Tranquility

Chapter 2: "I Like a Good Challenge."

The party had been on Saturday night and all he got back from John was "sorry" and nothing else.

Besides that, it was now Monday. Which means that Daron had school, which is just fantastic.

The constant schedule of school as mentioned before, made him go slightly insane. It was the same thing for that day, every week, for the whole school year. Pissed him off to no end.

Daron almost considered not going since his parents weren't home, but he knew that he needed school. When the alarm blared, he ultimately dragged himself out of bed. Daron did the usual routine, eat, brush his teeth, get dressed, etc. While he was getting dressed he picked up the leather jacket he had worn to the party and a paper had fallen out of it, it was Serj's number.

"Oh fuck, I forgot about that." Daron whispered to himself. He wondered if it would be weird if he just texted Serj out of the blue, Daron ultimately decided against it in fear of weirding out his new, uh, acquaintance? Friend? Whatever you would call it.

He threw the jacket back realizing it still smelled like the party, picking up a clean hoodie instead.

"Are we meeting at my house?" He texted John. He replied quickly, but with something Daron didn't expect.

"Ah, sorry D. I'm going with Shavo today, I promise tomorrow I'll go with you."

"Shavo, Shavo Odadjian?" Daron questioned out loud. Shavo Odadjian was another very popular kid at his high school. "How in the hell?" He replied back.

"Explain later, gotta leave. See you at school." Daron didn't bother replying, he was a little upset if he was being honest. John had just straight up ditched him, sure it was great he was making new friends but, he was kinda just leaving Daron on his own.

Once he made it to school, walking by himself. He sat down on a bench waiting for the bell to ring.

"D!" He heard from behind him, expecting John, he was preparing for an explanation. But it wasn't.

"Serj?" He stood up as Serj Tankian stopped right next to him.

"Okay so, Derrick, Donald, Don, Darius-" Serj started naming a ton of names in order to guess Daron's.

"No, no, no and no," Daron chuckled. "Also, don't you like, got a reputation to withhold? Being around me probably isn't the best for that." Daron said as he started walking away. Serj followed.

"Shush." He crossed his arms, then he paused, "Wait, what if your name doesn't even start with a D and you just said a random letter.." Daron rolled his eyes.

"This is going to be interesting.." He shrugged. Serj looked as if he was in deep thought.

"D!" He heard again, but this time he knew it was John. "Hey sorry about-" John looked to the much taller man, beside his much shorter friend. "Serj?" Serj snapped out of his deep thought.

"Oh, hi, uh..." He trailed off, he obviously didn't know who John was.

"John, the names John." John looked behind as Shavo yelled his name. "Anyways, sorry again, I got to go, I'll tell you what happened later."

"See you at lunch?" John nodded and walked away. Daron looked to Serj then back at the ground. He heard Serj start laughing and looked over. "What's funny?" Daron questioned.

"How long?" Was all that Serj said.

"How long? Huh?" He furrowed his brows.

"How long have you liked him?" Serj went to stand in front of Daron and crossed his arms.

"How- what? I don't like him." Daron looked away, also crossing his arms standing in a very uncomfortable way. How did Serj know? He just met the guy?