Thread by @GbengaWemimo

When i was in the boarding school, i had a friend we all called Blakky
He was big, very strong but a bit slow intellectually
He was under pressure to pass his examinations
He had repeated SS1 twice by the time I was transferred from Loyola College to Olivet Baptist High School

We became fast friends
As a new student in a new school, you want to fit in quickly
Every act of kindness counts
When i got to the boarding house, I was paired with a student who had scabies all over his body
I had never seen or heard of scabies before
The guy with scabies was

covered by calamine lotion and looking odd
The other students in the room kept far away from this guy and yet, i was assigned to the bunk space right under his own
Some seniors were already laughing and jeering
They knew scabies spread quickly and I would most likely get it but

they didn't say anything to warn me
I was arranging my provisions in my locker when Blakky walked in, we had never met before, he walked straight to me and said "Hello, new guy, you cannot sleep there. You will catch "Kuruna"
I looked at him oddly
I had never heard of Kuruna

before in my life
He smiled and said "Ko mo bus stop"
I still didn't get it
He smiled, shook his head, and started packing my things
He said "If you stay here, you will catch craw-craw
I got that
Scabies was common while i was in the boarding school, the cure was Benzyl Benzoate

He took me to another bunk, the seniors who had been making snide remarks and laughing before looked away
Blakky was once their classmate, and as such, they couldn't treat him like they would treat a junior student
This was how Blakky became my friend
Blakky was a Lagos boy, born

and bred on Glover street
He took me not only as a friend but also as a brother
As I began to attend classes, I noticed Blakky doesn't like anything academic
He doesn't even bother to pay attention
He doesn't like sports too
He was more interested in going to Owode to watch films

at Channel 5 and helping the cooks in the kitchen carry heavy stuff
I was the opposite and it affected our friendship
We were never able to anything together
We went on a break after the first term & when school resumed for the second term Blakky came with his mother
Please note

that I was 15 years old at this time and Blakky was 17
Blakky's mother came with a lot of goodies for me, she bought me provisions that matched everything Blakky had
and thanked me for being a good friend to her son
Then she went on to tell me how Blakky's father had always been

mean to him and insistent he must complete his secondary school before he could be allowed to learn a trade
His mother had a special request for me
She wanted me to help him complete his secondary school education
I said, he doesn't like to read or attend classes
She said "Help

him, let him copy you"
It was a very weird request but i foolishly said okay
I was in SS 1V
Blakky was in SS 1T
We struck a bargain that he would be sitting with me in my own class
All he had to do was attend classes and sit next to me
He will copy my answers whenever we were

given a test or had to write an examination
On paper, the deal looked good
But human nature is a very different thing
I realized i didn't really like being copied after the first test we did that way
Blakky was so dull that if you wrote something, realized it it was a mistake and

canceled it, he would also write the same thing and cancel it just the way you did it
He copied like a robot and of course he got me in trouble
The English teacher called me into the staff room and subtly asked me if I was being bullied by Blakky in any way
I said No and the

teacher didn't say anything further but i could do the maths
When i told Blakky, he said i should forget about it, the man was just being nosey
Then one afternoon, Blakky came to meet me in the hostel with a black bag
He had stolen a fire extinguisher in school and was wondering

if i had an idea where he could sell it
I said no
He threw the fire extinguisher away
A week later, he came to the hostel with a petri-dish and a beaker from the Chemistry lab
Both were unmarked
He said he learned somebody broke a petri-dish and a beaker in the lab and he would

like me to sell the beaker to the person
He had all the details
I contacted the girl
She was a boarding house student too
She bought the baker for N500
That was quite a lot of money in 1996
The bus fare from Oyo to Ibadan was N25
We spent the lavishly, like thieves
but i wasn't

comfortable with Blakky anymore
I wasn't a saint but his approach to things was too simple
There was no way he wouldn't eventually get into a big trouble and I would go down with him
I could perceive this strongly but I had taken the provision from his mother and he never stopped

reminding me of that fact
Plus he could really beat me up
(I wasn't small in stature but i hated violence, so I managed to keep the friendship throughout the second term)
After the term, Blakky's grades improved significantly
After we got our report cards, I told him we can no

longer be friends
I had delivered as promised and i was not obliged to be his friend anymore
He didn't say a word
I went home for the second term break
On the day we resumed for the third term, the first person I saw under the tree with the housemaster was Blakky's mother
She was

waiting for me
I was about to turn 16, I was in SS 2
She said her son ran away from home and she heard reports that he was dead
She said it was my fault
I didn't have a heart
I didn't have a conscience
I was callous & wicked
She really unleashed a lot of venom on me
She insisted

she begged me and even bribed me to help her son and I callously told her son that it was over
She demanded she wanted to meet my parents
I was practically labeled a murderer
There was no curse under the heavens that this woman didn't pronounce upon me in broad daylight
The house

master eventually calmed her down and she left
Three weeks later, she was back with Blakky
He had returned home in the middle of the night somehow
He tried traveling to Ivory Coast with a fuji music band but was turned back at one of the borders
His death was apparently fake news

His mother still acted as if i was guilty
She wouldn't even say sorry for all the curses and the psychological terror she unleashed on me
I was supposed to take it on the chin and deal with it
Her story needed a fall guy and I was it
I made sure i stayed far away from Blakky from

that time
He got some sympathy from other guys who made friends with him
They all became as thick as thieves
We all passed our examinations and moved to SS3
On the day we were to write our WAEC Yoruba examination
I got to the examination hall rejoicing because it was our final

paper
We were almost through when the Head of School for SS3 walked in shouting "If you hear your name stand to your feet; Beta, Oba, Blakky, Shakatu, Kosofo!
They all stood up
Policemen walked into the examination hall and marched them straight into a Black Maria
I had literally

turned to jelly
Those guys were all in my hostel and we were all in the same room
I was expecting my name to be called but it wasn't
We later learned that during the break between the first paper and the second paper, Blakky and the other guys went into the science laboratory and

destroyed everything they could for no other reason than being high on marijuana
It was a very sad day
Our Valedictory Service as a set was canceled and the guys spent several weeks in police custody
Blakky's mother came around but was too preoccupied to remember me
When our WAEC

result was released I saw Blakky again
We didn't talk much
He failed the exams but said he needed the testimonial for the technical school he had opted to join in order to further his education.

PS: Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit
When he says walk away, pls, walk away!