Wake Up, Zacky Boy

Brian Elwin Haner, also known as Synyster Gates, headed towards the hotel room where his friend and band mate, Zachary James Baker, was. He wondered what it was with Zacky Vengeance - and why his friend seemed to be so sleepy, lately.

As Brian slowly opened the door to Zacky’s room - he saw that his friend was, in fact, still sleeping. Very gently, Brian began to shake his friend by the shoulders.

“Hey, Zacky boy, wake up!” Brian called out, as cheerfully as he could.

“Please, let me sleep,” Zacky mumbled, in a very groggy voice.

“Zacky, we need to be on the stage in less than two hours,” Brian persisted. “You don’t want us to pull an Axl Rose on our audience, do you?”

“You guys can perform without me,” Zacky mumbled. “A band really only needs one guitarist.”

“No, Zacky!” Brian insisted. “We are Avenged Sevenfold, and you are part of our band. Our audience is expecting to see all of us perform together.”

“Can’t we just reschedule, then?” Zacky insisted, tiredly. “I’m very tired.”

“Uh, Zacky, no!” Brian insisted, firmly. “We’re not gonna do this to our fans. We may like to mess with them, when it comes to awaiting a new album - but we are not gonna do this with our shows. That would be going too far.”

“Good night, Brian,” Zacky mumbled, as he closed his eyes and buried his face into the pillow.

Brian sighed, as he began to feel hopeless. He considered getting Matthew Charles Sanders, aka M Shadows, to come help him. However, he then noticed Zacky’s bare feet hanging out from under his blanket. He grinned wickedly, as he had the perfect idea of how to finally wake his friend up.

Brian sat on Zacky’s calves, and he began to run his fingers up and down the soles of Zacky’s feet. Zacky started to laugh, as he tried to pull away. However, as Brian was sitting on his legs, he was unable to do so.

Brian smiled, as he glanced at the digital clock on the desk. He spent the next little while relentlessly tickling Zacky’s feet - as the latter tried, to no avail, to get away. Surely, the endorphins caused by Zacky’s laughter would make him more awake and alert. Brian felt tempted to tickle Zacky’s feet for a long time - but, after five minutes, he decided to stop.

“You ready to get up, now?” Brian asked, smirking.

“Yeah, yeah, Brian,” Zacky replied, sighing. “You really just don’t give up, do you?”

“Nope!” Brian replied, smiling. He then stood up, and turned to face his friend. “You know what they say in show business, right? The show must go on.”

A smile tugged at Zacky lips, as he replied, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t know why I’ve been so tired, lately - but I do feel more alert, now, thanks to you.”

“Good,” Brian replied, grinning. “Now, you’d better get up and get ready. We have a lot of fans that we don’t wish to let down.”

“Right,” Zacky agreed, as he sat up. “I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I was too sleepy to think coherently. Come to think of it - I don’t want to miss our show, either!”

“Now that’s the Zacky I wanna see!” Brian exclaimed, cheerfully. “Now, I expect to see you ready and out by the lounge in fifteen minutes. Got it?”

“You bet!” Zacky replied, cheerfully. “Avenged Sevenfold is not Avenged Sevenfold without Zacky Vengeance.”

“That’s true,” Brian agreed, smiling. “Now, I’ll see you shortly.”

Zacky smiled back, as Brian left the room. Brian felt cheerful, as he was quite confident that his friend would not let him down.