"What do you mean they are sold out?" I yelled at the lady on the other side of the counter.

"I'm sorry," she replied with an obviously forced politeness while adjusting her face cap. "You were a minute too late. I just sold the last ticket to the Imagine Dragons concert."

Dera and I had arrived the at one of the outlets where the tickets were sold – an ice cream parlour and a lady who looked like her face had been the canvas for a preschoolers art work was attending to me.

"Isn't there another way," I asked, "to get more or something? Surely other outlets would have some more tickets left, right?"

She looked as if she was about to swear at me. We had been at this for about five minutes.

She stared at me deadpanned. "Look, there isn't any more. It's been sold out. We had the last stock of tickets in Abuja and unless you have nothing better to do, you could stand here waiting for tickets to appear."

Pft. She finally acted like the troll she held an uncanny resemblance to. Talk about bad customer service.

I turned on my heels and walked back to the table where Dera sat with his legs crossed, waiting for me. He was chatting animatedly with someone over the phone while trying to stuff his mouth with a spoonful of ice cream.

Pulling out my chair and settling in, I propped my head up using my elbows while waiting for him to end his call.

"So…" he drawled out, finally dismissing his call with God-knows-who. "Where are the tickets?"

Right. The tickets I graciously failed to acquire. What do I tell him?

"Who was that?" I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Elizabeth."

"Oh. How is she? Is she back from Lagos?"

He nodded. "Yes, she is and that's not what we are talking about." He questioningly stared at me. "The tickets?"

"Sold out," I replied curtly whilst stirring my half finished coke with a straw. I was pissed at my luck.

"I told you!" He huffed. "You should have just let me get the tickets on my own when I offered. Lord knows why you insisted we come together."

I rolled my eyes. He was right. When he came over to my place a week ago, after informing me about the concert to make plans, he had offered to get the tickets seeing as I could not step out of my house alone.

I had this really irrational fear of going anywhere without company so me going to get the tickets was a big no no. I should have just let him; that would have been the most logical thing to do.

But no! I wanted the both of us to go together. Why? I wanted to buy the tickets personally and since I couldn't go alone, why not go together?

So here we are one week later, sitting in an ice cream parlour, which sold the tickets – or should I say once sold? – with no tickets and guilt eating me up from the inside as I stared at him.

"So what do we do now?" I whined. "I don't think they'll be having another concert in Nigeria for awhile… It's all my fault."

"Of course it is," he said, turning into a drama queen and snapping his fingers in a zigzag manner over my face.

I sighed dejectedly.

"I wonder what you'll do without me." He slipped his hand into his pocket and brought out two tickets to the concert.

At that moment I would have done whatever he asked me to do because yes, that's how stunned I was. Alright maybe not 'whatever'. But still . . .

He slid them across to my side of the table. "Here."

I picked up the tickets still shocked, staring at him like he had grown two heads.

"How?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" he answered, fixing his gaze back on his phone. He probably was playing whatever game he was before his call. "I bought them. I knew that if I had listened to you, we were probably not going to get them before they were sold out. So, I bought them without informing you and played along."

He looked up and waved his hand. "Oh and no need to thank me. Just paying for my ice cream and the copy of John Green's Turtles all the way down I just ordered online would do."

The cheeky brat.

"What are friends for?" he asked, flashing a sickly sweet smile at me.

How I landed with him as my best friend still baffles me. No need to thank him, my foot. 419

He was practically ripping me off. But he got the tickets anyways – something which I was unable to do. And unless I did what he asked, he wouldn't let me off the hook.

I let out a sigh of defeat as I looked at him. His eyes were now glued to his phone screen. He had saved my happiness, again, because what are friends for? He was right. I couldn't do much without him.

_________________________________________

419- fraud / fraudster

Sooooooo here is chappie one. How'd you like it? Hmm?
Don't forget to vote and comment and criticize (constructively of course).

What are your favorite boy bands? Mine is BTS😊

Eat lots of chocolate and stay healthy

💖💖💖👣👣

Corhob