I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

“What happened to your eye?” Neo asks, hissing.
“Hush,” C scolds. “Just breathe.”
He drags his touch down Neo’s arm, confused when he flinches. He
pulls back the sleeve, Neo protesting with a hum. C pulls it back
anyway. A bruise taints Neo, too, drawn from the crook of his elbow,
spiraling up his bicep in the shape of a hand.
C goes taut, staring at the cloud of beady purple and black. Neo’s
father visited last night. He puts it together quick enough for a vein to
show on his forehead.
“Don’t say anything.” Neo pulls his wrist away. “And don’t be angry.”
“I’m not angry,” he bites, his nails forming crescent shapes in Neo’s
sweatshirt.
Neo eases back into comfort as the minutes pass, listening to C’s
heart thrum against his ear. “Tell that to the thunder between your
ribs.”
Nights till the escape: 5
Eric has a watch. It has a red leather band, old-fashioned like he is.
He still has a flip phone and refuses to own anything else digital.
His watch stopped working the night he cried at Sony’s bedside. Eric
keeps flicking the glass, but the arrow won’t tick on. He gets a new
one, but he keeps the old one too. When I ask him why he says he
can’t bear to toss old things
away. I ask him if I could steal it. He takes it out of his pocket and
considers it for a moment.
When our eyes meet, he doesn’t look for a reason because we’ve
known each other long enough for him to know that I don’t lie.
Hikari and I have been exploring. The hospital, the skies, each other.