As a 21-year-old young lady, I, Khoza Maletsiri, had never seen a more proud mother than mine in May 2019, when I had graduated from the University of Pretoria.

Mom had thrown me a huge party, the biggest one of my life. The joy I felt watching my mom tear up as she delivered her speech. Everyone clapped and cheered except Vanessa, the one person I called my friend.

Later that evening, she showed up with two drinks in her hands, after being missing from the party for a while. The first thing she said was, “I’m not taking no for an answer, tonight we drink and celebrate all your hard work.” We both laughed and went in for a hug as she handed me the already opened drink.

I was an alcohol virgin so this was the first drink of my life. I felt safe in the comfort of my own home so, why not. I took the first sip of the sweetest drink I had ever tasted and in a few seconds, the bottle was down. A few minutes later another two bottles were down and in a few seconds, I was in a totally different world where nothing really mattered. In simple words, for the first time in my life I was drunk. As blurry as everything seemed, I walked around looking for my mom. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her but before I could get to her, Vanessa took my hand and pulled me aside. She took me to a silver Mercedes Benz that had parked down the road where the music wasn’t so loud.

“Chomi…this is a friend of mine. His name is Robert.”

I gave him that drunk smile and said, “Hi.”

I don’t know what happened next but I remember Robert kissing my head and he held me over his shoulder and watched Vanessa walk away. The next thing I remember, my eyes closed but I could feel the car moving away smoothly. It was an AMG after all.

The next morning I woke up with a horrible headache. I found myself next to a huge man with a stomach that looked like it was about to explode. I quickly jumped out of the bed only to realise that I was naked and my inner thighs had stains of blood on it. My hands shook and shivered as I quickly grabbed my clothes and ran to the door. I tried to see myself out but…that door wasn’t the door out it was the door to the bathroom. As I stood there I automatically froze, my eyes slowly tilted down to the floor where a number of bloody condoms were carelessly placed. As my heart dropped, I closed my eyes in realisation that I had been sold by the one I called my “friend”.

Even worse, I had lost my virginity to a total stranger who was probably three times my age. As I stood there and froze, while an ocean of tears flowed down my cheeks, the door opened, “Surprise! We came back early!”

I saw a cute little boy probably three years old running to his father who was still asleep. Right behind him was his mother, who stopped and looked at my naked body.

Tell us: What would you do if your friend “sold you out”?