I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

Putting my hands up in surrender, I step forward, press the button
beneath the keypad, and reach my arm into the mouth. The display
beeps, the inside clicks, and two bars thump to the bottom. I take
them out and offer both the way you would a dinner tray.
“They all do that?” the girl asks, far calmer now that there’s food in
her hands.
“Just this one.”
Amusement crawls to her face as she takes my offering. Her
features come to light, chapped lips curving, stretching fresh cuts on
her cheek.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Nothing.” Her fingers trail the glass scuffed from her kicks like an
apology. “Just that broken things seem to like you.”
Broken things. How endeared she seems by those two words, just
as Neo is.
“Are you alone?” I ask.
“My mom’s asleep in the room,” she says, sinking to the ground
beside the vending machine, enemy turned friend. “Here.” She holds
out one of her bars.
“Sit with me.”
Honestly, a bit afraid to refuse her, I take it. She unwraps hers with
impatience, sitting cross-legged, head thrown back. I settle next to
her, about a foot away.
“You never seen a chocolate bar before?” she asks. Before I can
answer, she reaches into my lap, bites the corner of the wrapper,
and skins it with her teeth. Then it’s handed back to me, less like an
offering, more like a handshake.