Page 139 of The Breakup Artists

“You know Ella’s probably going to shoot me down, right?”

“If she does, she officially has no heart.”

The Jeep slows as I pull into Ella’s driveway and park, my insides so knotted that I touch my stomach.

“Here goes nothing,” Tiny says.

“Or at the very least, here goes my pride.”

Tiny jumps out of the Jeep and winks. “I’ll text you when it’s safe. And good luck.”

She walks toward Ella’s house, and I lean back in my seat, trying to breathe.

While the drive felt short, the time waiting for Tiny to give me the okay feels like forever.

Tiny

Talking to parents. Ella’s upstairs. GO GET HER, ROMEO!

I jump out, careful to loop around the house toward the back gate. I lift the latch and creep up to the patio, where the picture windows in the living room look out over the pool. Tiny and Ella’s parents sit on oversized couches inside, and while they aren’t facing the windows, I’m still in their peripheral vision and they would likely notice if a weird, armored guy sprinted across their deck.

Me

In backyard. Need distraction.

Tiny glances at her phone, but she doesn’t look out the window or give any cause for suspicion. She says something to Ella’s parents, and while I don’t know what it is, it’s obviously incendiary given the way their heads whip toward her. Which is my cue to run, as fast as I can in this getup, to the other side of the deck.

I stop under Ella’s balcony, pulling out a small pouch and gauging my aim. I toss it at her window, and while it’s lightweight, it still hits with a sizable clunk. And I wait.

As the seconds tick by, I wonder if Tiny was wrong about Ella being in her room.

But then her window slides open and Ella’s confused face pops out. Her hair is in a messy bun, and she’s wearing pajama shorts and a tank top. She spots the pouch and steps onto her balcony, picking it up. But when she catches sight of me in the grass below, all the color drains from her face. Anger narrows her eyes, and I know I have less than a second before she tells me to eff off. In fact, she’s already turning.

So I start reciting Shakespeare.

I throw my hand in the air dramatically. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

“What the hell?” she breathes, confusion replacing her anger as she clocks my outfit.

I skip forward a couple of lines, placing one hand over my heart, admitting what I couldn’t the last time I saw her. “It is my lady; O, it is my love! O that she knew she were!”

She opens her mouth, glaring at me like I’ve lost my mind.

I think about Mom and the messy canvas, about yelling at the tree, about what Des would do if she were here, and so I get louder, more passionate. “She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it.”

I head for the latticework beside her balcony, grabbing on and hoping like hell that it doesn’t rip off the side of her house.

“What do you think you’re doing? Get off there at once,” an angry Mr. Becker exclaims behind me. But I don’t stop. I can’t. I need Ella to know this matters, thatshematters. I recite as I climb, pouring myself into the words. “As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night.” I grab ahold of her balcony railing and pull myself over it.

Ella stares at me like she’s not sure if she’s impressed or horrified—probably both. Her parents argue below us, but I don’t care, because all I’m focused on is Ella.

“Ella, I’m sorry. Really and truly sorry I hurt you,” I say before she can recover from the shock and remember she hates me. “I know that doesn’t fix what I did by a long shot. But please, let me explain why I did it in the first place.”

She chews on the inside of her cheek, considering my words, and glancing down at her parents and Tiny.

After a couple of excruciating seconds, Ella huffs. “Fine,” she says. “But if I decide I never want to speak to you again, you have to accept it and leave me alone. No questions asked.”

“Agreed,” I say to her high-stakes deal.