just another roadie {s.t}

5

Due to the adrenaline in my body, I took a long deep breath before replying to Serj's question.

"Yeah, I think so." I huffed, trying to mask the shaking throughout my entire body. I tried to soothe my sporadic nerves but the best I could do was push my fear deep down into my body and repress it.

I let the guys leave the car before me, anxious to be the first person to exit in such an unfamiliar territory. I tried to step out with confidence. As much as I was feeling myself in my outfit, I couldn't help but feel insecure around the band. Instinctively, I stayed shortly behind the rest of the group, not really sure what to do with my body. I could already hear the blaring music booming and shaking the building.

Once we stepped through the rugid, rusty doors I was immediately hit with a hot burst of air and a pungent smell of too many things to name. We were greeted by two men in black, the guys exchanged some words and we were escorted away from the entrance. This is absolutely crazy, I mean yesterday I was just some roadie being mistreated by her boss. Serj turned his head to the right to get a look at me, making sure I hadn't run off out of fear or something like that. He gave me a reassuring smile before maneuvering his way over to walk next to me. Just him being next to me is more than enough to calm my nerves for a bit.

The interior was... well weird, it was weird. The inside looked like an exclusive club compared to the outside and there were warm, dancing bodies everywhere. It was dark and difficult to see beyond six feet in front of you. There were the occasional colourful lights that shined their way over to where we were walking. It was the embodiment of one of those cool movie parties that everyone wants to go to. Definitely not my scene if I was back at home. There were a couple booth-like areas to sit in, one I noticed was completely empty. It was so easy to notice because the rest of the seating areas were absolutely packed. There is no way a booth would be empty for no reason at a party so packed.

The men that greeted us at the door then walked us over to the booth that stuck out like a sore thumb due to its vacancy. Once again, the band exchanged words between the tall, bulky men and they were gone. Of course not too far though.

We all sat down in order from Shavo, Daron, John, then Serj, then myself. It was kind of awkward for me for a moment, obviously not for the band as this is for sure not the first time they've been to a place like this. The guys spoke amongst themselves, talking about what they were going to do or whatever. I just gazed at the people moving around us. The music at the volume where you couldn't even tell what they are singing about anymore.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a woman wearing all black came up to us with a tray of colourful drinks. She places them down at the front of the round table we were sitting at, flashes a flirtatious smile at the group, then walks off as fast as she came.

We all took a drink in our hands and Daron took the lead.

"Val, thank you for coming out with us tonight. You look great and I'm excited that you're here!" He yelled, trying to carry his voice above the noise level of the music. I smiled at his kind words, I am truly grateful to be here right now. On any other day I would have already been in bed, but today I'm with system of a fucking down at some random party. Not the life I was expecting to live, but I'm not complaining. We all clicked our glasses before taking a large swig. I'm not much of a drinker, so the drink made me make a face. And obviously you can't make a face after drinking without somebody mentioning it.

"You don't do this very often, do you?" Shavo joked, looking at me from across the booth. I grinned and looked down at my drink coyly.

"No, not really!" I yelled with a smile, laughing to myself over how we had to scream to even have a hope of hearing each other.