Time To Talk, No Chairs (for HighFly)

After her match with Alaina, Melody went to the infirmary (which, by this point was somewhat of a tradition considering how beat up she was after her matches), and after checking that her back is fine, just needing to lay off the matches for a few days, not that she had anything planned outside of helping Navi with her match against Kat....

Heading into the locker room, she picked up her back, changed into her street clothes and looked around for Alaina, the 2 promising to exchange phone numbers after the match to maybe meet up for training...

And as she waited and looked around, she thought over the match she had just now...

Even if Alaina praised her, she still lost. Fairly definitively, she thought. On the one hand, a rookie like her losing to someone of Alaina Sanders's skills was really nothing special, especially with the woman praising her after the match...

...on the other hand, she couldn't get Mina Diaz's words out of her head, that she didn't belong in wrestling. Even with a pretty close match just now, Melody was deep in self-doubt, with a slightly sad look on her face. With her that deep in her thoughts, she wouldn't notice someone coming in or calling her...

Alaina changed into a pair of jeans,white sneakers and a red sweater. She was hardly a fancy dresser usually wearing whatever was comfortable. She emerged from the locker room with her gym bag over her shoulder, working her way into a larger hallway backstage.

Ahead she saw Melody and she approached with a smile on her face. "Hey, there you are! What's up?" Alaina asked as she approached. She saw the look on Melody's face and knew it well. Her career started out very rough, calling her first year and few months after a "mixed success" was putting it politely. "You look kinda down. Listen, I know losses happen. I have more losses on my record than half the Friction roster has matches. Whatever you do don't let that keep ya down, learn from it and then incorporate that into what ya do." Alaina said. Melody really was starting to remind her more and more of herself in 2014 when she started here. The 1-3 amazon, who had written "..it is a good thing she looks so good lying on her back since she spends more time laying on it in the ring than anything else."

"Huh?", Melody reacted to the Amazon calling to her.

"If only it were just losses. Avalanche completely and utterly sucked for me, all things considered. And even if it were little things, like Silver Ace mispronouncing my surname during the opening ceremony, or Black Feathers Gang losing the Tag Titles despite me cheering for them, and then Navi pissing them off...Christ, my reaction was something to behold when she told me she pissed you off, even if I just lost, no questions asked, I wouldn't have been that upset...

...but I snapped during my match. I almost caved my opponent's skull with a sledgehammer, just because I wanted to win that badly, not to mention kneeing ref in the face...and then leaving the ring in tears over this after losing...this easily made it from a bad day into the worst day...", Melody would finish explaining about her Avalanche experience

"Although at the same time, I didn't lose a title at the event...I probably can't compare small stuff like this to that...", she thought to herself.

Alaina listened and raised an eyebrow. "I am not a good loser, I never take it well. But damn, you need to get your head on straight. You can't go doing shit like that with a hammer just because you lose. I don't care if it is the biggest scumbag bitch on Earth, never sink to their level!" Alaina said after hearing of her match and aftermath.

"It is natural to be pissed when things don't go your way, and you had a lot of stuff go wrong. But... well first you should apologize to whomever ya fought. Next just try to channel your energy more productively. like... I couldn't buy a win when I started. I was the biggest, most muscular mediocre wrestler AFW ever saw. I was a joke. Did I want to snap sometimes? Yeah absolutely. You just.... I dunno... it is hard to explain." Alaina continued, unable to find the right words to channel her old frustrations.. memories of her Friction beginnings still making her feel embarrassment all over again.

"You can't go doing shit like that with a hammer just because you lose" "I think she misunderstood"

"The sledgehammer part was during the match, actually. It was a hardcore match, but my opponent I kinda made a promise in the beginning to not use weapons... and I ended up using them because I was close to losing early on"

"That...doesn't sound any better, actually", Melody thought, although not trying to defend her actions.

"...I don't care if it is the biggest scumbag bitch on Earth..."

Melody's heart sunk. "Why did have to be someone kind like Tracer... why did it have to be a hardcore match to begin with...", she thought to herself, deciding to leave out the part that her opponent was a really nice, professional person like Lena Oxton.

"I did... I hugged her and apologized... she said the same thing too, that's when I ran away...I was just that ashamed..."

"Worst part is I felt it was fine to do, rules were rules for a hardcore match, and then slowly went out of control the further the match went on..."

"Controlling my temper was always my worst suit. Usually, there is Navi to stop me, other times...yeah."

Alaina understood where Melody was coming from even if she didn't condone it. She crossed her arms and kept her gaze, as neutral as it could be on Melody.

However, when she mentioned Navi talked sense into her that cause an eyebrow to raise up curiously. "Navi, I feel like I never did properly teach her a lesson about mouthing off. Still, I am shocked she talks sense into you. I do think you need to reach out to your opponent in that hardcore match. Call her or something. I am sure she would appreciate it."

"Nat would probably avoid you like fire if you would want a rematch until she feels she is ready, she is that kind of person. She still talks smack about the Entropy title, but last time you were brought up. she did refer to you as "a former champion". She outright refused to acknowledge Entropy title before. So, there's some start for her to be less of... Navi", she chuckled.

"I...I will. At one point. Once I feel the time is right...Although I'll need to find out her phone number"

"I am sure you can get it, try talking to some of the administrative people and maybe you can at least get an email if not a number." Alaina said. "Just take a second to step back and when ya feel like anger is boiling over turn it into training energy. Focus on that. Also if you and Navi ever want to step in the ring again you know who to call." Alaina added with a smile and wink.

"Yeah, I'll probably do that...", in all honesty, it would take Melody about an hour to learn Tracer's phone number via her insider friend in the company. But she didn't feel like she was ready to talk to the woman yet...

To Alaina's advice, and her offer, she would say: "That...sounds as a good advice, actually. OH! The phone, that's why we met up in the first place.", Melody would say, getting out her phone to record Alaina's number.

Alaina happily gave Melody her number. "Training or match gimme a call. Anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Also just because I respect ya doesn't mean I will go easy on you or anything. Hell, now that I know what you can do I will come at you that much harder." Alaina said with a smile as the two women exchanged numbers.