I jumped in excitement as Imagine Dragons performed 'Believer'. Dan Reynolds' voice projected all through the stadium and I was sure those within a mile radius of the stadium could hear it. The sun was long gone and it was there last performance for the night. A couple of supporting acts also performed making every moment of the concert worthwhile.

"Imagine if I hadn't gotten us those tickets!" Dera yelled at me through the noise.

"I honestly do not want to imagine that!" I yelled back.

"I need to pee but-"

"Eh? Chill, I can't hear you. My best part is coming on," I cut him off as I slung my arm over his shoulders and belted out the chorus to 'Believer' along with the rest of the crowd.

"Ono! I really have to use the toilet," he yelled directly into my ear this time not waiting for me to respond before moving out of my grasp.

"Abeg  go nah, who is holding you? But sha come back quickly!" I yelled at his retreating figure. I watched as he maneuvered through the crowd before finally disappearing from my line of sight.

I turned my attention back to the stage just as Daniel platzman played out the last part of the song on the drumset. I watched entranced as his hands flew all over the set, hitting it with such vigour I thought it'd cave in, but of course it didn't. I wasn't alert as to when he stopped drumming because the beat kept resonating in my head. Instead I only noticed when one of the drumsticks came sailing in my general direction.

In that moment, it felt like everything slowed down and I think it's safe to say I stopped breathing as I reached out with the many strangers around me to catch it. What were the odds of me actually getting it? More like one out of a hundred. I definitely wasn't the only one who wanted that stick, but I prayed I was the one who caught it. There must have been somebody out there who made my 'ID-related' wishes come true because I caught the stick.

I caught the damn stick!

But unfortunately, the stick wasn't the only thing that came sailing towards me. I quite literally felt my soul departing from me as the many hand that targeted the stick now came at me and Dera was MIA.

"I caught it first o!"

"Abeg commot your hand!"

And a lot more sentences I couldn't make out but was sure they were directed towards me filled the air as chaos erupted around me. But I wasn't going to lose the stick. Not now, not ever.

I felt stings on my arm from where their finger nails dug into my skin trying to snatch the stick away. Feeling around my pocket for my phone, I noticed it was still there. Good. At least they were not going for it.

I curled into myself as I held the stick tightly pressed to my chest, wondering if the person who caught the second stick was facing the same situation. Wrong move.

GBAM!

My eyes watered as I felt the sting of the abara  I had just received from someone in the crowd. After six years in secondary school, I was still not abara -resistant. How could I? In my own opinion, it was worse than being flogged with pankere and the sheer force behind the slaps were… They were something else. This, in particular. Whoever it was had hit me so hard like we had some personal beef going on and I didn't even know who they were!

Still clutching the stick like my very existence depended on it, I moved my other hand to rub my aching back. Another wrong move because someone actually bit my arm. I screeched in horror and tried to crawl away from the mini mob.

What was wrong with people?! I caught the stick just let me go nah! It's not as if a particular person's name was etched into it.

Where the hell was Dera? How long did it take him to use the toilet?!

I let out a sigh of relief as I spotted Dera making his way towards me. Stretching out my arms I let him pull me away from the prying hands to a less crowded area where I could recover.

"Wetin sup?" He asked as I crouched panting to catch my breath.

I glared at him.

"Where the fuck have you been?! How long does it take you to pee and come back?" I shouted in frustration.

"Sisi, calm down abeg. Stuff came up. So what happened?"

Standing up, I dusted myself and tried to straighten my shirt. The latter was useless as one Buffon had already slacked a part of it. I felt like crying. It was one of my favorite comfy clothes.

"This happened," i said, waving the stick in front of him.

He grabbed it, looking at it in confusion he asked, "what? A drumstick?"

"Yes. It's Daniel platzman's."

I watched as his eyes widened in shock and realization.

"Daniel, as in the Imagine Dragons drummer?"

"Yup," I replied smugly, forgetting that I had been pissed at him moments ago.

"Omo! B your lucky o! No wonder those guys wanted to eat you."

"You can trust Nigerians. I caught it and they almost killed me for it," I said ,showing him where I had been bitten. A slight swelling had begun to form. I hoped that whoever the oponu that bit me was, they didn't have any thing I could catch.

"So who caught the other one?" He inquired, simultaneously poking the soft spot on my arm.

I swatted his hand away.

"I honestly don't know but I hope they passed through what I did."

He chuckled.

"Don't be spiteful nah."

"Free me joor. It won't be fair if it's only me that suffered. What's the time?"

"8:50. I'm hungry, let's go and hustle what to eat," he said, pulling me towards the food vendors.

       ****

The concert had ended and people milled about the premises conversing or buying souvenirs or food. Oge had not called yet so it was safe to assume she was probably at some dark corner sucking off Wale's face. I sat with Dera on the curb, letting my eyes scan my surroundings as I took a bite out of my chicken shawarma.

"I honestly don't understand why you'd hate pizza," Dera said, taking another bite out of the pizza slice he was having.

I shrugged in response. He made it a habit to voice his confusion whenever he got pizza and I refused to eat it.

"At least we agree on some other things," he continued, motioning to the suya we purchased.

"Dude, who doesn't like suya? pizza on the other hand…"

"You have some serious issues B."

I hummed in content as I bit another mouthful of my shawarma.

We remained like that for awhile, just eating and making random comments about the people around us until I remembered something.

"Oga Dera, how far your conquest?"

He looked at me, wiping his mouth with a serviette.

"Did you meet any oyinbo babe? 'Cause I saw many of them tonight sha."

"Nope. But-"

I looked at him expectantly.

"-I did meet someone; when I went to use the toilet."

"So that's why you ditched me," I mused, "what's her name?"

"Khadija."

"Malo chick ne?"

"Real pretty," he added, diverting his attention to something, or rather someone behind me, "see her there sef."

I turned to look at the direction he was looking at. I only saw more people. "Where?"

"She's buying drinks with her friend nah."

My eyes zoned on the two girls in front of a beverage vendor's stall.

"Okay, I've seen them. Which is it? They,re both malo."

He sighed in frustration.

"Which one of them seems dera-ish?"

"The dark one," I said, referring to the darker of the two girls. From where we sat, I noticed she had big breasts and was about my height. I could safely say she had a straight nose because Dera was obsessed with noses. He didn't date girls with flat noses, in his words- "A person's nose defined them". The guy was slightly crazy. There was nothing normal about that.

"She's alright from here," I continued, glancing away.

"Taa! Nothing like that. She's it," he chastised,"Ono, come to think of it, we don't have water and we're eating suya."

That was code for he wanted to chyke.

"We have drinks," I retorted.

"No,no, that's not enough. You can choke when eating suya and spirite."

"Oya let me go and buy it nah," I said trying to dissuade him.

He shot up from his seat as if he had been pricked with a pin.

"No! I'll get it!"

"If you go, I will finish the suya o!" I threatened.

He just grinned at me, "wish me luck."

Dissuading him was futile. He turned to wink at me as he sauntered toward the girls. I shook my head at his retreating back. At least I tried.

_______________________________________

Commot- remove

Abara-  a term used to describe a slap on the back

Pankere-  term used to refer to a cane

Wetin sup-  what's up

Oponu- fool

Suya-  African BBQ(I think)

Oga- sir

Malo-  a term used to refer to people from the Fulani race. Particularly muslims

Chyke- flirt

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Corhob.