The whole Matty Healy/Taylor Swift narrative confuses me because, what do you mean people think “Peter” and “I can fix him” are about the same person? They’re polar opposites.
“Peter” lines up much better with this (note that 1989 TV was only released SIX MONTHS before TTPD):
“His voice is a familiar sound, but nothing lasts forever..”
**Disclaimer: I believe Taylor’s own words and music when she suggests there was a secret romantic involvement with Harry during 2013 (we call it a situationship now). With that in mind, this section is about narrowing down that timeline with the help of their locations, public statements, and the songs they were writing. It is still only an educated guess and shouldn’t be taken as fact.
January 1, 2013 — Harry and Taylor, along with her family, attend a party at a nearby hotel before returning to their own around 3:30 a.m. (Harry lended her his coat) They check out later that morning and leave with her mom.
January 3, 2013 — Taylor and Harry are spotted grabbing dinner in the British Virgin Islands.
January 4, 2013 — Haylor breakup after a huge blowup argument. Taylor takes the first flight back home alone and Harry visits billionaire Richard Branson’s private island for the day to “blow off some steam” x
Later in a 1989 secret session, Taylor says “I was on a boat once and I came up with the line ‘so its going to be forever, or its going to go down in flames’ and I didn’t use it for about a year until I was writing Blank Space and I was like ‘OH!”
January 5, 2013 — Harry arrives back to the Virgin Gorda island in the early morning just as the hot tub pictures are spreading onto the internet. Meanwhile Taylor is back home and tweets something sinister..this is the first time Taylor signals to us that IKYWT is about Harry.
The Sun and E! News report that Harry told Taylor he loved her back in NYC and Scott Swift warned them to slow down. If this is even true, could this be a reference to Wonderland lyric “Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things?”
January 7, 2013 — Haylor breakup is confirmed by People magazine and Page Six as Harry arrives back home in London.
January 9, 2013 — Taylor attends the People’s Choice Awards, first public outing since the breakup.
January 10, 2013 — Taylor trolls 1D fans with a simple tweet “Back in the studio..Uh oh.” She reveals via Tumblr years later that this is the day she wrote “All You Had To Do Was Stay”
The song tells us that although Harry was the one who wanted to break up, he is now calling her and trying to get back together.
January 12, 2013 — Taylor attends the Golden Globes but leaves midway through the show, after the hosts jokingly warned her to “stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son”. Taylor was in the bathroom at the time and had no idea the audience was laughing at her expense. She went on to call the hosts “mean girls” and famously added that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” In hindsight it’s clear that this overreaction was her being heartbroken and lashing out. The online slut shaming from Harry stans — and now the general public —had gotten so loud that this poorly timed but harmless joke became her tipping point.
January 15, 2013 — Taylor is “Somewhere in LA..”, writes “How You Get The Girl” and later describes it as such: “The song ‘How You Get The Girl’ is a song that I wrote about how you get the girl back if you ruined the relationship somehow and she won’t talk to you anymore. Like, if you broke up with her and left her on her own for six months and then you realize you miss her. All the steps you have to do to edge your way back into her life, because she’s probably pretty mad at you. So it’s kind of a tutorial. If you follow the directions in the song, chances are things will work out. Or you may get a restraining order.”
The song is loosely based on what happened with Harry the first time around, especially with the six month timeline from April to October when they got back together and she wrote “This love came back to me”
In the bridge she directly addresses the muse and sings “Remind me how it used to be, pictures in frames of kisses on cheeks” (another lyric parallel to This Love’s “your kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave”)
Is she telling him to do it again because it worked the first time? Or is this just a song idea from a couple months ago that she’s finally writing out?
January 19, 2013 — Rumors start circulating on twitter that Harry and Niall have bought homes in LA. Apparently this came from an article but it has since been deleted. On the 20th, it is officially reported that Niall did purchase a home next to the Kardashians. So while Harry most likely was house hunting, he did not end up buying a home this time.
January 24, 2013 — Harry is seen driving around Beverly Hills driving a new Ferrari.
January 26, 2013 — Taylor and Harry see each other for the first time since the break up at the NRJ Music Awards in France.
January 30, 2013 — Taylor is back in Nashville preparing to start Red tour rehearsals.
February 1, 2013 — Harry spends his 19th birthday in London, Nick Grimshaw surprises him with a stripper
February 2013 — First week of the month, Taylor is interviewed by Vanity Fair.
February 10, 2013 — Taylor performs “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” at the Grammys and mocks Harry
“So he calls me up and he’s like, [british accent] ‘I still love youuu.’ and I’m like ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy opening up the Grammys!’”
Again, it cuts deeper knowing he really was calling her up for another chance
February 11, 2013 — Taylor may have dressed up like a hipster and made fun of her ex while filming the 22 music video
February 17, 2013 — Harry is asked how he is doing after the breakup and the Grammys incident during a radio interview. He keeps his composure but says “I’m okay. She's a great performer… She's done it for a long time. She knows what she's doing on stage. It was just another good Taylor Swift performance. It was good."
February 20, 2013 — Taylor angrily performs I Knew You Were Trouble at the BRITs infront of Harry and says in a post interview "Well, it's not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage watching."
In return, Harry keeps it civil and claps for her when she walks onstage to present an award.
February 21, 2013 — Taylor spends the BRITs after-party on a pub date with singer Tom Odell, who goes on to write Country Star about this night and notes that she is heartbroken.
February 22, 2013 — Taylor says she changed her phone number last week during a radio interview.
February 23, 2013 — One Direction’s international tour kicks off in London and Harry remains in the UK for the next month as far as we know
February 24, 2013 — Taylor back in Nashville for Red tour rehearsals
March 4, 2013 — Taylor’s Vanity Fair issue drops; The writer talks more about the Harry Styles story here x
Harry’s mom and sister unfollow Taylor on twitter around this time.
Here are the best quotes I think offer insight into her mindset:
“I can laugh at myself [referring to dating life jokes] but what it ended up adding to was this whole kind of everyone jumping on the bandwagon of Taylor dates too much - which, you know, if you want some big revelation, since 2010 I have dated exactly two people."
"Everybody in these tabloidy gossipy blogs, they think they have you pegged, like ‘Taylor's boy-crazy' And it's why I have to avoid the tabloid part of our culture, because they turn you into a fictional character.”
"I'm dealing with a little bit of a chaotic media circus right now, but that'll die down in a few weeks when people realize there's nothing left to talk about.”
Harry Styles, who's only 19, has been seen around with plenty of girls. But nobody calls them the kinds of names that get thrown at Swift. "They're 'playboys,'" Swift says wryly. "They're "having fun.""
Then we get all the Haylor lore from a close friend of Taylor’s:
She won't go into personal details about any of her relationships (it's one of her rules) but she does authorize someone who knows her well to discuss them with me. Swift's friend said that the Styles situation is completely misrepresented in the media. This young woman claimed that Styles "chased" Swift for a year: "He wore her down." And then, last spring, she said, there was a weekend "where they got really close, and he was all, like, 'You're amazing I want to be with you. I want to do this.'" Soon after that, when Styles was on tour in Australia with One Direction, he allegedly texted Swift to alert her to a picture of himself on the Internet "kissing a friend goodbye," but said, "It's no big deal." When Swift searched online for the picture, however, she found that they were "making out like with their hands all up in each other's hair." [The wording of this part has caused some confusion. The writer makes a blanket statement about how the public has the story all wrong because despite the tabloids insisting Taylor was the obsessive, pushy one, her friend claims it’s the other way around and “he chased her for a year”. It is then followed up with a full quote to expand on that claim where the friend retells the entire affair from spring 2012 to now, including the “chasing” period in between. Harry did not chase Taylor in 2011, a whole year before the first fling.]
A rep for Styles, Benny Taranti at Columbia Records, called all of Swift's friend's claims "undeniably false." [The claim that Harry and Emma were ‘making out with hands in each other’s hair’ can be proven false by the pictures themselves.]
Swift ended the relationship, continued her friend, after which Styles allegedly pursued her for the better part of a year, professing his devotion and promising never to stray again. "So then they got back together, but the whole time she says she feels like he's looking at every girl and thinking about hooking up with every girl." And then, when they were in London sometime in the last few months, the boy-band balladeer allegedly "disappears one night and after that it was like he just didn't want to keep going." [I believe this is referring to December 14th. After a week in London together, Harry drops Taylor off at the airport and spends the night at a local frat party.] Now, said the friend, he is allegedly texting Swift "again nonstop, like 'Where are you? Call me. Are you back?'”
March 6, 2013 — Taylor is seen going to a studio in LA. (it would have to be Wonderland, Wildest Dreams or an unreleased song; my guess is Wonderland)
March 13, 2013 — Taylor’s opening night of the Red tour in Nebraska, The surprise song is “I Almost Do” which is about fighting the urge to reach out to an ex “I bet you think I either moved on or hate you cause each time you reach out there’s no reply” (Taylor soon wrote about this same sentiment again in IWYW “you say ‘it’s in the past’, you drive straight ahead, thinking that I hate you now cause you still don’t know what I never said”)
March 14, 2013 — Red tour Nebraska night 2, The surprise song is “White Horse”
“There you are on your knees; begging for forgiveness, begging for me”
March 17, 2013 — Harry tweets that he’s listening to a song called Trouble but that Burn is the one we need to hear.. so let’s look at the lyrics
March 18, 2013 — Red tour, Missouri night 1 surpise song is “Should’ve Said No”
“You shouldn’t be begging for forgiveness at my feet”
March 19, 2013 — Red tour night 2 of St. Louis, Missouri.
Four shows into the tour, Taylor decides she wants to bring back a tradition from the last tour. She chooses her arm lyrics from Holy Ground, which is about deciding to look back on a past relationship fondly instead of holding a grudge. Interesting..
“Sometimes I wonder how you think about it now and I see your face in every crowd..”
March 22, 2013 — Red tour North Carolina, Taylor chooses Tim McGraw as the surprise song.. which is another reminiscent song about a past relationship.
“When you think happiness, I hope you think that little black dress.”
March 23, 2013 — Red Tour, South Carolina surprise song is “Forever and Always”
“I was there when you said, "Forever and always".. You didn't mean it baby”
March 24, 2013 — Harry lands in LA for his week-long break from tour
March 25, 2013 — Harry tweets James Taylor lyrics, the full chorus is “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you again..”
Now let me remind you-
Taylor had just recently released a song about owning several James Taylor records. He is literally her namesake. She is famously a big fan of James and this song which she sang with him six months earlier. Harry knew exactly what he was doing here.
My theory is, Harry may have been driving past or near her neighborhood (it gets reported in April that Harry has been looking for a home in LA + he ended up buying a home in Beverly Hills near Taylor’s street in 2014) and maybe it put him in his feelings, hence the “Fire and Rain” tweet at 1 am.. you see where i’m going with this
March 26, 2013 — Harry is spotted driving in LA
March 27, 2013 — Red Tour Newark, NJ
After skipping arm lyrics the past couple shows, she brings it back for the last time. Her mood ring for this night is Holy Ground, yet again!
“A first glance feeling on New York time, back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme..”
So, Taylor spontaneously brought back arm lyrics for only a couple shows to get the same message across from the same song.. and if you recall where Taylor spent that first night with Harry, it matches the first secret message on the 1989 album “Our story begins in New York”.
March 28, 2013 — Red Tour Newark n2 surprise song is “The Story of Us”
“This is looking like a contest of who can act like they care less but I liked it better when you were on my side. The battle's in your hands now but I would lay my armor down if you'd say you'd rather love than fight..”
Enough said.
March 29, 2013 — Harry leaves LA and goes back to London that night to resume tour.
Red Tour Newark n3 surprise song “You’re Not Sorry” Taylor makes an intro speech:
“I truly believe that when dealing with anybody you meet, you should start by trusting them, you know? Like any new friends you meet, any new person you meet, I think you should truly believe the best in them. And um, the first time that they tell you they’re sorry, I think you should believe them. And then, if they keep doing the same exact thing that they say they’re sorry for, that means one thing guys….is that they’re not sorry.”
March 30, 2013 — Taylor tweets MORE Holy Ground lyrics. This is where her brief obsession with this song ends but you gotta wonder what this was all about.
“Tonight I’m gonna dance for all that we’ve been through, but I don’t wanna dance if I’m not dancing with you..”
March 30-April 2, 2013 — Taylor disappears, and Harry is unseen outside of One Direction’s nightly concerts—unusual for him. (I am only noting this as a potential meetup that inspired I Wish You Would. Harry had a show in London every night but Taylor, by chance, had several days off. Harry was usually seen out every day but suddenly MIA here. The timing adds up, but you would have to buy that Taylor was so love struck and reckless that she would fly to London at Harry’s request after they started talking again. Idk if I buy it myself)
April 3, 2013 — Taylor is spotted grocery shopping in LA; Harry reappears in London at an art gallery opening then a private club party until 3am.
April 5-7, 2013 — Taylor is in Vegas for the ACMs
April 7, 2013 — Harry’s old school friend gives an interview about him and briefly mentions that he has wanted Taylor since 2009 after seeing one of her music videos. x
April 8, 2013 — Louis blurts out “Taylor Swift” into the mic after Harry sings the line “I’m in love with you..” during Little Things x
Kinda weird for Louis to tease Harry about loving Taylor on a random day 3 months into the breakup especially after how shady Taylor had been. Unless they were back in contact by now..
April 10, 2013 — After a 2 week break from tour, Taylor comes back with “Today was a Fairytale” for the surprise song
The surprise songs go from primarily sad songs to 99% happy love songs from here until the summer
(most of these were fan requests so don’t put too much importance on them for answers. I think the point is she’s consistently picking the happy song requests)
April 12, 2013 — Red tour Orlando N2 surprise song is “Our Song”
“Our song is the slamming screen door, sneaking out late, tapping on your window..”
April 13, 2013 — Harry tweets about the song Dumb by Tich.. the lyrics are a little on the nose
April 13-19, 2013 — Harry touring in England
April 20, 2013 — Red tour Tampa surprise song is “I almost do” and Taylor says “everybody’s got like one, maybe two, I don't know how many you have, but at least one person in your life that doesn’t belong in your life anymore because maybe they hurt you or maybe it’s just over but you kind of want to call them sometimes. And you think better of it. But, you almost do it.”
April 23, 2013 — Taylor is seen in Nashville; Harry arrives in LA from London.
April 24, 2013 — Harry is unseen until the evening, at a celebrity instagram party in Malibu.
April 25, 2013 — Taylor is in Ohio for tour; she also posts a text conversation with her brother about knowing nothing about life.
Meanwhile, Harry goes to a Rod Stewart concert in LA, then dinner with the Stewart family, including daughter Kimberly. (Stalker Sarah was there and claims she saw Kimberly kissing Harry’s cheek/neck) Rod revealed a month later about the date: “His car was there [outside her house] in the morning. Let’s put it that way.”
April 26, 2013 — Red tour Indiana surprise song “Mine; Taylor officially buys her Rhode Island home. Harry and Kimberly grab coffee the morning after their sleepover.. then are never seen together again.
April 27, 2013 — Red tour Kentucky surprise song is “Our Song”; Harry leaves LA for Paris
April 28, 2013 — Taylor is spotted at the gym in LA
April 29, 2013 — It is reported Taylor has bought a mansion in Rhode Island
April 29-May 26, 2013 — Harry touring Europe
May 1, 2013 — Taylor visits Selena in the studio sometime while in LA (Selena says she was present when Taylor wrote Wildest Dreams so I will be noting anytime they’re together)
May 4, 2013 — Red tour Detroit, MI surprise song is “Ours” and Taylor’s intro: “This is a song about how, when you fall in love everybody starts to give you their opinion. I imagine it could be really hard to make a relationship last, I wouldn’t know, but given that everyone is giving you their own opinion about it, I think that the only opinion you should really listen to is yours. and If you love that person, that should be all that matters.”
May 7, 2013 — Harry kisses a girl on a party bus in Norway and allegedly invited her back to his hotel (Full story from two different witnesses x x)
May 9, 2013 — Harry writes Happily in Sweden (I always believed this song was about that period of time in 2012 when he and Taylor became friends again, before she ultimately left Connor to be with him. It still could be, because they had already finished the last album when that was happening and they have just now started writing sessions for the next one.)
May 18, 2013 — Taylor posts a picture of roses with a caption from F. Scott Fitzgerald about new beginnings. I have a working theory that roses in some way held a connection to Harry because of all the rose references on 1989. This seems to be hinting that she is moving on..
May 19, 2013 — Taylor attends the Billboard Music Awards but seems to be in a bad mood. “To the fans, who come to the shows, who buy the albums, I just want you to know this one thing, you are the longest and best relationship I’ve have ever had.” and says she only writes about exes she doesn’t want to see again.
May 22, 2013 — Red tour Glendale, AZ N1 “Teardrops on my Guitar”
May 24, 2013 — Taylor spotted in Rhode Island; Harry goes to a club in Barcelona, Spain
May 26, 2013 — Taylor is spotted having dinner in Rhode Island with her parents, Ed Sheeran and Jack Antonoff
May 27, 2013 — Taylor goes to the beach in Rhode Island with Austin, Ed, Hailee Steinfeld and others.
May 28, 2013 — Red tour Glendale, AZ N1 “Haunted” and says “This is a song I hadn’t played on this tour so far. It came from one of my friends who tweeted the lyrics today and it reminded me that I hadn’t played this song in about two years. It has to do with the fact that people talk about ghosts all the time. I just kind of imagine it being this supernatural thing, but there’s another kind of ghost and it’s just a person who is out there walking around in the world, just doesn’t love you anymore, that’s a whole different kind of thing altogether.”
Taylor writes “I Wish You Would” - we know this because it was written on tour after a day off with Jack in Rhode Island. It’s also the first song they ever wrote together. My breakdown of the song is a tad long but there’s so much to mine here
The following quote comes from a secret sessioner recalling a story by memory so we have to leave a little room for misinformation -
“Taylor said that she wrote ‘I Wish You Would’ a couple of months after her and Harry broke up, and they decided to become friends again and she said this was the first time she had become friends with an ex, to the point where they were comfortable enough to talk about why the relationship didn’t work out. She said he told her about how, after they broke up, he bought a house literally one road adjacent to hers. Every day he would drive home, and accidentally turn into her street, and he told her how he just wanted to stop at her house and see her, but he never did. She said this song is about while he was in the car making the decision not to get out the car and see her, she was sitting in her bedroom, wishing he would make the move and go back to her and just pitch up at her house. She compared it to a classic John Hughes movie where both parties want the same thing but neither has the guts to say anything. Honestly, she spoke so fondly of that relationship.”
She says she wrote the song a couple months after they broke up and decided to be friends again. We know this song was written May 28th which is almost exactly 2 months after when I theorized they reconnected (March 29-April 2)
He told her he kept turning onto her street by mistake and wanted to stop and see her (I always thought I would see you again -Fire and Rain) but talked himself out of it. This lines up with that week he spent in LA, the report of him house hunting, and the 1 am James Taylor tweet.
Alongside Taylor communicating via arm lyrics and surprise songs. “both parties want the same thing but neither has the guts to say anything.”
Until the bridge where Taylor hints at a physical, even sexual late night reconnection
“2 a.m., here we are
See your face, hear my voice in the dark
We're a crooked love in a straight line down
Makes you wanna run and hide
But it made us turn right back around”
Additional quotes:
“There’s “I Wish You Would,” about an ex who bought a house two blocks from hers (whom she implies was Styles)” - Rolling Stones interview, 2014.
"Okay so this is an idea called "| Wish You Would". It's kind of about this guy who's like, he's driving down the street at the middle of the night and he passes his ex-girlfriend's house and it's like, he thinks she hates him, but she's still in love with him, very dramatic. This track is sick, hope you like this." - Taylor's voice memo to Jack in the 1989 Deluxe album
The one detail that doesn’t add up is when he bought the house. At the time of the secret session, Harry really had bought a home 2 blocks over from hers earlier that year. But IWYW was written a whole year before that. It is most likely Harry was just house hunting, renting, or visiting a friend in the neighborhood in early 2013. So, either the fan misheard that part of the story or Taylor purposely altered the details.
May 29, 2013 — Harry lands in London from Spain
June 4-6, 2013 — Taylor in Nashville; Harry in London
June 8, 2013 — Taylor and Ed perform “Everything Has Changed” on Britain’s Got Talent; Harry is now touring Mexico
June 9, 2013 — Taylor performs at the Capital FM Summertime Ball in London. In an interview she says she is currently trying to start choosing good guys.
June 10, 2013 — Taylor and Austin are seen walking around Rhode Island
June 11, 2013 — Fans spot Taylor in Rhode Island; Harry lands in Florida and gets on a yacht
June 12, 2013 — Taylor flies to NYC for Fragrance Foundation Awards
June 13-14, 2013 — Harry is on tour in Florida
June 14-15, 2013 — Red tour Toronto, Canada n1&2 “Tim McGraw” and “Highway Don’t Care”
June 16, 2013 — Taylor tweets “I'm beginning to think that you don't find happiness from living your life looking ahead or back..that you find it when you look around.”
June 19, 2013 — Taylor is watching Titanic on her couch with her cat, presumably somewhere in Rhode Island; Harry has a show in Nashville and follows John Mayer on twitter a day after Paper Doll release. (Something has obviously gone wrong. Taylor spending her off day in RI when Harry is in her hometown + Harry following John right after he drops his Taylor diss track)
June 20, 2013 — Taylor spotted by fans in Rhode Island
June 21, 2013 — Taylor and Selena spend the day together in Rhode Island (wildest dreams possible writing date); Harry has a show in Atlanta, Georgia
June 22, 2013 — Red tour Winnipeg, Canada surprise song is “Teardrops on my Guitar”; Harry has a show in North Carolina
June 23, 2013 — Taylor is spotted in Rhode Island; Harry has show in Washington DC
June 24, 2013 — Harry is seen with friends having dinner, touring DC and attending a Rolling Stones concert
June 25, 2013 — Edmonton, Canada n1 surprise song is “White Horse”; Harry has a show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 26, 2013 — Edmonton, Canada n2 surprise song is “Fearless”; Harry has a show in Massachusetts
June 27-30, 2013 — Harry in NYC
June 29, 2013 — Harry meets and hangs out with New York native model Paige Reifler for the first time and they have a casual fling until October — Paige’s friend takes an intimate photo of her and Harry in their apartment, but it doesn’t leak until September.
June 30, 2013 — Harry is spotted at the Apple store in NYC wearing Paige’s “P” ring. He has given her his in return
TL;DR-ish:
The first half of the year is… chaotic. Taylor starts off angry, shifts into very obvious yearning, then suddenly she’s hopeful and friendly with Harry, before it all turns sour again.
Meanwhile, Harry starts off the year wanting Taylor back but the second things start looking up, he falls right back into old habits and refuses to slow down with the partying and women.
Realistically with both of them touring, there aren’t many chances for them to even see each other. So here is the most likely scenario for me: Harry is floating in and out of her life. He checks in sporadically but just enough to keep her holding on. He blames the exhaustion of tour combined with time zone differences for his ghosting and she can’t say anything because it’s fair and he doesn’t owe her anything more. But the real reason? He’s said it himself; the fun is in the chase. Once she softened and heard him out, the chase was over. Especially if they really did meet up late night as Taylor suggested in song.
Taylor clearly still has feelings for him, but doesn’t want to scare him off so she plays it cool. It stops working. The resentment is there, it just comes out in passive aggressive ways.
By May, it feels like things come crashing down again—possibly after Harry chooses to see Kimberly Stewart in LA on his break instead of visiting Taylor. Her shadiness at the Billboard Awards, her “new beginnings” post, the surprise song introduction of “Haunted”.. leads me to believe she is being more outspoken for a reason. She has cut it off again.
In June, she says she is currently trying to start choosing good guys. Meanwhile, Harry is spending his nights in NYC with a new model, despite geographically touring near Taylor.
And that’s just the first half of the year… the second half gets even messier.
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