I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

I do. I just feel like a blind bystander turning the doorknob.
Back where I left them, Sony and Coeur gather around our old
vending machine.
“No, no. You’re doing it all wrong. You gotta crane kick it first. Like
this.”
Sony raises both arms over her head, lifting one leg and flicking her
foot
forward so hard that her shoe almost flies off. She doesn’t even
strike the glass, slipping over her feet, and falling backward. Coeur
catches her.
Sony blows the hair out of her face and points at the vending
machine.
“See, Coor?”
“You can just call me C.”
“Alright. See, C? Wait.”
Sony forgets her qualms over the consonant when she sees me.
“Sam!” she yells, scrambling upright. “Where’s Baby?”
C looks over at me too, expectedly, in a polite way. I don’t like that
he’s polite. I don’t like that all I see looking at his face is it turning the
other away as my friend gets beaten.
“You let people hurt Neo?” I ask, but it’s more of an accusation.
Sony’s chin draws back. “What?”
“What?” C asks the same question.
“You and your friends beat him up.”