A Series Of Life Changing Events

Chapter 17: 15 Candles

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry I haven't updated for a while everything has been insane lately. I wanted to post this yesterday, but I never got around to it. I hope you enjoy!

It's Saturday and I wake up to the sound of an alarm going off next to my bed. Why in God's name would I set an alarm on a day that I didn't have to wake up on?! Then I look at the reminder. 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' it says with a shit ton of smiley faces and exclamation points. I probably wrote this when I used to be obnoxiously happy. It's nine am on March 17th and if you call me a leprechaun I'll punch you in the face. I was born at exactly nine am. This is the first birthday I have to spend without my old family. I sigh and close me eyes again. Maybe I can just sleep through today so I don't have to think about them. Then I hear a door open and something small is attacking me on my bed. "Ow!" I cry out as I get a small foot in my face. I hear the giggle of a small child and open my eyes. Bandit is in my bed and she's laughing her head off. "I told you to wake her not beat her up!" Gerard says standing in the door way. "And why am I awake?" I ask pulling Bandit into my arms. "Don't tell me you forgot what today is." He says coming farther into the room. "No, but I was hopping you would." I say standing up. "How could I forget my daughter's birthday?" He says crossing his arms. "We are gonna have a fun time today wether you like it or not." He says walking out of the room. Then he pops his head back in. "By the way I made pancakes and they're getting cold." He says and I hear him walk down the stairs. That was enough to get me up and going. I grab Bandit's had and pull her downstairs. I sit down and take a bite of my chocolate chip pancakes. All hail the pancakes. Whoever made pancakes is a pure genius. After I finish Gerard takes my plate. "Go get dressed." He says and leaves the room without giving me a chance to ask why. I don't argue. I quickly get ready, changing into a Panic tee shirt, and do my hair and makeup. Then I walk back downstairs and Gerard hands me my shoes. "Where are we going?" I ask as I slip them on. "Anywhere you want." He says holding the door open for me. I feel so rushed. Lindsey gives me a hug and wishes me a happy birthday. Then she disappears with Bandit and Gerard pushes me outside. I hop into the car and plug in my phone. Panic comes on and I start to sing. Gerard hops in and turns on the car. "So where to?" He asks. Where do I want to go? He did say anywhere. "To the mall? Maybe?" I answer sitting back in my chair. "Your wish is my command." He says pulling out of the driveway. We get to the mall and walk inside. He's carrying a bad and I have no idea what's inside. "I'm guessing we probably can't go to Hot Topic..." I say with a frown. "Why not?" Gerard asks starting to walk in that direction. He can't go in there! "People will recognize you!" I say trying to keep my voice quiet. He sighs. "I'll be right back." He says walking into the bathroom while I sit on a nearby bench. A few minuets pass and a man comes out in a sweat shirt and jeans with his hood up. I swear I didn't see the man walk in there. He starts walking up to me and when he removes his sunglasses I realize it's Gee. I start to laugh. "What?" He asks in an offended tone. "Is that supposed to be a disguise?" I ask playing with the strings of his hoodie. "I thought is wasn't that bad." He's says frowning. "It's not bad...It's horrible." I say laughing and pulling the stings of his sweat shirt shut. We walk into Hot Topic and I drift all over the store. I spend most of my time in the band section and the SuperWhoLock section. Gerard follows me and points out things related to him whenever he sees one. Then I hear two girls talking in the back. "Gerard Way is hotter than the depths of hell!" One of them says. I start to laugh and so does Gee. "Did you hear about the Frank concert last month?" The other girl asks. What about the concert? I was there. "Yeah! Oh my God I can't believe Gee was there!" The girl says. Then I slowly turn to Gerard. He gives me a look of confusion. "I wonder who those girls were he was with. There were so lucky!" The confusion only grows. I can't deal with this anymore. I walk up to the girls and decide to question them. "Excuse me." I say trying to get their attention. They turn around. "Yes?" One of the girls asks with a smile. "I couldn't help, but overhear you conversation. What is happening with Gerard and Frank and a couple of girls?" I ask hoping their wasn't a picture. I don't want them to recognize me. "There are a ton of people saying that he was at Frank's concert hanging out with two teenage girls." She says her smile never fading. "We don't know much about what's happening." The other girl adds in. "Hey...you look really familiar." The girl says and her smile fades into a look of confusion. I was about to say thank you and walk away, but I hear a crash come from behind me. I'm afraid to turn around. Please tell me Gerard didn't knock something down. I turn around slowly and I see Gerard on the ground...WITH HIS HOOD DOWN! The girl screams. I clap my hand over her mouth. "Shhhh please shut up please!" I whisper. "You're one of the girls from the concert aren't you?!" The other girl asks. "Yes! Now will you please shut up?!" I half whisper half yell. Then I feel a hand on my shoulder and the girls eyes go wide. I look up to see Gerard smiling down at me. "Lily it's okay just calm down." He says squeezing my shoulder lightly. Time passes. Gerard answers a couple questions and takes pictures with the girls. Then we leave. When we get back to the car I want to scream. I want to hit something. I bring my jacket up to my mouth and use it to muffle a scream. "Hey are you okay?!" Gerard takes my hand and looks at me with concern. "No, I'm scared!" I shout and a sudden realization dawns upon his face. "Are you scared because you don't want people to know about me?" He asks as a frown starts to appear on his face. "It's not like that. I just don't want people to treat me differently because your my dad and I don't want everything handed to me. I especially don't wanna get used so people can get to you. I also don't wanna have to deal with being famous. Stalkers are weird and the press is crazy!" I say letting all of my stress flow out. "I won't let any of that happen. I promise I'll do anything as long as it means that I'm protecting you." He says pulling me into his arms and then starting the car. He drives in a different direction. We're not going home... "Uh... Where are we going?" I ask staring out the window trying to answer my own question. "You'll see." Is all he says and then the car is silent. I'm so confused, but I don't argue. After about ten minuets we pull into a pretty much empty parking lot of an old bowling alley. "What are we doing here?" I question him as he opens the car door. I climb out of the car and follow him to the entrance. We walk in and all the lights are off. "Are we supposed to be in here? This place is pretty much deserted." Then I walk into something. It seems to bounce. Gee turns on the lights and it turns out I had kicked a balloon. Wait why is there a balloon? "SURPRISE!" I hear people shout as they jump from behind tables and stuff. Surprise parties are so cliche, but I can't deny that I've always wanted one. There are some pretty awesome people here. Frank, Ray, and Mikey are here as well as, Bandit, Jess, Noah, and Lindsey...WAIT A MOTHER FLIPPING SECOND! BRENDON URIE IS HERE! Just breathe Lily. Just breathe. In and out. In. Out. I can't even speak. Frank walks up to me. "Happy Birthday!" He says giving me a warm smile. "Oh my God this is the best thing ever!" I respond. He just laughs at me. Then I realize something. He lives on the other side of the country. What is he doing here? "Frank what are you doing here? You live on the other side of the country!" I question him. "I couldn't miss your birthday! I decided I'd plan some business around your birthday so I'd have to be up here." He answers smiling. I hug him. I hug the crap out of him because this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I look over to my right and Jess is talking to Brendon nonstop. I walk over to them and my brain decides that my mouth isn't allowed to produce real words. That was rude. Mouth let me talk please! Jess attacks me in a hug. I hug her back and then we both let go. Brendon gives me a smile. "Hi. Happy Birthday Lily, it's nice to finally meet you when you're not screaming and dropping the phone." He laughs. "Sorry! Oh my God I didn't mean to-" he cuts me off. "No, it's fine. I'm just kidding." He laughs again. My face goes red. I was about to say something when Noah comes up from behind me and gives me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Happy birthday beautiful!" He says with a huge smile. His smiles are perfect and melt me to the status of puddle. Then Ray comes over. I haven't really met him yet, besides talking to him on the phone. We talk for a while and then I realize something. We're in a bowling alley. Why aren't we bowling?! We start a round and I find out that I suck at this game. I haven't played in a while, but that's okay because I quickly learn that Gerard sucks too. "I wanna play too!" Bandit shouts so Mikey and Gee help her roll the ball. Every time she knocks down a pin she does a little happy dance and I swear it is the cutest thing I've ever seen. I look over to my left and see Frank. He's so good at this. I'm really jealous. I walk over to his lane. "Hey Frank can you teach me how to bowl?" I ask feeling stupid as heat rushes into my cheeks. God why am I such an idiot. Face stop blushing please. He smiles at me. "Sure." He says taking my ball. He inspects it. "Okay, one thing you might wanna start with is a smaller ball." He says handing it back to me. "It's too big for your hands and you can't get a good grip if your hands are too small." He grabs a smaller ball and hands it to me. Then he teaches me "how to not fuck up" as he calls it and I start to get better. Now it's time to crush the dreams of another player. I start a game with Gerard and I beat his ass. This is awesome. After a couple more games we have cake. The singing was really cool because I had like 7 professional musicians in the same room all singing Happy Birthday at once. I notice a small stage in the back. After a long amount of time passes by and a boat load of begging takes place, I finally convince the guys to play together. Jess and I are freaking out cause we're actually gonna see My Chemical Romance live! They play a few of my favorite songs. The first song they decided to play was Dead! and I swear I was Dead!. Then after a few songs Brendon decides to join them. He and Gerard sing a few duets and I swear it's the most beautiful thing I've seen/heard in the entire world. It's getting late and Bandit is passed out in a booth fast asleep. Everything must come to an end, so we pack everything up and everybody exits the building. We drive home and I go to bed. Then Gerard comes upstairs. "Are you asleep yet?" He asks before opening the door. "I can't sleep! Tonight was awesome!" I respond laughing. "I'm glad you had a good time." He says kissing me on the forehead. "But it's time for bed." He says getting up to turn off the light. "Thank you for everything and thank Lindsey too and just thank you today was the best." He laughs. "Your welcome and I'll be sure to tell her. I love you. Goodnight." He says walking out the door and slowly closing it behind him. "I love you too." I say just before the door shuts. This was the best day ever.