Don't You Dare: A Synyster Gates Story

Chapter Thirty-Four

"He died, Bree."

Her brother's words echoed through the phone and into her ear, but Aubrey simply blinked, zoning in on a black speck on her pristine white countertop. She narrowed her eyes. Did she accidentally write on the counter?

She used the pad of her finger to rub the speck. It didn't erase. It didn't even smudge.

It was too small to be from a permanent marker but too big to be from a pen. And if it was from a pencil, it would've smudged.

Besides, she couldn't remember the last time she even wrote something while sitting at her kitchen counter. She always sat at the desk in her bedroom when she worked.

So then, who the hell wrote on her kitchen counter?

"Are you there? Did you hear what I said?" Andrew's voice broke through the phone that she was still clutching to her ear, interrupting her detachment from reality.

She blinked again. The speck on her counter was gone.

She ran her fingertip over the spot where the speck had been. There was no trace of it.

"Aubrey?" Andrew's voice brought her back again.

"What happened?" Aubrey whispered. Her voice didn't sound like it belonged to her.

"I don't know. His fiancée found him dead at their home this morning," he answered.

Aubrey instantly felt lightheaded. She grabbed the side of the sink to steady herself. Jimmy had a fiancée? A fiancée that he lived with? A fiancée that he left behind?

Holy hell. She had missed so much. So much that she would never get to hear from him directly.

"They think he died around 8 o'clock this morning," he added.

Oh, God. Her hand clutched at her heart through her shirt.

"He just...died?" She asked softly.

"They don't really know," he answered as honestly as he could, wishing he had the answers to give to his sister.

She couldn't wrap her head around it. How does someone in their twenties just die? Something had to have been wrong. After all the crazy shit Jimmy has done and survived, even just since Aubrey has known him, and he just dies in his sleep?

"...Jason Berry's wedding reception was last night," Andrew hesitantly informed her, knowing he needed to give her something more to help her understand how this possibly could've happened.

What? Jason and Kelsey had gotten married? Holy shit. What else had she missed out on in the past year?

Aubrey blinked again, trying to clear the blur from her eyes, wondering why her vision was suddenly so cloudy.

"I saw Jimmy there," Andrew explained carefully.

Andrew was with Jimmy last night? Which meant he was with Brian last night too? And Valary, Matt, Zack, and Johnny? She felt like she was in an alternate universe. A dream. A bad dream. A nightmare.

This was too much. She was going to be sick.

"He was really drunk, maybe on some other stuff, but no one seemed to be alarmed," he continued. "He was coherent, playing the piano and singing, completely entertaining everyone. I have no idea what could've happened."

Silent tears fell down Aubrey's cheek in an instant. She was so unbelievably jealous that her brother had not only seen all of her most cherished friends last night, but he had been in Jimmy's presence on his last night on this earth.