Dear Friend,
I met you in
high school, although I had heard a lot about you as I grew up. They had mixed
feelings about you which even made you more intriguing. My teacher was really
against you and some of us had already developed fear.
High
school brought a new leash of freedom to me, this included freedom of thought
and perception. At that time I developed strong opinions about almost every
other thing that previously had been monopolized by parents and religion. And
it felt so good! I was becoming quite open-minded.
That
is when I decided to approach you. At first it was not easy, some of my peers
had already hit it off with you and they made every effort to flaunt their
daringness. I was envious they were having a good time and no one knew about
it.
But
you made it even worse for me, when I tried you made me feel like dirt.
Everything felt so wrong and I was in guilt. However I kept appearances, the
exploit you presented was worth breaking a norm or two, or so I thought.
Eventually
I blended in well and you showed me how to belong. We really became tight and
even my newly found friends would mention you a lot in our conversations. I
knew I could count on you and the few friends who confided in you kept you as a
well-guarded secret lest someone got a whiff of you as we hurriedly interacted.
Our
escapades were many even after high school, I got friends to like you and you
also judged who I interacted with. Those weekend parties you were largely
involved and on the balcony you always topped up after the drinks were
finished. We coughed occasionally but your charms were so profound that we
didn’t mind.
Teenagers learning how to smoke in a college dorm |
I
invoked your noble wisdom when I was in tricky situations. Of course I had to
pay for transport but your presence superseded. Like when my house was broken
into we sat for hours pondering. Or when my relationship with whatever her name was hit the
wall, you were there for me. Anger management was your specialty and I relied
on your prescription to keep cool.
But
then I started having doubts about you. For a wrong time I kept convincing
myself I was wrong, you were as nice to the rest as you were to me. Worse still
you broke our deal many times and every time I needed you more it cost me even
more. I had to have you every day even it meant lying to get some money for
you. You allowed installments that cheated me the whole cost wouldn’t hurt.....