42 Maniac

When Justin woke up, everyone was crowding above him but Emily, whose leg he had unintentionally trapped. "What happened?" he slurred as he blinking heavily against the light.

"You won the game and then you fainted," Sam said simply.

He groaned, drowning in his own embarrassment. "You can go ahead and kill me now. It was nice knowing all of you."

"Hey, at least it's not as bad as what happened at laser tag!" his cousin chirped.

"What happened at laser tag?!" Justin's mom asked worriedly.

Provided he was ever able to move again, Justin was going to kill that blabbermouth. What happened to promising never to tell?

"He tried ducking under a board to avoid getting shot and gave himself a concussion," Emily pitched in.

"Hey, at least I wasn't the one to tell her!" Sam said mischievously, beaming at him in a way he could only describe as evilly.

"I hate you," he moaned, covering his eyes. "Nobody look at me."

"I've got it!" Lily yelled before hurrying out of the room. She came back with a white sheet that she draped over his entire body. "There, now you look dead. That's what you wanted, right?"

Everyone burst out laughing but Justin didn't think it was funny. It was as if his soul had left him. Bad enough he had to faint from pain and overexertion but he landed on top of the woman of his dreams.

This was the  second time he had fainted in front of her. Now he wanted to go back to that day at the beach and let Sam finish the job, burying his head in the sand and never coming back out.

"Justin, are you alright?" Emily's soft voice called as everyone else kept laughing at him.

"No," he said miserably.

"Can I take the sheet off?"

"No."

"Okay, well I'm going to go find an ice pack or something…Mrs. Burnett, where do you keep your ice packs?"

Aunt Rhonda's voice sounded. "A little side shelf in the freezer. It's easy to find."

A few minutes later Justin found out exactly why it was easy to find. The ice pack was shaped like a teddy bear. Lying there on the floor with a teddy bear pressed to his head, Justin realized that this was truly the worst day of his entire life.

He stayed silent, hoping that if he was still enough he would disappear. Unfortunately, he wasn't that lucky.

"Are you feeling any better? Do you think you can get up?" Emily asked, her anxious face appearing in front of him.

"I'll just stay here, thanks."

"It's not as embarrassing as you think it is…"

"You're right, it's worse," he said, refusing to meet her eyes. "How would you like to faint on top of someone for the second time?"

Her lips quirked slightly. "Technically, I fell on you after you fainted the first time."

"Ah, technicalities," he mumbled before going silent again.

"It's totally fine, Justin. These things happen."

Do they? Do they really? Who do they happen to? Who could possibly have worse luck than him when it comes to this sort of thing?

And after Sam told her the fainting story when he was six…Emily probably thought he had some sort of disease that made him faint all the time. But no, it was only his terrible luck and physical weakness. He vowed then that if he didn't suffer heart failure from the mortification he was going to go to the gym and become less weak so things like this would stop happening.

"These things happen too often," he said under his breath.

Emily saw how utterly defeated he looked and gently patted his shoulder to console him, not knowing what else to say. Through the haze of his anguish, a small part of him acknowledged how nice it was that she was touching him in a comforting way. She had never done anything like that before.

"It's not your fault, you know," she finally spoke up. "I would've lost anyway. I was half a second from giving out myself when you fell into me. That game…is slightly sadistic, to be honest. Do you always play things like that?"

He shook his head then winced. Bad idea.

"This is a new one. We usually do stuff more like the crab walk and the popcorn eating contest. I'm not good at those but at least they're not dangerous."

She pursed her lips as if debating something before leaning down to whisper in his ear, "No offense, Justin, but you were right. Your family is a little crazy."

For some reason, her confession broke him out of his melancholy. He started to laugh and kept laughing until he couldn't breathe, literally rolling on the floor, as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. Emily looked at him, completely baffled, which only made him laugh harder.

When he finally calmed down she shook her head at him indulgently. "You know what? You're a little crazy too."

"Hey, I just hit my head, I think a little crazy is justified."

He started choking on his own laughter because the word justified was similar to his name. His behavior was Justinified. Emily looked at him as if he had truly lost his sanity when he couldn't explain why he was laughing again between bouts of giggles.

"Come on, they're about to serve pie. Maybe that will calm you down." She reached out a hand to pull him up and managed to get him on his feet. "You okay? Not feeling dizzy or anything?"

Her concern broke through his hysterical fit of laughter and warmed his heart. She saw him faint on top of her and laugh like a complete maniac and yet she was still concerned about him.

He gave her a dazzling smile. "I feel great."