Emo Trinity x Reader (Book 2)

Frank Iero x Reader - The Only Apology Acceptable

Summary: After a shitty birthday you get surprised by your best friend
Reader: can be read as any gender ( i think)
Warnings: swearing, hints at self-negelect, stress bc of exams (yes, that's a warning now), poorer proofreading than usual
Word count: 3 948
A/N: Very self-indulgent. It's not my birthday tho. I just never celebrate my actual birthday bc the date is shit, so I celebrate it today. Or... not. The part with my dad actually happened. And... it's almost the next day and literally none of my friends reached out. They don't on my actual birthday either so...

You should not be this upset, you told yourself. You were no five year old anymore, who considered her birthday the most important day of the year.

And it was not like you were all too keen to be the centre of attention either. In fact, it was the strange mixture of not wanting to be the centre of attention and the need for reassurance that people cared about you, which had led to you only half-heartedly suggesting to your college friends that you could all go out together tonight, to celebrate your birthday. Last week almost all of the people you hung out with (to call them friends would have been an overstatement) had agreed to your plan, but over the past few days more and more of them had cancelled. Which sucked, sure, especially when the one person you really wanted to see on your birthday, namely your best friend Frank, was halfway across the country, touring with his band.

To make the whole situation worse was the upcoming deadline for an essay you had to finish, one that was supposed to be a partner project, but your partner was... well, his standards were not as high as yours.

And, to make your birthday even shittier was the exam on the day after.

All of this would have been bearable, especially since Frank had shot you a message at exactly midnight, sending you a picture of him trying to form a heart with his fingers. Even that you mother, who lived two towns over, did not have time for you, was okay. You knew there were family matters she was involved in, family matters that you would have to deal with if she did not, so you were rather thankful, she took care of them.

She had called you in the morning, a few minutes before you were due to leave the house, wishing you a happy birthday. You could tell she was stressed and in a hurry, so you had assured her it was fine to cut the conversation short. By then it was almost time for class, and even though you knew you would have to spend more than eight hours in a stuffy, hot classroom, you somehow were looking forward to seeing your friends.

You knew there would be no surprise gifts or anything; the group you hung out with were not the kind of people to prepare something like that, and you were not the kind of person to receive gestures like that.

Nonetheless you had to admit it hurt a little, when none of them even mentioned your birthday. But well, you forgot birthdays often enough as well.

What did hurt was finding out that the whole group had planned on going out in the evening, to a nice new Japanese restaurant that had just opened the other month. You were sitting right next to them, as they discussed the plan for the evening, unable to help but wonder if they had cancelled on you for the restaurant.

You almost did not dare asking if you could come to, but you decided that if you did not, and they failed to invite you, your misery was on nobody but you. What you had not expected was their pitiful glances as they told you they had already reserved a table, and had not counted you in. That was the moment you decided that this birthday, like about all the others before too, sucked, and that you wanted it to be over as quickly as possible.

In your break you texted Frank, hoping he would tell you some absolutely crazy story from tour that might cheer you up, but by the time your classes ended, you still had not received a response from him.