How I feel when I'm around you (System Of A Down)(EN)

In search

-Georgia-

With some sheer luck, two days after stumbling across each other, Sevag and I have managed to set up a meeting and we're due to see each other again soon; he lets me know he's outside by a single phone ring as I'm fixing my hair, so I quickly grab my purse and my phone and head out, finding a black, discreet car in front of me. The fresh but enjoyable AC on full blast hits me as I open the door. The guy seems very chill; he's wearing a snapback hat and black sunglasses, and his beard seems a bit shorter than I remembered.

«Hello Georgia, how are you doing?» we greet each other with a handshake.

«I'm doing fine, and you?»

«Same for me. Thought we could start with a simple car ride to nowhere and talking about whatever so you can get acquainted and at ease, what do you think?»

«I'm in.»

Sevag starts the car without speeding up much; we get through some local traffic jam, without impatience since we don't have a place to go.

«So, if you like, tell me something about yourself.»

«Sure. I'm Georgia Benson, I'm 24 and I'm from Cedar City, Utah. I moved to a place in Northern California when I was 13, I recently moved again here in Huntington Park on my own, and I work at a hairdresser's.»

«Well, Georgia... as I hinted two days ago, I'm the younger brother of the famous singer Serj Tankian, I was born in Beirut since we still lived in Lebanon at that time, and I usually work part-time jobs here and there to make a living.»

We keep going like this for a while, finding some common points in past experiences and things we like; we reach the metropolitan area in the meanwhile and Sevag suddenly parks, then asks me what's my favourite Starbucks drink. Once he's "extorted" me the info he needs, he gets out and it's quite a miracle when he comes back from Starbucks not long later, holding his iced coffee and a caramel cappuccino for me, and I repeatedly and profusely thank him for that.

«By the way, the other night you said you knew the guy who insulted me... tell me about him» he goes back to the conversation, after starting the car again and taking a few sips of his drink.

«His name is Jack Rowley, he comes from my same hometown and from a well-off, respectable family» I mimic a pair of quotation marks with my fingers as I say the last words. «I don't know him personally but through the letters I used to exchange with my best friend Nikki Gray, with whom I share the same origin, who had a relationship with him in the past that didn't end well. She moved here in LA not long ago and now she works in your brother's band staff. Y'know, seeing that dickhead here in Los Angeles means no good to me.»

«Oh, Nikki, that was her name! I met her during Christmas time but I soon forgot her name and I was too ashamed to ask her again. Well, the fact that she works for my brother explains why you asked for my help. Did it end so bad between her and him that he means now actual danger to her?»

«Yeah. That said, I gotta tell you a few confidential things to explain myself better: years ago, she and Jake have been together for a while, but their break-up happened in horrible circumstances. She was increasingly unhappy with him and wanted to leave, and during a high school party she got drunk and openly said that; he got to know this and, quite as a punishment, he raped her that night while she was too drunk to defend herself. She tried to report what happened to her, but guess what? He took advantage of his family's reputation and of the local Baptist Church's bigotry and made her appear as the bad one. No one believed her or listened to her.»

At first the guy seemingly keeps his impasse, then I see his right hand clench around the steering wheel until his knuckles turn white. «That's terrible. I feel so sorry for her.»