The rest of the night Eugene and I play extreme hide and seek even though it's a game for kids up to the age of at least eight and the both of us are eighteen and twenty. The game continues until the sun falls, and we get caught by Nigel the Adviser.
"Princess Rapunzel, it is not proper etiquette for you to be running around the castle. Especially barefoot. You should not be encouraging the princess to do these things. Anyway, as long as you both are done acting like children, your parents are asking you to come down to dinner Princess Rapunzel," Nigel says.
"Thanks Nigel," I tell him then mock him the entire way down the stairs. No one says a word the first twenty minutes of dinner and the silence drives me insane. I can't stand it.
"So, this is nice," Anne says clearly annoyed with the silence like I am.
"Yep," Eugene agrees sarcastically.
"Rapunzel, I forgot to tell you that everything is all ready-," Mom starts to say.
"I haven't told Anne or Eugene yet," I interrupt.
"You haven't told us what yet?" Anne asks.
"I set another date for my coronation. I'm calling it Coronation Take Two," I announce.
"You sure about this?" Eugene asks.
"I want to get this over with. I have been having nightmares since it happened, and I think the only way I can be okay is if I actually have this coronation," I respond hoping it made sense and wasn't as stupid as I thought it was.
"I'll be right by you the entire time and so will your parents. Also Anne," Eugene tells me. He makes me smile. Eugene thinks of Cassandra like a sister and he treats Anne like he treats Cass. It makes me happy that he can get along with them if and when we do marry sometime in the future.
"Thank you for not telling me that this is stupid," I respond. With that dinner continues in silence. I'm relieved when Eugene, Anne, and I are excused.
Cass comes back and it's like as soon as she got inside and her date had left she ran up to my room. Either that or the date when so terrible that she came up to my room to kill me. She catches her breath and flops onto my bed. I check under my bed making sure I have my frying pan before I go back to reading my book.
"Oh my goodness! The night ended way too quickly!" she informs me.
"How was it?" I ask. She begins to grin and sits up bouncing with excitement.
"He got me a single red rose, and then took me to dinner and dancing. We got here and after I told him I had a great night he told me he did too. I thanked him for taking me out and it got super awkward. It was horrible! Then, as I start to turn to go in he grabs my waist and kisses me!" she explains. The both of us squeal with excitement. Anne comes into the room and informs us we have to shut it, and we throw pillows at her resulting in a pillow fight and a sleepover.
It's like ever since I set the date for Coronation Take Two anxiety flows through my body like a river, and every thirty seconds I find myself thinking about what could go wrong this next time. Up until two weeks before the second coronation we learn that at least ninety percent of our guests are able to make it once more. They arrive within three days of take two.
Eugene and I have hardly ever been separated after the almost funeral. One of us would go to each other's room to sleep each night. I would do it for comfort being next to him and he would do it knowing how happy it made me and how safe I felt. The day before Coronation Take Two Eugene and I fall asleep in my bay window. It was obvious that both of us still weren't sleeping well at night so we decided to catch up on it. He wraps his arms around me and I fall asleep feeling safe.
Suddenly all I can see is his dead body, and the only difference is that there's blood everywhere. Both Gothel and Lady Cain are there laughing as he lays in my arms far, far from living. He feels so cold. I sort of wake up feeling restless and still try fighting both women in my sleep. I feel my knee hit something- or someone and a thud follow that. I sit up quickly noticing that Eugene is no longer sleeping next to me. As if he disappeared. I turn to see what caused the thud sound only to see Eugene on the ground looking like he was injured. I gasp before rushing to the ground to help him.
"Are you okay?" I ask him trying to look him in the eyes. He nods before putting his head on my shoulder.
"I'm fine," he responds now sounding muffled and as if he's in a lot of pain.
"Was that you I kicked in my sleep?" I ask beginning to feel guilty about what I could've still probably stopped. His only response is a nod. I wrap my arms around him wishing I could help him. I hear the door and when the both of us look up it's closed as if nothing happened. I get up and peek out the door to see Cassandra looking as if she saw what happened.
"You didn't see anything, did you?" I ask her.
"No, I didn't see your boyfriend try leaving by climbing over you and you accidentally kicking him in the process," she responds trying to keep a straight face. I pull my hair back out of my face.
"You did see it! Don't laugh, it's not funny!" I order her.
"I know, but at least he's okay," she says cracking a smile.
"I unintentionally kneed my boyfriend. I don't see how that is funny," I tell her.
"If I were you I'd go make sure that he was okay. Listen, this is going to stay between the three of us. I promise," Cassandra promises. I nod and return to my room where Eugene is still on my bedroom floor in pain. I wrap my arms around him and he puts his head back on my shoulder and wraps one arm around me. I kiss his head as if he could feel better by me doing that.
"I'm sorry about this. I didn't mean to hurt you," I tell him in his ear.
"I know. I'll be fine. Eventually," he says trying to reassure me.
"This wouldn't have happened if we had slept on my bed," I remind.
"Well we both wanted to read in the bay window and then we both fell asleep there. This also did happen," he tells me.
"You think when we have kids and they're around teenage years we'll talk about the most embarrassing things and when this comes up we'll laugh about it?" I ask him. Eugene lets go of me and looks me in the eyes.
"I'm sure we will be laughing about this tonight," he reassures me. He gently kisses me and it hardly lasts a second before someone knocks on my door.
"Rapunzel?" Mom's voice calls out.
"We have to hide you before my parents find out what happened. Then it won't be funny later tonight," I tell him helping him up off the floor.
"Rapunzel? Can we come in and talk for a second?" Dad's voice asks.
"Crap. Yeah, if your dad finds out then it'll never be funny," Eugene says as we go to my bathroom. A place I doubt they'll see him. Unless I should've just hidden him in my closet like I did when I lived in the tower. Mother Gothel had no idea about him until after realizing I left.
"Yeah, just give me a second though," I tell my parents. Once he's hidden I open my bedroom door and my parents enter.
"Rapunzel, your father and I want to talk to you before dinner. We want to make sure that you're okay with another big ceremony," Mom tells me. I hesitate before answering her.
"What if something goes wrong?" I ask sitting on the foot of my bed.
"Well, as long as we have Lady Cain chained up in jail then nothing will go wrong," Dad tells me as if it was simple and she was already in jail.
"Okay. Thank you for reassuring me. I'm okay to have the ceremony as long as Eugene can be right next to you. We also should double the guards in case we still haven't captured her. I don't want to have to keep inviting people over for a coronation that doesn't seem to happen," I tell them. They join me at the foot of my bed and hug me. I begin to feel safe and that reminds me about how I have hidden my boyfriend.
"I'll make sure your father keeps an open mind about Eugene and we can double the guards on duty. I'm also sick of having to send out invites and such when each coronation goes wrong. Even though it's only the second time we're having this," Mom says.
"Speaking of Eugene, where is he? I wanted to talk to him about something," Dad announces.
"I can let him know you'd like to talk to him when I see him. I had taken a nap, and I hadn't seen him since before that. Maybe he's in the library or something," I suggest.
"You sure he's not either under your bed, in the closet, or in the bathroom hiding?" Dad asks as if I was a criminal being interrogated.
"Daddy! I am not someone you can just interrogate! I need you to trust me instead of thinking that I'm hiding him in here," I tell my father even though he's right that I have him hiding from him.
"Well then, please let him know that what I want to talk about is very important and it also effects where he's at during the coronation tomorrow," Dad informs me.
"I will make sure he knows that then," I assure my father. He kisses the top of my head before him and my mother leave. I rush to where Eugene is to find the door locked.
"One second," is the only response I get from him.
"Rapunzel, we forgot to tell you that dinner will be ready in about ten minutes so why don't you come down. We don't want to keep everyone waiting. Besides, I'm sure that Eugene is already downstairs waiting to talk to your father," Mom tells me.
"I'm sure of it!" I tell her rather too quickly.
"Is he hiding in here? What happened that has you acting jumpy?" Mom asks.
"I have to tell her," I tell Eugene through the door. The door unlocks and swings open.
"I thought we were going to keep it from them," he whispers in my ear.
"As long as she doesn't tell my dad then we'll be fine," I try reassuring him. He sighs.
"We fell asleep in here because neither if us were sleeping much since the date of the second take of the coronation was made," Eugene starts to tell her.
"That's nothing as long as you only slept and nothing else happened," Mom says.
"There's more to the story," I inform her.
"That's only for-," she starts to say.
"What happened is that after I woke up I tried leaving the room and it was at the same time she was having a nightmare. It's not the worst thing to happen, but let's just say that I wish we could've waited a while longer before telling the story to anyone," he finishes.
"We fell asleep on the bay window so he had to climb over me to leave," I say filling in any details he seemed to lack.
"Well then. You come down whenever and Rapunzel, why don't you walk down with me?" Mom suggests.
"Okay," I nod before giving Eugene a quick hug and leaving.
Mom and I walk to the stairs in silence.
"I think that the story would've been a little bit funnier after the both of you were married and you were in labor with your first child," Mom tells me breaking the silence.
"I think that too! Although I don't think we should talk about it ever again. I feel so bad about it," I tell her.
"Don't. You didn't mean to hurt him, and he's going to come down soon," Mom tries reassuring me.
"He better or I'll have to treat him like a baby, and bring him food and stuff. I guess that the only thing I should find okay about this is that at least he's going to be okay and I hope that one day we can laugh about this still," I tell her.
"Hey, Zel?" Eugene calls out. I look up to see him at the top of the stairs. I rush to his side as we both walk down the stairs. One arm around his side and the other on his stomach. He keeps one hand on me for stability and the other on the banister.
"You going to be okay to talk to my dad after dinner?" I ask.
"I should be fine. I can walk by myself. As long as stairs aren't involved," he tells me.
"That's good. As long as I don't have to help you upstairs tonight. If I did then my dad would probably figure that something happened. He'd know that something was up," I remind Eugene.
"As long as he doesn't want to talk to me before dinner. We also don't have to worry unless Cassandra put me at the kiddie table or something," Eugene says.
"She would do that," I realize. We get to the bottom of the stairs and see my father looking at us as if we were crazy. I take a step away from my boyfriend.
"We can explain what happened," I tell him.
"I rather find out later when I talk to Eugene after dinner," Dad says.
"Thomas," Mom warns.
"Am I in trouble for doing something?" Eugene asks.
"It's not like I plan to execute him after dinner in my study Primrose! No, Eugene, you aren't in any trouble. Think of this as a talk with your girlfriend's father instead of with the King," Dad responds.
"Still seems like you should worry," I whisper loudly to Eugene. Mom stifles a laugh and Eugene tries to hide a smile.
"Like I said, I won't execute him! All I want is to talk. No lectures, no yelling, no killing, and no banishing," Dad announces as if we were trying to convince him that he shouldn't talk to Eugene because something would go wrong.
"You joining us for dinner or not?" Anne asks.
"Coming," I respond with a small smile.
Sorry about any parts that were lame. I've been distracted with work and moving too. Once I finish moving and all that and my stress gives me a break then I will work harder on this so it isn't lame.