I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

“Poor lad’s back in the hospital now.”
Coeur took a moment to process the words, thought he’d misheard.
Then, if a bit brokenly, he asked, “What?”
His teacher looked up at him through his glasses, curious now. He
must’ve noticed Coeur’s distress, the slight tremble in his hand,
because he visibly
softened, facing his student head-on and removing his lenses.
“I’m sorry, C. I assumed you two were close,” he began. “Neo’s been
ill for a few years now. That’s why he’s out of school so often.”
Coeur had always just assumed Neo had prior engagements–a club
he didn’t talk about, some sort of excuse to skip class half the week–
not… Not something like this.
The teacher sighed. “He had an accident with some boys last week.
I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it. It’s been buzzing all over the
school. He was hurt quite badly.”
An accident. With some boys.
Coeur thought back to the morning after detention when he walked
into school. He’d just told his coach he was going to quit swimming,
to which his coach yelled and flailed his arms. Coeur didn’t
remember much else except agreeing to do one last tournament,
and then he’d be done.
He remembered walking past Neo in the hall, past teammates who
he hadn’t really spoken to outside practices. They practically
surrounded him, but Coeur didn’t see it that way at the time.
He saw his old perceivers, the ones who thought him nice, athletic, a
good-looking picture to decorate the scene. He saw them gathered
around the picture of his happiness, of the person he perhaps didn’t
look right with but felt right with.