Support Hotline (Ryden)

It's My Party

As much as I wanted to have Brendon stay over on the night before his birthday, I knew his parents would want to do something for him. So I told him I would pick him up in the morning. I planned to make the day enjoyable for him, avoiding any conversation about his parents.

I pick him up and see that he's relieved to have left the house.

"They were trying to get me to spend time with them." He says with an eye roll. I kiss him on the cheek.

"Happy birthday!" I say in an effort to cheer him up.

"I'm 18 now, hell yeah! I'm an adult." He says happily and I laugh at him.

"So, where do you want to go for breakfast?" I say as I take his hand with my hand and steer with the other.

"Anywhere is fine, you pick." He shrugs.

"Fine, but we have to take a little pit stop before." I say to give him a hint.

When we pull up to the music shop he rolls his eyes and chuckles lightly.

I hold the door open for Brendon and then shout out for Jack and Alex.

"Let's go, we're going to breakfast for Brendon's birthday!"

"Oh, uh, happy birthday kid." Jack shrugs and Alex nods as they both lean against the glass counter.

We all go out to breakfast at a small cafe that had waitresses that would remember you if you went more than once. Our waitress recognized Jack and Alex and didn't charge us for Brendon's meal when we told her it was his birthday. I pay for our food and Alex gives our waitress a large tip.

"Do you wanna visit Tyler, Bren?" I ask as I hold the door open for him.

"What's wrong with Tyler? We haven't seen you guys in a few days." Alex asks.

"He tried to kill himself" I say quietly.

"Holy shit, seriously? The kid seemed fine." Jack says.

"That's what we thought." Brendon mumbles.

***

We drop off Jack and Alex and I text Spencer, Josh, and Hayley to be ready. I gave Spencer money to buy a cake so we could surprise Brendon.

He broke into a big smile the minute he scanned the room. He tried to hide it, but he really couldn't.

"Thank you guys. I'm really thankful for all of you jackasses." He says with a laugh.

"We'll let it slide since it's your birthday." Tyler says with a smile.

"But seriously, guys. I've never had friends before this. Tyler, I'm glad you didn't leave us. Just know you are all important to me." He says with certainty.

"Enough with the cheesy stuff, let's have some cake." Spencer says. We all agree and each take a piece of cake. Brendon gets the first slice and takes his first bite with words of "wisdom".

"I'm an adult now, bitches!" He says with a laugh and a confident bite of his cake.

Tyler starts talking about how much he wish he had his ukulele and how much he liked playing it, which started the conversation about instruments that everybody wished they could play.