Nothing Else Matters

Chapter 2

For almost a year, I had been dealing with this whole new Metallica thing. Yeah, it was pretty cool to be their new bassist, but being Cliff Burton's replacement? You get certain expectations. And at the same time being pushed around by James... It was turning into a habit. When thinking about it, he was kind of picking on Lars and Kirk too now, now that he found out about their "little secret". I could hear them from the other room. They were sitting in the kitchen, eating their pizza. I wasn't allowed to join, because James told me that I could have the leftovers when the three of them were done. In the beginning I just thought it was a joke, and joined them anyway, but when James pushed me off the chair, I kinda saw the situation going on. But that was months ago. Usually it wasn't even pizza left for me to eat.

"Newkid!", I heard from the kitchen. I got up from my bed and put my bass aside. As I entered the room, I saw the three of them looking at me, James with his back turned to me, Lars and Kirk on the other side of the table. Then I noticed the empty pizza box. James threw it at my face. "Get this thing outta my sight and order a new one", he told me. "Yeah...", I sighed as I did as told. Some might say that I let him mess around with me, but I guess this was just part of being in a band. I thought it was supposed to be that way.

Later that day, when James was sleeping on the couch, Kirk came over to me, kind of sneaking into my room. I looked up from the strings. He quietly closed the door behind him. "Yeah?", I asked, slightly confused. "You can't let him treat you like this", he told me, in all seriousness. "Oh, it's no big deal", I lied. "It is", Kirk simply replied, "It won't be long until he starts hurting you". I just shrugged, thinking that it wasn't such a big deal. "I'm serious", Kirk said, "He won't stop. You know, he didn't push Cliff around, but that was just because Cliff was much stronger, and so stubborn, he wouldn't have let anybody pick on him. But Ron McGovney, though... The guy that came before Cliff, you know?" I nodded. "It was so much worse than what he does to you now... Ron would show up the next day, his face full of bruises, and all because of James, no joke". I let Kirk's words sink in before I answered. "How do you know?", I asked him, "You didn't join until long after Ron quit". He nodded. "Yeah, but the rumors goes on, you know. Lars told me, he tells me everything, and I trust him a 100%". I sighed. "Right..."

I realized that the story Kirk told me might not be a 100% true, since he had just heard it from Lars. I'm not saying that Lars is lying, but he might have heard it from somebody else, who heard it from another guy again. For all I know, the story could've just as well have been made up by some random guy who was bored one day. But if it was true, I really had to watch out. What if James would start punching me or something? I wouldn't have known what to do if that happened. It would have just went on and on and on until it was finally too much, and he would have killed me or something. Or maybe I'm just overreacting...