Don't You Dare: A Synyster Gates Story

Chapter Twenty-Five

As soon as the band arrived back in Huntington Beach for a two-day reprieve between tours, Jimmy, Brian, and Zack each packed a small bag and loaded up in Brian's SUV then set off toward Phoenix at four o'clock in the morning. They only had 36 hours to drive all the way to Phoenix and back to California because the next leg of their tour was set to begin in two days, but they did it anyway.

The road ahead was dark. Zack drove in silence, focusing to keep awake. Jimmy, on the other hand, was out cold in the backseat, snoring ever so slightly. Brian, in the passenger seat, was buzzing with anticipation and fear.

The phone call with drunken British Aubrey had been their last substantial phone call. Other than that, their phone calls had been brief and their texts had been short. They were both busy and both struggling with the distance, and their communication had been suffering.

And now he was going to surprise her? Just show up at her house without warning? He was such an idiot. What if she wasn't home? What if she didn't want to see him? What if she had given up on him and found a new guy? Oh god, what if they showed up at her house while she was fucking him?

Brian's stomach turned. He had gone from elated to fearful, assuming the worst, in a matter of seconds. And he worried that he had made a huge mistake jumping in the car to go see her without so much as a warning.

Though he never stopped actually missing her, the lack of communication had eased the physical effects of not being with her lately. But when he thought about the actual consequences of her giving up on him and moving on, the physical effects came back tenfold.

"You look like you're going to be sick," Zack observed as he glanced at his friend beside him.

"I feel like I'm going to be sick," Brian replied.

"Don't barf on me," Jimmy muttered sleepily from the backseat as he adjusted himself to get more comfortable.

"You've barfed on me plenty of times," Brian retorted.

"Yeah," Jimmy huffed. "Don't do it on me, though."

Zack chuckled as Brian rolled his eyes at his friends then went back to staring out the window.

He was only six hours away from her. And the next 36 hours would tell him a lot about their future together.

Ø

Aubrey was busy cleaning up her kitchen when she heard a series of frantic, loud knocks on her door. It startled her, as she wasn't expecting company, especially that early in the morning, and the urgency of the knocking heightened her fear.

Carefully, she crept over to her front door, glancing through her peephole. She blinked a few times then looked again. Was she seeing things? Hallucinating? Through the small window of the peephole, it looked like...

She quickly threw open the door to find her eyes had not been deceiving her - Brian, Jimmy, and Zack were standing on the other side of her door, smiling like mad idiots.

"HOLY SHIT!" Aubrey screeched, jumping through the door and pulling all three of them in simultaneously for a hug. "What are y'all doing here?"

God, Brian missed hearing her say y'all so much. Especially in person.

"We came to see you!" Jimmy exclaimed as they all pulled out of the hug.

She specifically pulled Brian in for his own hug. That eased a lot of Brian's tension and fear immediately. Not to mention, she smelled amazing.

"I can't believe y'all are really here!" Aubrey shouted, pulling away from him. "Come in, come in!"

"We don't have a lot of time," Zack regrettably informed her, wanting to be the one to break the bad news so Brian wouldn't have to. "Twenty-four hours to be exact."