With a determined gaze, I alongside a few other girls strode furiously towards the next classroom. Steve definitely wouldn't know what hit him by the time I was done with him. Why on earth would he even think to do that, I pondered as I kept walking. The loud bang of the classroom door announced my presence and all eyes were on me. It was a perfect time and so I seized the moment.
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“How dare you say that about me?” I asked loudly, my gaze directed at Steve.
“Wongi, I haven't seen you all morning. Where have you been?” he asked, a tint of ignorance in his expression.
“Oh cut it already. You had the nerve to place a bet alongside the other boy as to who was going to get into a relationship with me? As if I was some commodity on the market” I thundered.
“How did you know…” he stuttered.
“And for a minute I thought it was a lie. I actually trusted you as a friend Steve. But you know what friends don't do behind each other's backs? Place stupid bets on their heads and act as if nothing happened”. I dropped the line I had been rehearsing right from the minute I heard the news and bolted out of the class the same way I bolted in.
The problem however was the fact that at this point in my life, I wasn't ever about hearing the story from both sides. The side that I stuck with was the side that approached me first. Little did I know that people could lie to your face with an innocent expression.
Steve was my classmate in high school and my very close seat partner. He was that seat partner that made classes interesting irrespective of how boring the teachers were. The seat partner that made you look forward to having general classes. Many people were against our friendship and teachers always had to separate us in class because of our mindless chattering. Nonetheless, we always did well educationally so we had no issue. When news got to me that he was involved in some shady bet that involved me, I felt betrayed.
I didn't want to hear anything he had to say and I even had to switch seats in class just to be as far away from Steve as possible. Need I say that I turned down the numerous requests Steve sent out just to meet me. Getting betrayed by an enemy was something one could easily come back from, but the betrayal hits different when it's from a friend.
It's amusing how someone who was a very close friend can suddenly become a total stranger. I continued ignoring Steve until one day during one of our laboratory sessions when Steven briskly walked towards me. As I saw him approaching, I made to change seats as usual but then the young man gripped my right hand tightly.
“Enough is enough Wongi. I have allowed you to have your fun but today, you're going to listen to my side of the story. Then, you can choose whether or not we can continue being friends.” His voice sounded husky but his ears looked teary.
“And what if I don't want to listen to you?” I said, forcing my right hand out of his grip.
“You are going to listen to me either way” he retorted. I knew he meant business and I also knew that I had no other choice but to listen. At least, I owed him the benefit of the doubt.
“Emmanuel probably told you that I placed a bet on you but I did” he started. I rolled my eyes in disbelief.
“Every guilty person would say that “
“Yes, but the difference is that I'm not guilty. I was there when the bet was going on. I tried to stop them from doing it but they went ahead anyway. However, due to our closeness, they made me promise that I wasn't going to say a word to you till someone emerged the winner.”
I looked in Steve’s eyes and I could sense that he was telling the truth. But something did not add up.
“Okay? So why did Emmanuel tell me about the whole plot?”
“First, because he thought I was going to tell on them and second, he thought telling you about it was going to give him a better chance of winning.
‘Emmanuel! That sneaky little human’ I yelled in my mind.
“One last question, who were the other boys involved in the bet?”
“You know I can't exactly tell you that. All I can say is that you should check yourself”
I took a minute to reason and there were a few people I could think of. It also dawned on me that I almost lost a good friend due to negligence. I had to make things right.
“I didn't know this was what happened. Emmanuel gave me the gist and I was too infuriated because he said you were involved. I'm sorry for my baseless accusations. Truce?”
“Truce? You’ve got to be kidding me. To think that ten minutes ago, you weren't interested in anything I had to say. You would have to figure out a better way to earn my forgiveness young lady” Steve smiled slightly as he walked away.
It was nice to have a friend back and now I had to figure out ways to make things right. In the meantime I didn't confront any of the suspects to avoid escalating things as none of them stood a chance. On the brighter side, I learnt a very vital lesson from that period and it had to do with not drawing conclusions without hearing from all the parties involved in a misunderstanding.
Love🤍