You and Me and Us - Alison Hammer Page 0,20

notice me slipping out of the theater. I bring my hand to my lips; they feel like rubber, like they don’t belong to me anymore.

The moment is only slightly dampened when I realize I can’t tell Sofia what happened since I’m still so mad at her, although not telling her is probably the best revenge. I smile and open the door to English, holding my head high as I walk past the desk where I usually sit next to Sofia, and take a seat in the back row instead.

Chapter Ten

Alexis

It just started,” Tommy whispers as I slide into the aisle seat beside him.

“I stopped to get flowers,” I tell him, holding up the bouquet of red roses I grabbed at Publix on my way to the high school. I don’t mention the fact that I was also twenty minutes late leaving the office thanks to more last-minute changes that came in from the client.

“Me, too,” Tommy says softly, nodding toward a beautiful bouquet of purple wildflowers wrapped in burlap. I should have thought to get something purple.

“Shh,” someone behind us loud-whispers.

I shrug an apology and focus on the stage, where the set is more elaborate and professional-looking than I remember high school productions being.

The stage has been transformed into the streets of Verona, where two servants from the House of Capulet are talking with disgust about the House of Montague. Before I can fully grasp what’s happening, a brawl breaks out between the Capulet and Montague servants. I think? I should have paid more attention in my literature classes.

In the next scene, the young boy who plays Juliet’s father is discussing his daughter’s, my daughter’s, hand in marriage. He asks the young man playing Paris to wait two years until Juliet is sixteen.

I steal a look at Tommy. His eyes are riveted on the stage, and I wonder if he’s thinking what I am: that giving his blessing to the young man that will one day want to marry CeCe is just one in a lifetime of things he won’t be here to do.

I take a deep breath and blink away the tears just in time to see CeCe take the stage. I hope she can see okay without her glasses. Even dressed in a nightgown, she looks beautiful as Lady Capulet tries to convince her she should accept the courtship of Paris, the young man selected by her father.

Thanks to the magic of a few stealthy stagehands dressed in black, the stage transforms again into the Capulet ball.

My attention darts between the stage and watching Tommy take it all in. He must feel my stare, because he reaches down and takes my hand, his eyes never leaving the stage.

CeCe takes my breath away when she walks onto the balcony for the play’s most famous scene. I can see the emotion on her face, I can hear it in her voice.

“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” she says.

Before Romeo can respond, Tommy coughs. I can tell he’s trying to hold it in, but the cancer is rearing its ugly head, letting us all know it won’t be controlled. The cough is deep, its sound rattling his lungs and my heart. I put my hand gently on his back, but he brushes me away.

Onstage, CeCe flinches. It’s subtle, but I know she recognizes the sound that’s become all too familiar in our house. She recovers beautifully and continues her line. “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

I hold Tommy’s hand and watch the story unfold onstage, not wanting it to come to its tragic end. But just like life, I know it’s inevitable.

As Romeo gets the false news of Juliet’s death, his heartbreak doesn’t just look real—it feels real. I watch as Liam drinks the poison, collapsing just as CeCe wakes from her coma.

“I will kiss thy lips,” CeCe says, her voice shaking with grief. “Haply some poison yet doth hang on them.” I hold my breath as she leans down and lays a kiss on Liam’s lips. Not for the first time? I wonder.

Before the curtain closes, I hear someone offstage recite the final line of the play: “For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Tommy is the first one on his feet. My eyes well up as I watch him, applauding like he’s the proudest man in the room, which he is, no doubt.

The

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