I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

C starts the car.
Hikari doesn’t bother opening the door. She throws herself through
the open window, flipping over, her legs landing on my lap. We all
shriek at the same time. Hikari’s glasses almost fly off her face.
“The Hit List!” Sony yells.
“Our Hit List,” Hikari pants, reaching across me to kiss her face.
“Let’s go, C!” she yells.
Neo huffs out a breath, bracing. “Put on your seatbelts.”
“Put on some music!” Sony throws both arms up, bouncing in her
seat. C
turns on the radio, the engine rumbling as he drives it out of the
parking space and onto the road. The turn is a tad dramatic, more of
a swerve than a turn, really. The visitor pass on the dashboard flies
to the opposite end. Neo hits an imaginary brake with his foot,
holding onto the door and seat for dear life.
“Wanna hold my hand?” C asks.
“I want your hands on the wheel. Look where you’re going! Coeur!”
Neo tries to protest, but before he can, C interlaces their fingers and
brings Neo’s knuckles to his lips. He gives him a side-eye, a crooked
grin playing on his face.
“Let’s go have that 16th-century heartbreak on a beach,” he
whispers.
Neo doesn’t blush like you’d think he would. Instead, he looks
directly at C’s profile, unsaid gratitude of sorts mustering behind it.
As we pull out of the street, the hospital lessens in the rearview
mirror, like a mountain peak slowly disappearing into the clouds.