Making Towns

[Deamon]

((Aliya Kimia Nemati: Pregame Start))

Aliya threw her bag into the boot of the car before turning and collecting Meshia's from her younger sister and putting it in next to hers. There were a few other people still in the parking lot but most of them were people who had worked the show as well as some other fans who were sticking around to finish off their beers or chat with their friends before heading their separate ways. It was the early evening and they were outside an arena in Murfreesboro. Not the ass of end of nowhere, in fact, Nashville was only a half hour away, but Aliya had been to Nashville for a show before and Murfreesboro was no Nashville. They had drawn around two hundred to three hundred people which was an alright number. It could be considered a success at the very least and they'd both made a solid thirty bucks for their match. She had been up a few times over the previous weekends to get posters in shops and flyers out but she hadn't brought Meshia, despite her protests.

Suddenly Messhia spoke up. "So how do you think it went?"

Aliya closed the boot before replying, adjusting her body to lean on it as she spoke. "It was decent, they were better than I was expecting honestly." She Meshia pull a face as she spoke.

"I was talking about us."

Aliya smiled as she looked out over the carpark, raising a hand in recognition to some of the others as they left. The parking lot was starting to empty but there were still people hanging around. She spied Marcus talking to a young boy and his mother. It was classic Marcus, even when they were told they had to be out of the building he still made sure he stayed to see everyone who wanted to see him. It was good to see. the kids idolized him and he knew that. She hoped that one day she would be viewed that way by fans.

"We were alright, I think we could have been better. I don't know why you worked the arm so much when you have no arm submissions."

Meshia gave an exaggerated shrug. "I don't know any other tech."

"Also your irish whips are the shits."

"Uh, rude!" Meshia responded with feigned offense.

The mother thanked Marcus and apologized for keeping him, he laughed it off and gave the kid a high five before they left. Straightening up he gave them a wave which they returned before he climbed into his truck and set off back to Chattanooga. That left them and a group of guys that were still standing around drinking and talking, sometimes they looked their way.

"Don't worry we'll work on it." Aliya said keeping her gaze on the men. They were having a quiet conversation and she saw one of them look around the parking lot. There was five of them and of course, they were in big ol' trucks that had Confederate flag stickers on them. There was no shortage of good ol' boys in Tennessee that much Aliya knew. You couldn't drive for more than five minutes without seeing a truck or a Confederate flag. It wasn't all that odd for them to stick around and finish of their drinks while talking but it looked like they'd all finished dri-

"Hey! Aliya! Hello!"

Aliya was snapped back to reality by Meshia's indignant voice. "What, sorry I was completely zoned out." She looked over to see Meshia standing with her hands on her hips.

"I was asking if you'd show me some tech because you're good at it and how to make my send-offs not shit."

"Oh right yeah sure, I'll do that." She looked back over to the group of men to find some of them staring right at her and she suddenly became aware that they were the only two groups left in the dark parking lot. Her heart rate started to accelerate. Meshia had started talking again but Aliya cut her off.

"Get in the car."

"What?"

"Meshia get in the car."

Luckily Meshia recognized the coldness in her tone and obeyed. Aliya fished her keys out of her short pocket and quickly moved around the outside of the car to the drivers side, flinging the door open and climbing inside. She wasted no time starting it up and began pulling out.

"I've not even got my seatbelt on yet." Meshia protested as Aliya reversed out of the space. She span the wheel around and turned so she could drive out. As she did so she kept her gaze on the group of men as she left the parking lot.

One of them spat on the floor. None of them took their eyes off of her and her sister.

Aliya got on the road, her heart pounding in her chest.

She didn't look back.