Unfiltered Story #256522

A person I ran into at a lot of music gigs became a sort of friend. He was a nice and generous person, but we didn’t have much in common outside the music. He invited me and my friend to an open house to celebrated his 21st birthday, as well as many other people. We went because he was nice and we expected that not many people would turn up. Having no idea what he needed in his life, but with a feeling that a 21st gift should be something to mark the occasion. we bought him a good pen. It felt like a lame gift, like the sort of gift you give someone you don’t know very well. But he was working and we were not, so it was the best thing we could think of that was suitable and in our budget.

We arrive. No one else is there. We give him our gift. He opens it and is politely grateful. We sip coffee, and eat snacks and wonder when we can leave. We don’t want to leave him alone, but we don’t want to stay. Fortunately after an hour or so, visitors arrive. Two more women, about our age, whom we don’t know. We greet them, then quietly make our goodbyes. As we are walking out the door, I look back to see him opening the present from the new visitors.

It was a pen.

Saddest birthday party I ever attended.