don't get your hopes up ☆ {daron malakian}

1

I struggled to open the window by my bedside, heaving as I pushed, letting the cool air outside cool off the hot hotel room. For some reason, my room specifically was hot, humid almost.

I plopped myself onto my bed, just watching out the window as cars passed, unfamiliar with the city, wondering if I'd get the chance to explore it before I had to move onto the next city. If I was being honest, it was getting tiring having to move from city to city, state to state. There was some sort of excitement in it as well, being able to travel across the country and meet people whom I would've never come across if it hadn't been for one silly band.

I was on tour with System of a Down for a stupid reason, really, and that was the fact that I was best friends with the band's bassist. Shavo and I were inseparable, he knew everything about me, and vice versa. He insisted upon me joining the band for their tour, not wanting to leave me behind in California while they performed in most of the major cities in America.

The other members were fine with it, and
even insisted as well. At least, Serj and John did. Daron, the band's guitarist, had never liked me. I had come to terms with that pretty quickly though, not acknowledging his snarky remarks and the stupid way he ignored me whenever it was just us. It was annoying, and even when he was forced to talk to me, there was clear annoyance in the way that he purposely sidetracked the conversation or rolled his eyes.

Whatever, it didn't matter.

There was a knock on my door, a couple quick raps followed by a bang. I jumped up, startled but knowing that it was probably one of my friends, I had nothing to worry about. I twisted open the cold door handle, seeing that Shavo was on the other side, joined by John. Shavo pushed through me, hitting me with his boney shoulder blade, entering the room. He was followed by John who gave me a sigh and a shrug, closing the door behind him. I wondered what could be so serious, seeing that Shavo looked incredibly scared. He was normally pretty laid back, so that wasn't very common. John, on the other hand, usually showed little to no emotion, so seeing the worry on his face scared me even more.

"Man, Daron is so fucking stupid." Shavo laid his hands on my shoulders, lightly shaking them.

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Oh, shut up." He lightly laughed, un- tensing a bit. "No, but seriously, I don't know if the cops are gonna get called on us."

"What?"

He dropped his hands to his sides, his eyes squeezing shut, a sigh escaping his lips. "So, y'know how the three of us headed off to the bar after we checked into the hotel?" Shavo pointed to John, motioning that he had been with the group. After I nodded he continued, "Well, Daron got kinda fired up after a few shots, and he beat the shit out of this one dude that was near us."

"You're kidding."

"No. I mean, the guy was a douche, but seriously? Man, he almost passed out, what the fuck are we gonna do? Daron is in his hotel room fucking hiding."

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I could almost hear it, my face going numb. I always knew that Daron was a whiney asshole, but this was a new low for him. What was the band gonna do if he got detained? Perform without a guitarist?

John stood next to Shavo, patting his back and trying to comfort the bearded man who was almost brought to tears, looking at me with worried eyes.

I hoped that whoever he got into a fight with didn't have any friends who decided to call the cops, because otherwise we were fucked. I softly told the two men in front of me to stay in my room and rest a bit while I went to talk to the idiot who got us into this predicament.