Marcos has never liked going out with the boys at school and this afternoon's plan - to go to the parish to receive the Lisbon WYD cross that is traveling around the world - is not that much for him, but Teté is going and that's enough to make it a perfect plan. It is true that he will have to put up with the little jokes of his companions, especially Germán who has a special grudge against him, but having the opportunity to be close to the girl of his dreams is worth it.
-Man, Mamamarcos, I didn't know you were coming too, what's up man! -greets Germán, offering his fist.
-Well, you see, Germán. H-here I am. -Marcos answers, shaking his hand and ducking his head to the complicit chuckles of the two friends of the school bully who also welcome him.
The girls, who were chatting in a circle on the bench in the square, approach when they see him arrive.
-Hi Marcos, how cool are your Converse, are they new? -Teté asks him, planting two kisses on him that leave him dizzy, he doesn't know if it's because of the intense smell of bubble gum perfume that his secret love gives off or because of the sudden rise in heart rate he experiences every time she is less than half a meter away.
-Yes, yes, they're cool, aren't they? -laughs Marcos, proud to have brand new shoes as he greets, charming as always, the rest of the female sector of the gang.
Marcos is handsome, the handsomest in high school in fact. He's attentive, funny and, although his stuttering puts him at the bottom of the complex teenage social ladder, many girls pine for him in private.
-Come on, let's go, we're late," says Teté, to which everyone responds by setting off.
On the subway on the way to the parish, while apparently holding the insubstantial conversation (music, teachers and video games) of the group, Marcos gets distracted and begins to think about what he is doing going to see a cross next to a guy who insults him by calling him Mamamarcos...
-A penny for your thoughts," Teté assaults him, sitting down next to him.
-Nothing, my-my-my-my-my stuff
-I know, you're thinking, what's the point of going to see a naked cross traveling around the world? -It seems as if I had read his mind. Marcos is not a churchgoer, he hasn't even made his second communion, although he likes the images of Holy Week and admires the art of the brotherhood. But a naked cross, two crossed sticks, what beauty do they have?
-Well, some of that I do think. Without a Christ it's a bit soooo-sa," he laughs.
-Hahaha, yes, I understand you perfectly. But it is that..." -she becomes serious to say the following sentence- "In this cross the Christ is you, it is me, it will be each one of us.
Well, don't count on me for the claaaavos- -Well, don't count on me for the claaaavos-.
-Pfff, what a beast! But hey, you're not far off the mark, or aren't the difficulties we experience in our day-to-day lives nails? I don't know about you, but I have my problems, don't you? You know that I'm having a terrible time with my parents' divorce, Carmen's mother has cancer, Manuel has a fat complex and even Germán's pimp, you can see, has anxiety attacks because his parents are unemployed and they're going to kick them out of the house. I know this because his sister told me. In this cross we are not only going to see how Jesus saved us, but that He accompanies each one of us in our crosses. Forgive me for giving you a hard time, but the God that Jesus showed us, the one I believe in, is not a God who does not care about us, whom we contemplate from the outside, but who joins us even in the hardest moments and says I love you!
-I-love-you-I love you," she repeated aloud, admiring her friend's words. It was the first time he had understood that the Cross was a declaration of love, a place to rest from the cross, a place to relieve himself from so many complicit chuckles all around, from so many scorns and humiliations. He was so shocked by this good news that he did not even notice the misunderstanding that his stuttering had provoked in his friend.
-I beg your pardon, Marcos? -Teté answered him, red as a tomato.
-I love you," he replies, surprising himself by his words.
The girl excitedly brings her hands to her face, wraps her arms around his neck and, to the astonished gaze of the rest of the group, kisses him and declares: "And me, Marcos! I love you too!
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
