FicWad

It had been a few weeks now and my birthday was only two days away. I was trying to not think about it by keeping myself busy with school. I’ve never been much of an all out birthday person.

I was in the middle of typing up a report when my cell phone rang. When I answered it, a familiar voice rang into my ear, "Hey Nathalie, it's Joe. I just called to wish you a happy early birthday from me and the rest of the band!"

"Why are you saying it now? I thought you were coming home," I said glumly. I was slightly disappointed that plans might've changed.
"Oh yeah, that's also the reason I called," he paused and explained, "We have to catch a flight Montreal that day. But we're really sorry that we have to miss your birthday. Don't worry though, we're sending you a surprise."
I sighed and asked, "What are you sending me?"
"Something you'll thank us for later. But I have to go, so I'll talk to you later. Bye," he said and hung up abruptly, egging on my suspicions.
"Whatever," I thought as I slammed the phone down on my desk.

My birthday
"Nathalie, get up! We're going to lunch!" Jaden announced. My bed was rocking irritably as I opened my eyes to see her jumping on the end of my bed.
“Since when did you become such a morning person?” I asked in a muffled tone from underneath the pillow I had shoved against my face. She responded by dragging me out of bed. As soon as my knees touched the floor I let go of my bed frame, sighed to myself, and stood up to walk towards the bathroom.
I started to strip my clothes off and stepped inside of the shower stall, when Jaden knocked on the door and yelled, "Be ready in 20 minutes. We have a long day ahead of us!"
I sighed and turned on the water and screamed at the cold water hitting my bare skin. There goes my common sense down the drain. It's called turn the knob to the left, stupid!
The water started to warm up a little and I groaned at the idea of wandering all over town with Jaden, the pickiest damn girl I've ever met.
Ugh, I really just wanted to see the guys today. They've been touring for so long that I’m suffering from a lack of their nonsense. Andy never called me anymore.
If you miss them so much, then why must you insist on lying to everyone?
"Because I'm in the worst case of denial," I said silently in reply to my thoughts as I strung my fingers through my hair.
By the time I finally got out and was dressed and starting on my makeup, I heard Jaden making groaning noises outside of the door. About three seconds later I heard her shout, "You better get out of there before I break this damn door down!" and trust me, I always took her word when it came to threats. I opened the door and let her use the mirror.
"You take forever to do your hair!" she complained restlessly.
"Pfft, coming from the girl who takes an hour to straighten her hair, nonetheless do her makeup," I retorted wittingly. She chuckled as she finished up her makeup and reached for my keys.
"I'm driving you around today since it's your birthday!" she proclaimed proudly as she walked out of the dorm and down the hallway. I slipped on my flats and walked after her towards the parking lot. Once inside the vehicle, we chatted while she 'chauffeured' me around town until we pulled to a fairly nice restaurant.
"Jada, why are we here? You know we have a budget..." I grunted skeptically. She smiled and said, "Well, I met this cute guy at the mall yesterday and he gave me money and told me to bring you here!"
I stared at her blankly as if she were insane. She couldn't be serious...could she?
Inside, we were seated in a booth by a large window that overlooked the streets. We had just finished ordering when Jaden looked at me from across the booth and asked a random question.
"What would you do if you ever ran into Patrick again?" she asked with a serious tone. I peered down hesitantly and then glanced up, a little thrown off, but answered nonetheless, "I don't know what I'd do...we'd probably end up fighting."
"Oh," she said calmly while a peculiar expression crept onto her face. But I chose to ignore it and the subject wasn't brought up again after our food was placed down on the table.
"Yummy, this looks so good. Thanks for taking me here," I thanked politely. She smiled and continued to eat her food until she was done and we left the restaurant.
So, the drive back home was quieter than usual as we walked up the stairs to the dorm. But as we reached the top of the stairs, I could see that my door was wide open. Shooting a cautious glance at Jaden, I asked suspiciously, "Did you leave the door open again?"
She shrugged and I tiptoed in to see that the room was covered in paper decorations. Walking in, I mumbled, "What the hell happened?"
Then I saw someone crawl out from underneath my bed and scream, "Happy Birthday, little sister!"
My jaw dropped as I saw Andy standing there with a huge grin plastered on his face as the other three boys of Fall Out Boy came out of their hiding places one by one.
"Oh my god," were the only words that I could form out of my mouth at that exact moment.
Joe and Pete both hugged me as I stared at them with wide eyes and disbelief.

"What are you guys doing here? Y-you're supposed t-to be-!" I stuttered dumbfoundedly.
Pete gave me a long hug and kissed me on the cheek and said, "That was a diversion so you wouldn't know about the surprise."
"S-surprise?" I squeaked out.
"Yeah!" they shouted in unison. I turned and faced Jaden.
"Did you know about this?" I asked her. She nodded and explained, "Pete was the guy I met at the mall. I wasn't kidding when I said I met a cute guy at the mall! God, I'm not that naive!"
I nodded slowly as I let the truth sink in. I heard a curious mumble and looked up to see Patrick silently standing back and watching me from a distance.
"Patrick," I said his name firmly, making everyone jump and look at us. He looked up with a nervous face and I bit my lip and softly said, "Long time, no see."
Then I went over and touched his shoulder. He stood stiffly and remained silent. The tension in the room was intoxicating. Pete and Andy exchanged nervous glances at each other as they shuffled Joe and Jaden out of the room.
He must've been in deep thought because suddenly a gasp escaped his lips and he muttered, "I am an idiot."
The color in my face quickly drained as I mumbled under my breath, "I could‘ve figured that out..."
"But I have something to say," he spoke a little louder, angrier now, "I made a mistake when I said that I didn't want to see you anymore...but you disappeared off the face of the earth! And you ended up in Chicago of all places! Did you really not want to see me again? It appears that way judging by the way you cut off all contact!”
My face reddened and a burst of adrenaline rushed through me as I retorted fiercely, "Well, it's not like you wanted me to stay in contact anyway! You told me that you didn't want to see me anymore! You basically gave up on me altogether! And for what? You didn't want to deal with the long distance? I would’ve been there for you if you let me!"
He wrinkled his nose and bitterly sneered, "You could have told me at least! I did care! I wouldn't have gone after you if I didn't care...but now I don't even know how I could care for someone who went through all the trouble to keep me away!"
I felt the tears start rolling down my face as I turned my back to him and said, "I didn't want to tell you I was going to move here because I figured you wouldn't care after the way you broke my heart. How could you care? It was a summer fling and the summer was over!"
His face fell and he solemnly asked, "How could I not care?"
"You tell me," I said stubbornly, "Were you even thinking when you said those things? Because it hurt me a lot more than you think it did."

With my back still turned, I could feel two arms wrap themselves tightly around my waist as I looked up and met Patrick's gaze, which melted my insides with their sincerity.
"I want to hate you so much," I said in defeat as I exhaled, "But I don't think I can."

Patrick grinned and it was at that moment, just being near him again, that a smile crept across my face. A grin that felt like the first real smile I’d shown in forever.