First Love | James Hetfield

Kill 'Em All For One

August 1983

About three weeks into Metallica's first major tour, and Annie didn't know what to do with herself. She was so used to the guys hanging around every day that she didn't know what the hell to do now that they weren't around. Since the day she arrived in San Francisco, they were there, but now they aren't.

She'd been counting down the days until September third, because that's when they'd be back. Well, they'd be performing there, then they'd be back. She was ecstatic over the thought of seeing all of them live in concert.

The guys had completely fallen in love with it. With the feeling they got from performing live, in their element. The first night in New Brunswick, James realized that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

They called whenever they got the chance, but with how often they were moving cities, it was a little hard.

Aurora sat on the counter while Annie cooked eggs on the stove a few feet away. "Hey, I was thinking we-" she was interrupted by the phone ringing. "Oh, maybe it's them!" Aurora perked up from her slumped position. "Answer, answer!" She hissed.

Annie shoved the spatula in Rory's hand and she hopped off to take control of the stove while Annie answered the telephone.

"Hello?" She immediately spoke into the speaker.

"Hey, Buckley?"

She broke out into a smile. It had been a few days since they called so she was excited to speak to him again.

"Hetfield!" She couldn't hide the excitement in her voice. "How are you? How's it going there? Where the hell even are you?!" She began asking questions.

"Uhh... we're-"

"I can barely hear you, you're cutting out." She said.

"Yeah, sorry- we're- gas station in Odessa, the service-"

"Huh?" She knit her eyebrows together in confusion. She couldn't hear a word he was saying.

"...fuckin' sucks- what? No, fuck off."

"Hetfield, what the fuck are you saying?" She laughed. She assumed he was probably talking to someone in the back.

"Nothin'. Anyway, it's fuckin' amazing out here- the people, the venues- I can't believe-"

"That's great, that's great." She nodded. She could still barely understand what he was talking about, but she got the gist.

"Yeah, I can barely- what you're saying, and we gotta hit the ro- so I'll call you whenever we get to the next- city."

"Okay, talk to you later." She said.

"Alright, bye."

She hung up and turned to Aurora. "I could barely hear what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure they're in Odessa. He said it was going really great, and that he'd call us in the next city."

"Cool." She nodded, flipping the eggs.

~

Odessa, TX

The guys hung around the tour bus pretty much the whole afternoon, but as it got later, Lars ended up going out with some girl, Kirk went to one of the local music shops, so that left Cliff, James, and the driver in the bus.

James asked for him to take them to the nearest convenience store so they could get some food and hopefully get ahold of the girls.

A few minutes later they came to a stop at a deserted gas station with a half-asleep clerk. Cliff walked up to the counter and cleared his throat loudly, to no avail. Then, he snapped his fingers in the air. "Hey, dude." He said.

He looked down at his items. Two bags of chips, two beers and a gallon of water. He shrugged and walked out of the store with the items in his arms. The guy probably wouldn't mind, right?

James shoved a couple quarters into the payphone and crossed his free arm over his body, getting as close to the wall as possible to block the heavy wind.

"Hello?"

He grinned wide at the sound of her voice. "Hey, Buckley?"

"Hetfield! How are you? How's it going there? Where the hell even are you?!" She started loading him with questions.

He chuckled. "Uhh, we're-"

"I can barely hear you, you're cutting out."

"Yeah sorry, we're at a gas station in Odessa, the service fuckin' sucks." Cliff came up to him a few moments later asking to speak to Bea.

"What? No, fuck off." James shooed him away.

"Hetfield, what the fuck are you saying?" He could hear her laugh through the other line.

"Nothin'. Anyway, it's fuckin' amazing out here.. the people, the venues and all.. I can't believe we're actually here, y'know?" He rambled.

"That's great, that's great."

"Yeah, I can barely hear what you're saying, and we gotta hit the road soon, so I'll call whenever we get to the next city." He said

"Okay, talk to you later." She said.

"Alright, bye."

He hooked the phone back onto the receiver and turned around to find Lars and Kirk on their way back to the bus. He jogged over to them, then they all piled into the bus to get ready for tonight's show.

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