First Love | James Hetfield

Some Blond Dude

Bea's expression dropped when she saw the furious look on Annie's face as she sped toward her. "Beatrice." She barked.

"Annie? What happened? Are you okay?" She immediately started asking questions. "I'm fine." She said. "What happened to your dress?" She frowned.

"Oh, yeah. Funny story, actually." She laughed bitterly. "Fuckin' asshole spilled his beer all over me."

"Wait, what? Who?" Aurora's interest was piqued. "I don't know!" Annie's shoulders raised high. "Some blond dude with-" a voice behind her shoulder interrupted her.

"Bea." A male voice said. Annie kept her eyes on Beatrice as she could already tell who stood behind her .

"Some bitch was in my fuckin' room hooking up or some shit, and-"

Annie rolled her tongue on her cheek smugly and turned slowly to face the voice.

"You." He hissed lowly, narrowing his eyes at the brunette woman.

"Hold up, what?" Bea cocked her head to look between the two. "Annie, come here." They looped arms like always as she led them to the kitchen. Annie didn't want to go back to the kitchen, she was horrified that the same guy from earlier would be there.

"What happened?" She said quietly as she leaned in toward Annie.

Annie rolled her eyes, grabbing a bottle of vodka off the counter and downing a rather large shot. "Woah, okay.. we don't need this..." Bea took the glass bottle.

Annie wiped the liquid off her lips with the back of her hand and began explaining everything- besides her little interaction with that creepy man.

"Ugh, I'm sorry. Please don't let it ruin your night." Bea rubbed her stiff arm. Annie's expression didn't soften. She was angry.

"Come on, the fireworks are about to start."

Annie and Bea walked down to the beach where everybody else was. She spotted Cliff standing a few feet away, looking around as if he was searching for someone. She jogged up to him. "Hey."

He turned to her. "Oh, hey. You disappeared, thought you ditched me for that dude in there." He chuckled, eyeing her new change of clothes. Clearly he didn't see the entire interaction.

She chuckled dryly. "Yeah, somethin' like that."

Cliff watched as her expression dropped quickly when she looked away at the water. "You good?"

She was fine until then. Until Cliff asked if she was okay. It was always when someone asked her if she was okay that she'd break down.

But she couldn't break. Not now. Not in front of Cliff. She'd only just met him a few hours ago and she didn't want to scare him off.

She stayed silent for a minute, because she knew if she spoke too soon, her voice would break and expose her.

She nodded. "Fine." Her voice cracked as she quickly rubbed away the burning in her eyes. "No, you're not. What happened?" Cliff stood closer to her.

"Nothing." Her voice was almost inaudible, but Cliff understood as he pulled her into a hug. That's when she broke into a million pieces.

James stood a few feet behind Cliff and the girl as they spoke to each other. Lars was being his usual chatterbox self, but James was still too heated to care. He stared so hard at Anneliese's back that he thought he'd eventually burn holes, or she'd spontaneously explode like a beached whale. He finally shook it off and turned back to Lars, but had to double take when he saw Cliff pull her into his arms.

James was now glaring at Cliff's back. He thought she had probably made up a sob story for him to feel bad for her, painting him as the bad guy.

Cliff was a little awkward about the whole thing, but nonetheless comforted Annie as best as he could while she sobbed into his jean jacket. He looped one arm around her back and put his other hand in her hair, stroking it softly, ignoring the crunchy beer-drenched pieces.

"S'alright." He whispered.

After Annie collected herself, she pulled away and looked around to make sure no one was watching them. She wiped her eyes when she thought she was in the clear, but she didn't know that James was still scowling at her. He ignored the fact that her tears looked like real tears, and decided that she definitely came up with a sob story to manipulate Cliff, and he was idiotic enough to fall for it.

Annie quietly explained what happened back in the kitchen all the way to what happened with James, and Cliff immediately felt like a jerk for his words. He completely misread the situation when he saw her through the window with that guy.

"Thought you ditched me for that dude in there."

"Shit, Annie. I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"S'okay, I'm used to it." She shrugged. Cliff's sympathetic face turned into a horrified expression. She quickly corrected herself. "Assholes like him."

Cliff's mouth fell open. Clearly she wasn't helping her case. "Like-like James." She stuttered. That wasn't what she actually meant, though. She did mean the guy from the kitchen, but she was worried if she didn't sugar coat it that Cliff would think she was insane.

"Oh." He rested his shoulders. "Yeah, tell me about it. I live with the guy."

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