In the clear yet?, good.

The One after the buzzcut

*note: my poor Haylor heart ain't coping with those vault tracks. (Redeeming Harry a little here)

"Did you do it to piss me off?" she asks as she enters her room, dropping her bag and moving her phone to her right hand, and then closer to her ear.

"Why would me cutting my hair piss you off?".

"you know why", she adds and he sighs.

"that is not relevant anymore"

"still here you are, calling me again"

"you picked up"

"I thought something was wrong, maybe..."

"something is" he sighs.

She sits on the bed and pauses before asking "what is?"

She hears him sigh once more. "I keep thinking about you".

She freezes, stunned for a second, before quickly adding: "you have a girlfriend"

He ignores it. "Do you?... do you still think about me?".

"Harry, it's been ten years"

"eight", he corrects her

"you should move on"

" You say I should, but you are the one writing songs and reaching out to get a reaction, constantly" he adds

"its just songs!" she says as an excuse, knowing well she does like to dig out the grave sometimes, so she adds:  "and you do this every time I meet someone, you show up out of nowhere, panicked and worried someone else is going to take your place and you won't be the centre of it all anymore", and that pisses him off because that is far from his real intentions.

"You know what Taylor, it is fascinating how you have me all figured out, from day one, what I think, what I feel, what I should do. It's like you made out this character in your head and I am just here to fit in your story... truth is you have no fucking clue what I think or what I feel right now!"

She gets offended "oh!, so now I do not know how..." 

"just shut up for once!" he shushes her, and pauses to make sure she is listening: "I do not give a shit about being the centre of your discography, or your delusions. As much as you try and paint me like that, or like a fucking heartless cheater. I wasn't just that. But I guess that what I really was, doesn't fit your made up narrative"

He is upset now, and she realises why: "So this is what this is about" she says.

"Everyone wanted me, and that was your crime?..."

"Harry..." she tries to calm him down.

" It was also mine! and I was 18!. I fucked up once, I made a mistake, and after that I didn't stand a chance with you. You were in it just to make me pay for it, I didn't do anything right in your eyes from that moment, and it messed up with my head so much...".

"Harry..." she tries again. "I am not excusing my behaviour but, lying traitor??... " he goes quiet.

She checks her nails absently, trying to detach herself from her feelings, she didn't mean it that way, did she?, when she wrote, and record and released those songs. She choses to avoid blaming herself for any of it, because she does not like the honest answer to her question, and what it implies about herself. So she looks for someone else to blame instead: "why do you care so much about what the public thinks about you?? it was long ago".

He snorts sarcastically then "unbelievable", he says "you are fucking unbelievable". He pauses, and she is too shocked to say anything.

"I do not care what they think of me, Taylor... I care about what YOU think of me!". He says frustrated and then once calmed "shit".

She realises then were her mistake had laid: "I didn't think you would care"

He closes his eyes "by default, you assume I don't. Now, and back then, and I did..." she doesn't know what to say and he continues: " and I may not have said "I love you" when you said it first, but I did, a million times after that, and none of them counted because they didn't happen as or when you wanted".

He did, she thinks, god, everything was such a mess back then. It had been easier for her to see him in a certain light in her head, through her glasses of  previous rejections and insecurities, easier than looking at him for what or who he truly was, because that also meant shining a light on her own flaws: 

"Harry, I am sorry, I truly am" she says finally, because as much as she likes being right, she doesn't like it at the expense of hurting someone she cares for, because she does still care for him, she realises, frowning, surprised.

"Thank you,..." he says quietly, suddenly at peace once more, before adding warmly "they are good songs, Tay".

And she smiles, moved, he always makes her smile after all.

"I do" she says then, impulsively.

"what?" he asks, smiling at her outburst.

"think of you, sometimes, I still do", she speaks nearly in a whisper

And he rubs off the sting in his eyes with his free hand, nodding, even though she cannot see him. " we never go out of style" he adds, a sad smile.

"never" she concludes

"take care, Swift"

"you too, Styles". And they both hung up their phones.