I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

Neo does nothing of the sort. Instead, he smiles again.
“I’ll always love you for the in between moments, Dad,” he says. “But
I don’t forgive you for the rest of them.”
The head security guard rushes into the room and escorts Neo’s
father out.
The commotion catches attention from the whole floor, but Neo
retains his calmness.
Eric lets Hikari and me into the room, telling Neo he’ll be right back,
that he’s okay now.
“Neo,” Hikari calls, Hee cuddled in her sweater. The cat hops onto
Neo’s bed, nuzzling onto his lap.
“I’m fine,” Neo says. She stares at his arm with crescent-shaped cuts
dripping onto the sheets. Neo runs his touch around Hikari’s neck
and pulls her into an embrace. “Don’t cry, stupid. I’m fine.”
Neo decides to stop packing his things then. Instead, he leaves the
room as it is, our headquarters. He imagines Sony laying supine on
the window sill, playing with Hee, while Coeur sits tapping his thighs
with the rhythm of his earbuds.
His and Coeur’s manuscript sits in the corner.
He tells himself he will finish it another day.
“I want to lie down in the sun for a while, don’t you?” he whispers.
Hikari agrees and we make our way to the gardens together, sure
not to sit too close to the hedge. Neo lays flat in the grass, wearing
C’s varsity jacket, inhaling his scent and his warmth, pretending that
it is C’s arms holding him rather than empty fabric. I lay beside him,
Hikari and Hee too. Lonely, sunkissed survivors.
I wonder if Neo’s father will ever read the rest of his son’s letter.
Although as Neo stares upward to heaven with peace, I know that it