Justin

     I heard the thump echoing up from the second floor a few seconds before there was a loud shout of "MOM! KIM! JEANINE! LAILA FAINTED!"

That was all it took before I was sprinting up the long staircase to the next floor, down the hallway, banging into Laila, Maggie, and Emma's room. Patricia, Jeanine, and my mother were close on my heels, followed by Dimitri and Dad, and then lastly Emma and Nick.

Maggie was bent down beside Laila's unconscious body, a look on her face that I could honestly say I'd never seen before. She was worried, a stricken expression tugging at her features.

"Maggie!" Patricia explained, bending down beside her daughter. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Maggie exclaimed, her voice high pitched. "She was standing in the doorway, talking to me, and then the next thing I knew, she fainted."

Patricia lead her daughter over to take a seat on a bed, trying to calm her down.

Horrifying freaked out nerves started twisting my stomach into knots as I knelt on the ground beside Laila. Laying the back of my hand against her forehead, I frowned.

"She has a fever," I said to the people present in the room.

She was burning up, that was plainly obvious.

"It must be altitude sickness," Jeanine said, twisting her hands together. "She's never been this high up before."

"Laila?" I brushed back a strand of hair from her face, biting my lip. "Can you hear me, sweetheart?"

She remained decidedly silent.

"I'll open the door," Nick said before walking across the room to slide open the door that lead out to the second level of the back deck.

A soft, chill breeze floated through the room, ruffling our clothing and the curtains. I waited with baited breath, hoping that Laila would just wake up already and be all right.

Much to my relief, half a second later, Laila's sea-blue eyes fluttered open, her chest heaving she she struggled to sit up. I caught an arm around her waist and gently pulled her upright so she was leaning against my side.

"Laila?" Jeanine said in a hushed voice, bending down to her level. "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Laila asked in a muffled voice, her head drooping against my shoulder.

"You fainted," Nick answered, his arms crossed as he leaned up against the wall.

"What - why?" she demanded, her eyes nearly rolling back in her head.

"Altitude sickness," my mom answered, her hands clasped together, looking beyond nervous. "You get sick to your stomach, light headed, throwing up - basically like the flu."

"Ughn."

I flushed bright red when Laila started dropping back to sleep again, her face buried in my shoulder.

"Let her sleep," Dad said sagely. "There's not really much you can do about altitude sickness."

"Poor Laila," Patricia sighed, looking worried. "And while we're on vacation, too."

There were muttered agreements from everyone else in the room.

"And when there's going to be another party, too," Mom added, clearly disappointed.

I cut my eyes to her in a steely glare. "Excuse me,mother?"

Mom returned my hardened look with a sheepish one, exchanging looks with Jeanine and Patricia.

"Well, we really only come to Ouray once a year, anyways, so I thought that maybe it would be nice if we had a little get together with all of our friends here, you know, just to - "

"Mom," Emma and I groaned in unison.

"It'll be fun, I promise you," she tried to say reassuringly, but I most certainly did not believe that.

To be perfectly honest? I was beginning to believe that any type of party, thrown by adults or teenagers or whatever, perfectly sucked.

"Exciting," Nick whistled from his spot by the door.

I rolled my eyes. "For sure, Nick. Absolutely."

Taking my dad's advice, I carefully shifted Laila's weight into my arms, holding her against me bridal style, and stood, crossing the room to the bed she shared with Emma.

"I'll go get her some tylenol," Jeanine said before she bustled from the room, still looking extremely worried.

I took deep breaths, trying to get myself calmed down, but I was honestly a little shooken up.

"She'll be fine, Justin," Mom said, squeezing my shoulder reassuringly as she stood behind me.

"I know," I said, but I didn't trust myself to say anything else.

Nick was still in the room, but I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't let me live it down if I did or said something stupid.

Thanks, Nick.

"We should give her some time to rest," Dad said, all wise again.

The rest of the occupants of the room all nodded in agreement before they started to file out the door.

"She's gonna be okay, man," Nick said, slamming a punch to my shoulder as he passed.

I glowered at him in annoyance. "I know."

"You're such a worry wart," he muttered in response with a smirk.

"Thanks, Nick," I said acidly, rolling my eyes.

It sounded like he was muttering something about my being whipped as he left the room after his parents.

There was only one person left in the room after everyone left, and that was Maggie.

It was a little awkward to say the least as she sat on the bed across the room, watching me as I took a seat at the foot of Laila's bed, running a hand through my hair.

A part of me just wanted to get up and run and go jump out the window, but I really didn't want to leave Laila alone.

God, I was such a freak.

"You really like her, don't you?"

I glanced up over at Maggie with a confused look on my face. There was a blank sort of expression on her face that I didn't know how to comprehend.

"Yeah," I muttered, adverting my eyes. "I really do."

Maggie's honey colored eyes met my green ones, and I could've sworn that the look that crossed her face then was enough to make me fear for my well being. Without saying anything else, she stood up from the bed and strode from the room with a determined gait that could mean only one thing.

She was up to something.

Well, I definitely knew that I didn't want to stick around to find out whatever the hell was going on in that conniving mind of her's.

Jeanine returned to the room a moment later with a small glass of water and a few tylenol in her hand.

"Laila," I muttered, catching on. "Wake up."

"But...I don't...want to...." she sighed heavily into her pillow.

"Well, unless you want me to shove the tylenol down your throat...."

"Jerk."

Laila sat up with a huff, pushing her tangled hair out of her eyes and swallowed back the pills Jeanine handed her.

"Just try and get some sleep, okay?" Jeanine said to her daughter with a worried look. "There's really not much you can do but sleep it off."

Laila gave an annoyed look but flopped back against the mountain of pillows. "That puts a damper on the vacation, huh?"

"Yeah," I agreed with a scowl of my own.

She actually smiled smally in my direction. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," I said, raising my hands. "It's not your fault."

Jeanine gave her daughter a sympathetic look before making her way towards the door. I made to follow after her, standing up, but Laila wrapped her thin fingers around my wrist, holding me back.

i turned to her with a questioning look.

"Stay with me?" she asked, a cute pink blush coloring her cheeks.

I was shocked by her request for half a second before I grinned crookedly. "Sure."

"I'm leaving the door open," Jeanine said pointedly, standing in the doorway. "So don't try anything."

"Scouts honour, Jeanine," I reassured her, tipping a two-fingered salute. "No worries."

Jeanine gave the two of us another firm look before she disappeared down the hallway.

Laila patted the large empty space on the bed beside her pointedly - still looking insanely embarrassed - so I kicked off my shoes and flopped down next to her.

"Are you feeling any better?" I asked her as buried her face in a pillow.

"No," she muttered with another sigh.

"You want me to sing to you?"

"....Really?"

"Ha, ha. No. Sorry."

She gave me a glowering look, her pretty face half hidden by the pillow. "Then why even ask?"

"I was just trying to make you feel better," I said honestly, hoping I wasn't flushing.

It's not like she needed another thing to embarrass me with.

"Just stay here with me, okay?" she sighed into her pillow. "That'll be enough."

Well, what kind of person would I be if I didn't do what she asked?

     "Here," I said, setting a plate of freshly made scrambled eggs and toast down on the nightstand beside Laila. "I made breakfast for you."

Laila gave me a half-lidded, sleepy look as she sat up, brushing back her tangled hair. "You made me breakfast?"

I flopped down on the bed beside her - my space, as I'd claimed it earlier - and tried not to look too insanely smug.

"I am such a good person, aren't I?" I drawled, my arms behind my head.

Laila rolled her eyes as she nibbled off a bit of her toast. "Totally. You've gotta be the most selfless, amazing boy I've ever met."

"You really think so."

"No," she grinned, rolling her eyes.

Then she thought about that for a minute and then added embarrassingly, "Well, at least kissing wise, you are."

I couldn't help but smirk at that one, arching an eyebrow. "Thanks, sweetheart."

She finished eating her breakfast in silence, occasionally shooting me a look while she munched on her eggs, while I stared up at the ceiling, forcing myself not to fall asleep.

It had been a long night, to say the least. Nick had decided for some ungodly reason that he wanted to talk about anything and everything for hours on end, and I'd only gotten about five minutes of sleep - if that.

And Nicholas, my best friend, was now sleeping.

I fought back a snort. Figures.

My eyes flew open when I felt someone curling up against my side, resting their head on my shoulder with a contended sigh.

"Laila?" I said, my voice oddly high-pitched. "What are you doing?"

"Shhh...." Laila hummed, her eyes closed. "Do you hear that?"

I made a face in confusion. "Uhm. Hear what?"

"That's the sound of you being quiet so I can sleep."

I wasn't so sure if I wanted to burst out laughing or hide my face in a pillow because my face was turning the color of a lobster.

Half a second later I came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything I could reply with that wouldn't make me sound like even more of an ass.

"You make a good pillow, Richards," Laila yawned, relaxing more against me.

I chuckled at that. "Thanks, Hayes."

When I finally relaxed enough to where I was almost dropping off to sleep again, Laila spoke again, catching me off guard.

"Justin?"

"Hmm."

"When I leave to go home...what do you...what d'you think'll happen?"

Her question made my stomach sink, my nerves starting to twist into knots. On instinct, I wrapped an arm around her tiny waist, tugging her closer to my side.

"I don't know, Laila. I just don't know."

  By six o'clock that evening, the entire house was filled with the plethora of friends and acquantinces of my parents that lived in Ouray. Of course, since I was their son, I was required to make an appearance and stand there and smile and nod while people gushed over how attractive I was or how tall I was or any other thing that made me bored.

In all honesty, I really would've rather been hanging out with Nick or upstairs with Laila.

The poor girl was still so exhausted and light headed from altitude sickness that she had barely left her bed the entire day. It'd been enough work trying to get her the small amount of food I'd brought up for her, thanks very much.

"Your parents are filthy rich, you know that, right?" Nick said, taking a swig of his Dr. Pepper.

I glared at him over the rim of my own can of Sprite. "Yeah, I know that, thanks."

Nick shot a smirk in my direction, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm here to look out of you, man."

"Thanks, Nick."

We were sitting on the staircase by the kitchen, drinking what had to be our seventh can of soda, trying to avoid everyone at this stupid little foray.

''But in all honesty?" Nick continued, glancing over at me. "I'm glad my sister isn't around. She's been so annoying lately."

I fought back a snort of laughter. He was telling the truth, to put it lightly.

"I swear, she annoyed the crap outta me yesterday in Montrose. She kept going on and on about - "

"No offense, man," I said, cutting him off. "But I'm really not interested in hearing about your sister."

Nick pretended to look offended, but it didn't work. Instead it just looked like he was trying really hard not to start burst out laughing. "If I can't complain to you, Justin, who can I complain to, then?"

I sighed dramatically, rolling my eyes. "It must be so hard to be you, Nick."

He shouted after me with laughter while I dragged myself up from the staircase and wandered my way into the kitchen, my stomach grumbling.

I could do with some food.

I went straight for one of the counters that had platters of deli sandwiches laid out according to what meat was in it. Setting my can of soda down, I grabbed a plate and started making myself a plate of food to eat. I honestly loved roastbeef.

"Heya, Justin."

Damn. Speak of the devil....

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Maggie leaning against the kitchen doorway, arms crossed over her chest, a cool look on her face.

"Hi," I said flatly, turning back around.

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Dun dun dun.....cliff hanger!!!! D:  

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