In My Hour of Need

Chapter 9

We stuck around at the airport for a while, before deciding to just head to the gig and hang backstage. Me and Junior talked nonstop on the way there, about music and shit. But I was still wondering: for how long had he liked me? Why did he like me? And just, you know, why me? I didn't understand that. I was an asshole; I was short-tempered, emotionally unstable and sort of satanic. Who would like a guy like that? I mean, I know I wouldn't, but then again, I'm not gay. Anyway, we arrived backstage, and we were all just hanging out. I got to meet Gar's drum tech: Chuck Behler, he was really cool, and a good drummer too.

I was helping Junior out with some of the new songs I'd written, when I noticed that it was awfully quiet around. Looking behind me to check if there were actually people in there, I noticed my amplifier was gone. "What the hell?", I exclaimed. Junior looked at me in confusion. "My amp's gone!" Junior peeked over my shoulder. "Are you sure you brought it?", he asked. "Yes! It was just here!", I answered, "I don't understand where it could have gone!" Junior nervously scratched his neck; he was quick to get uncomfortable when I was mad, for some reason. I got up to find Chris and Gar, to see if they had seen it, or maybe seen some of the roadies take it. After looking around like everywhere, I didn't find anybody. Not even our fucking manager was around. I walked angrily back to where I had started, and found Junior sitting at the same spot. I threw my arms up. "Can't find it fucking anywhere", I groaned. Junior just looked worried, and put a lock of hair behind his ear. I guess he tried to kind of over-react for my sake, maybe to make me feel better, I don't know. I could practically see the worry in his eyes. Something I noticed about myself was that I payed more and more attention to the little things about him, like his actions, his looks or whatever, and it started to really fucking bother me, since I never used to notice such fucking nonsense.

After a while, Chris and Gar finally appeared, and they were high as fuck. "Where the hell have you two been?", I barked at them. They just shrugged and walked past me, but I followed them, and forced them to listen to me. "It's five fucking minutes 'till the show's starting, and you show up flying high!? And I know you did something to my amp, 'cause our manager told me he had seen you guys with it earlier! So where the hell is it!?" They just looked at eachother and laughed at nothing. I rolled my eyes and sighed. And I could hear Junior sneak to the other side of the room behind me, probably scared to get yelled at too. "Fucking answer me, you dipshits, I know you did something to it!", I yelled. "We sold it", Gar slurred, and started laughing afterwards, while Chris were trying to lean on his shoulder, but fucking missed and fell to the floor, which only caused more fucking laughter. "You sold my amplifier!?", I barked, "What the fuck!?" They just laughed, but they were so fired after this show.

We played our concert, and it was a disaster. Gar fell off the drum kit, Chris played all the songs with the wrong melody, and the wrong chords whatsoever, and I sounded like shit, since I was fucking pissed at them. Junior, however, was perfect. I stomped offstage and started yelling at Gar and Chris again, and then I fired them. Since the drugs had all lost their effect by now, they flipped at me, and didn't fucking understand how I could do such a thing. I just raised an eyebrow at them, turned and left the gig. I took Junior with me. "Have you seen Chuck?", I asked him. "Chuck Behler? Gar's drum tech?", he asked. "Yeah, he's our new drummer now". We had our drummer, but we still had to find a new guitarist. And that wasn't going to be very easy, considering how fucking picky I am.