Jane Austen,

I know how you feel, and I’m not just saying that. It’s going to sound cliche, but follow your heart. Your parents are looking out for you and your future, as they should, but you need to consider what will make you happy. When I was a senior in high school I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I let my parents talk me into studying marketing in college. I thought it would be fun - like the show ‘Mad Men’ - but by the time I graduated I grew to hate the subject. When I graduated I still had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, except by then I was ‘grown up’ and needed to figure it out - and fast. I took some random jobs when I graduated just to make some money, and oddly enough one of those jobs led me to something that has changed my life. I have found a use for my unwanted degree in marketing, and possibly found a purpose for my life’

Molly paused and re-read what she’d written. She shook her head and erased the last line - ‘Too personal’ she thought, and continued writing.

‘I have found a use for my unwanted degree in marketing, and possibly found a purpose for my life found something that makes me happy. So to reiterate, follow your heart, and do what makes you happy. If you need to compromise with your parents, try starting out undeclared and then pick a major that fits you best. Who knows, you might like something like photography, or linguistics, or something random you’ve never even considered, until you try it.

Good luck!

Sincerely,
Molly’

She sat back and reread her response a couple of times before sending it to Gemma for her opinion. Molly considered that line she had deleted and wondered why she had even written it. Or really, why she had deleted it? Only Gemma would understand what she meant, so why would it matter?

‘It’s not true’ Molly tried to convince herself. He wasn’t her purpose in life - that was an exaggeration, clearly. But those words she had uttered on her friend’s couch a few days ago while watching Harry perform in Paris came back to her…

Molly shook her head. She wasn’t ready to think the ‘L’ word (at least not while sober) because that was the kind of thing Molly thought clingy, needy girls did. She couldn’t be the one to say it first, so she wasn’t even going to acknowledge the fact that it might be a possibility that she-

Molly shook her head again. ‘Nope. I will not be that kind of girlfriend’

She tried to get back to work, but couldn’t think straight. ‘Once you realize you’re in love, you can’t just ‘unrealize’ it.’ She thought as she looked out the window at the bright moon glaring through her bedroom window.


***


Daisy and Conor left the doctor’s office together, and Conor couldn’t stop smiling. He looked down at the sonogram image they had just taken of his son.

“He’s so tiny,” he beamed at the image.

“He doesn’t feel tiny to me,” Daisy groaned and again reminded herself to buy a bigger jacket.

“He’s just a peanut,” Conor continued. “My mom used to call me that, when she was pregnant with me. She said I was her ‘little peanut’; do you have a nickname for him like that?”

“Kinda,” she smiled shyly. “He feels like he’s the size of a watermelon, and he’s always doing the backstroke or something in there, so I call him my ‘water baby’. It’s kind of dumb, but…” she shrugged.

“No, I like it!” Conor smiled brightly again. “I know the due date is still a couple of months away, but do you have any names? Because, like, I’ve been thinking about that a lot, and I don’t know if you want my input on that, but-”

“Of course, Conor, he’s your son as much as he is mine.” Daisy reassured him. “I’d love to hear your ideas.”

“You’ve had more time to think about this, so you can go first.”

“Well, a friend suggested Joaquin-”

“Like Joaquin Phoenix?” Conor interrupted.

“Yeah, I guess. I also kind of like the name Dylan, but I guess that’s pretty poplar.”

“Yeah, I know too many guys named Dylan and they’re certainly not people I’d want to name my son after.” Conor grimaced, and Daisy laughed.

“Or, I was thinking a nature sounding name, to go with ‘Daisy’. Maybe not another flower name -unless you know of any masculine sounding flowers- so something naturey. My friend suggested Skylar.” Daisy explained.

“Nature...oh, like Brooks, maybe?” Conor suggested.

“Brooks?” Daisy smiled and cocked her head.

“Yeah, like Brooks Laich, or Brooks Orpik - hockey players, they play for the Washington Capitals.” Conor explained.

“Is that a NHL team?” Daisy asked, and Conor nodded. “So you like hockey?”

Conor grinned, and shrugged, but his answer was clear: Conor loved hockey. “I play, actually. That’s why I’m in Chicago; I play at Northwestern University.”

“Oh,” Daisy forgot he was in college. “What year are you?”

“Senior,” Conor grinned again, and seemed pretty proud of the fact he’d made it to his senior year in college. “I probably won’t graduate, though.”

“Why not?” Daisy cocked her head up at him again. “Are your grades too low? You can always take courses in the summer.”

“No, it’s nothing like that, though my GPA isn’t great. I might leave after hockey season is over to play pro hockey, if they want me, and maybe play in the NHL one day.” He shrugged again, as if it wasn’t a big deal, but Daisy could tell it was something he was really excited about.

“A black hockey player? That’s about as rare as a pregnant lesbian - we’re quite a pair.” Daisy pointed out with a snort of a laugh.

“It’s true, only 5% of NHL players are black, and I hope to be one of them.” Conner agreed, still smiling.

“I hate to ask this, but if you want to play pro hockey, is something like this going to affect your chances?” Daisy rested her hand on her baby bump, and Conor’s stride broke for a moment.

“It might, but I’d rather be open about it from the start, rather than having someone find out about it later and use it to make me look bad.” He gave her a crooked smile, and Daisy was suddenly filled with a weird kind of love for him. It wasn’t a romantic type of love, or sexual, or anything like that; it was the kind of love you feel for your unborn baby and his father who would put his career at risk to be involved in his child’s life -a very specific type of love.


***


Harry stared up at the moon as he rode to the hotel. It was big and very bright tonight, and for some reason, he thought it looked lonely. Perhaps because they were too close to the city for the stars to show and keep it company, or maybe Harry was just projecting his own feelings onto the cold, inanimate, reflective, rock.

When Harry arrived at his hotel he stepped out onto the balcony and stared at the moon for a long time, as if waiting for it to say something to him, before he took out his phone and snapped a picture of it for Instagram. He posted the image with the caption: ‘with nothing but the moon to keep me company tonight’

Very cryptic, though he knew Molly would understand it.

Sure enough, Molly called him as soon as she saw the post the next morning.

“Harry, this again?” She laughed, though he could tell she was trying to sound happy. “I thought we decided the sun and the moon metaphor was not a good idea?”

“Yes, but...I miss you. And seeing the moon is a constant reminder that we’re both under the same moon, and you’re not actually that far away, if that makes sense.” Harry shook his head and tried to reword that. “You’re still closer than the moon.”

“That’s true,’ Molly said quietly. She got what Harry was trying to say, even if he did say it awkwardly. “I um, I miss you too. Like, a lot.” She added, and mentally smacked herself. That made her sound clingy, and needy, and Harry doesn’t need to deal with that right now.

“Me too,” he replied, and Molly couldn’t read his tone, but he sighed.

‘Is that an annoyed sigh or is he just tired?’ Molly asked herself, but tried to shake it off.

“After tonight’s show I’m returning to London, and I’ve been thinking....Maybe you could visit Gemma for a bit?” Harry asked.

“And by Gemma, you mean you, right?” Molly asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I was thinking the same thing! We’ve started writing our column together, so it would make sense that she and I would maybe be together, in the same city, or country even, writing it.” Molly rambled, and stopped when she heard Harry chuckling quietly.

“I see you have been thinking about this,” he laughed, and Molly blushed.

“I mean, it’s not like I have my bag packed or anything,” she lied and glanced over at her suitcase. Technically it just wasn’t unpacked from when she arrived, but it could easily be fully repacked in a moment’s notice.

“Well, I think there might be a flight from JFK to Heathrow this evening, maybe. I mean, there has to be, right?” Harry added to cover up the fact he had indeed looked up this information, and even considered reserving a seat for her.

“Yeah, probably!” Molly answered enthusiastically -probably too enthusiastically. “If I maybe caught the earliest flight to London, we might arrive around the same time.” Molly could not hide the excitement in her voice now, as she picture she and Harry having some kind of romantic reunion in the airport, like at the end of ‘Love, Actually’.

“Okay, yeah, I’ll, um, see you later.” Harry stuttered.

“Okay!”

“And Molly?”

“Yes?”

“I…” Harry hesitated, the words right on his lips, but he couldn’t get himself to say them. “I’ll see you then.”

“You too!” She answered, and they ended the call.

‘Damit Harry’ He thought and fell back onto his bed.

Similarly, Molly sunk deeper into the couch and shook her head. ‘This is what happens when two people who can’t express their feelings well try to express a feeling’.

Notes

How do you like Molly’s fanfiction so far? I’m going somewhere with it, I swear! It’s not just Harry being creepy xD

I’ve finally completed editing this story up through the latest chapter, and fixed quite a few mistakes (oops!) but I also realized I spelled Conor’s name as ‘Connor’ sometimes, so I’ve hopefully fixed that too! It’s so much easier to spot mistakes once the story has been posted for some reason :p

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