In My Hour of Need

Chapter 5

Night had passed as we flew to Germany, it was now September 29th. We had a concert in two hours, and Junior didn't look good. By that I mean terrible. He wasn't dressed ugly or something like that, but, man, it looked like he hadn't slept in days, even though I knew he had. Was he on drugs? Nah... I sat down with my flying V guitar and started practicing. I played The Conjuring when I was interrupted by Chris. "Shouldn't you warm your voice up?", he asked, as if he had never met me in his life. I didn't warm my voice up. So I grabbed a paper-bag, spit in it, and told him: "Ready". He just rolled his eyes and walked away. Hah, I thought, works every time.

It was five minutes before show time, and Junior wasn't anywhere to be found. At first I started getting really pissed off, for him just fucking leaving right before we were hitting the stage, but then I got worried. I didn't understand: What was wrong with him? And what was wrong with me, getting all worried? But he couldn't have gone anywhere; he was here just minutes ago. I just saw him, playing his bass in the dressing-room and eating cookies. I told Gar and Chris I was going out to look for him, and I was going to bring him back as soon as I found him. They just looked at eachother and nodded, probably worried too, that I wasn't going to make it. I went outside the tiny stadium we were playing in, but I couldn't find him anywhere, so I ran to the closest payphone. He picked up immediately. "Four-strings here, Junior speaking", he said. "Junior, what the hell!?", I yelled at him. When he heard that it was me on the other end, he completely froze. "Uh", he stuttered after a while. "'Uh'!?", I repeated, "We're supposed to rock the fucking stage in three fucking minutes you dipshit, get your bass over here right now!" I wasn't sure of what he was doing, or where the hell he was, but I was completely sure that at that moment, he was crying at the other end. I sighed. "Come on, Junior, get your shit together". I was really bad at comforting people, and I'm sure that wasn't the right way to do it, but I was fucking pissed off. I could hear him sniffle, and pictured him wiping his stupid tears away with his sleeve. Rolling my eyes, I slammed the phone back at its place and stomped back to the stadium. I was fucking raging, I just grabbed my guitar and told Gar and Chris we were playing without our bassist tonight. They sighed heavily and just followed me out on stage.

"Hi", I told the audience, "We're playing without our bassist tonight, so it'll sound like shit". It was a matter of milliseconds after I said that, that I saw Junior coming onto the stage. I turned the mic angrily away from my mouth. "Where the fuck were you!?", I said with clenched teeth. He just gulped. He wouldn't tell me, and I didn't really care either; I just wanted to start the show. "Uh, he showed up after all", I said to the fans, and just started playing. We opened up with Wake Up Dead as usual, then continued with Rattlehead. The fans were alright, I guess, I didn't pay attention to them. I was too lost in thoughts to even notice.

I didn't come out from my little world once that night. Not even after the show. I sat backstage thinking of all my problems. I had two drugged out members in my band, that being Chris and Gar, which I had to find an excuse for kicking out. I had a dead best friend. And the worst one so far: I was losing my other friend. Yeah, I could call Junior a friend, even though I treated him like shit, while he was only trying to be nice. I sat there thinking that maybe I should treat him better? Maybe that was what it took to fix his problem? Whatever that was... Or maybe not, who cares what I think anyway?