Cicatrize

“We should go,” Yuusuke ordered indirectly.

"Because you say so, little brat," replied Adasa, who was even shorter than him.

The snort was loud, but there was no expression on his face. He started walking.

“Because of the storm, right?” Imobach picked up his sister from the ground, to which she blushed, it was obvious that he had to carry her, but the gesture was so natural that she looked more like a pampered maiden.

“The news report didn't say anything about it, but the clouds... No problem, I brought an umbrella,” Coral pointed to the backpack Teresa was carrying, “and my hooded coat, if we organize ourselves well…”

“And because we are in danger.” the dark-haired man summed up. “With every minute that passes, more hairs stand up.”

“Static electricity.” Adassa walked away from the group, standing still.” I'm not the tallest, it doesn't affect me.”

"What about piercings?" Teresa suggested, having already put away her Victorian belt and necklace. The less conductivity, the better. "I think I remember where the covered picnic area is."

“If we hurry we won't need it, but okay, is there another one closer to the stop?” Coral asked.

The line 352 stood out for three things: the air conditioning didn't work, there were always Germans, who were enjoying the scenery, and English people, with whom to practice the language; if you apologized for your lack of language, they would usually say that you weren't that bad, and few were the lucky ones who managed to get a seat. In this case the lucky ones were Coral, Teresa and Yuusuke, at different ends of the same, the other two had to stand for almost an hour of the journey, Adassa's legs would not be the same after that.

I suspect that the guy with the blue highlights used some psychological technique to avoid having his seat stolen once he saw it, but what I do know is that Coral changed seats after each stop until he sat with the blonde.

“It was good,” she began speaking, looking out the window opposite where she was sitting.

“I would like to go back…” answered the one with heterochromia, “as long as we are sure that no lightning is going to strike us,” she smiled at the nonsense she had just said.

Coral, still looking away, smiled, tilted her neck gently and shared a laugh with the girl.

“Listen…” Coral emboldened herself. “Now. Now or never. Talk. Now. It’s ideal,” she thought.

“It would be nice to find coal, although with the time that has passed they will be more like ruins of bonfires. I don't think there is any folklore about Canarian witches with brooms,” she overshadowed the chestnut's words unintentionally. “Sorry, excuse me, what did you say?” she pinched herself. “I didn't think you were going to talk.”

“No, no, you speak. I don't think I can find any traces of charcoal either, among the leaves, wind and rain…”

“What were you going to tell me?” the blonde looked at him without blinking.

Coral was momentarily speechless, like when you wax, they tell you it's over but there's one last unexpected tug, she thought she was off the hook and she preferred it that way, but from her friend's determined face, she knew it wasn't like that.

“I want to tell you so much and I will keep most of it to myself, out of shame or because it is better as it is or to avoid crying…”

“I wanted to apologize for disappointing you the other day. I shouldn't have acted that way” dhe spoke with her head down, playing with his fingers, interlacing them, but he spoke loudly, vocalizing and without putting his mouth small.

“Disappoint me?” Teresa took her by the shoulder and lowered her head to meet her gaze. “You haven't disappointed me at all. Besides, I must apologize too, partly because I didn't know how to read you. That wasn't the problem, I took it lightly and spoke almost without thinking, automatically.”

Coral's phone rang from inside her suitcase, a message. She adjusted it to open it and searched, but before picking it up, she thought about it, hesitated for a while, and finally read it. She left the screen on, she had to finish something first.

“No…” she stretched out the o too much. “I don’t think about it that way, it’s more like… these days without seeing each other, did you think it was your fault?” She raised his tone, luckily, rows behind a kinki had the music at full volume and drowned it out. “Really?” She said raising his lower lip. “I thought you were sad because I behaved terribly, worse than an idiot, but that, were you upset because I made you believe it was because of you?… It’s not your fault, don’t think like that, please.”

“You say this so I don't feel bad, I think…”

“You're wrong. Very wrong. If this happened, it's because I can't control myself and I have a lot to fix. I would have exploded anyway, if it wasn't for that, for something else.”

Coral knew that it wasn't the ideal place to talk, it wasn't exactly the ideal place, but like most things in life, nothing goes as planned, and now she was trying to hide her face, she didn't want to stand out at that moment, not like the crazy woman who starts crying in the middle of the bus.

“Have you ever…” Coral paused to continue speaking, no matter what the other girl's answer was, she would have a bad time, “have you ever thought about how we met? About what these years have been like? About… if we are really friends?”

Coral's shoulders began a rhythmic movement that she couldn't stop, her neck seemed to be swallowed by them and she squeezed the backpack even tighter against her.

“Yes,” that was what I didn't want to hear, why had I asked then? “Yes, I have asked myself that, but yes, I do consider that we are.”

“But if you did it, it was for a reason.”

“Just like you, and I'm sure you think the same as me,” she took her hands gently, to see them better and to continue holding them. “I have... learned, more so these days,” she smiled for having imitated her without meaning to, although it seemed to have the opposite effect on the brunette, “that if I don't say what I think, someone might do it for me, but I hurt myself and others.”

“The thing is…”

Teresa's lips began to tremble, Coral noticed it at the first movement, she pushed her, without touching her, a little further into the seats, closer to the glass, she wanted more privacy. In a quick movement she turned her wrists and she was now the one taking her friend's hands, she began to caress the back of her hands with both thumbs. She spoke.

“You're going to cry and I won't be able to stop myself either.”

“This is going to become an infinite loop.”

It wasn't the first time this had happened. Like when great-grandmother Maria Auxiliadora passed away or when a fin got stuck in her shoulder during a surfing competition and she had to get a lot of stitches. When one started, the other kept going, out of empathy or to relieve stress, and if one stopped, the other would pick up where she left off.

“We are crybabies.” Coral lamented.

“I know… we are.”

“I…” she resumed the conversation. It was the moment. “Sometimes, I remember when we started talking. In our own way, we both felt alone” she wanted to explain further, but it seemed cruel to remember when nobody talked to her friend because she was Teresa The crazy one. Almost at the same time, they started calling her brother, Imobach The beautiful one, it gave her the creeps every time she heard it. “As you know, I don’t like to leave anyone out.”

“No need to swear,” she snorted with a giggle. “I can't forget that time you almost cried when you saw an old man having lunch alone in a bar, after thinking about it a bit, you sat at the same table to keep him company and he turned out to be rude, I think I only heard the same insults when Spain was robbed in the Korea-Japan World Cup,” unconsciously, she squeezed the hands that held her. “You know what it feels like - she returned to the subject.”

“I… I mean… don't you think we're friends just because of circumstances?”

She hesitated, but finally spoke up. She didn't want to look up, she was afraid, so she kept her neck bent and moved her eyes slightly after waiting ten seconds in silence.

“That's how it was. You're right,” Teresa said calmly. “But what does it matter?”

“It doesn't matter. We are friends because none of us had to spend recess alone.” Coral began to feel misunderstood, she pushed the hair out of her face on both sides with her stiff hands and pulling hard. “It means that this has been worthless, that it's not real, that we have no one…”

“I… don’t think so. Someone once explained to me, a long time ago… that I should speak with more confidence, say what I really think and, although this time it’s not a group project to present in which I don’t agree with the spokesperson… I think it also helps me.” Coral’s left hand went from her hair to her shoulder, hugging him. “If I don’t say what I think, I do and they hurt me. What I mean is that, okay, we joined together because we needed each other at the time,,” without touching her, in the least, Teresa tried to meet her seatmate’s gaze, “but, we are still together, it might not have gone well, we might have fought badly at the first opportunity and caused trouble, we might not say hello or isolate ourselves, but look at us, almost adults and together.”

“You said it yourself,” she inevitably raised her voice, but when she realized it, she returned to an appropriate tone, “how many movies or series about teenagers have we seen? It's all a lie, shit, they end up being friends forever, they all break up, once you're no longer useful or interesting, or they don't like you, they leave, bye, goodbye, bye, bye, bon voyage under a blue sky.”

The storm was getting worse and worse, from the first drops, they gained strength until now it seemed that they could knock down the window with a little more time. Coral liked to read the sign on the hill of the Villa, they seemed like trivial phrases, and they were, but thinking that someone got up in the early morning to put them up just to brighten the view of the drivers, or passengers, invigorated her.

“There is some truth to it. We always make bad decisions, we choose the worst one, and that is the plot of all dramas,” said Teresa referring to her age group, although she never thought that the adults around her knew how to choose better, “and if they are good friends, they support them, if not, they leave, it is reflected. Besides, there is some authenticity in fiction, didn't you know that Mary Shelley's thing was about a dream and an experiment with frogs?”

There was another pause, another moment to think and hold back tears.

Coral continued to caress her arm, not her skin, she had been wearing her coat for a long time, and she was grateful for it. A nearby flash of lightning, but she couldn't say where it came from, revived her.

“They tell me… -he took a deep breath, his nostrils flared-, that I have to be okay with relationships, that they all end sometime, but… it's just that… I don't want to lose you…

Now it was going to be uncontrollable, once the tap was opened, the stopcock had broken.

"You don't know if that will happen," was what Teresa wanted to answer, but her vocal cords took a different path. "Me neither."

It was the longest hug Guacimara, a cleaning lady of almost forty years of age who had just left work, had ever seen. She was sitting one seat ahead of them, on the opposite side, and had heard the whole conversation. She thought that she had also been that young, and was moved by the memory. She got off one stop before the station and wondered how it would all end.

"I hate talking about feelings," Coral whispered, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes. "But I don't feel bad."

She sniffled after the sentence, and lost a bit of glamour, although she didn't care. As she had said, she cried because she felt loved, because she really didn't have to do much, despite having proven herself quite a bit, because this time she wasn't the fastest runner, the most skilled surfer, the delegate who delays an exam, everyone's friend, the responsible daughter, the sister of... she cried because Teresa loves her and that's enough for her.

“Ugh, listen to it, it's perfect, you'll love it.” Coral said, offering her an earphone. She searched for the exact minute

<<... I always thought I might be bad

Now I'm sure that it's true

'Cause I think you're so good

And I'm nothing like you… >>

“I think… there's still some work to be done.” She gently touched Coral's shoulder, to which she nodded.

“And you'll be there when I have to correct it. Or improve it,” she replied boldly.

“And you will do it when you have to give me a push.”

They ended with a final hug, smiling and moving forward to a new beginning.

“How nice, your girls are already reconciled.” Adassa jumped out from behind the seats and rested her arms on the backs of both.

“Who?” the note caught Imobach off guard, and he was unable to respond quickly.

“He's not referring to me, of course.” Yûusuke had his arms crossed and preferred to remain standing.

“By the way,” Coral narrowed her eyes maliciously but affectionately, “thank you too.”

“Joel didn't last a round in the interrogation, you hid the IP well to track it,” added the one who was still standing.

"You wanted to distract her?" Imobach said incredulously. For him, inside that curly head there were only plans to mess things up and there was no room for other people's worries.

“Shut up! There are still people getting off. How embarrassing” it was the first time, and perhaps the last, that they heard that word from his mouth.

“Are you blushing?” Teresa suppressed a smile, she had grown quite fond of Adassa. “You're embarrassed that others know that you do have your little orange and punky heart , a worse little heart after all.”

Both girls went ahead getting off the means of transport, luckily the station was covered.

"And that's it?" Coral said suspiciously. "Thanks," she said to the driver, and returned to the topic at hand. "I was expecting something like Omedeto Shinji."