I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

“Um–I–sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” she asks.
We step out of the elevator’s mouth onto the ground floor. She stops
to sightsee the atrium, the light pooling through the windowed
ceiling, and all the faded colors to pair it. When she looks at me
again, that playful manner returns to ghost over her smile. “I’m plenty
good at it for the both of us, and it’s actually kind of cute how
nervous you are.”
My face heats, and suddenly I can’t form a single syllable, let alone a
sentence to respond.
Hikari smirks. “There’s a library here, right?”
I nod, and because I know I won’t get any answers from her before I
do, I lead her there. The library is different from the atrium, more
secluded, less central and medical. It’s where patients can come to
read in the plush chairs and find little worlds to escape into.
“Excuse me, ma’am? I can’t seem to find this book,” Hikari says to
the volunteer behind the counter. She says a random title and author
so out there I’m not certain either exists. “Do you think you could
help me?”
The volunteer nods curtly and says she’ll look in the back.
“I don’t think checking out a book is stealing unless you intend never
to give it back,” I whisper.
Hikari quirks a brow. “Why do you steal, Sam? You and your
thieves.”
“Don’t ask why.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t believe in reasons.”