You can do anything but do not touch the people I love

I can forgive every other thing except slander. I had known this girl for four years, and I still know her, but in those years what I failed to see was that as long as she appeared to fare better than me she didn't have a problem, but the moment I began to make progress, she began to slander every move I took.

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It began with slandering the job I was doing. I would be in class clicking on my keypad, not engaging in a conversation my other girls were having because I was typing a novel, and if I sneaked a peek at the people around me, I would see that they were staring dismally.

To avoid this, whenever we were dismissed for the day, I would pick up my bag and take the next available tricycle home so I didn't have to hang around in the company of people I didn't have time for.

I didn't know it was my so-called best friend, the person I lived with, who had put all manner of nonsense in their ears. Filling their ears with the talk that I was seeing myself as being more intelligent than they were, which was why I was not joining in their meaningless conversations.

To be honest, I had once said those words myself, I told her that I wasn't going to stay back in school for any meaningless conversation because I had so much work to do. That particular day, I was angry with the fact that she would prefer to stay in school to gossip instead of going home to rest or get something better done for herself. I never meant that my friends were unintelligent which was why I didn't want to stay back with them.

As they say, there is nothing hidden under the sun, so on one of the days that I was a little bit free, I stayed back after class to help weave one of my girls' hair and she opened up to say she was really angry with me. She went as far as saying I had become arrogant and that even if any of her friends were to become distant from her, she didn't believe it would be me.

I didn't interrupt her because I wanted to know what was giving her and everyone else the notion that I had become arrogant. As she bared her mind, she mentioned that the lady I lived with told them that I said their conversations were meaningless and I didn't want to indulge.

I dropped my mouth for some time and tears came to my eyes.

I took my phone out and opened my client's chat then showed her the amount of work I had been doing and the dates. Her jaw dropped as well. She asked why I never told anyone why I was so busy or always on my phone, I told her no one ever asked.

Thanks to her, every other person knew why I was always on my phone when we hung out or why I left immediately after class.

In order to get away from my best friend, I started making plans to rent my own house.

When she discovered these plans, she became frantic. I knew she didn't want me to leave because she couldn't afford the rent alone but I didn't care. I just wanted to be away from her toxicity and I told her so.

She didn't understand but I let the words and her guilt deal with her.

I eventually moved out of the house and got a place of my own thinking that was enough to allow this girl to leave me alone but another drama unfolded on my birthday.

My boyfriend came to my house with gifts and my friends were there when he arrived. They were surprised when they saw the kind of person he was and the kind of gifts he brought. Apparently, this girl had been telling them that I was in a relationship with a guy who wasn't worth anything.

The fact that she was privileged to know when my boyfriend left his job because I was living with her gave her the opportunity for another slander.

This time, I could not take it.

I marched over to her house with two other of my girls and greeted her with a slap. Perhaps a fight would have erupted if the girls were not there to hold me back. Right there, I told her everything I knew she had said about me and my boyfriend and told her never to step foot at my door again.

If she had ended the slander with my job, perhaps, the relationship would have worked out but she crossed the line with my boyfriend and such a relationship would never work again.