I was scrolling through my phone last night, waiting for sleep to come and take me away when I came across a story that made me sit up in my bed. I read it once, then I read it again, because I needed to be sure I understood what I was reading. Then I sat there for a good five minutes just staring at my ceiling dumbfounded. So today, my darlings, I am bringing it to you. Are you ready?
So there is this guy, let’s call him Chidi. Chidi has 5 friends, Kelechi, Somto, Ifeoma, Bolaji and Chiamaka. These are not just regular friends o, these people have known each other since they were 4 or 5 years old so that’s more than 20 years of friendship.
Now Chidi has never had a girlfriend and apparently his friends found this very funny. They used to tease him about it all the time, and most of the time it was harmless,although sometimes it wasn’t harmless at all. Sometimes it stung him, but Chidi said he let it slide because they were his friends, but he never forgot how those jokes made him feel.
About 2 months ago, his friends introduced him to a girl. Let’s keep her name as Emily too, since that is what he called her. Chidi and Emily clicked fast, like, really fast. They found out they had a lot in common, and before long, friendship turned into something more. He said it felt a little strange how quickly it happened, but he was enjoying it, so he didn’t question it too much.
Three days ago, Chidi went out with two of his friends, Kelechi and Somto. They were laughing and gisting like normal, until one of them, I think it was Kelechi, asked him a question that stopped him cold.
“Why hasn’t Emily dumped you yet?”
Chidi asked him what he meant by that. Kelechi told him that the five of them, including Emily, had planned everything from the beginning as a prank. They wanted her to date Chidi for about a week and then dump him. That was the plan but when that didn’t happen, they figured maybe she would just stretch it a little longer before dumping him. However, that didn’t happen either, instead, Emily started pulling away from the friend group entirely and she stopped hanging out with them once she and Chidi got serious.
Can you imagine sitting there, hearing your childhood friends tell you that your relationship was a joke they cooked up? I would have needed someone to hold my hand for that one.
Chidi and his friends argued for a while, it went nowhere, and he called them wicked and walked off. I don’t blame him one bit.
He called Emily immediately. When they met up, she tried to hug him and he wouldn’t let her. He asked her straight up if this prank was true. He said she went pale on the spot, froze, then started crying and apologizing.
She admitted that she was in on it from the start but she said somewhere along the way, she dropped the prank completely because she genuinely started liking him. She liked how he treated her, with respect, trust, and kindness, because she wasn’t used to being treated that way.She never planned to tell him because she didn’t know how. Even agreeing to the prank in the first place felt wrong to her, but she was glad she did because it ultimately led her to him.
Their conversation didn’t last long. Chidi went home, and that same night, he blocked all five of his friends. Every number, every account, everywhere. Twenty years of friendship, gone in one night. He said he doesn’t want to see any of them again.
Now here is where it gets complicated. Emily keeps texting him, apologizing, begging him not to end things, telling him she will make it up to him. And Chidi doesn’t know what to do with any of it. His exact words were something like this, if she lied and manipulated him into a relationship once, what stops her from doing it again over something else.
He said the whole thing would almost be funny if it wasn’t happening to him. Right now, he is disappointed, not even at his friends but mostly at himself.
I don’t have advice for Chidi today, I just have questions. If someone you have known for 20 years can sit across from you and turn your loneliness into a group prank, what does that tell you about how they actually see you? And if the person who lied to get close to you ends up being the one who treats you best once the lie falls apart, does that erase what she did, or does it just make the whole thing messier?
I’ll come back next week to tell you about Chidi’s decision but right now what are your thoughts?
See you next Saturday.
Xoxo, ‘Dara.
