Don't You Dare: A Synyster Gates Story

Chapter One

Two Months Earlier

Aubrey stared blankly at the maze of cardboard boxes stacked throughout her hotel room. With a sigh, she ran her fingers through her straight dark brown hair. She was in way over her head. She didn't know where to begin and she sure as hell didn't know where to end.

"Okay," Brian began as he emerged from behind a stack of boxes, carrying another box. "You need to come up with a system for keeping track of sold and remaining inventory. Something that's accurate and easy for you to keep up with throughout the night."

Aubrey nodded, thinking. She felt guilty to be honest. She had been working for Brian's band, Avenged Sevenfold, for a total of two days and she was already ready to quit. She joined the tour 48 hours prior in order to help their usual merch guy, Matt Berry, sell t-shirts, but he had a family emergency and had to leave the tour immediately, along with his brother Jason, who was the band's drum and guitar technician. She couldn't fault them for it, but Matt's absence left her as the sole merchandise manager. After two days of experience. And in those two days, she hadn't paid very close attention at all to how he managed and kept track of everything. All of his papers and records were so confusing, so she decided to start from scratch, but she was stumped as to how to even begin.

Thankfully the band was staying in a hotel that night so she could spread out all the merchandise and organize it to her liking. Brian, the band's lead guitarist, gave up partying with his bandmates for the night and offered to help her. Before the band was big enough to have their very own merch person, he handled those records himself, so he figured he was best suited to help her out. Not to mention, he wanted to make sure the newbie did things correctly and efficiently.

"Do I just make a list and keep up with totals or do I need an excel spreadsheet or something?" Aubrey wondered sheepishly as she laid some t-shirts out in piles on one of the two full-sized beds.

Brian laughed. "Whichever is most efficient and easy for you to follow through with."

"Okay," she muttered as she scanned the few items laid out in front of her. "Maybe I'll try to keep my laptop open with an excel spreadsheet and keep up with the math throughout the night."

"Well what if twenty kids bum-rush our table for shirts and start shouting at you to hurry because you're trying to do math on your laptop instead of selling them merch?" He responded, playing devil's advocate so she would really think everything through. "Then what?"

"Then I'd tell those little shits to hold the fuck up," she retorted, opening another box.

He raised a brow at her. "Great, so we'll lose some paying fans because our new merch girl is a bitch?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, sending him a silent warning about calling her a bitch.

He held up his hands in defense.

"Can I just keep running totals in my head and write it down at the end of the night then?" She wondered.

"Are you crazy? We have five different shirt designs, a hoodie, and a jacket; each comes in five different sizes. We have four CDs, a hat, a beanie, two stickers, and a button set. You think you can keep up with all those numbers?"

"For fuck's sake," she groaned. "This is a two-person job. I did not go to college. I cannot do this shit on my own."

Brian eased up and laughed. "Hey, you're gonna do fine. We just gotta figure out what works best for you and do it. I have an idea but it depends on how organized you like to be, cause it's a bit much, but I think it'll help."