In My Hour of Need

Chapter 12

While Junior was in the bathroom, I spent my time thinking about what the hell could have happened earlier. When he turned to me, I just freaked out. It didn't make any sense. I thought back a few days. When I ran after him in Germany, when I hugged him after he had told me he was gay, or when I helped him when Chris was pushing him around in Denmark... These were examples of times I had been there for him, and that was only in the last few days. It wasn't like me at all, why did I suddenly start to care for him? Why did he matter to me in others ways than just as a bass player? I couldn't figure it out, and it was driving me crazy. Oh, and I just called him pretty. I wonder what he was thinking... Well, he was the gay one, he must have freaked out too, freaked out because his crush complimented him.

When he came out of the bathroom, I suggested to him that we went out, so we didn't have to sit in the hotel room, in awkward silence or something. Like, honestly, what do you say when you just called your gay friend pretty? I don't know... So we went out. Paris was a strange place for us; none of us had been there. As we walked I realized that we might as well just have stayed at the hotel. Nobody said anything, and it was like the most awkward moment I had ever been part of. So I decided to break it. "Uh, Junior?", I started. He turned to me. "How do you deal with all your problems?" Since I had problems too, I just thought I'd ask. "I don't", he answered. "What?" Now I was confused. "I don't deal with my problems. That's why I have them. If I dealt with them, I wouldn't have any", he said. "Oh". He was still looking at me. "Why?", he asked, "I thought you were perfect, with no problems at all". I couldn't figure out if that was sarcastic or not, but I answered anyway. "Oh, trust me, I have tons", I told him. He looked back at the ground. "Like what?", he asked me, "Besides your insomnia, Cliff Burton's death and me being gay for you, what are your problems?" He literally just listed all of them. "Nevermind", I said, "You've got worse stuff to deal with". I guess after I said that, he started feeling bad for me, if he didn't already. "No, I don't", he sighed, "You have to think through every sentence you say now, to be sure you won't hurt my stupid feelings. And you can't sleep at night, so you sit alone in the darkness thinking about how to deal with your third problem: how to get over Cliff". Junior must have had a lot of time to think about this, and he was starting to sound so depressed I was wondering if he was suicidal or something. "It's really not that bad", I lied, "You don't have to worry about that".

We just continued to walk until we found a cool restaurant. "You hungry?", I asked him, and got a nod back, so we went in. We sat down at a table in a corner, away from everyone, hoping that a fan wouldn't see us. "What are you having?", I asked, looking at the strange French menu. "That one", he said, pointing at something in French. "What does it mean?", I asked. "I have no idea", he laughed. Since we couldn't figure out the menu, we ended up ordering the same thing. And guess what we got when we had ordered. Yeah. Two plates filled with cooked snails. It turned out to be some shit called "Escargots a la Bourguignonne", which meant something like "Snails in Garlic-Herb Butter" or what the hell. Anyway, we tasted it, and Junior was right off to the bathroom. I sighed. Yay, now we were stuck with snails for a week, and Junior couldn't stand it, he was already vomiting in the French bathroom. This was going to be a long week.