The perfect princess.

I stretch my arms out across the damp meadow grass and lose myself in Jeff Bucklys voice as he sings 'Hallelujah'. Today is a perfect day. The sun is up and shining down but the soft breeze trailing through the air makes the suns heat bareable. Its such a perfect day that it almost makes me forget about how miserable I am. Almost.

"Wait- what do you mean 'lets go'?" demands Harry, pinching his nose to try and stop the blood flow. It isn''t working. I eye the blood around his nose nervously, trying to ignore the queasy feeling settling in my stomach. I really, really hate blood.

"Exactly that" interrupts Anthony, eyeing Harry with as much sympathy as Voldermort would to a muggle. Excuse the Harry Potter metaphor.

The world starts to spin as I manage to tear my eyes away from the blood. But its too late now. My body suddenly goes all gello on me and I latch onto Harrys arm for support. His mouth starts moving but no sound comes out. Or maybe thats me? Tears prick my eyes as I try to breath, but all the oxygen seems to have dissapaired. Whats happening? Why can't I breath? My visions all hazy and all I can see is blood; Everywhere. Gasping for breath, I finally manage to find my voice.

"I'm sorry" I splutter before letting go of of my grip on Harry. I stumble towards the Black SUV parked behind us, and even though the worlds still spinning and I feel like I have no control over my body, I manage to open the passenger seat door.

At the time it felt like I was on the verge of dying, but turns out I was just having a panic attack from the blood. Anthony informed my parents about the panic attack, but instead changed the story so as to keep Harry out of it. To my parents knowledge, a dead bird triggered it. Which may sound a little far fetched, but seeing as I cried when Eric squished a spider a year ago, it didn't come as too much of a shock.

I've been in a numb state this past week. Anthony's kept me locked in the house, not that I would have left anyway. We haven't really said anything to each other though. Hell, I haven't really said anything to anyone. I've just been in my own little world. Things I used to enjoy doing, mean nothing to me now. All I do is listen to music and wander around senslessly. Mostly I lie in the meadow for hours on end, loosing track of time and only coming home when I feel hungry.

You could say that I've lost the will to live. But not really, I'm just hopelessly bored. I haven't heard from Harry, even though I did give him my number. Then again, I wouldn't call me. My bodyguard broke his nose and all I did was murmur sorry before leaving him alone with a bloodied face. I was just so scared though. I didn't know what else to do.

"Violet!" somebody pulls the headphones out of my ears and I blink a few times before focusing on the person leaning over me. Eric.

"Fuck off" I scowl, ripping my headphone out of his hand. "Go be a prick somewhere else." I roll over and shove the buds back in my ears but he obviously had his heart set on annoying me. Supporting me by the waist, he picks me up and hoists my body over his shoulder, Shrek style.

"What the fuck, put me down!" I yell, bawling my fists and hititng his back, mentally cursing the gods for making me so small and light.

"Jesus you have an attitude" I can practically hear his smirk "I only came down here because you have a visitor."

"A visitor?" I stop hitting him.

"Yes, now if I put you down, will you promise not to run back to Wonderland?" he drawls in a way only Eric Dragomir can.

"Promise," I say and he places me on the ground again, only now do I realise we're back on the deck. Wow, he carried me all the way from the back of the meadow to the front deck? Who would have thought. "Now which visitor? Because if its Grandma, I'm going further than the meadow" I cross my arms over my chest in a very stubborn way and his smirk only grows.

"Turn around"

I do as I'm told and my eyes find a very familiar pair of long brown legs stretched along one of the deck sun chairs, her long dark hair in its usual mops of curls and a pair of lage glasses hiding those green eyes that I'd recognise from miles away.

"Emily?"

-------

"So let me guess, dad called you because he thinks I'm having a mantal breakdown?" I question with a raised eyebrow. Em sucks on her straw for a few seconds and I watch as the liquid level in the glass goes down.

"No, well yes, but your dad wasn't the one to call me. Eric did," she replies much to my surprise. Eric? I knew he was worried about me, but Eric actually doing something that isn't directly about himself? I thought cows would fly before that happened. Maybe he's more selfless than I give him credit for.

"Huh. So basically he called you because you're cheaper than a psychologist?" Is my reply and she gives me one of her looks. Though it probably isn't too far from the truth. Emily, or Duchess of Genovia, is related to me somewhere back in the family tree (when I say back I mean, waaaay way back). Our families are quite close and so we were brought up together like sisters. Dad also thinks she's a great influence on me, which is complete bull once you get to know her, but hey; what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

"Ha ha, oh how ingenuisly funny you are" she retorts dryly "Now, tell me whats going on. Eric said that ever since you got back from that American awards thingy, you've been acting like a class A crazy person."

"Well, thats nice"

She ignores my sarcastic comment and continues with her story "And seeing as he was a little bit tipsy that night. He can't remember anything that happened, other than what he was told later about how you had a panic attack from a dead bird, which I don't believe for one second..."

"Actually, that did happen"

She ignores me again "...So, I decided to go all Nancy Drew on the sitution and I ended up interrogating Anthony, who had a very interesting story to tell me." I hold had my breath. Surely Anthony wouldn't spill? Hes a trained security guard for christs sake! "...a story involving some curly haired babe from a boyband" she smirks slyly at me over the top of her glass and even though I had no intention of telling anyone anything about that night.

Somehow, I ended up spilling everything. The kiss, the stars, the blood... By the end of my story, I have tears pouring down my cheeks and my chest is heaving like I'd just run the Tour De France.

"...I was on cloud nine with him and then in, like, 2 seconds, his face was bloodied and I couldn't breath... And god, I just feel so empty now. Ever since that night, my chest feels all tight and I have panic attacks all the time and I don't want to tell anyone because I don't want anyone to worry about me... and then dads getting sick and..." I conclude my story with a hiccup and she nods sympathtically before pulling me into a hug. Once she pulls away my chest stops heaving and I slow my breathing down.

"Thanks for letting me whinge and stuff, I feel a lot better now" I wipe my sleeve under my eyes to clear the cascade of tears and smudged mascara.

"Dont worry about it, babe." She says warmly and Eric (who either has incredible timing or was just listening through the french doors) comes ambling over to us with two bottles of Ribena.

"So ladies, how is everything going?" He sits on the lounger next to me and passes us both our bottles.

"Eric, we need to use your heir of the throne influences" states Emily whilst opening the cap of her Ribena. Eric and I both look at her quizzically .

"And for what purpose may I ask?" he raises an eyebrow and I stare at her trying to read her expression but, like most Royalty, she has an amazing poker-face.

"We need tickets to a sold out One Direction concert" she says, as if its no big deal. Which, to Eric, it isn't.

"Sure" he says with a shrug "I though it would have been something more exciting, like buy us a casino or something."

"Okay- wow. Lets just rewind a bit, why are we going to a one direction concert?" they ignore me and carry on talking like I'm not there.

"Just make sure they're good seats, I don't do mosh pits filled with screaming girls"

"Yeah, you'll have to be in the V.I.P area. No way is the Princess and Duchess of Genovia going in a moshpit, dad would kill me."

"Awesome, its settled then."

"No its NOT SETTLED!" they both turn their attention to me "this is completely mental! I'm trying to forget about Harry, not follow around after him."

Em shakes her head at me "Like you really have a choice in the matter, babe."