Guardians

Chapter 31 - Time Freeze

"Where are we? You can't expect us to blindly follow you everywhere without knowing what happened to Stan!" Lena screamed at Minho.

They began arguing since the moment we landed. Trees surrounded us and it was getting dark.

"I'm sick of you yelling at me! It's not my fault your friend is weak and couldn't handle some simple time travel!" Minho roared back in frustration.

"Are you serious? She was hurt. I know she might've appeared like she was okay, but she wasn't. I could tell from the moment I walked into that hospital room." Lena snapped back.

"Stan, isn't weak." I mumbled. "She's so strong she doesn't realize how great she is. You should've held on to her tighter. She saved your life after all!" I scolded Minho.

Minho's angry face softened and studied the dirt road. He started to nod, "I know, I'm sorry. I'm only mad at myself. I should've been more careful, but all I can hope is we're in the same time line. Or at least not too far off."

"It's not all your fault. I lost her, too. I was too confident in myself even when I noticed she was slipping. I could tell from the start her grip was weak." Lisa chimed in. She was piggyback riding on Taemin's back.

Guilt started to creep in because of what I said. "I spoke out out of terms. I'm sorry. I should've held on to our friend. She was right next to me, but I was too scared to open my eyes."

Juli put her arms around me. "Don't worry, Nessa, all of us were screaming our guts out. I'm sure we all feel guilty about losing Stan."

"I don't. I wasn't standing close to her." Soo Min commented with a straight face, then laughed. "Oh, man! You should've seen your faces! I was joking!"

"You've got a strange sense of humor." Juli noted worriedly.

"I'm sure Stan's probably blaming herself far more than any of us do ourselves. I hope she's okay." Lena sighed.

"Knowing Stan I'm sure she's doing okay." I comforted Lena. She smiled at me and nodded in agreement. We weren't super close. Stan was the only reason I was invited to Kcon. I was friends with her in High School and she was the first true friend since moving into the state.

I grew up in Florida with tons of friends. In those days I was similar to how Stan is now. I didn't care what others thought of me and a bit of a tomboy which is how we connected when we met. But in those days I was also super outgoing and popular and a bit of a jerk. I envied Stanza's personality. I wish I was a little more like her.

I guess I had my reasons to my meanness. Once I made all the girls in my grade slap a boy in the face because he  crushed my friend's feelings for him. We were only 9 at the time. I felt guilty for all the bad things I did, though. 

I met Stan in 9th grade biology even if she can't remember. I moved in the middle of the year. We would always say hi to each other. We didn't start to get close until we were in 11th grade math class together. We were both extremely good at it and loved our teacher. I once embarrassingly called him dad and Stan won't let me live it down.

I would always tell her she was better than me at math, but till this day she insists I am way smarter than her even when she found out I was retaking the math class. I was a few years ahead in my old school, but at this new high school I was falling behind. Which worked out for the better in the end.

One day Stanza realized I ate lunch alone and ever since we were inseparable. She called me a loner and said this was why she ate with me. Stan was purely kidding to lift up my mood. She had a big group of friends herself, but was never considered a friend to most of them. Truthfully, Stan only had two friends in the group. Her best friend from elementary cared too much about being popular and having a boyfriend to fit in. They slowly drifted apart and she would only eat with her best friend's group out of loyalty to her.