C3 My Best Friends

My closest friends at the time were Ben Wood and Christopher Chambers.

They often told me about the rumors being spread at school. Most of them were about how poor I was and how cheap my gifts were.

I ignored the gossip because I trusted Samantha and I believed our relationship was strong enough to survive a few cruel words.

What I didn’t know was that Ben wasn’t the friend I thought he was. While pretending to support me, he was secretly pursuing Samantha behind my back.

He looked for every opportunity to drive a wedge between us. Whenever he spoke to her, he would make negative comments about me and my parents.

He mocked my family’s lifestyle and questioned whether I was good enough for her. The worst part was that Samantha listened to him and never told me.

My family was neither rich nor poor. We lived an average life built on hard work. My father,Quinton Smith worked as a gardener, while my mother, Mary Smith worked as a kitchen maid.

Ironically, both of them were employed by Ben’s father, Kelvin Wood. Their jobs paid enough to keep food on the table and send me to a decent school but there was never much left over.

Because of that, I learned early in life that if I wanted something, I had to work for it.

I took a part-time job as a waiter at a coffee shop near my school. I worked long hours after class, saving every cent I could.

Eventually, I earned enough money to buy my first laptop. That laptop changed everything. For most people, it was just a machine. For me, it was a doorway to a different world.