Edna’s friend
Edna was the exact opposite of everything her friend Arith was, while Edna was introverted and rigid, Arith was extroverted and friendly. Edna wanted to be like her friend, she wanted to be carefree and friendly. She admired Arith because everyone including her teachers liked her.
What she did not know was that Arith also wanted to be like her. Arith admired the care and affection Edna received from her parents, they never missed for once a visiting day, and if for any reason they did, they would send a relative to represent them. Arith was a daughter of a single businesswoman who could not find time to always take care of her daughter hence sending her to a boarding secondary school.
It seemed as though Arith’s mother did not want her around and so she sent her to a school very far from their original residence which was in the north. As for Edna, she was in the school because of her father’s occupational transfer. He worked as a lecturer at the university of which he was sent on a sabbatical.
Edna was not subtle about her admiration for Arith, she would share everything she had with Arith just to please her. Arith knew this so she took advantage of Edna. Whenever Edna wanted to hang out with her, she would rather dismiss her paying more attention to their other friends, Juliet and Chiamaka.
However, when Arith wanted sardines and beverages from Edna, she would stick beside her and even go as far as talking about the juiciest Nollywood movie she had watched while she was at home. All of these was because her perception of Edna was as though she was from a rich family who spoilt her silly.
Arith was not in the wrong though to treat Edna that way because she behaved like a spoilt rich brat. For instance, Edna could never finish clearing a portion assigned to her by the hostel prefect. Instead, she would end up begging the prefect with flimsy excuses or feign sickness.
Meanwhile, Arith could clean the whole school compound without complaining and would only see it as a punishment when she didn’t have company. She would keep her pride up, even go as far as acting impertinently to the senior prefect knowing well that she could endure any punishment given to her. At times she would pretend to be in tears in front of the senior prefect and then laugh about it when she was with her friends.
Arith was the lead of the pack. She was stronger, intelligent and cunning as well, whereas Edna was the food plug, the one who always had sardines ready to spice up their boring dormitory meals. During the so called famine days, which was mostly during examinations, our dear Edna always had enough garri and to spare.
The event that broke up Edna and Arith’s friendship was when she eavesdropped on the terrible things Arith said about her to her friends. If there was anything about Edna, it was that she was stubborn, so immediately after hearing what Arith said, she confronted her and started a fight. Arith who was stronger than Edna immediately shoved her to the ground to avoid fighting. But Edna was by far angry and would not accept defeat. But at last, she was frustrated and after crying a river she yelled at Arith;
'' I will never speak to you again! We are no longer friends!’'
Edna left after the fight and avoided Arith until she left the school.
The next time she reconnected with Arith was during her first year in the university. At this time Edna had lost her mother and her father was no longer dotting but strict. They reconnected through Facebook and surprisingly Arith was happy to chat with her after so long. They shared their experiences and thereafter Arith begged for Edna’s forgiveness. Given that this offence was committed in such a long time, Edna forgave her. Edna had grown up to be a fine young lady however she had not given up on her introverted nature. It was even worst now because she had a perfect excuse to be exempted from social activities;
" Sorry I can’t attend the party, my father won’t let me.”
She was so good at pretending to be sorry whereas she was never sorry. She rather spent her time reading Harley Quinn novels, and so when Arith suggested they meet up she didn’t hesitate to come up with her very convenient excuse.
Arith desperately wanted to see her but all her efforts were in vain because as we all know, her friend was stubborn and bent on her ways. Along the line, they lost contact again but Arith being a good friend, in her bid to make amends, found a way to reconnect with her. After all it was now facile with the internet. Even though she enjoyed the spicy gist she got from Arith, she always avoided the issue of hanging out whenever Arith brought it up. Alas she decided to step out of her shell and meet up with Arith. She made plans which Arith was unaware of. Then the day came for Edna to make her surprise visit to her friend. Edna was excited and shocked to see her and so was Arith. But what was more shocking for her was when she discovered that Arith had been sick with lupus all the while
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Nelly-Portia
Writer
Precious Essien
Editor
