Through the Dark

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to land at Barcelona’s international airport. Please fasten your seatbelts and lock your seat in its upright position. The current time in Barcelona is 12:21 PM and the current time in London is 11:21 AM. Thank you for flying with United Airlines.”

Grinning, I rubbed my hands up and down my arms and looked out the window to see the city of Barcelona.

Finally.

I’m pretty sure you know my twin brother, Lionel Messi. People call him one of the best players in history and I couldn’t be prouder.

Leo and I were extremely close, we both grew up with growth hormone deficiency and it affected most of our childhood. Our parents struggled with the treatment and it also affected our lives at school.

We were different than the other kids. Leo and I were always skinnier and shorter than the other kids and most of the kids used to pick on us but we made sure to never take it to heart.

One day when I came home, Leo just suddenly told me that he was going to be moving to Spain with our padre. Of course, I was shocked but after he told me what for, I was elated for him.

FC Barcelona were willing to pay for his treatment but he made sure that they could take care of me too as he said he wouldn’t sign the contract if they didn’t take care of my treatment too.

While Leo and padre moved to Spain and Leo enrolled in the youth academy, I stayed in Rosario with my Madre, my brothers Rodrigo and Matias and my sister, Maria Sol.

Since Leo and I were really close, we used to sneak to each other’s room at night and tell each other spooky stories when we were little and sometimes we came to each other’s rooms when we just couldn’t sleep or because the thunder and lightning were scaring us.

It felt really weird not being able to go to Leo’s room in the middle of the night due to a little thunder and lightning. For the first few months that Leo left, it was really hard for my brothers, Madre, Maria Sol and I.

He tried to Skype with us every night, but he always ended up too tired to even open his laptop or he would be too busy training or taking care of things with the team.

Finally after the first few busy months were done, he became more available and started calling us on Skype more often and it felt like he was right here with us.

Leo would often fly us out to Barcelona or sometimes he and Padre would come home or sometimes only Padre, but we were all so proud of him and we were so glad that the fame never got to his head.

After high school, I got a scholarship to study at the University of England. I was really sad to be leaving my family, but I was really excited that a new life awaited me.

I still stayed very close to my family, calling them on Skype almost every night when I didn’t have homework or a test to prep for.

Then, I met the most perfect guy—Lucas Rodriguez.

He was amazing and I was convinced that he was the one for me. We were together for about two and a half years and we already moved in with each other.

Until one night, he went out for drinks with his friends and came back totally wasted. He started hitting me and finally when he collapsed, unconscious, I fled to my friend, Miranda’s house and she let me stay at her apartment as long as I needed.

Every single day, Lucas came to Miranda’s doorstep to apologize to me and eventually, I forgave him and we returned to our usual routines.

But not even two weeks after I moved back in with Lucas, he started hitting me again. The first few times, he was drunk but the next couple of times he started doing it sober.

He called me a worthless slut and he told me that I deserved every hit that I got…and I believed him.

The only ones who knew about the beatings were Maria Sol, Miranda and Leo’s then girlfriend and now wife, Antonella.

They begged me to get some help and tell Leo, Matias, Rodrigo or even Padre but I told them not to tell anyone because I was a naïve child who believed that Lucas could change for the better and they respected that.

The beatings kept on going for about a month and I had bruises up and down my body that I had to
hide every single day with concealer so no one would ask any questions.

Then one day, Leo decided to surprise me since he had a game in England.

He walked in on Lucas hitting me and immediately he was filled with rage. Leo was about to punch him but he managed to focus on me instead.

He grabbed him by his collar and told him that if he ever laid a hand on me again, that would be the last thing he’d do.

And that was the last I ever saw of Lucas.

That night, Leo brought me to his hotel room so we could “have some brother and sister time” but I knew that he wanted to keep an eye on me.

That time, he was rooming with Xavi Hernandez and after we introduced ourselves, Leo went for a shower and Xavi accidentally asked me why I had so many bruises.

I ended up bursting into tears in front of Xavi and I told him everything. Xavi was actually a pretty good listener and we had actually gotten pretty close. He was like another older brother to me.

The next day, Leo introduced me to most of his teammates: Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara, Dani Alves, David Villa, Jordi Alba, Alexis Sanchez, Cristian Tello, Rafinha Alcantara, Ibrahim Afellay, Marc Bartra and Gerard Pique.

They were all really nice and welcoming and took me apart as their Barca family even though I wasn’t even a player or a WAG.

“Messi’s family is our family.” As Puyi would say.

Pretty much whom I was really close with and in touch with now were Puyi, Xavi, Thiago, Alexis, Cesc and Geri.

Those six could put a smile on my face even if there were a hurricane outside.

At my college graduation, I was pretty sure no one would be coming since Rodrigo was busy with the birth of his newborn baby and Matias would be busy planning his wedding and Madre had just fallen victim to a flu going around in Argentina and Maria Sol stayed back to take care of her.

But when they called my name and gave me my diploma, I heard shouts of some Barca players that Leo called with him to come and support me.

After I graduated, I was all set to return home to Rosario and find myself a job and start providing for myself.

But Leo called me once on Skype and told me to stay with him and Anto in Barcelona because “he didn’t want to be apart from his twin any longer.”

So here I am now.