The Other Side (A Sebastian Stan Fanfiction Story)

This Side - Lost and Insecure

Saturday mornings usually made Charlie very happy and optimistic. It was the day between the end of a usually hectic work week and the start of another opportunity to be better than the previous one. Unlike the majority of the population, Charlie was excited to start her Saturday mornings bright and early. It was her day of respite where she could just let her hair down and enjoy herself before Sunday rolls around demanding for her to put her best game face on for whatever the next week has in store.

This particular Saturday morning? Not quite. While she still woke up early (old habits obviously die hard), the feeling of unbridled optimism and joy was replaced by an overwhelming sense of gloom and solitude.

After the confrontation with Sebastian on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life, Charlie was left feeling even more vulnerable than when her two bestfriends screwed her over. After all the shit she'd gone through, she thought whoever overseeing being was out there was finally giving her a break. When Tom's assistant called her about the job offer, she thought her life had reached a turning point. She thought it was the start of her gaining control of her destiny again. She even made some new friends along the way, but life apparently, had other ideas.

Even after a week had passed, she still, for the life of her, couldn't understand why the one person she trusted the most had managed to lie to her for so long.

What was so wrong about being a famous movie star lurking in a murky website? How did Sebastian live with himself knowing he was being untruthful to a person who cares so much about him?

These among other questions, had kept Charlie up at night for a week already. It didn't help either that she couldn't shake off the way he kissed her before she left him alone in that restaurant. It was supposed to make her feel giddy and lightheadedly blissful. It was supposed to feel like it was her wildest and most impossible dream come true, but it wasn't. Instead, it was bittersweet and sad, like Sebastian realized he may never have a chance like that anymore once she was out the door and just took the opportunity and ran with it.

And that's why she had to come to a painful decision to leave for a while. In times when she felt like the world was caving in on her or when her problems threatened to eat her alive, her first instinct was to leave. It offered her a chance to sort out her thoughts so she could work out a way to get past her issues.

As she quietly closed the door of Tom's pad, she desperately hoped she could be able to do just that.

It had been a good two hours since Charlie left. Wandering aimlessly with about five days worth of clothes in a mid-sized backpack, Charlie found herself sitting at one of the benches in Central Park. Everyone around her seemed to be having a good start to their day. Some people were jogging around with their pets, some just casually strolling around, enjoying the early morning sun as it filtered through heavy set trees. The overall vibe was very vibrant and energetic, but Charlie felt the exact opposite. To distract herself, she browsed through Airbnb, hoping to find a cheap yet nice place to stay for a few days. She found one just a block away, immediately following the directions the app gave her.

Once settled in, she took out her tattered old notebook and went back to the park. She needed to write. It was one thing that had always made her feel better. Whether it was just her random thoughts, or an outline of a story idea that came to her, writing never failed her. Not like some people she knew.

As one thought led to another, she found herself writing about what happened the week before. It was like her hand had a mind of its own, putting down words on paper Charlie knew she wouldn't be able to say out loud. She only realized she needed to stop when her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn't had anything to eat since she left Tom's. After making sure she had enough cash with her, she wandered around the park until she found a hotdog stand.

"Hi," Charlie mustered a smile to the vendor. "One with everything on it please." The vendor returned her smile as he prepared her order.

"Here you go," the man handed out her food. After paying him, she took another empty bench and started eating. "You look like you could take on more than one hotdog sandwich though lady."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"I am not—"

The hotdog vendor laughed, a throaty, easy laugh one could get caught up with quickly. Charlie wasn't sure why the middle-aged man suddenly appeared interested in her, but she smiled back at him anyway.

"You look like shit, and having had this stand for years now, I'd say that's something a couple hotdog sandwiches could fix," the vendor said confidently as he began assembling another sandwich.

Charlie took a bite of the sandwich and groaned in pleasure at the disco of flavors in her mouth. No wonder her culinary classmates always raved about them. She then took a sip of water and returned her gaze back to the hotdog stand, another sandwich sitting ready for her.

"That's on the booth, lady. And I won't take no for an answer."

"Thank you," Charlie mumbled. "This is really good. And um, yeah...I do feel like shit."

Charlie didn't know what came to her as she poured out her story to the hotdog guy, just omitting some details so as not to give Sebastian away. She'd come to learn his name was Diego, a Puerto Rican immigrant who'd been selling hotdogs in Central Park for more than 20 years.

"...and that's why I'm here," she concluded as she wiped her mouth with a tissue before tossing it to a nearby bin. "I just don't know what to think anymore, or whether I should trust anyone again. Why does it always happen to me?"

"You know," Diego began thoughtfully. "Life will always deal you a bad hand, no two ways about it. Hell, I just got shitty divorce papers delivered to me yesterday but what can I do? Stuff happens. Shit happens. But you gotta deal with them, not run away. Otherwise, the same situation will just happen over and over because you didn't punch it in the mouth. You get what I'm saying?"

Charlie nodded. Diego was right, all she did was run and not really confront what was happening in front of her. When Rachel and Jasper took off, she drank herself to near death and went home to her parents in Chicago and holed herself up for weeks at a time. She didn't even try to find out where they'd gone and what they used her money for.

It was almost similar what she was doing with the situation with Sebastian as well. Instead of letting him try to patch things up, she packs her bags and leaves. Truthfully, she was a little tired of running.