BLINDED BY GOLD

GENERATED USING META AI

I couldn't help but stare at Vanessa as she stood at the entrance of the restaurant trying to spot an empty seat to sit in. She was wearing a flare stripe gown that looked a little too big for her. Her hair was let down to pour, in a simple way. She wore flats which made her appear shorter and her skin looked two shades darker. Her eyes seemed dull, the excitement I used to see in them were gone. She also looked thinner. The glow she always had back then, when her skin would glow like a model, had vanished.

I scrunched my brows deep in thought. The Vanessa I knew would never wear flats. She always prided herself on her beauty. She was always so put together and made sure to look her best wherever she went. Never liked to be caught unfresh. What had happened to the Vanessa I once knew? Although I already knew the answer to that. I was just too surprised to acknowledge it.

Life in itself is the greatest teacher of all. I thought to myself as I pondered to years back when we were still fresher's at university. We met at the student affairs office where I went for my physical clearance. We got along so well and exchanged phone numbers, especially as we were going for the same course of study. As time went on, we became inseparable. Everywhere you find her, you will also see me and vice versa. We did things together, had fun, joked around a lot, did our assignments together, we were like sisters. I had her back and she had mine.

But Vanessa was never contempt. She had always loved flashy things. Always wanted the trendy things, always wanted to be among the big babes on campus. We were supposed to be two little girls trying to navigate life on campus on our own terms. But Vanessa had her life already mapped out. She wanted to run before she could even learn to walk. Our difference in perspective posed a bit of an issue in our friendship. And when the opportunity came at her doorsteps, Vanessa didn't think twice, taking it with open arms, forgetting that all that glittered was not gold.

Soon she became friends with the happening babes on campus. People that didn't even have her interest at heart. But she was distracted by the trends, beauty, and flashy things they offered her. They gave her a chance to be among them, exactly what she wanted, and she took it without thinking twice, at the expense of our friendship. The kind of lifestyle she began to live clashed with my morales. Her circle of friends changed. Her attitude towards me began to change and gradually we drifted apart.

Time passed by gradually, and soon we were in our third year, about to write our professional exam. The kind that you either pass or fail and fail-out. I smiled a faint smile as I remembered studying non-stop. Day after day, I consumed myself with my books. But Vanessa was all too consumed by her current lifestyle and the attention she received from different types of people. Her beauty turned heads wherever she went. Soon her clique started becoming jealous of her, the happening babes on campus who introduced her to the lifestyle began plotting behind her back. She was ignorant to it. By the time it realization came knocking on her door, it was far too late.

We were in the exam hall, writing our exams, everyone heavily engrossed in their papers. However, their clique were busy trying to copy from a phone they slipped into the exam hall. Vanessa wasn't aware they had planned to use her as the escape goat in case things went south and they did. They had cajoled her to hold the phone while they all copied from her, and she innocently did it. A few minutes before the end of the exam, the exam supervisor spotted her with a phone, went straight to her requesting for her paper and began to search her.

“What's going on Ma’am?” she had asked defensively.

Everyone watched the scene unfold as she was caught truly with a phone strapped beneath her thighs. She tried explaining but it was of no use. Her so-called friends left her to fend for herself. They utterly denied having any knowledge of what was going on. Eventually, she was expelled by the school. I never heard or saw her again til date.

Vanessa paused on her steps as her met mine as she walked by where I sat, enjoying a cup of coffee. Staring at each other now, we were just two estranged people who were once close. I adjusted a little in my seat, getting uncomfortable as I noticed how she looked at me with something like regret in her eyes. I smiled warmly at her to which she smiled sheepishly to. We exchanged pleasantries, talked for a while, and I could almost see the pain in her face as she left.