Baton Rouge.

Chapter 26 - The Dark Side.

After school the next day, Louis told Melissa that her swim coach had cancelled class because she had to attend Chase's parent teacher conferences at his school. Since Louis didn't tell their father that, he decided to let Melissa go over to Jionni's house to spend some time with him. When she walked inside, she saw Jionni lying forward on the couch, doing his homework. His work wasn't due until he got back, but he decided that he wanted to do it now just to get it out of the way. He watched as Melissa walked in with her swim bag, stumbling inside of the house.

"Wow." Melissa laughed. "I see that someone is getting book-smart!"

"Oh wassup, Lissa?" Jionni laughed.

"Listen, can I take a shower here?" Melissa asked as she dropped her bag and fanned herself. "I took one yesterday but my parents made me overdress in these hot stockings and skirt so..."

"Yeah, go 'head." Jionni said as he flipped the page. "I just got out so it might not be a lot of water left."

Melissa squinted her eyes at Jionni as he looked up at her.

"What?" He laughed.

30 minutes after washing up...

"I think she want me for pimp juice."

"woooooHOOOOOOOOOOHOOO!" Jionni cooed loudly as Melissa washed his back. "I thank I need to let ih' loose!"

"Let ih' loose let it looooooseeeee!"

In Jionni's mother walk in shower, Melissa rinsed the soap out of her hair. Jionni scrubbed his back and turned his head around, looking over his shoulder.

"You eva' took a shower with a real ass nigga?" Jionni laughed. "A trill ass nigga?"

Melissa rinsed off her body and the soap out of her hair, looking back over her shoulder.

"No." Melissa grinned.

Melissa didn't know how to feel about taking a "sexual" shower with a boy, but the one thing she felt was comfortable. As the shower ran on their bodies, Melissa inched closer to him and felt on his tattoos. He looked down and grinned at her, watching her look angelically up at him.

"Gone head." Jionni murmured to her. "You can touch it."

Melissa slipped her palm up his shoulders, sliding it up his collarbone and around his back. The two locked foreheads and started slowly kissing, quickly escalating into a passionate kiss. Jionni slipped his fingers through Melissa's and placed hers against the tiled wall in the shower, pinning her against the wall and kissing her there. After kissing for a few minutes, Melissa popped the question.

"Hey, do you have any condoms?" Melissa whispered.

"Nah." Jionni sighed.

The two started kissing again as they snatched away from each other's grip. They caught up on their breaths and sighed, looking away.

"We got lucky the last time, Lissa." Jionni chuckled. "Let's not take no 'nother risk."

"Yeah, you're right." Melissa giggled.

After showering, the two laid under a rolled up towel on the bed. Both were pretty exhausted, so they decided to let themselves air dry there. While Melissa laid on his chest, she started to think about what her mother asked her about her grandmother. While watching Jionni tweet on his phone, she decided to ask him what he would do in her shoes.

"Jionni, I have a question..." Melissa mumbled.

"Yeap?"

Melissa paused, closing her eyes.