(I Just) Died In Your Arms ~ Stanley Uris

025

Julia's POV

I biked up to the entrance of the school, the first time in a while that I've been nervous to step foot on the campus, to face Stanley. I had made up my mind I would try to talk to him, no matter how many times he pulled away. I parked my bike outside and glanced towards the group, making note that Stan wasn't with them. They were gathered around the curb of the street, talking amongst themselves, not even noticing me. I didn't mind though, because I had more important things to tend to.

I made a beeline towards my locker, having left my notebook there the day before. My locker was a couple down from Stan's, so there was no doubt he would be there aswell. I was in fact right, he was in front of his locker, pulling out a large textbook. His head turned to his left, eyes vacant of any emotion, meeting mine in an instant. He looked ghastly, his cheeks sucked of color and his dark crescents underneath his eyes.

My heart skipped a beat for a moment, nearly forgetting we were broken up for a moment, knocked back to reality when he slammed his locker door, starting to walk past me, his eyes searching for an escape. I pulled him aside, grabbing his wrist so he couldn't leave me. He stopped, his hands balled up into fists.

"Stan, I'm sorry." I said quietly, my expression softening. "He kissed me, I barely even know him, I know what it looks like. And I'm sorry."

"Who is he then, huh?" Stan's voice broke, biting his lip to hold back tears. He had been dwelling on this all night.

"Cynthia's brother. He's a disgusting person, I never wanted to kiss him." I struggled to explain, knowing he would nitpick my words to find dishonesty. I could see in his eyes that he wanted to believe me, but the uncertainty surrounding him was too great.

"How am I supposed to know that each time you go over to Cynthia's you don't kiss him?" He snapped, tugging his arm away from mine, I recoiled, touching my hand to my chest. My heart was pounding.

"You're supposed to believe me, Stan. I thought you trusted me." I whimpered, and he took a step back.

"I'm not sure if I can anymore."

Stan walked away, and I could feel the tears already coming. I sunk to the floor, scrambling to take out my walker. The only thing that I could soothe me was the playing of music, a substitute to the need of someone's arms around me. I had no control over which song would play, but the first thing that came up was Lovefool. I tilted my head back onto the cold metal of the lockers, closing my eyes as I took in the lyrics, forcing myself not to cry. I already had cried enough over him.

Love me, love me. Say that you love me. Fool me, fool me. Go on and fool me.

The bell rang, cutting the song short, leaving me unsatisfied. I had next period with him, and music wasn't going to save me then, so I just needed to muster up the strength to keep it all together for an hour. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

I entered the classroom, my messy hair tumbling over my shoulders, moving as I walked. I pushed my hair behind my ears, but my hair was so thick that it just wouldn't stay put. I gave up, letting it hang in front of my shoulders, sitting down at my desk with no hesitation. Luckily, my seating placement was in front of Stan, so I didn't have to look at him all period.

Mr. Warner went to the front of the classroom, his big hands pointing at the equations scribbled across the white board. He explained them for a bit, but didn't spend too much time teaching us and let us work independently. He said around the beginning of the year that our class was smart enough to figure it out ourselves, so this wasn't new to us. I would've been fine with it if he didn't make us split up into assigned partners again, which mine was Stan.