The Least Liked Person in Campus

When I was in college, I knew of a student who was known for being a good writer. She was a consistent winner in literary contests in school. At that time, I was an aspiring writer who wrote to my heart’s content but didn’t have the courage to show anyone any of my works. They went straight to the wastebasket with no chance of being read. Surely, that girl was out of my league.. errr.. I was out of hers.

After several years, however, our paths crossed again. We were introduced by a friend and I assumed that she liked me because the next day, she looked specifically for me and asked me if I wanted to join her for snack. Well, who was I to decline such invitation. I went with her and since then we were always seen together. I could say, we became friends right away.

At first, I really liked her. She was so smart and she knew a lot of things. I didn’t keep the fact that I admired her writing and that I really find her cool. After a few months, I began to notice something. She has a tendency to criticize anything that is not of her liking and she looked down on people that I thought were her friends. In fact, she looked down on everybody we knew.

I started to observe her really closely and I realized that this person that I considered my friend for a few months now had said nothing nice about anybody. It was always about her, about hers and about herself. Wow! This girl is self-centered. And there was something else I noticed, every time we join a group, people disappeared one by one. So, I tried to go alone and nobody left. But when she came, they gradually dispersed.

Then one day, I joined a writing competition and was notified after a few months that I won third place. Well, for a first timer, I guess third place wasn’t that bad. I was so happy. I looked for my friend and told her the good news. Contrary to what I expected, she just said.. ‘Oh, really?’ and that was it, no congratulations, no ‘good job’, no pat in the back, no anything..

Then it dawned on me, this girl had no other friend aside from me because no one could stand being with her. She only stayed with me not because she liked me but because I was the only one she got. And maybe she didn’t ridicule me the way she did to other people because for one I wasn’t ridiculous, second, because she didn’t want to lose a PA (personal assistant).

I started to keep my distance and I was kind of surprised when my other friends, when they noticed what I was doing,  began to keep me away from her. They would warn me when she was coming and they would send her away.

Last night, I was checking out some literary works and I came across an account in a poetry ‘something’ that bears her name. I read some and I found out that it was a list of poems that she criticized.. err.. evaluated. I didn’t like what I read so I just closed it.

Some things never change..