Chapter II _ The Almighty Synyster Gates

“What the hell, Claire!!!” I told you she was going to be pissed. She was now standing up screaming at me and everybody at the restaurant was looking at our table. Her boyfriend, Peter, was just laughing at the situation but grabbed her hand. “Sit down woman!” I loved Peter, he always made me laugh. They were together for 5 years now.

“Calm down! I can explain, I swear!”

“You better come up with a good excuse! I’m waiting.”

“Well, first of all, my boss made me do some extra work, and you know my boss. He’s a pain in the ass as always.”

“He made you work until now?” Peter asked.

“Oh, no. I… I kind of ran into someone…”

“Oh don’t you come up with excuses Claire! I know y-”

“I ran into Brian, ok?” I shouted cutting her in the middle of her sentence. She could see what Brian I was talking about just for my expression. She was looking at me for a while now and Peter looked confused.

“What did I miss?” he said.

“Brian. You mean. Brian Haner Jr.? That Brian? Synyster Gates?” She was smirking now. And really I don´t know what’s worse. An angry Tanya screaming at me for being late or an annoying Tanya wanting to now details about my life.

“Yes. The almighty Synyster Gates you always talk about.”

While living in West Chester I learned a lot about my cousin. Apparently she was a big fan of Avenged Sevenfold herself. And after all this time she still tormented me talking about them. I do like their band, but she talks about them as if they were still with us every day. But they weren’t. And it hurt hearing things about them knowing that they weren’t my friends anymore. So I just cared about the music. Back at the time when she came visit me and my father to HB, she would always made me take her to hang out with the guys and when she found out about me and Brian she freaked out. In a good way. She was always saying that we would make cute babies and we were going to have a phenomenal wedding. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen.

When I moved to my cousin’s I found a job at a coffee shop and met a guy there. He would go there every day and one day we started talking. He was tall, brown hair and had green eyes. He was very nice and things started evolving very naturally so we became a couple. Tanya never liked him because she still had the thought I would end up with Brian. But that idea eventually faded when we found out that Brian had gotten married with Michelle. I never imagined they would be together, but they were happy and so was I.

“Now everything makes sense! How was it? Tell me everything. ”

“Here we go again…” Peter sighed loud and I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“It was, normal. What do you want me to say.”

“Normal? That’s it? Come on! Are you going on a date with him? ” well that was just stupid of her to ask.

“A date? In case you don’t remember his married. And I have a boyfriend. No we’re not going on a date!”

“Oh, right you got a boyfriend, I almost forgot. Maybe because he doesn’t even call you on the week to check on you.”

“Shut up. He’s busy and you know it.”

“Wait. So you’re not going on a date but that means you’re going somewhere else with him…”

“Jesus, I don’t know. He’s going to text me tonight and maybe we’ll go somewhere. Us, and the rest of the guys of course. I forgot how much I missed them, so it’s gonna be nice. ”

“Sure thing. It’s going to be nice because you’re going to be with Briaaaannn!!” she sang the last part. I hated her on some moments.

The rest of the dinner passed and they finally told me the big news. They were engaged. I felt so stupid for not noticing the big ring one her finger before, but the whole Brian conversation distracted me. And the best thing was that I was going to be her maid of honor. I was so happy for them. Then we drove home, said good bye to Peter and went inside. It wasn’t very late so me and Tanya decided to watch a movie together. After some minutes through the movie we heard the bell ringing. “Go get it.” Tanya said without getting her eyes off the tv. “You go get it.” She didn’t move, the bell kept ringing so I stood up and opened the door.

“Who’s Brian?” she said entering the house like it was her own.

“Andrea!!!! Come and watch the movie with us.” Tanya said. I closed the door very confused.

“Let me ask again. Who the hell is Brian? Are you cheating on your boyfriend Claire?”

“She’s not. Yet. But she will cheat on her boyfriend with her ex-boyfriend.”

“Stop talking to each other pretending I’m not here ok?” I was starting to get mad. Finally Andrea had a revelation.

“Wait! Ex-boyfriend? That means that I just had a text conversation with Brian aka Synyster Gates???”

“What the fuck are you talking about Andrea?”

“Remember when you couldn’t find your phone at work? After you got out I found it. I was coming here to give it back to you, when you received a text message.”

“Give me the fucking phone!” I started chasing her through the living room while she laughed. Tanya and Andrea were now on my opposite side giggling at the screen while I ran after them. We spilled popcorn on the floor while they were messing with me. “Let me read it for you…” Andrea cleared her throat.

“Hi Freckles… Brian here. Just wanted to let you know that…” Tanya got the phone out of Andrea’s hand and read the rest.

“…that seeing you today was like a breath of fresh air, and was for sure the best part of my week.” I was blushing.

“Aaawwww!!!” They both said at the same time. Andrea read the final part.

“Tomorrow we have a free day so maybe we should hang out at Matt’s…”

“Does he mean M.Shadows?”

“Yes, yes, Andrea I’ll introduce you later don’t worry, just keep reading.”

“Tell me if you can come. The guys are already super excited to see you again! Bye. And in the end he put a smiley face. The end.”

“Ok, thank you. Now would you give me the phone so I can answer him?”

“No need to. I already texted him saying that you’re going. Tomorrow, 6pm.”

“Why did you answer him!!!”

“God! Of course she answered him. You don’t wanna break the poor boy’s heart again, am I right?” Great! Now Tanya was defending Andrea. I’m doomed.

“He’s not a boy. He’s Synyster Gates. He’s a man.” They both laughed out loud and I couldn’t help but laugh with them of what Andrea just said. She threw me the phone and I decided I needed to sleep but they saw the rest of the movie.

I was in my bed staring at the ceiling and I thought I should call Tom, tell him the news.

“Hello?”

“Hi baby! How was work today?”

“Oh, Claire. It’s you. Work was fine. But I got bad news. I don’t know if I’m going there tomorrow, maybe Sunday, but tomorrow is out of the question.”

“Oh! I don’t care about tomorrow but you got to come Sunday! It’s your birthday and I got presents for you.”

“Claire, you know I’m very busy.”

“I know. I’m just saying I wanted to make your birthday special.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can to go there Sunday. I’ll call you tomorrow saying if I can. But I’m not promising anything, ok?”

“Ok. I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

I hated this I was barely with him and now I can’t even see him on his birthday. I’ll tell him about the guys Sunday. I was very tired and I just needed to sleep now.

Saturday morning. I woke up already excited because I knew I’d be with the guys by the end of the day. Andrea entered my room all happy and singing.

“Good morning!”

“Don’t you know how to knock? Did you sleep here?”

“Yeah the movie ended late so I just stayed here. Anyway! Get your ass out of bed!!!”

“Why?” I just wanted to sleep.

“We’re going shopping!!!”

Here we go again…