I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

Our promises are empty. Eric knows, but he doesn’t care. He’s in his
own clothes, no scrubs, and bed-headed. He came because we
needed him, not because it’s his job, even if he’d like to play it off
that way. Seeing the wishfulness in our whispering pleases, Eric
groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Fine,” he bites. “But by tonight, if you haven’t eaten dinner, taken
your meds, and gone to bed, so help me god–”
“We will, we will, we will,” we all say at once, singing his praises,
grabbing at his shirt, and jumping up and down.
“Sam,” Eric says. He rubs his eyes and plants his hands on his hips,
staring right at me. “What do you need?”
—
To my Hamlet,
I said your name for the first time today. It was an overdue heartbeat,
a breath laying at the bottom of a single lung. It was a fear
surmounted.
So.
To my Hikari,
I write to you with stolen stationary and an old pen on its last ink
reserves.
Where? In Neo’s room. Headquarters. The place we always end up
sitting a little too close, convicting bouquets of wrongful symbolism
and nursing succulents back to health.
This is the place you told me you’d give me a dream.
On a step ladder notorious for being fallen off of, Neo stands on his
tiptoes, his skinny fingers perfect for tying thin threaded string lights
to the ceiling.