Don't Tread On Me // Kirk Hammett

3. Friendly Fire

March 9th, 1996

-

I sigh heavily as I walked to open the door to the bar. My days were extremely repetitive, to the point where it was exhausting.

I entered the small building, rubbing my eyes. I was about to walk to behind the bar counter, when I looked over to see the entirety of Metallica sitting at a fucking table.

I didn't know what to do in that moment, I just stood there, completely dumbfounded, and at a loss for words. I looked over to Clara, who bartended the other side of the place, and she only shrugged, equally as confused.

Shortly, Kirks gaze meets mine, and a sly smirk creeps onto his face. He waves me over, and I clench my jaw as I slowly make my way over.

"What the fuck are you doing here." I muttered lowly into his ear.

"Oh we're just stopping by, we're gonna be in town for a while." He whispered back, giving me a sarcastic smile.

I let out a sharp breath, before standing up straight.

"You guys want anything to drink?" I said defeatedly, with a sigh following.

They all smiled at me, and gave my their orders. Minus Kirk, he gave me a shitty 'you already know what I want' type of look.

I walked away quickly so I could go grab their drinks, and get the fuck away from Kirk.

While I was behind the bar making Their drinks, I looked towards them to see Kirk whispering something into James's ear. I shortly looked back down, and started making the next drink.

Once I went to look back at the table, James was already staring directly at me, the looked back at Kirk, making a small subtle head motion toward me.

I swallowed hard, trying my best to keep my poker face on as I walked back over to their table. I handed them all their drinks, making sure to 'accidentally' spill some of Kirks whiskey.

Unfortunately, he didn't give me the reaction I was hoping for. He only scoffed and then went about his conversation.

I turned to walk away before I heard someone talking to me. I turned around to see James smiling at me warmly.

"Hey come sit!" He exclaimed cheerfully.

I hesitated, but James continued to insist that I sat down with them. I mainly didn't want to because of Kirk.

I slowly walked over and sat down next to James, who gave me that same warm smiled yet again.

"What's your name? Kirk didn't say." He asked curiosity.

I saw Kirk's eyes slightly widen as he kicked James under the table. I started to grow concerning lot more curious of what he had said by the minute.

"Aurora." I answered quietly, resting my chin in the palm of my hand.

"Ah, nice to meet you!" He said cheerfully. "You from around here?"

"Mhm, I was born here." I responded, cracking a small smile at him.

James and I continued talking a bit, and surprisingly I got more comfortable talking to him. James was a really nice guy, he always seemed like so, he was funny too. Funny how nice he was, then there's fucking Kirk.

I'd occasionally see Kirk glaring daggers over towards James. I'm assuming it was because he didn't like me, and I was sort of interrupting him being able to talk to James.

Out of nowhere, Kirk abruptly stood up, slamming his hands down onto the table.

"I'm going to the fucking bathroom." He said bluntly before storming off.

The rest of the guys just looked at him as he walked away, then shrugged.

James and I eventually started talking about guitar, Lars and Jason eventually join in on the conversation. They seemed fairly nice as well, I used to always get the impression that Lars was a dick.

Eventually I got comfortable enough with them too, and we all ended up talking about music, and laughing our asses off, and drinking a bit more.

After about 15 minutes or so, Kirk came back from whatever the fuck he was doing in the bathroom. He stood there for a second, glaring at daggers at us, before slumping back down into his seat without saying a word.

James drunkenly slung an arm around my shoulders, I momentarily flinched, which I thought nobody seemed to notice until I saw Kirk looking at me, but I only shrugged it off.

"Kirk she plays fuckin' guitar, man! Isn't that sick?" Lars said enthusiastically.

"Whatever." He grumbled, slouching further into his chair.

"You should come to our show tonight!" James suggested, lightly shaking me with the arm over my shoulders.

"Oh I don't know-" I started, before he interrupted my thought.

"C'mon Aurora it'll be cool, we all want you to go!" He said in hopes of convincing me.

I looked at Lars and Jason who were nodding in agreement with James.

Kirk looked at all of them, clearly pissed off.

"I guess I can." I said dryly, forcing a smile at them.

"Are you fucking kidding?" Kirk snapped, throwing his hands up.

He quickly stormed off, out of the building, only god knows where he went.

"It starts at 8 tonight, here's all of our numbers so you can call one of us so we can figure out the ticket shit since its last minute." Jame shrugged handing me a piece of paper.

I thanked him, before walking off to behind the bar counter.

I don't know why, but I was weirdly comfortable around all of them. Although I didn't know them well, they all sorta seem to understand me if that makes, at least music wise.

Unfortunately, doing all this was going against every instinct I had raised myself on. I was borderline forming friendships right now, but I couldn't help but be curious as to what it would lead to.

I mean, what's the worst that could happen right?