Don't You Dare: A Synyster Gates Story

Chapter Thirty-Five

The walls of the small church were lined with architectural designs and packed with people who were donning all-black clothing. People who would probably be donning black clothing even if they weren't at a funeral. People who were friends, people who were family, people who were total strangers. Everyone had come together to celebrate Jimmy's life.

His family had wanted a typical Catholic mass for his funeral, but the paradox of having James Sullivan's funeral in a Catholic church was not lost on anyone.

However, it made the ceremony a little easier to handle, a little easier to process, because a priest stood at the altar and talked about all of these things that Jimmy didn't believe in. Jimmy would find it comical, Aubrey thought, as she adjusted the black shift dress that she had to borrow from Kelsey. Because her brain had been on autopilot when she packed for California and she didn't even think about needing clothes for the funeral.

After the priest concluded a section of the mass, he signaled to someone in the first pew. The crowd watched as Brian, wearing an all-black suit, rose from his seat with papers in his hand. He walked up the aisle and up the altar then stood behind the podium. After adjusting the microphone to the adequate height, he set his papers down on the platform and cleared his throat.

He looked out at the crowd, feeling a lump in his throat after seeing the number of people crammed into the church. "Oh fuck, okay," he breathed, not even realizing he just cussed to the crowd in a church. "I don't know how I'm going to get through this."

Brian took a deep breath as his eyes scanned the papers in front of him. "It's, uh, really incredible to see how many people came out to say goodbye to Jimmy today. I'm not surprised though - to know Jimmy is to love Jimmy."

He had spent the last two days googling how to write a eulogy and had crafted what seemed like a perfectly traditional one.

But now that he was up there, it didn't feel right to spew a bunch of words that Google told him to write. It didn't feel genuine.

His best friend was in a casket thirty feet away from him - how could he not speak from the heart?

"Okay," he exhaled, shaking his head. He picked up the papers, folded them up, and shoved them into the pocket of his coat, forgoing the traditional speech and just wanting to talk about his friend.

He scanned the crowd, seeing so many familiar and unfamiliar faces.

"I can guarantee that every person in this room has their own Jimmy story. Some should probably never be told in church. Some should probably never be told again. Period."

Brian paused when the crowd let out a laugh, understanding exactly what he meant by that.

"For those who don't know me, I'm Brian. I met Jimmy in middle school and, God, he was the most annoying sack of shit I had ever met. Total class clown. Always so loud and abrasive. One day, we got into a fist fight over something stupid and we got sent to the principal's office together. We started talking about music and bands, and we realized we had a lot in common. And just like that, we went from wanting to beat the shit outta each other to wanting to start a band together. Clearly that stuck."

Although he felt like passing out, Brian continued after a brief inhale.

"I loved being in a band with him. Even at a young age, he was so passionate about music and so damn talented. Anyone who watched him play was instantly blown away. And his favorite thing to do as a kid was pretend he had never touched a drum set before and then blow everyone's mind by playing some ridiculous drum fill."

He chuckled softly as a particular incident came to mind.

"One time we went to a music store and one of the clerks approached us and was being a real ass. He asked if he could demo any of the beginner instruments for us. Jimmy went along with it and said, 'Yeah I'm thinking of taking up the drums but I need a good starter kit.' And the clerk took us to some puny little thing and played a weak little solo and Jimmy acted so impressed."