Hey guys. I know I already wrote another story about their wedding, but this has been turning around in my head and I wanted to put it down into words.
Hopefully you like it! If you do, then... you know. Lemme know. Or if you don't like it. Review it anyway! :)
"Why do we have to have a rehearsal again?" Natalie wondered aloud in the car on the way to the church with Henry, her dad, and his mother and stepdad. With the wedding party already all arrived, they'd organized a carpooling system, which made everyone stressed out. Henry and Natalie were smashed in the backseat of the car with Richard, Henry's stepdad, and Irene, Henry's mother, riding with Dan in the front.
"Yeah it's not like we're going to forget what to say," Henry agreed.
"It isn't about what you say," Dan explained. "It's more for everyone else who's in the wedding, so they don't forget anything."
"It's very important," Henry's mother said. "It's a crucial part of the process."
"Hey, Natalie, don't interrupt the process," Henry said, stony-faced.
"But they've all been in weddings before," she protested.
"Nat," Dan said, "it's just something you have to do. You should be the most insistent, anyway- you're the one getting married tomorrow."
"Hey, I am to!" Henry piped up. "But seriously Nat. It's time to get into character. You have to start yelling at people and crying and being really grumpy. You haven't freaked out about the menu once yet, or even had a fit about the bridesmaid dresses. I'm not sure you even know we're getting married-"
"Hey. I've got this under control," she explained. "I mean, what's the point of freaking out?"
"Because that's what you're supposed to do. You're the bride."
"Henry, don't generalize," Irene corrected from the front seat. He raised his eyebrows at Natalie, and she stifled a laugh. He was constantly griping on about his conservative, traditional mother. Though Natalie liked Henry's mom- after all, she called once a week and at least acted like a mother to her son- she had to admit he was right. She was sort of straight-laced. Irene was already in a bad mood because Diana hadn't gotten to the hotel until that morning, and had delayed leaving for the rehearsal on account of 'misplacing' her dress for the evening. The two mothers weren't quite on par with each other.
She couldn't tell anyone that the reason she didn't want a rehearsal was that this was just one more opportunity for something to go wrong. For the last few weeks, everything had been going so well. And all day, her mother had interacted very well with everyone else. But what if she was granted one opportunity for everything to go right? What if there weren't any problems at the rehearsal, and then the wedding went completely awry? Why waste the good luck on the rehearsal? So yeah, she knew it was necessary, but that didn't mean she wanted one. She just crossed her fingers that nothing would happen the next day.
As it turned out, the rehearsal went off without a hitch., just a little bit of nerves from Henry's three-year-old niece, who didn't want to walk down the aisle all by herself. They decided they'd have Henry's sister- one of Natalie's bridesmaids- walk with her. Other than that, no issues. And, to Natalie, that was not an issue. On the way back to the cars so everyone could go to the restaurant, Henry reached for her hand.
"Hey- that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked.
"No. It's tolerable," Nat replied. "But I'm more worried about tomorrow."
"Don't worry," he said flippantly.
"How can't I worry? You've met my family," she said, rolling her eyes. "You should know. They're..."
"Crazy?" he asked, smiling.
"Yeah. Crazy."
"Your family is only as crazy as mine. It'll all work out, ok?"
She shurgged her shoulders, and while she pouted he leaned down and kissed her.
"Come on, we gotta go to our rehearsal dinner now."
They all piled back into the car, and after another fifteen minute ride, were at the restaurant. Smaller tables set for nine were set out for the wedding party and the guests to the rehearsal dinner. Nat sat with Henry, her dad, her grandparents, Henry's dad, and his sister, brother-in-law, and their daughter. To Nat's horror, she realized her mother was seated right next to Henry's mother at another table. Henry's straight-laced, conservative, suburban, linen-and-polo-shirts mother, seated right next to her incredibly not straight laced mother figure.
"Henry," she said, tugging on his sleeve. "There is no way this can happen..."
"Don't worry, Nat, everyone's on their best behavior."
"Can't we switch? Can my dad sit there instead of my mom?"
"Nat- my dad really likes your dad. Let them talk. It'll be fine, ok?" he said, giving her a reassuring smile. She smiled back, acting like it didn't matter, but kept stealing glances towards their mothers.
"Nat- calm down. Plus Richard's cool. He'll keep my mom in check."
"It's not your mom I'm worried about, Henry..."
"Just relax, ok? This is about you and me. Not our parents and their issues. If you want issues, put my dad next to my mom. Then you'll hear some fighting," he said, but she just ignored him, watching her mother's every move.
For most of the evening, everything turned out fine. Her best friend from college- and also her maid of honor- made a cheesy PowerPoint with pictures of her and Henry. The pictures started with separated ones from when they were babies, but converged somewhere in the middle with all their high school photos. Natalie was glad that she'd kept in the picture with her flipping off the camera.
When the photos reached high school, their was an awkward picture of her on her first day of freshman year, followed by an equally awkward one of Henry. Her favorite from high school, though, was a picture that she'd never seen before. It was her and Henry sitting at her piano in her living room, their backs to the piano, both playing some four-handed duet.
"Your dad must have taken that sometime without telling us," Henry said. They saw a slew of high school photos, including senior prom (Natalie cringed at the extremely uncomfortable corsage-pinning picture), and graduation, followed by some pictures from college. Then came the "twin pictures" as they called them. Nat liked them so much that she had copies sitting in a joint frame on the mantle in their apartment, and had brought them to grad school with her. Taken three days apart at each other's college graduations, one with Henry kissing Natalie on the cheek while she was wearing her cap and gown, and then it's exact opposite.
Henry's friend stood up and began to make some speech, but her attention was diverted by the action going on at the table next to theirs. Her mother was muttering something to Henry's mother- Natalie couldn't hear what it was. She heard Henry's mom loud shh, though. But Diana kept trying to talk to Irene.
What does she want? Nat wondered.
She just shook it off and looked back up as Henry's best man talked about how close she and Henry were. She couldn't concentrate as she kept hearing the distracting mutters from the table next to her. She caught her dad's eye, who sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"It's ok, Nat," he said.
But what happened next wasn't.
Natalie looked back over at her mother, who was excusing herself and standing up from the table. She caught her foot on the leg of the chair and stumbled, reaching her hands out to steady herself. In the process, she knocked the glass of red wine right into Henry's mother's lap, ruining her mint green silk skirt.
Natalie closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands. Why does something always have to go wrong?
"I'm so sorry!" she heard her mother say. Her voice dropped below audibility, but Nat hear the tone: her mother was trying to crack a joke, make light of the situation. As always.
"Please, Diana-" Irene said curtly.
"I'm sorry, here- let me help-"
"No thank you, I'm fine," Irene said, dabbing her napkin in her water glass. Natalie exchanged a glance with Henry.
"She'll survive, Nat," he said.
"Are you sure?" Diana asked Irene. "I can get something to help-"
"I said I was fine. Please stop trying to 'help' me!" Her voice rose in volume.
"Don't yell at me!" Diana said, panic touching her voice. By now other tables had gone quiet, and Nat, Dan, and Henry were looking around at each other, unsure of what to do. "I'm only trying to help!" Diana pleaded.
"I wouldn't need help if you could... if you could control yourself!" Irene shrieked.
"Jesus," Henry said under his breath.
Diana pulled herself up with dignity, gave her a curt nod, and left the room. Almost immediately, Natalie stood up.
"I'm so sorry," she said, echoing her mother's words.
Irene said nothing.
"Here, let me get you something-"
"No, thank you," she said sternly.
"Irene, don't be like this," Richard, Henry's step-dad, murmured.
"Stop it Richard. I mean, the woman comes late, making us all wait up for her, then interrupts the dinner- it's so very rude. Don't these people know how to act in public?"
"Irene," he said. "'These people'? Don't be ridiculous."
"Please, I'm so sorry," Natalie said, near tears.
"Don't be," Henry said, coming up behind her. "You didn't do anything."
"Natalie," Irene said, exasperated. "Please just tell your mother that, next time she goes to an event, she shouldn't talk through someone else's speech, and that she should be more careful where she puts her hands, for God's sake-"
"Mom!"
"Henry, I'm talking to Natalie now," she said. "I'm sure, Natalie dear, that you would never behave like this, but in case you've never had the example, please know that how your mother has been acting through this entire weekend has been incredibly rude. Hopefully this won't happen tomorrow- does she do this a lot? I heard that sometimes she can act this way, but I've never spent exactly a long time with the woman-"
She continued on with her insensitive statements, but Natalie, in tears, had turned and followed her mother straight out of the room.
"Are you happy now, mom?" Henry said angrily. "You made her cry. Jesus Christ... You know, this isn't about you, mom."
"Henry, please," she said brusquely. "She was very rude-"
"And how is that Natalie's fault?" Henry said. "Even if her mother was rude, why did you have to take it out on Nat? Or make such a big deal about it? God- what you just said was much worse than anything Nat's mom did tonight. Do you know how nervous Natalie's been for weeks, trying to make things ok for you and the rest of our family?"
This time, Irene said nothing.
"Exactly. Now I'm going out to talk to Natalie, who didn't deserve to deal with your elitist crap tonight, mom." With that, he turned and left.
The lobby of the restaurant was empty, save the receptionist.
"Did anyone come by here in the past few minutes?" he asked.
"A few minutes ago a middle-aged woman came by and went into the powder room."
"No, not her... A young woman? Brown hair?"
"She left," the receptionist said, pointing towards the door. Henry raised his eyebrows. Where could she have gone?
He opened the door to the restaurant, and saw Natalie seated on the bench outside, her arms wrapped around herself looking out at the cars passing by on the street.
"Hey. Come inside, it's cold out here," he said. She looked up, shook her head, then looked away again. He took a seat next to her on the bench.
"You," he said, kissing the side of her face when she wouldn't look at him.
"Why does this always happen to me?" she asked. "What did I ever do to deserve such a fucked up family?"
"Nat," he said, sighing. "Do you really think all family's aren't fucked up? And in this case, my mom is so much more fucked up than yours."
Natalie nodded. "I didn't want to say it first, but you're right."
"That is what I dealt with all my life. And my dad, too, until he left. She was either blissfully ignorant about me, or nitpicking about everything... why do you think she and my dad are divorced?"
Natalie let out a dry laugh.
"I think she feels bad though. She has a heart, you know."
"I know she does. Her heart just doesn't gel with my mom's. Henry?"
"Yeah?"
"After tomorrow, can we move somewhere totally random, and never leave? Never deal with families again, and just live in a little house somewhere far, far away?"
He put his arm around her. "If neither of us had a job, then I'd say yes."
She groaned, but then sat up a little straighter. "I've been so stressed out. I was actually thinking a minute ago that now everything was ruined... but it's all ok, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Henry said. "It's ok."
They stood up and made their way back into the restaurant. Before they entered the room where all their guests were, Natalie stopped.
"How big of a fool did I make of myself, running out of the room like that?" she asked.
"Well, anyone who actually saw you leave probably also saw how bitchy my mother was being, so..."
"Hey Nat!"
Natalie looked up and saw her father coming towards them through the open door to the room they were using in the restaurant. "I was looking for you. I want to let you know that everything's ok."
"What happened back there after I left?" Nat asked dreadfully.
"I apologized to Irene for your mother, and Richard was talking to her, and she feels really bad, Nat."
Good, she thought, and Henry nodded at Dan, approving of what he said. Natalie didn't fight the feeling of déjà vous- mom messing up, hurting her feelings, her dad picking up the pieces, trying to appease everyone...
"I talked to mom, Nat, and she also feels horrible. But they're all back inside, and I think Irene wants to apologize."
Natalie nodded, but still looked nervous. Will everyone be waiting for me to come back inside? she wondered, but took a deep breath. After such a dramatic exit, you need a dramatic entrance, she told herself.
"Is my face red?" she asked Henry.
"You look fine. No blotching or anything."
"Good... OK. I can do this."
She and Henry followed her dad back into the room, where people either stared a little, looked away purposely, or didn't seem to notice her entrance at all. This isn't too bad. As they approached Henry's mother's table, Nat's heart picked up speed, but she kept walking forward.
"Natalie," Irene said, standing up. She looked embarrassed. Whether that was from the large red stain on her skirt or her behavior, Natalie didn't know. "I'm so very sorry. I never should have said those things to you."
Natalie just nodded.
"That wasn't your fault, and I took it out on you... I'm so sorry. You have my full permission to turn into- what do they call it? oh, right- a 'bridezilla' for ruining your rehearsal dinner." She sounded sincere.
Natalie gave a weak smile. "Thanks. I accept your apology... but you didn't ruin my rehearsal dinner. I've always been able to handle a little mishap here and there. I'm kind of used to it by now."
Back at the hotel, Natalie finished saying goodnight to everyone and began walking towards the elevators. Everything felt sort of surreal- it was hard to believe that it was her last night as a single woman. That she was getting married the next day.
"Natalie!" she heard, and turned. Her mother was walking towards her at a fast clip, obviously trying to catch up.
"Hey, mom," she said. Her mom started shaking her head.
"I'm so sorry, Nat- I just can't do anything right- I never got a chance to tell you before. I'm so damn clumsy-"
"Hey, mom," Nat said, holding up a hand. "Don't worry about it. At all."
"You're not angry with me?" Diana asked skeptically.
"For once," Natalie said, laughing. "No. What happened tonight was completely random. It could have happened to anyone. And it wasn't a big deal at all. Henry's mom can just sometimes be a little high-strung."
"More like she has a stick up her ass," Diana muttered. Natalie raised an eyebrow warningly. "Sorry."
"I'm going to bed now, but just know I'm not mad at you. Something had to go wrong once, huh? It's a wedding. I don't think one has ever gone perfectly."
"I'm glad I got to be the one who messed it up," Diana said dryly. "But really honey. I know I haven't been the greatest mom in history- or even a good mom- but I really do love you, and I want you to be happy."
"I am happy, mom," Natalie said honestly. "And I love you, too."
Her mother cracked one of the most sincere smiles Natalie had seen from her recently, and drew her daughter into a hug. "I can't believe you're getting married!" she squealed.
And I can't believe you're here, Natalie thought. Things really had turned out well. In high school, if someone had asked Nat if she would invite her mom to her wedding, she probably would have said no. Or would have assumed that her mother wouldn't be around by then anyway. But here she was.
"Thanks for being here, mom. It... really means a lot."
"I wouldn't miss it," Diana said. "After all- you're the only one I've got. I can't miss the only wedding where I get to be mother of the bride!"
You're the only one I've got, Natalie heard over and over. She smiled. Maybe things were getting better with her mom.
Wait...
"Mom... just curious. What does your dress look like for tomorrow?" she asked, suspicious.
"Oh it's just great, Natalie. You'll love it!"
Oh, no.
Maybe Henry was right, and she had been too lax in her wedding plans...
"Mom..." Nat said, pressing the 'up' button on the elevator.
"Well, it's red-"
"Mom..."
"And it's cut to here, with some ruches here and there-"
"Goodnight, mom," Natalie said, and stepped into the elevator. So there would be some surprises tomorrow. Some things never change.
In her hotel room, she switched on her laptop and changed into her pajamas while it booted up. She logged onto facebook, and changed her status. "Getting married tomorrow!"
Three seconds later, an alert popped up. "Henry Carter likes this."
She smiled, then checked his page. From five minutes before, it said, "Whoa..... getting married tomorrow?! Sweet!"
She 'liked' it.
A message popped up.
HENRY: Hey. I know we're not supposed to be talking now- is this allowed?
NATALIE: Who cares? No one will find out.
HENRY: Are you ok???
NATALIE: If you ask me that again I may not show up tomorrow.
HENRY: !!!!!!
NATALIE: Kidding! I'll be there.
HENRY: :-)
NATALIE: ;-)
HENRY: OH WAIT- you have to hear what my mom said right after you went upstairs.
NATALIE: .....
HENRY: It's good I promise.
NATALIE: K. What?
HENRY: I never knew she was this oblivious. But she actually asked me if I needed to talk to my dad about any of the, uh, 'mechanics' for tomorrow night.
NATALIE: !!! NO WAY. SHE DIDN'T SAY THAT!
HENRY: She DID! It was amazing. I told her that I sort of knew most of the details already.
NATALIE: Sort of... lol.
HENRY: But it was also totally awkward cause your dad was there and he winked at me. It was really weird.
NATALIE: Eeew I'm sorry.
HENRY: But that's not all she said... she also gave me a lecture about marriage (I'll spare you- I know you probably got one too) and then told me not to 'be alarmed' when I found tampons under the sink. 'They're perfectly normal.'
NATALIE: What did you say back???
HENRY: I told her that by now I sort of know you're a girl.
NATALIE: Good response. But doesn't she know that we live together???
HENRY: She chooses to forget.
NATALIE: Right...
NATALIE: Oh crap. It's already like almost midnight. Holy shit... I have to go to bed so I don't look scary tomorrow.
HENRY: As opposed to...?
HENRY: JUST KIDDING YOU'RE NOT SCARY AT ALL YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE YOU!!!!
HENRY: 33333
NATALIE: LOL.
HENRY: Go get your rest. :) I miss you already...
NATALIE: Me too... :(
HENRY: :(
NATALIE: See you tomorrow. At our wedding. AHH THIS IS SO WEIRD.
HENRY: I KNOW! I can't believe this is finally happening! I've wanted to marry you since like seventh grade!
NATALIE: ....
HENRY: To varying degrees than I do now... I was still kind of immature then. Back in seventh grade, I don't think I could have handled the tampons under the sink thing.
NATALIE: Aw. I love you. Goodnight.
HENRY: Goodnight! Sleep tight!
Nat signed off and climbed into bed, feeling weirder than she'd ever felt before. Thinking back about growing up in her house, she remembered all the unhappy times. Her relationship with her family was better now, but she attributed that largely to the fact that she didn't live with them. But after tomorrow, Henry would be her family. Her 'immediate family,' as people said. It felt bizarre to be switching over like that, but she couldn't say she minded.
As she turned out her light, she hoped to God that everything went ok the next day. But hey- she remembered something her piano teacher once told her. "Bad dress rehearsal, good show."
She turned over and tried to fall asleep, knowing that whatever happened the next day, she could get through it.
PS. Sorry that this chapter is so god-awfully long. I hope you're not bored by it, or think it's stupid or disjointed... ahh.
Anyways, the perfect place for you to tell me that, is... well, you know. :)