^{Photo by Artem Saranin from Pexels}

Sola Ibrahim was on Kemi Brown's mind once more. Sola had a heart tattoo on her forearm and a skull ring on her index finger, and she was a wicked creature.

Kemi stepped over to the window and pondered the current traffic situation. Despite its beautiful beaches, she had always despised Lagos's metropolitan environment. It was a place that aided her predisposition to become enraged.

Then she noticed something, or rather someone, in the distance. It was Sola Ibrahim, the ominous figure.

Kemi took a deep breath and swallowed. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. With a lovely face and voluptuous body, she was a cold-blooded, hungry red label drinker. Her peers regarded her as an enraged and arrogant architect. She had even rescued a slobbering blind person who had become stuck in a drain once. It had no effect on people's perceptions of her.

But not even a cold-blooded person who had previously rescued a slobbering blind man stuck in a drain could have predicted what Sola had in store for her today.

Kemi became agitated as the harmattan taunted her like an eating cat which she despised. Kemi stroked her precious pearls and massaged it with her fingers.

Kemi could see the joyful glitter in Sola's eye as she stepped outside and got closer.
"Look, Kemi," muttered Sola, her look evoking a frightening wolf Kemi had seen on National Geographic Wild. "I despise you. You owe me a total of 100,000 naira."

Kemi returned the stare, her face tensed. She said, "Sola, I made a horrible investment."

They exchanged stressed looks like two curly, perplexed cats drinking at a really brutal engagement party with fuji music playing in the background and two aggressive uncles yelling to the beat.

Sola moved forward and attempted a blow to the face of Kemi. Kemi quickly removed her precious pearl and handed it over to Sola.

Sola being a long time acquaintanceknows how precious that pearl is to Kemi. It has been passed down from generations to generations before her late mum finally gave it to her.

Sola was surprised with Kemi's gesture to show how much she didn't mean to owe for that long.

Please take this until I can repay you. I didn't mean to stall on returning your money. I promise to pay back she says.

Sola couldn't take it but her embraced her. Kemi asked her to come inside to share a drink.

With a smile on Sola's face, they both returned inside and downed a shot of red label as if the last few seconds never happened.

They talked, shared some laughter into the night as they both countdown into the new year.