Last Friday Night

“Oh come on! It’s a party!”

Yesterday, Raiyne celebrated her 18^th birthday in Fiamma along Jupiter Street, Makati City. I was super hyped up the week before the day of the celebration since it’s going to be my first time in Fiamma. Based on the pictures, which I saw when someone posts on facebook, Fiamma is a bar which really is for the classy people.

Francis, Ian, Mae and I met at EDSA Shangri-La before we went to look for the hotel Raiyne rented. We left the mall at around 8pm expecting that the ride will only take 30-45 minutes since the mall’s quite near the hotel. While Francis was driving, we talked and reminisced about the scandalous events in Laguna during our block’s summer outing. We were quite confident in going to Makati because the three of us already searched for the place in Google Maps until Francis noticed that we were going the wrong way. We should have u-turned already but unfortunately, the car went up the skyway so we had to take the u-turn slot after the skyway. In short, it took us quite some time to figure out which way to go. The three of us noticed that Francis, block’s Logistics point-person and definitely our close friend, was already tired because of the long drive.

“Kung hindi lang ‘to mabait, ewan ko nalang kung ano na nangyari sa atin,” one of us said. It took quite a while before I realized what he meant. I asked myself several times, what’s in it for him, aside from the fact that he’s also invited to the party. He wasn’t and isn’t supposed to drive us just to attend Raiyne’s debut but he still did it.

From the hotel to Fiamma, same thing happened. The place was just a 10-15-minute ride but it took us almost an hour to get there. “Nahihiya nga ako sainyo eh, dapat nandun na kayo nag-paparty na rin kasama sila,” he mentioned when we tried to make the atmosphere light. “E mas nahihiya nga kami sayo, kapagod kaya mag-drive,” was what we replied.

I felt the excitement as we entered Fiamma—loud music playing, everyone’s dancing, glasses are everywhere. Ian, Mae and I decided to get our drinks since most of our block mates already did; some even had three glasses already. We went back to the table and talked. As I was seated there, my eyes were all over the place. I was curious to see what was happening to the place. Little did I know that my sociologist-wanna-be subconscious have already taken over me. Seconds after, I found myself roaming around and searching for people whom I know.

Luckily, I found one. Cheng was there. He was my English-literature block mate for three semesters. We talked a bit. And I got the chance to ask him what he was doing there. And when his reaction was like -_-, I decided to ask whether he’s usually in Fiamma. He said yes. Before I left, I noticed the girl he was with, probably his girlfriend.

I continued with my quest to search the place. I noticed that there were “bouncers” who were guarding the staircase to the second floor. When I reached our table, I couldn’t help but to look for the answer. Sadly, I failed. Although, the answer could have been one of the many reasons and scenarios which it thought of.

It was midnight when the crowd has gone wild. Seeing these people dance—male to female, female to female—in front of me made me feel awkward or is it really still considered dancing? After several minutes, most of them were snugging even if they hardly know each other. After several minutes, some left the one they were originally snugging with. And others even had new partners.

Others say that when someone’s drunk, he isn’t aware of what he is doing but I claim otherwise. When someone’s drunk he definitely knows what he’s doing although he thinks everything he does is justifiable because he is drunk. This could be what the mindset of most of the people in Fiamma was. Other’s expected to merely have fun. While some had different plans on enjoying the night and whatever it was, everything boils down to the theory of Social Exchange. Everyone planned how they are going to introduce themselves with someone. Everyone prepared actions and gestures should they need it when they want to reject someone. Everyone estimated how they are going to deal with other people. Everyone had their own expectations whether they’re usually there or it’s their first time. Everyone is affected with the outcome of how they communicated with the people they hate and want. This is social exchange. You calculate how you are going to present yourself because in return you want to get a positive response but others fail to do so. The reason why they get disappointed in a way and also the rationale why others prepare a contingency plan should there be flaws.

Here is Katy Perry’s recent music video about Friday night which definitely gives a preview of what happened last Friday night :P Enjoy watching!