In My Hour of Need

Chapter 6

It was getting late, and we were not in the mood to fly to the next place we were playing at. Or in other words: I was not in the mood. Anyway, we spent the night at a hotel, and me and Junior were sharing a room. "Night", I told him, just before I walked into the bathroom before he had the chance. Our next concert was in Denmark, I was just hoping Junior wouldn't try to bail his way out of it this time. What was he doing, anyway, just leaving at random times like that? Did he even know that the last time he bailed, we were hitting the stage in 5 minutes? It wasn't like Junior to just ditch us; he had to have a reason for it. I brushed my teeth and changed into some shirt to sleep in, as if I was actually going to sleep. Yeah right! I unlocked the door and walked out of the bathroom. That's about when I noticed that this fucking room had only one bed. I sighed. "Yeah, I'm going for the couch then", I told Junior, who was undressing in the middle of the fucking room. "You sure?", he asked me, "You're the one with insomnia, you could take the bed, it's fine by me". I only shook my head for response. "Nah", I said, found a blanket from my suitcase and went to "sleep". Junior just shrugged and went into the bedroom. This was a fucking huge hotel room. I think we ordered a suite by mistake, since it was several rooms in it. Oh well, I thought.

Fucking 3 A.M. my insomnia told me that "yeah, that's probably enough sleep for you tonight". Fuck, I thought, might as well get something to eat then. So I stumbled through the darkness to find the light-switch, when I noticed the kitchen was already lit up. I scratched my head, and thought that if it was a fucking burglar, he was going to meet the surface of my fists. I turned around the corner and found Junior pouring himself a cup of coffee. I sighed. "Coffee? Really? Right now?", I asked him. He turned around, and looked somewhat surprised to see me. "Yeah", he said, "I couldn't sleep either". I grabbed a cup. "Pour me some". Junior did as told, and told me that he made fucking strong coffee. But that was OK with me, I usually made it that way myself, since my mind wouldn't let me sleep anyway. But this story isn't going anywhere, so I'm going to skip the smalltalk.

Now that I actually had the chance to ask him what the fuck was up, I decided to make him tell the entire story. "So David", I told him, "I'm just gonna go ahead and ask you, all right?" He looked more surprised by the fact that I actually called him "David", than curious of what I was going to ask him, but he was at least listening to me. "What's up with you?", I asked, sitting down at a kitchen-chair, coffee cup in hand. He sat down too, but looked rather confused. "What do you mean?", he asked. I rolled my eyes. Like, seriously, he honestly didn't know what I was talking about? "Are you serious, Junior? You run away, you won't talk to anybody, and on top of it all: you let Chris fucking bully you. High school girls bully eachother, Junior". He scratched his neck, and I could see him getting all nervous. Oh, god, I wish I didn't have to fire him. What was Megadeth without David Ellefson? He hesitated for a while, probably thinking his story over a thousand times so I wouldn't get it the wrong way. "Uh", he started, classic Junior, "I, uh..." I rolled my eyes on the outside, but on the inside I was only hoping it wasn't anything that bad, so I wouldn't have to fire him. For once I was feeling bad for him. "Hey", I said, and he looked up at me, "I'm sure whatever it is, its fine". I was actually comforting him, what was happening to Dave Mustaine, getting all soft and sweet? Yuck. He gulped, and looked back down at the table we were sitting at. I could see him getting worse by the moment, his eyes tearing up. "I'm scared you'll fire me", he said, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, "You probably won't like me anymore". Oh, geez, I thought, now he's getting all emotional. What he said was true too; I would fire him if it was too bad. "Well, obviously that won't happen", I lied, "We'll be fine". He sniffled and wiped another tear. I didn't realize until now that it was actually this bad. "I'm...", he stuttered, "I'm... I'm gay". I dropped my coffee cup on the floor, and it broke. The coffee was spilt all over, since I had only taken like one sip from it. I stepped out on the floor, and by accident getting my feet all covered in hot coffee. I covered my mouth with my hands, not because of the hot coffee, that I didn't care about. It was because of what Junior had just said, and he was serious about it. He was gay, he was actually gay... This was worse than I thought.