Chapter 1 - The Start of Chaos

POV: Victoria  

Chaos. Absolute Chaos.  

That was the only way to describe everything that was happening around me. “Archie! Get back here! You need to put your pants on.” My nephew ran past me in his underwear as his mom, my cousin tried to keep up with him waving around a pair of trousers in her hand.  

I embraced it though. It’s not every day that your mother gets married for the third time. Although this was her third wedding, she was remarrying her first husband so I didn’t know if that counted. My mother and Mr. Thomas Stallone, her husband-to-be,  met when they were in college. They were both smitten with each other and they fell in love. Thomas came from a wealthy family which did not approve of his relationship with my mom so they decided to elope.

They ran off and my mom got married in Vegas in a white ill-fitting wedding dress she had found at a thrift shop. They were happy for a while but quickly realized that they had been too impulsive and neither one of them was actually ready for marriage so they decided to get a divorce. They both finished college and moved on with their lives, each of them married other people and started their own families.

 My father passed away when  I was twelve years old leaving just my mom and me while Thomas divorced his second wife. One day, my mom bumped into Thomas at the local grocery store in our hometown. They started talking and rekindled their love for each other after almost forty years.

Tom proposed after dating my mom for only eight months. He said that when you find the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with, you don’t waste a minute. I was shocked at first but so happy that my mom had found someone who would move mountains just to make her happy.

Their love story honestly needed to be made into a rom-com. A year later, the wedding day was finally here and I couldn’t be more excited though there were some aspects of this union that I was trying really hard not to think about. 

One aspect, actually. Caleb Stallone, Tom’s son. Caleb and I had a history. We met in high school ten years ago when he was the new transfer student during my senior year. We struck up an unlikely friendship. The jock and the social outcast. It’s a tale so cliche, It makes me want to roll my eyes but nonetheless, it happened. I fell in love with him and he chose someone over me. He chose the girl that single-handedly made my high school existence a living hell. Just thinking about it made my blood boil.

And now he was going to be my stepbrother. After my mom said ‘I do’, we were family, bound together. I shudder at the thought of having to see him again after all these years.

I shut my eyes tight and balled up my fists, trying to make that train of thought disappear when a hand grabbed my chin and made me look in front again. “Don’t move. We won’t want to mess up your makeup,” Kathy, our makeup artist for today said. I tried to stay very still (which did not come naturally to me) as I let her work her magic.  

“Could you pass me the blush?” she asked one of the members of her team who was working on one of my mom’s best friends, Sally.

“I thought you had it. I only have the highlighter here.”

 “Shit!” I heard Kathy say to herself as she searched her makeup bag.

I really hoped she found it in there because if she had taken it out, I doubted she’d find it again considering how disorganized and packed  the room was. There were clothes everywhere. My mom’s other close friends were in the corner steaming their bridesmaid outfits. My niece, Alecia sat on the bed in her poofy flower-girl dress watching a random kid’s show on her mother’s tablet as my aunts got their hair done in another corner of the room.

A cloud of hair spray hangs in the air around us. Every surface was covered with some sort of styling product or garment. I wished, for the hundredth time today, that we had decided to get ready at a hotel. My mom, however, had insisted that she get ready for her wedding in my two-bedroomed childhood home so that’s why we were all currently crammed up in what used to be my bedroom.  

“Ah! Here it is,” Kathy pulled the blush out of her bag with a triumphant look on her face.

She got back to working on my face and twenty minutes later, she was done. She handed me a mirror so I could look at myself. I gasped. The makeup was understated and looked natural but it was flawless. She hadn’t done too much and only emphasized my features. The gold shimmery eyeshadow brought out the blue in my eyes and the contour sculpted my face to the gods. Even though my hair was still in curls, I felt so beautiful.

“What do you think? Do you like it?” Kathy asked me.

“Like it? I love it!”

Kathy beamed.  

I got out of the chair that I had been sitting in for the past hour. Roberto burst into the room.

“Tori! Oh good! You’re done. Your mother needs her maid of honor.”

He left before I could respond. I walked towards the door but doubled back to get my notebook. I had a feeling that I would need it.  Planning this wedding with my mother had not been easy. She was a perfectionist and needed everything to be done in a particular way. She initially wanted to plan the whole thing by herself but then she realized that she was driving everyone crazy and decided to hire a wedding planner.

Roberto was God sent. He took my mom’s vision for the wedding and ran with it. He had taken time to make sure that he got every single detail right. Despite Roberto’s presence, my mom had still taken the time to write down a list of specific things that she wanted me to do. I knocked on the door to her room.

“Come in!” I heard her say. I opened the door and walked into the room. My mom was basically ready. She had already gotten her makeup done and she was already in her dress. It was a plain eggshell white satin dress with a modest train and a fitted bodice.

The last time I had seen her in this dress was during one of the fittings. Seeing the whole look come together made me emotional. I started to get choked up. She looked beautiful. Her makeup, just like mine, was minimalistic and simple. Her hair stylist was getting the curlers out of her long blonde hair.  

“No Tori, absolutely not! You shall do that. If you start crying, I’ll start crying and it’ll be a mess. We can’t ruin our makeup so get it together! No tears, okay?” my mom said sternly, her own blue eyes getting teary.

I sniffled and nodded. I turned away from her and took several deep breaths attempting to compose myself.  I turned back to her after a minute or two.

“Better?” I nodded.  

“Roberto said you needed me. What’s up?” I asked as I sat down on her bed.

“First of all, why aren’t you dressed yet? We don’t want to be late. Secondly, have the flowers arrived yet? I haven’t seen my bouquet. Have you finished writing your maid of honor speech yet? Did you make sure that the caterers prepared a vegan option? You know your aunt Helen can’t have meat. Also, have you seen my something blue?” she spouted off so fast I barely had time to register what she said.

I could tell from her voice she was starting to panic.  She hated giving up her control over things.  Given a choice, she would oversee everything herself. 

“I was just about to get dressed before you called for me. The flowers are here. They are in the living room and they look stunning. I’ll have someone bring them over. I finished writing my speech last night. I don’t know about the caterers and your blue garter is in the box next to your jewelry.” I said, very impressed with myself. 

I can’t believe I remembered all that.  

“The caterers, you have to call the caterers.” She said with panic in her voice.

I took her hand in mine and said, “ You need to calm down Mom. I’m sure Roberto has taken care of everything. You have worked with him over the past three months and you know that he’s really good at his job. Try to relax okay? We will handle everything. It’s your big day, enjoy it.”

She inhaled deeply and let it out. She nodded and kissed the back of my hand. 

“Thank you. Now go finish getting ready,” I left her and went back to my room. 

I took my teal dress off its hanger. I put it on, finally took the curlers out of my hair, and styled it. By the time I was done, everyone else was also almost fully ready. Belinda, my cousin, had even managed to put some pants on little Archie.

I went to find Roberto and see if he needed help with anything. I found him talking to the florist who was putting the finishing touches on the bouquets in the living room. While the rest of the bouquet was a basic mix of white roses and pink peonies, my mom’s bouquet on the other hand, stood out with its loose, asymmetric style and a wide array of blooms; roses, peonies, eucalyptus twigs, baby breath and wild lilies. She would be thrilled.  

“How is the bride holding up? She was kind of freaking out earlier,” Roberto said as soon as he saw me.

“She’s doing much better. She asked about the vegan option for the meal by the way. Are the caterers aware of this?” Roberto rolled his eyes. “She has asked me that twice already today. She needs to trust me.” I scoffed.  

“Everything is fine. Tell her to relax. Here, take her bouquet to her room. That should make her feel better.” I took the bouquet of flowers in my hand and took a big whiff of them. I loved the smell of fresh flowers.  

“Okay everybody, we need to leave in thirty minutes. I need you ladies to hustle.” Roberto shouted as I walked back to my mom’s room.

This time I found her looking at herself in the mirror. She was beaming. I went and stood next to her in front of the mirror. I handed her the bouquet and she smiled.

“Now, it’s perfect.”  

She was right. Her holding her bouquet of flowers tied everything together and made all this so real. I couldn’t believe my mother was getting married today. I looked at our reflections in the mirror. Everyone usually said we looked alike and I didn’t blame them. Apart from my hair color, I looked like a younger version of my mom.  

Everyone had left. It was just the two of us in that room. The quiet before the storm.

“How do you feel?” I asked her softly.

“Nervous but excited. Third time’s the charm,” She answered.

I understood why my mom was nervous.  

“You look beautiful Mom. I am so happy for you,” we hugged for a while, trying not to cry.

If we ruined our makeup, Kathy would have killed us. Our quiet moment was interrupted by my mom’s friends bursting into the room. They cooed and gushed over how beautiful my mom looked. 

Roberto came into the room and informed us that the cars had arrived. It was time to leave. We all hurried out of the door and into the cars. Everything was a blur and went by so fast, I was almost sure we had forgotten someone. 

We headed towards the Stallone mansion. One of the perks of marrying an incredibly rich husband is that you could have your entire dream wedding in his backyard. 

When we got there everyone alighted. We all started heading toward the garden. Roberto gave everyone directions and arranged us all. We walked towards the place where the ceremony would take place. Everyone was seated already.

The entire setup looked beautiful. Rows of chairs were arranged on either side of the aisle which was lined with white roses, baby breath, and lit lanterns. The aisle was littered with rose petals. It was ethereal. 

The orchestra started playing. That was our cue. Everyone went down the aisle just like we had rehearsed.  I was just about to go since it was my turn but my mother pulled me back. 

“Walk with me?” She asked. 

“It would be my honour mom. Let’s go get you married.”