I'm the kind of person who tends to believe what people tell me, whether it’s true or not. This reminds me of the lies my friend and her mother told me that I believed wholeheartedly.Back in my secondary school days, I had a close friend. We were inseparable. During our end-of-year parties, we’d wear matching outfits. Even when we had disagreements, we always settled them before the next day, and we never let anyone else get involved in our issues.
When we were about to take our J.S.S.3 exams, she told me that our school proprietor had asked her to help someone with the NECO exam, not knowing that she was actually taking it herself. She started attending tutorials. When the results came out, I asked her how it went, and she told me the person she helped to write the exam had passed with good grades and even compensated her for it.
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I was genuinely happy for her.A few months later, she told me she was moving to Ibadan to stay with her uncle and she would continue her education there. I was sad because she was my only close friend, but when she said she would come back to visit occasionally, I felt better. Even her mother backed up the story, saying she didn’t want her daughter to leave, but she had no choice.
I promised to visit her mom regularly, even when she wasn’t around, just to keep her company. After she left, I kept my promise and visited her mother when I could, using my mom’s phone to call her since I didn’t have one at the time. When I finally had my own phone, I always kept in touch with her. About a year and a half later, I was now in S.S.S.2 and close to graduating from that school. One day, I went to visit a classmate to discuss an assignment I didn’t quite understand.
While I was there, one of her friends, who wasn’t in our school, mentioned my friend’s name. I stayed quiet, focusing on the assignment, until she said she had seen my friend at her brother’s college multiple times. That’s when my classmate let it slip that my friend was actually studying biochemistry there. I was shocked and told them she was in Ibadan with her uncle. My classmate started laughing and asked, “Is that what they told you?” They then explained everything to me—that I was the only one in our school who didn’t know the truth. Our proprietor had been sponsoring her education, and she wasn’t in Ibadan at all.Imagine the betrayal! She had even lied to my mother.
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To make matters worse, I found out that my friend was actually dating the proprietor, who was married. Her mother also knew this man's wife, and she supported her. That’s what really hurt me most. I started to know why some of my teachers, who used to like me, had become distant. I used to spend time with them, even helping them with their hair, but suddenly they began to avoid me. I didn’t understand it then, but now it makes sense.
The Monday after I learned the truth, I decided to talk to one of my teachers, who I was still close to. I explained everything to her, and to my surprise, she told me she had intended to ask me about it that same day. She had even told her younger brother to remind me to come see her. She said she had heard about the situation the previous week and had wanted to clear things up with me. She explained that many teachers assumed I knew what was going on since I was so close to my friend.
Most of my teachers believed that me and her are “birds of a feather flock together” and thought I was aware of everything, but I had no idea.The situation had escalated to the point where the proprietor’s wife left with their children and moved away. He wasn’t home much anymore, and things became more obvious. In my S.S.S.2 second term, my friend even started teaching at our school and moved into the proprietor’s house. By then, I had completely cut ties with her. Someone eventually tried to reconcile us, but the trust I had in her and her mother was gone.
I realized I couldn’t keep someone like that in my life—someone who would destroy someone else’s happiness for their own gain. Since then, I haven’t really had a serious friend like that again.
This is my entry for Hive Naija Weekly Prompts Edition 64