By Nurudeen Bolaji
God forbid a time when we have to live our lives in isolation. Human race has been said to perish whenever we stop mingling with others. I bemoan the travails of this story, as it happened between me and a close friend.
Before I proceed, I will like to conceal my identity from the public and that friend’s too, but I know for sure the story would get to him. For this story I would refer to myself as Hibbatu and that friend as Umoru.
Our friendship started when I was in 200-level second semester. Just like normal platonic friends, we evolved into being intimate friends as a result of his ability to help me with tutorials and we became reading partners.
We became close enough which led him to having feelings for me. He professed his feelings for me to which I told him I am already in a very serious relationship and that we should continue being friends,
“Umoru, I’m sorry you are a very good friend of mine and I feel bad for my inability to reciprocate your feelings for me. I have a fiance and I can’t betray him. So I will advise that we remain just friends,” I told him, believing he understood.
We were still friends until one day, I borrowed his earpods. That day I got to see a different man from my old friend. So it happened that I misplaced the airpods which I felt remorseful about. I was too ashamed to tell him, because I didn’t know how he would react. When he noticed he didn’t see me with the airpods, he asked for it and I reluctantly told him I misplaced it. At first, he thought I was joking but when he realized I meant it,
He kept pestering me day by day, despite explaining the situation to him and he said,
“If you already sold the earpod to someone then you should at least pay back the purchase price,” I was shocked this was coming out from a friend of 2 years.
Most painful aspect is that it didn’t end there. On social media, the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp he would chat me up and insult me, body shaming me, bullying, calling me different names and threatening that I should pay the price for the lost airpod. How I wish I did not borrow the airpod in the first place, the decision I keep regretting.
The question now is: Is this how all friends behave?
NB: All the names above are fictional.