The Other Side (A Sebastian Stan Fanfiction Story)

This Side - Learning Not to Drown

Charlie sighed as she wrote on her notebook, the settling afternoon sun bathing everything around her in varying shades of amber and gold. She ended spending the entire day at the park, writing anything and everything that came to mind. She was thankful she brought a spare notebook as she had already consumed the old one.

Is this what drowning feels like? I feel like I'm flailing my arms in every direction in an ocean that doesn't want to let me float to the surface. My legs kick forwards, backwards, sideways and yet it only seems to serve to further pull me down; an undercurrent threatening to consume me whole and spit me out empty.

Jesus, I don't even know how to swim, Charlie thought sadly to herself. Well at least this latest go around of pain is allowing her to use metaphors to spell out her feelings. Somehow, her troubles seem to grow just a tad bit less significant by representing them with words on paper.

As the bright sunlight slowly gave way to the cerulean night, Charlie realized that maybe she should consider just let the tides take her wherever it wanted her to go. What was making her drown was the fact that she was attempting to swim in the opposite direction, not knowing that the struggle to do so was what would push her down the current. Maybe Sebastian was supposed to be her sea, and that she should let the waves of change he had brought on her be the one to guide her where she's supposed to float to.

Maybe it was time to accept the fact that even though he threw her against the rough waves, it was his way of telling her to just take a deep breath and follow the current where it leads.

Despite the unfamiliar bed and somewhat uncomfortable sheets, Charlie had slept soundly for the first time in seven days.

It had only been two days since Charlie left Tom's and already she was missing the young British lad and his place she had begun to consider home away from her parents' in Chicago. Grabbing the phone from the charging dock, he pressed the speed dial to her friend.

CHARLIE! Oh my god, where are you?! Are you alright? 

Please come back, please, please, please!

Charlie's lips curled up into a smile and felt hot tears spilling from her eyes upon hearing the worried voice of Tom. He really had become the sibling she wished she could have.

Thomas, I'm somewhere close to Central Park, stop worrying about me, I'm alright. Listen, I'm sorry I bailed on you like that. I just needed some time to clear my head with everything that's happened. I think I'm ready to come back. I'll see you in an hour.

"Oh, you bloody scared me!" Tom Holland's muffled voice was full of relief as he enveloped Charlie in a huge hug as soon as she walked through the door. "I literally couldn't sleep the last two bloody days wondering how you are!"

"Jeez, Tom, I was only gone for two days!" Charlie chuckled as she returned the younger lad's hug. "I'm really sorry I worried you."

Tom ushered her to the living room and sat down with her on the couch. It was an early New York afternoon, and a light drizzle had begun outside, the light pitter patter on the glass windows serving as a gentle background noise as the two reunited friends talked.

"Please do tell me you are feeling better already," Tom pleaded.

Charlie swallowed a lump in her throat, feeling confident about what she was to tell him. "Yeah, I do. Feel better, that is. I definitely needed that time to be by myself, but I'm not running away anymore the next time a problem comes to punch me in the gut."