First Love | James Hetfield

Pay Up.

November 1983

Annie sighed heavily after she said goodbye to Mick and left the back room, only to be greeted by James wearing a turkey hat on his head. "Happy thanksgiving!" He grinned.

"Shut up." Annie grumbled, snatching the apron off her waist and pushing the door open.

"What's got you all..." James trailed off, copying the angered expression on her face dramatically.

"I'm just tired." She wiped a hand on her face and sighed. "You've been tired a lot lately." James said softer as he unlocked the passenger door for her, then running over to the driver's side of the truck.

"I know." She huffed as she hopped into the truck, brushing her hair away from her face.

"And Bea was telling me that like- some people recharge their social battery by being with people, while others recharge it by being alone," she began. "and I feel like I recharge mine by being alone for like three hours after work, but then by seven p.m or so, my energy comes back and that's when I get up and do stuff, but then I have to go to sleep like thirty minutes later because I can't stay up late if I wanna make it to work on time."

James put his hand on the back of her head rest to twist around and look through the back window as he pulled out. "I feel like you're making it so much bigger than it really is, like you're stressing yourself over something that isn't really that bad." He cringed at how bad that sounded.

"You try working for nine hours a day- with the assholes that I have to put up with daily." She scoffed, tossing her bag onto the floorboard.

"Just kick their asses!" He grinned in amusement.

"I'm talking about men. The male assholes that I work with." She blinked at him.

"Believe me, I know. Any time I go in there to pick you up the cooks give me these weird ass looks and whisper to their friends like middle school girls."

"The women there are worse though. All the waitresses think it's some type of competition- I thought we'd all be friends and talk about cute boys who come in but nooo, Stacy's upset 'cause Daphne  got more tips than her. I swear to god next time she complains about the fucking tips I'm gonna rip her stupid fucking fried yellow hair out of her thick skull, just to prove that she has no brain-"

"Oh look, we're home." James cut her off before she could say anything incriminating.

She groaned. "Why the fuck are we here?! I told you I didn't want to-"

"Shh. Shut up. Just come inside." James silenced her, hopping out of the truck and walking up to the house.

"Happy thanksgiving!" Beatrice immediately smiled brightly at Annie who flinched at the sudden loud greeting as she walked in the door.

"Happy thanksgiving..." she mumbled flatly as she walked straight up to her room.

That night, Beatrice was leaving to spend thanksgiving with Cliff's family and her own in some kind of conjoined dinner while Lars and Kirk went home for the weekend.

Aurora waited about an hour to knock on Annie's door so she could have some down time after work. "Annie?" She called, knocking softly on her bedroom door.