I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

“I’m Hamlet.” Yes, she did claim the character. However, those words
don’t fit right in her mouth. “What?” Hikari catches my distaste, the
way my nose crinkles. “Am I a poor actress?”
“No. You just have nothing in common with Hamlet.”
“Because I’m not bitter?”
“Because he’s not a sun.”
Hamlet is earthly.
“You think I’m a sun?” Hikari asks, head tilted.
“You’re bright,” I say. I put my hand out, fingers apart, mimicking a
reach.
Hamlet rests at my side in the other. “I feel like if we touch, I’ll burn
away like paper.” The picture of her sifts over the hills of my
knuckles. She stands there, listening. The kind of listening you can
tell only belongs to me.
I retreat, catching myself. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Hikari’s shoulders bounce once. Her amusement pinches
her lips, half pursed, half curved. “You actually remind me of a
moon.”
“A moon?”
“Yes. Gray, subtle, only brave in the night. Maybe those were our
past lives.”
Maybe they were our first.
Hikari raises her hand. Her palm faces me like the pretense to a
wave. She takes a step, our distance squirming. Alarm flinches
through me, translated into a violent step back. Hikari halts at the
little noise my body makes—the shuffle of my clothes, the screech of