Fallout - A Van McCann fanfic

16. Two sides to every story

I walked backwards from the door and dropped the duvet in the process. I ran into the bedroom and picked up my heels before leaving the flat barefoot.

"Caitlin wait!" I heard Van shout.

I was half way down the road. I didn't want to talk to him, I just wanted to go home and process this.

"CAITLIN" I heard him shout once more.

I started to speed up and soon enough I was nearly home. I got a few funny looks from the elders in our town, I mean I was in yesterday's dress with no shoes on and my makeup was probably horrendous.

Once I made it home I threw my shoes to the side and ran upstairs to my room. I took off yesterday's makeup and the dress. Then put my comfy joggers and a top on after brushing my teeth to get the taste of alcohol and puke out my mouth.

Toby was laid on my bed when I re-entered so I petted him for a while before remembering what Van done. I guess there are two sides to every story but what he done stirred the town, I never knew it was him. I thought Larry done it alone.

*1 message from Van*

"Please let me explain. There's more to the story than what everyone already knows. Please believe me"

I didn't reply I was still thinking through everything that I remembered.

Emily Vakent. She was a pretty quiet girl, I would dare say nerdy. But she had a different side to her which we all eventually found out.
Her and Van dated when they were 16 they lasted a year and then eventually broke up because she cheated on him with Larry, no one knew this at the time until photos and videos were leaked of her in sexual poses. They were leaked from an account on Twitter called 'nearblast431' the police looked into it and found out it was actually Larry's account even though he deleted it after.

Emily ended up moving, I think her family moved to London to give her a fresh start. No one has heard from her since.

Larry got community service and then his parents sent him to live with his grandparents in Sheffield.

I didn't see how Van fitted into all this. It started to frustrate me so I decided to text him back telling him to meet me at mine.

He replied straight away saying 'I'll be right there'.

I made my way downstairs and got myself a bottle of water from the fridge along with some paracetamol to get rid of this headache.

Just as I walked into the living room the buzzer went. I took a deep breath and made my way towards the door, I opened the gate and watched Van walk along up to the door.

"Thank you for letting me explain" he looked sympathetic but I was nervous about what I was going to hear.

I didn't speak, I just lead him into the living room and sat on the opposite sofa. My heart started to beat rapidly when I looked at him, I was terrified to find out what actually happened.

"I uh, I guess I'll start from the beginning"  Van now started to look nervous and fidget with his hands.

"Well you know I went out with Emily for a year. During our relationship she developed a liking to watching porn and wanted to do all that bondage shit but I didn't want to so .... Uh she found someone who would do it with her which happened to be my best mate.

She would send me pictures of herself and it made me feel sick. She wasn't the girl I thought she was... She changed dramatically in the space of a year. Soon enough I ended it and she found comfort in Larry, I didn't know that she was doing all that stuff with Larry until she sent me a photo of them.

I don't know what came over me, I guess because she was my first love but seeing her with Larry just made me feel sick. I didn't want to blame Larry because I know how manipulative she is, she would get inside your head and fuck you about.

But what I didn't see coming was that they had been doing it for months behind my back while we were still in a 'normal' relationship. He lied to me and that was harder to accept then Emily.

A few weeks later I was in the music shop with Benji when they walked in and Emily bought Larry a new guitar. I mean everyone knew that her family didn't have a lot of money so it confused me. When I walked closer I realised that she was using my bank card with all my savings in it.

I went mad, I punched Larry which made him fall to the floor, took my card out of the machine and before I left kicked him a few times.

Once I was home I went on Twitter and I saw a few posts from Larry's private account that no one had but me and there were a couple of racey pictures of Emily so I logged out of my account and logged into his. I posted 2 pictures of her completely naked and logged back out.

The weird thing though was I only posted two, when I logged back into my account there were 4 and the two I didn't upload had captions which just attached her account to the picture.

The Police found out, Larry deleted his account. Then the police sentenced him to community service for a couple of months. Then his parents sent him away and Emily left. I felt free from embarrassment and anarchy. Then you started talking to me. I want you to know that I'm not that person. Anger just overcame me and I did something stupid for my own benefit.

It was harder losing my best mate over some girl. I know that his already forgave me but I don't know if I'm ready to forgive him".

I watched him intensively while he spoke I didn't realise that happened, to be honest I thought he would've told me something worse but I kinda understand where he came from.

"Say something" Van looked me dead in the eye.

"I'm sorry" that's all I could say.