I looked Wisdom in the eye as I contemplated whether my secret was safe with him. A secret would only remain so if the number of those privy to it were limited, telling him would be adding a risk factor.
He must've sensed my reluctance, because he gave me a knowing smile. I sighed in contemplation once again, there were two things working in his favor.
The first was that like me he was the quiet type which meant that we both had very few friends to gossip to and the second was that he'd been my closest friend that year. The odds of him betraying my trust were quite low.
"Alright, Linda is the one" I whispered hardly opening my mouth
Wisdoms eyes bulged almost the size of soccer balls, as he digested the information. I knew he was already processing everything he knew about me and how it factored in with Linda.
There was a look on his face and I was expecting a mocking laugh or remark, but it never came. Instead Wisdom looked troubled and for a brief moment I was already regretting my decision.
"You're not saying anything Dom"
"She's very beautiful, but you know all the guys in class like her" Wisdom finally replied
I knew what he meant as it was something that had been bothering me. I had a crush on Linda and thought she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, the trouble was about ninety percentage of the guys in class also thought and felt the same.
The ever sniffing nose and prying eyes of my classmates were always trying to root out the latest gossip. I didn't like any form of attention in school and knew that asking Linda out was a guaranteed first class ticket to gossipville.
We talked about our other classmates, who liked who and who was dating who. Although I pestered him to tell me who he liked, Wisdom never gave me an answer.
For almost three years of Junior high school I'd shied away from any form of publicity, but it would eventually seek me out.
The next day I arrived school as usual, but there was obviously something unusual going on in class. I kept getting side glances in class and it seemed I was the only one unaware of what was happening.
"Guy is it true you have a crush on Linda" my friend Shayo asked as he walked up to me
'Where did you hear that from" I asked
'That's what I heard this morning" Shayo replied
I didn't know what to think at that point because I was careful of any publicity in school, talk more of a bad one.
Finding myself the subject of our class gossip was a devastating blow. Only one person knew about my secret and it didn't take an IQ of Einstein to figure out who betrayed me.
I scanned the class and my eyes found Wisdom, there was guilt clearly written all over him.
There was no way to confront him without creating a scene, so I simply ignored him.
Everyone kept asking me if the rumor was true and I denied it as loudly as possible. Most embarrassing was when Linda herself came up to me to confirm the story.
I had to drop a few subtle hints that Wisdom might've actually been the one interested in Linda. Wisdom had given me unwanted fame, I was ready to do the exact same thing.
He finally approached me during lunch break and denied having anything to do with the rumors. But of course I didn't believe him, where else could they have gotten the info from if not from the only other source.
That was the beginning of a term of friction between us both. I turned my attention to my other friends and we both ignored each other.
Exams came and went and it was soon our graduation ceremony. We were graduating from Junior high school into Senior high school.
I was in a corner gisting with my friends when someone approached us, it was Wisdom and he wanted to talk to me.
I wasn't exactly angry at him anymore so it was quite easy to excuse myself from my friends.
We found a spot and the whole story came out. Apparently Wisdom liked Linda as well but didn't like the fact that I was crushing on the same girl, so he told a few people about it.
He apologized to me and although I was surprised to finally confirm he was responsible for the leak, it wasn't hard to forgive him.
We were best of friends once again.
Upon resumption for our first term in senior high school, I discovered that Wisdoms family had moved from the area during the break.
I on the other hand eventually moved to a new school that same term.
It was probably coincidental that we settled our issues before we parted ways, because I never saw Wisdom again after that year.
It's funny now whenever I think about the fact that none of us eventually dated Linda.