The Starting Line

Chapter 3

FOUR HOURS UNTIL THE WEDDING

"Mother please calm down." Sabrina whined, struggling to curl her mother's hair. Heidi spoke at a million miles a second and waved her arms around. Eleanora laughed, looking at the two from where Lexie was doing her makeup.

"I can't calm down, Sabrina! My oldest daughter is getting married today! It's such a big deal, and I need to make sure everything goes perfectly!" Heidi scolded, Lexie huffing under her breath.

"Mom, everything is going to be okay." Eleanora tried. "Mark is on site now with Derek, Max, Enzo and dad. They have it under control."

Heidi sighed and leaned back in her seat. Sabrina let out a breath and closed her eyes as she tried to stop yelling at her mother.

Eleanora returned her attention to her best friend, a smile on her lips as she lowered her voice to speak to Lexie. "It's almost like I don't have faith in them."

"I wonder why." Lexie joked. "Isn't Mark the one who thought a caramel pie would be cool? And he wanted horses?"

"Don't remind him of the horses, please." Eleanora pleaded. "It took me a whole week to get him out of that idea."

Meredith walked into the bathroom, everyone in the bridal party was at her house to get ready since it was closer to the church.

"Update?" Eleanora asked, perking up a little. Lexie stopped from applying Eleanora's eye shadow, looking over her shoulder at her sister.

"Not with the boys, no. But Cristina is trying to break into the liquor cabinet for my tequila, April is trying to stop her, and Jenna is encouraging Cristina because she can't drink since she was breastfeeding." Meredith told her, leaning against the door.

Eleanora snorted, nodding her head. "Sounds good."

Eleanora began to fiddle with her ring, spacing out a bit as she frowned. Meredith noticed her and snapped her fingers to get her attention.

"Hey, stop that! It's your wedding day, Ella. Don't be all dark and twisted today, it's supposed to be the happiest day of your life. I know mine was."

"You didn't have a wedding." Lexie pointed out, raising an eyebrow. Meredith narrowed her eyes at her sister and Heidi looked at her.

"You didn't have a wedding?"

"She and Derek got married on a post-it, mom." Eleanora informed her mother. She took a deep breath, calming herself. "Everything is fine. We planned it perfectly. The boys should have no problem figuring out the few things we had left. They'll be fine on their own."

______

"What the hell does this mean, Mark?!" Derek yelled at his best friend, struggling to figure out where the flowers on the altar went. "Move it slightly to the right, forward, then to the left? Is Eleanora casting a spell?"

"Don't know!" Mark hissed, rubbing his face with one hand. "I'm more focused on the fact that I can't understand the seating chart!"

Max huffed from where he was sprawled on one of the benches. "She left very simple instructions and you can't even understand them. What a shame, all those years of medical school and a surgical residency down the drain."

"Then maybe you could try to help." Mark said cheekily, narrowing his eyes at the young man. "Instead of lying around and absorbing our shame."

Anthony entered with his shirt rolled up to his elbows as he carried another box of string lights for the altar. He walked past his youngest son and kicked the bench he was lying on, his voice hard.