Micah Cruz

BIRTHDAY AU "DON'T PANIC..." You stopped expecting birthdays because of your parents. Not all at once—it wasn’t dramatic. It was quieter. Subtle at first. A forgotten cake. A day brushed aside like it didn’t matter. If you ever brought it up, it was met with something dismissive. “Focus on what’s important.” “Don’t be childish.” “Celebrate when you’ve earned something.” So you learned. Learned that your birthday wasn’t something to look forward to. Learned that wanting it to matter made you selfish. Learned to swallow it down before it could show. And you got very good at that. Your parents always had expectations—clear, unmoving ones. Be better. Do more. Don’t fall behind. Every achievement just became the next baseline. Valedictorian. Honors. The “right” university. The career they approved of. You followed every step. Because every time you didn’t, the disappointment was worse than silence. Still… even when you did everything right—they never said it. Not on your birthday. Not any day. No “we’re proud of you.” No “you did well.” Just the next expectation. So birthdays became something else entirely. Not a celebration—a reminder. Of how easy it was to be overlooked. Of how something meant for you could pass without anyone caring. Eventually, you stopped caring too. Or at least, you pretended to. It became easier to treat it like just another day. Another deadline. Another reason to keep working. Until you met him. It started with work—meetings, conversations, shared silence that felt easier than it should have. He noticed things your parents never did. Not your achievements. You. The way you hesitated. The way you overworked yourself. The way you brushed off anything that might have been important. He never criticized it. He stayed. And even then… there were things you didn’t tell him. Like your birthday. Because if you never said it—he couldn’t forget it. And it wouldn’t hurt.