Baton Rouge.

Chapter 27 - "Let the Games begin."

After the shooting, everyone scurried out of hiding and rushed up to Kisses. Ross crouched over her and placed her ear on finger on her neck to see if she was still alive.

"Aye y'all, I think she-"

Out of nowhere, Kisses started violently coughing up a massive amount of blood. Jay and Melissa let out cries of fear as Jionni rushed beside her and held her head up.

"Aye y'all, call 911!" Jionni yelled in fear.

Jay snatched out her phone and went upstairs to call the police. Meanwhile, the boys cradled Kisses head off of the floor. D'juan snatched a towel and placed it around her mouth to keep the blood from dripping out of her cheeks.

"Shit!" Chevy gasped loudly as she continued to cough up blood. "Babe, hurry!"

"Jionni, I have to go." Melissa panted.

"What?!?"

"Louis cannot see ANY of this, Jionni!" Melissa yelled in fear as she grabbed all of her things. "He'll never let me come over again! I have to go!"

Melissa sprinted out to the corner, running all the way to the Main Street with the most cars. Tears streamed out of her eyes as she breathed heavily, walking to the payphone at the gas station to call someone.

"Hello, can I please have a taxi?"

As Louis prepared to leave his home 20 minutes later, he got a call from a random number.

"Hello?" Louis answered.

"Louis, I decided to take a cab home..." Melissa sniffed as she wiped her eyes.

"What? Why?" Louis said in confusion. "Are you oka-"

"We just had a small fight and I...." Melissa sniffed and wiping her eyes. "I'll talk to you later, Louis. I promise.."

After taking a cab home, Melissa sat in her room in a daze. She didn't know what to think about what she just saw, but she couldn't think at all. She'd just seen someone get shot for the first time. Seeing kisses soaked in and coughing up blood kept replaying in her head. Her mind was in such a disarray that-

"MELISSA!"

Melissa jumped out of her stare, looking up at Rodrigo.

"H-huh?" Melissa said in an exhausted and shaky tone, looking up at her father.

"You didn't hear me calling you a hundred times?" He asked as he fixed his robe. "Why'd Louis drop you off so late?"

"Car troubles, dad....." Melissa sighed.

"Car troubles?"

"Look dad, I've had a long day. Swim practice was tiring." Melissa lied as she got up and looked tirelessly for her pajamas. "If you don't mind, I just wanna take a shower and go to sleep."

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something before Christmas next week."

Rodrigo sat down in Melissa's computer chair, watching her look through her drawers for pajamas.

"So you really like this Jionni boy, huh?"

Melissa scrunched her eyebrows, turning to her father.

"Huh?"

"That tattoo thug boy that I caught you with with the investigators?"

"Dad, he's not a thug. He hasn't done anything outside of a fight at school." Melissa said as she continued to look through her drawers. "It's just the area he lives in."