Some people don’t deserve any second chance, one of such is my former friend Richard; we called him Richie way back at school even though he was anything but rich!
Richard came from a poor family; as in ghetto and please, I am not disparaging him because of this. When met at school, on campus; we were roomies. He is tall, very handsome and all the girls were just milling around him!
There was a particular girl I liked, she was Richie’s course mate. I liked the girl die and I told Richie about her because I had seen her milling around him like so many others did.
He told me not to worry, that he would speak to her for me…
Oh, he spoke to her alright; after which he brought her to our room and banged the hell out of her!
I was hurt!
But Dave our third friend and roomie then told me she wasn’t meant to be mine, after all but my sister, it took me years to forget the girl! I manned up and tried to let it pass especially when Dave came up with the idea that we should sponsor Richie to be Mr. campus.
When time came for the Mr Campus pageant, when it was time, Dave and I devoted time, energy and money and extraordinary ideas to help our friend win; we sponsored him; we bought him clothes, shoes, all the gear he would need to strut his stuff on stage and win the prize plus we knew he needed the money and of course he won!
In fact, he was Mr. Campus twice in a row!.
But you see, after Richie became Mr Campus, after the first pageant; he began to treat Dave and I like dirt! Dave was such a forgiving person, he kept saying I should let it go, that we shouldn’t quarrel with Richie.
Richie had new friends, he had girls swarming like flies around him and he was good at discarding them once done with them. He had a lot of things going good for him and before Dave and I knew what was going on, Richie moved out of our room, to take up accommodation at a more prestigious hostel!
I was very disappointed with him because it just showed us the kind of person he was; it wasn’t as if we were expecting payment; no. Dave and I were the ones who supported Richie financially; we paid for his meals, helped him buy a few things he needed for his course, books, materials; gave him some of our own clothes; he was much taller than us so we mostly gave tshirts.
But because of Dave, three of us remained friends throughout our university days after which Dave passed on after contacting pneumonia
Anyway, after school; he came to meet me in Lagos to share my apartment with me; I wasn’t married and I lived in one of my parent’s houses. I told him it was ok. I let bygones be bygones, more so, Dave had recently passed on that time, so I just thought, why not forgive this Richie guy and let’s be friends again?
Richie had gotten a job through one of the girls he was dating; she had spoken to one of her godfathers that Richie was her ‘husband to be’ or something and Richie, was given a job based on that idea of husband-hood.
Instead of him to let the girl know he had no plans to marry her; he took the job and to be honest, he was also a hardworking guy. Richie excelled, he was soon made supervisor at that place and he bought himself car. I thought well, he would soon move out.
He didn’t and I didn’t ask him to; I felt it would only be a matter of time, though. we lived in a duplex of four rooms; I didn’t mind sharing, sometimes bad company can be better than no company at all.
Richie then dumped the girl who helped him get the job and began to date other women. That wasn’t any of my business, I stayed away from his issues as much as possible. We lived together for more than three years, then one day, I saw him dressed to the nines, like he was going for a big event. It was a weekend and I asked him what was going on. He told me, jokingly, jokingly o, “…today’s my wedding day.”
I said, “You must be joking!”
He said, “Ok, come with me and find out…”
I said, “Ok, I will. You clown…” I just threw on a Tshirt and jacket over my jeans I rode with him.
Omo, walahi talai sumobillahi, I kid you not, he was telling the truth! It was indeed his wedding, at the registry!
I was shocked! I was angry, I was sad…I mean he lived in my house, he planned a wedding and I got to know, simply because I was curious as to why he was so dressed!
That kind of person can kill you…but the worse was even yet to come, wait for it…
So of course, the wedding was a court one and reception had been organized in the hall, just behind the court!
Food and drinks and say maybe like 25 to 30 guests in all and he had it all going. Well, I was fuming but I still sat down and was nursing a drink when Richie walked up to me to ask for the house key. He had his own but I guess because we both left the house, maybe he forgot…I don’t know. Anyway, I gave him my keys, thinking well, now that he has a wife, maybe he is planning to go get his stuff and move out of my house.
I knew he was aware we hid the key around the house, in case anyone forgot theirs, so I assumed he would drop my keys off for me when he was done packing out.
I left the reception a few minutes later and took a cab to visit a few friends. I didn’t want to go home and be alone.
I got back to the house at about 8pm; I found Richie’s car packed behind mine and he was home….with his bride!
Hummn.he had no plans to move out, he brought in his bride to live with us!
Oh yesss! That’s how despicable a human being he is! In fact, they lived with me for five years before they relocated abroad! I kid you not!
I couldn’t send him packing because the girl was already pregnant. They had their first child in my house and didn’t contribute a dime to the house in terms of maintenance…I paid for everything! the wife was a good girl…tell me, why do good girls fall for bad boys?
She was decent, she too realsied too late she had been conned! But there was no going back, we both had to endure Richie.
One day, he was beating the girl wen I went to separate them; it was all about moving out, she wanted them to go get their own place, Richie didn’t. I told Richie I wish I had never met him! He is such a terrible human being!
Well, you know what now?
The marriage has packed up…after a few years abroad, he called me one time to say he wanted to come to Nigeria and wants to know if he could come stay with me…
I am still laughing!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)
