An Outlet: Part 7

1 July, 2019.

Today morning we got a call from someone in our second house society informing us that due to a blockage in our drains, the rain water had gotten accumulated in our terrace and the water seems have to have spilt all over our home.

My parents quickly decided to leave after lunch and take care of the mess. Seems like it had been raining everywhere today. My city was drenched ever since I woke up.

Since I had a sleepover plan at Paloma's, I tried searching for a big waterproof bag that I could use. Hard luck. I eventually got ready and left my house by 3:45PM (the dark clouds made it feel like it was 7). Even though everyone else were called at 6PM, Paloma asked me to come early. Besides, I knew that the rain wasn't going to subside anytime soon, so if I hadn't left early, I would've not to been able to meet Paloma altogether. Hey, this isn't the first time I would be meeting her despite the heavy rains. ;)

The roads were pretty much flooded when I reached her area but they were walkable. Atleast not as bad as that one time.

I reached her place, wished her and the two of us had a nice chat. Nigel was the planner as always so none of us had any idea who was invited. It was a surprise for both of us. Paloma got changed in a lovely dress and soon, her friends started coming in, including Jessica. I had met each of her friends at least once before so I took it upon myself to make everyone comfortable by stricking up a conversation with them. Besides, almost all of them were girls so it was easier.

Nigel was late to the party because he was on a hunt to buy some party items that Paloma had wished for. What a sweet friend!

Initially, I was under the impression that we'd take Paloma out for dinner/drinks just like last year but I guess Nigel didn't discuss that with Paloma's mom cause she was behind the birthday girl to order some pizzas at 6:30PM itself.

It was a good call tho. Apart from Nigel, none of us had our cars so we couldn't have gone anywhere in the rain. Besides, it took more than 2 hours for the bloody pizzas to arrive.

Nigel came over at some point and Jessica, Paloma's younger brother and I went in to make some celebratory preparations. There was a 2 and a 1 shaped balloon and the three of us tried our best to blow it, all the while trying to ensure that Paloma doesn't notice out absence and spoil her own surprise.

Her surprise did get spoilt in another way tho. Paloma's brother ended up tearing one of the balloons..... what a bummer.

We did have the party poppers and the sache tho! Soon, the cake was cut, the poppers were popped and sache was draped. The whole ordeal was quite messy but I guess you can term it as a success?

We ate our pizzas and took quite a lot of pictures. Around 9:30PM, most of the people began leaving. I guess they would've stayed longer if it wasn't for the rains.

Nigel, the only guy at the party, chivalrously offered to drop people at either the station or their house. He promised to come back tho. It was seemingly the end of today's party but shortly after everyone left, we had another visitor. It was the same guy who I met along with Nigel and Deborah the other day. Everyone were confused as to why he would be this late. Paloma's parents didn't even know who he was. Apparently, Nigel had told him to come late because of the dinner/drinking plan. And oh, it wasn't just him but another guy too!

Nigel, what did you do?!

After Nigel came came back from dropping everyone, he and I went below Paloma's building to look for the other guy who had apparently lost his way. It was raining way too heavily so we got completely drenched.

I helped Paloma's mom in welcoming the two guys and making sure that they eat something, now that the dinner plan had gone down the drain.

Paloma still wanted to go out and have something to drink so Nigel and I tried convincing Paloma's mom to let us go for a drive. She reluctantly agreed.

It was around 11:30PM by the time we headed out. Since we didn't have time to go to a lounge/pub/bar, we bought a small bottle of rum and some plastic cups at a nearby alcohol shop and decided to drink in the car itself.

And for some reason, we went to the drop one of the guys back to his house eventhough he stays far away from Paloma's. I obviously had no problem cause I was busy enjoying.

It hadn't stopped raining and the roads were flooded around that guy's area. We somehow navigated our way, dropped the guy and the three of us came back home. While traveling through the flooded roads, we even got shouted at by a rickshaw driver cause we apparently sent the water gushing into his vehicle when we passed him at a slightly higher speed than required.

We had been out for out for quite some time by then. Paloma's mom didn't say much when we came back but I know she was pissed off.

After getting changed, Paloma and I spoke for a long time. She called me bold when I told her that it didn't matter if I wasn't talking to people I had a history with, if you know what I mean. I'm not hung up on the idea of not being in touch.

I don't know what's happening in Paloma's life to say that but I didn't ask her much about it.

At some point, Paloma's dad angrily came to our room and asked Paloma (and, indirectly, me) to go to sleep. I found that a bit strange because we weren't talking that loudly and we just had a mild light on. It's completely normal to stay up on sleepovers and her dad has never done this before.

He even went ahead and said "I'll give you one tight slap" and I was shocked when I heard that. I had already figured that Paloma's dad probably had anger issues but I had never seen it before. Paloma seems used to it but I felt disturbed when I heard him say that. I still can't get it out of my head. My dad has never said this to me. I can't even imagine him saying that to me.

Paloma's going to give her GMAT this year and one of the reasons is that she wants to live separate from her parents for once. She feels very restricted. I may not fully agree with this thought but I can see where she is coming from.