In My Hour of Need

Chapter 23

OK, I thought as I watched the icky thing coming closer, just calm down. What if he didn't care that I was here? Or what if he was here because of me? I should hope not. Maybe Metallica was having a concert in Paris too? Maybe it was just a coincidence? But he was coming closer, fast. I had to decide what to do. Alright, I'll ignore him, I thought. "Hi, Dave". Fuck. "Is this your bassist?" James reached his hand out to Junior. Don't touch him. "Uh, David", Junior stuttered. "James Hetfield", he answered, while shaking Junior's hand. "Why don't you get lost, James?", I snarled, before this turned into some kind of friendly reunion. "Look, Dave-", he started, but got interrupted. "Why are you even here? Did you know we were here, and came to kick me back down in the dirt?", I barked. I was so mad, if he didn't go away, I would punch him in the face. Poor Junior, he didn't even know what was going on. Sure, he knew about me being kicked out of Metallica, but none of us understood what the hell was happening right now. "No, I didn't know you were here", James replied, "But I've wanted to tell you something for quite some time now, and I only want you to listen, if you have the time for it". I glared at him. "What? I don't have all day, you know", I snapped back. I did have all day, but I didn't want to spend it talking to this shithead. And besides, me and Junior were supposed to talk to Chuck and Jeff today, and we were still standing right outside Jeff's hotel room. "OK", James said, "Why don't we go out for some coffee or something, and we'll talk?" I rolled my eyes. "Fine", I sighed, "Come on, Junior".

We found a decent table at a coffee shop, but I didn't care about the fucking coffee, I wanted to know what the hell James was doing here, and what he wanted to tell me so bad. "Alright", James started, "First, I just wanna say that Metallica's not in Paris to kick you down in the dirt, Dave. We're here on vacation, we had no idea you were even here". Wait, all of Metallica was here? This must be some kind of curse. "But I just wanna tell you that we're sorry. I know it's not enough, and that it never will be, but we can't take back what we did. We were kids, we were stupid. And with Cliff gone and all-" "Don't drag Cliff into this", I interrupted. James sighed. "Fine, I won't", he said, "All I want you to know is that we're sorry. And I'm talking for Lars too. I don't know how Kirk feels about all this". Junior looked at me. I bet he wanted me to forgive them, since I knew Junior, and he didn't like fights. I sighed. "Why now?", I asked James, "What made you think about this now? Because of Cliff? Or because you figured that you had no right to just kick me out like that?" I could see James thinking about it, he had no idea what to say. "Uh...", he hesitated, "We've just... I guess we've always felt kinda bad for it", he said, "I mean, you're a great guitar player, and a great friend to us. We shouldn't have done what we did, that's all there is to it". I looked down at the table. This was something I've always considered unforgivable, but he seemed to mean it. Just minutes ago I despised James Hetfield. Now he was sitting in front of me, apologizing. I sighed. "Feel as bad as you want to, James", I said, "But think about it. Think about the fucking hell I went through. I considered you as family. You were the only ones I had, and one day you just woke me up and said: 'You know what? You're out'. Would you have just expected me to forgive you?" I got up. "Let's go, Junior", I said. But he didn't move, he just looked at me. "We can't just leave him here", he said, like the coffee shop was some kind of street corner. "He's not my responsibility, Junior". Was he really considering staying here for James' sake? "Its fine, David", James said, "You don't have to feel bad for me". I glared at James. "No, you don't", I said, "Let's go, Junior". He finally got up. We were so out of here. I didn't ever want to see that shithead again.