Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 55

Castiel just stares at Charlie blankly as she explains how her LARPing group is doing, or something like that. She seems so excited, he doesn't have the heart to tell her that he has absolutely no idea what she's talking about.

He suffers through that for about ten minutes until Michael and Lucifer finally join them again, and even Castiel who saw Michael crying can't see and evidence of it. He's a hell of an actor, that's for sure. He can't help but wonder if he's done this before — acted like he was okay when there's something tearing him apart inside.

"Took you long enough," Samandriel says, glancing over at them.

"I attacked him with my deadly cuddles and he couldn't move," Lucifer tells him with a grin. He's a pretty good actor, too.

The doorbell rings, and instantly, Anna is out of her bedroom. She runs over to the door, but opens it as if she was just leisurely strolled by it as the doorbell rang to reveal Cain. He and Castiel have only seen each other twice, so it might seem weird that he's coming to his birthday party, but Castiel told everyone they could bring friends if they wanted. It's not like he has enough friends to really fill up the place.

"And who's that?" Balthazar asks, as he's done with Claire, Charlie, Kevin, and Garth already.

"Anna's boyfriend, Cain," Castiel explains.

"We don't like him," Lucifer adds.

"No, you don't like him," Gabriel corrects him. "I personally haven't formed an opinion on him yet."

"I think we mostly think he's kinda meh," Samandriel adds. 

"Okay then..." Balthazar replies.

"And Anna will kill you if you say something to or around him that she doesn't like, so watch out," Gabriel tells him.

"Noted."

~~

"Cake time!" Gabriel announces. "Everyone, sit down." Castiel makes a move to sit, but then Gabriel adds, "Except you."

His cocks his head in confusion but obliges anyway.

"Be right back," he says quickly before disappearing, returning a few moments later with a large chair that should be floating with how many birthday balloons there are on it. "Squish in. The end of the table is for the birthday boy."

Castiel raises an eyebrow. "Okay, and I needed a chair that big because?"

"Because it's your birthday, and you get special privilege," Gabriel replies, placing the chair at the end of the table.

"I really don't need — okay then."

Satisfied now that he's forcefully pushed Castiel into his chair, Gabriel plops down in the chair next to him. Michael is the one to carry the cake over, taking over Chuck's responsibility while he's (still) out working in... wherever it was he went. Research for a book, maybe?

He sets it down on the table gently, and as he disappears to get a lighter, knife, plates, silverware, and so on, Castiel takes a moment to marvel at how huge this thing is. This could last him a week, eating it three meals a day.