ɪᴍᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs ᴏғ ᴀ ᴘᴀʀᴀsɪᴛɪᴄ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅsʜɪᴘ.

Humans are classified as social animals, among every other living beings on earth, it is a natural action for humans to communicate with each other in order to formulate connection among each other. In the process, relationships are formed either friendship or romantic relationship. Despite the necessity of socialisation in the lives of humans, it has never been my strong hold. I form different kind of relationship depending on the situation I'm in and once that is over I move on to the next stage without forming any tangible attachment.

It is not as if I don't care about the feelings of others or I'm not capable of showing affection, it is just that making friends is easier for me compared to keeping them. For someone with a complex personality such as mine, associating with people is not easy though it comes naturally due to my friendly nature. I have always lived the life of a bear in most part of my life, I have never been a fan of packs.

I have encountered a lot of people in different areas of the society, it is highly intriguing the rate at which humans mischievous attitude has no end. in the process of acquiring higher national diploma in mass communication at Moshood Abiola polytechnic I learnt a thing or two about humans psychology.

Based on my knowledge of some humans I have came across, I have became a little paranoid about the conduct of humans which has affected my relationship with people. In this present era, humans have become more deadlier than wild animals. We prey upon anything we can lay our hands unto. I have this ability to read people as a result of a lot of bad encounters I had with people who I considered to be trustworthy but turn out to be untrue, when you get hurt multiple times, the brain will eventually create a defence mechanism that will protect you from being a victim of bad company.

Before I became so paranoid, I was once naive. I have always considered myself to be a pacifist and idealist but eventually I woke up to the reality of how things really are. I saw the true nature of humans, though they are still some humans with good intentions but the bad ones outweigh the good, it's highly difficult to filter since everyone pretends to be good.

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it was an encounter with an individual but despite the fact that I knew he had some deficiency in terms of honesty, I still kept him close due to his calm personality, I felt like he can't do me any harm, until I experienced is true nature.

We knew each other from HND 1 second semester, we both run the same kind of business within the school premises which involves form application, online payments e.t.c due to this we grew closer, I didn't oppose the friendship because I felt like we could be of use to each other and from the looks of it he started the business in school before I did, I kind of wanted us to be friends than become competitors.

We became close over time since my own business involves writing of script and broadcast related practical and assignment, he seeks assistance a lot from me whenever he needs it. I never charged him for it but little did I know that after he gets the scripts written by me, he will duplicate it and sell it to other broadcast group, which is like selling my ideas without my consent. I found out but I never confronted him about it.

He kept on with his mischievous attitude but I kept giving him a pass, until After our second semester examination, we started working on our final year research project, the process involves picking three topics of your choosing and submitting to our supervisor for approval. This so called friend of mine brought some of his female friends to me for project topics, since he knew I have more experience with research project than he does and I also render research project services to people, I gave topics to his friends for free hoping that when they get their project topics approved they will come back and patronise my research project business, but I was wrong.

Since he knew that he doesn't render research project services, after his female friends I gave topics to got their topics approved, instead of bringing them back to me, this friend of mine went out of the school premises to look for another person rendering project services, he handed over them to the man and collected commission from the man, I found out about this but I refused to ask him about it because I believed he has the right to take his customers to wherever he pleases.

When it was time for him to do his own research project, he gave the work to me and pleaded that he doesn't have any money, that I should assist him with it, I was thinking, why did he not take it to the other person. I didn't say anything I collected his research project and did it for him without collecting a penny. I believed a friend in need is a friend indeed. Until he did the unimaginable, we both have printers we use for printing for our customers, on this day he phoned me and asked if he could come over because there was no electricity for him to print at his place. I didn't hesitate I invited him over, he came, spend the night and left the following morning.

In the afternoon, I decided to use my printer to print some documents for some customers, in the process I realised the document looks faded which means the ink in the printer toner has finished. t I just filled the toner two days ago and I have not printed up to one Reem of A4 paper, I was curious to remove the toner and checked what was going on, surprisingly I realised it wasn't mine because the label on the toner was different.

No one could have had access to to my printer because it is in a close space in my room moreover I don't have any roommate, then I thought of my friend that came to visit, knowing the kind of person he was, I couldn't stop suspecting him. I took a bike and I headed straight to his place because I knew if I called him he might deny it. luckily for me, on getting there I did not meet him in his room, I met one of his female friends in the room, which I knew, her name was jumoke.

I greeted her and went straight to his printer, I opened it and I found my printer Toner in his printer, I was so disappointed. I guess a part of me wished my suspicions was wrong but then I was still glad I found my Toner. Probably he thought I would not recognise my printer Toner or I wouldn't notice it was missing. While I was still in his room, he came back and saw me beside his printer, from his reaction I knew he knows what I came for, he just frooze. I dropped his printer Toner, took mine and I left his room without saying anything.

After that day, he called and messaged me many times, I didn't reply because I knew I will be extremely disgusted by anything he has to say. Among many of his previous attitude I couldn't let this one slide because I realise he was ready to jeopardise my equipment for his own selfish gain and who knows what he might do next. that was how we went our separate ways and we never said a word to each other again.

A part of me knew that if had allowed him to explain or veg for forgiveness, I might have forgiven because I could be so naively forgiving at times especially to those I consider as friends, I don't let go very easily but this time I just wanted to use that opportunity to be done with him. After all a parasitic relationship is always doomed to fail.

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_{This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "The worst reasons" in hive learners community.}

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_{Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺}

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