Baton Rouge.

Chapter 33 - :(

When Jionni walked into art class, he sat next to Kiara and didn't say anything. As soon as their art class started, Jionni went right to working on his project. Usually Kiara didn't talk to him, but after seeing how angry he was, she kind of felt bad for him. She watched as he reached into his ripped backpack for one of his books, watching the bag fall onto the floor.

"Oh my fuckin' god..." Jionni groaned in a frustrated tone, crouching down onto the floor.

Kiara watched as he picked up his books, then sat back into his desk. After realizing how long Kiara was staring at him, he looked up at her and gave her a funny look.

"What?" Jionni scoffed.

Kiara stared at him for a minute, then decided to talk.

"If y'all really care about each other, y'all will be back togetha." Kiara said in a bland tone.

"What is you talkin' abou-"

"Jionni, I'm not stupid. Did you forget that we had a child together?" Kiara said in a smart tone. "I know when you feelin' a girl."

Jionni turned away, finishing his painting.

"We ain't togetha' no mo." Jionni groaned. "End it."

"Well, y'all will be. Soon, it'll get to a point where y'all ain't gone be able to resist each otha." Kiara said, focusing back onto her work. "If y'all really care about each other, y'all feelings ain't goin' nowhere."

Jionni sighed, not listening to her. At this point, he was so pissed off that he didn't want to hear what she had to say. When Melissa stepped into swim practice after school, Chase could see that her hair was frizzy and she had red juice all over the bottom of her skirt. When she stormed inside of the women's locker room, Chase walked up to Hazel and the girls.

"Hey, do you guys know what's wrong with Melissa?" Chase asked.

"We don't know?" Raven said in a confused tone, walking closer to him. "We tried talking to her but she ignored us."

Chase waited outside on the bench for her as Melissa stepped out 10 minutes later with the same agitated look on her face.

"Today, we're gonna practice swimming backwards." The coach said. "We're gonna have to do this for all three rounds of our next competition, so get ready class!"

"Melissa..." Chase said as he walked up to her.

"What!?" Melissa scowled angrily at him.

"What's wrong?" Chase asked. "I saw you walk into the class with an agitated look on your face. What happened?"

"Nothing happened." Melissa growled. "Can you just leave me alone?"

"Melissa I saw that juice on your skirt!" Chase said in a loud tone. "What happened to i-"

"A person poured it on me, okay!?" Melissa yelled at him, catching the attention of the people inside. "Now can you just drop it and leave me alone!?"

"Who??" Chase asked, still pushing her.

Melissa looked around at everyone, placing on her swim cap.

"It doesn't matter." Melissa whispered. "I don't talk to him anymore."

Melissa dived into the pool, practicing her backwards swimming. Chase thought about all of the boys Melissa talked to and could only come down to one person.

Jionni.

While Melissa's swim practice was going on, Chase headed out to Jionni's neighborhood to see where he was. As he drove around, he saw Jionni walking with Chevy and the rest of the boys. Chase parked his mothers car, getting out and walking up to him.

"Hey! You!" Chase scowled as he stood in front of Jionni, stopping him. "I wanna talk to you!"

Jionni stopped, scrunching his eyebrows at him.

"Who is dis' nigga?" D'juan laughed, looking a little up at him.

"Nigga, who da' hell is you?" Jionni scoffed at Chase, looking down at him since he was a little shorter.

"So you call yourself pouring juice on Melissa, huh?" Chase scoffed. "Well I'd like to see you do it to me!"

Jionni gave him a funny look, looking at Chevy and the crew.

"Aye, y'all head over to Tray house." Jionni chuckled, placing his hand out. "I'll meet y'all ova' there."

"Let me know if this nigga gotta issue." D'juan said to Jionni.

As the others walked off, Jionni folded his arms and gave Chase an unphased look.

"You popped up in my area fo' what?" Jionni scoffed at him. "You want a fuckin' problem?"

"You damn right I do!" Chase scowled in his nerdy tone. "Where do you get at pouring juice on a female?"

"Oh, Melissa? She told you so you could come out here n' start some shit?" Jionni said as moved out of Chase's way. "Watch out, bruh."

Before Jionni could take more than two footsteps, Chase shoved him and watched as he stumbled forward. Jionni turned around to him, placing the tongue on the side of his mouth.

"I ain't gone fight you, but you betta' not touch me again." Jionni said through his teeth.

Chase smiled, looking down.

"You know what, you right. I shouldn't be mad." Chase smiled, giving Jionni a funny look. "With you out of the way, I'll finally have the chance to show your little Lissa what a REAL boyfriend acts like."

Jionni stared at him for a few seconds, then punched him in the face. As Chase stumbled back and fell into the grass, Jionni stormed off with his fists balled.

"Oh, you son of a bitch.....!" Chase laughed as he placed his finger on his bloody nose. "She doesn't want little hoodlums with bad grades that throw temper tantrums!"

Instead of going out and around the block with the others to go over their friend Tray's house, Jionni decided to stay home and catch up on his work. He didn't get much of it done over break since he was messing with Melissa, and he had to catch up from the month when he was on house arrest. He had to do something productive to shift his anger away from the day he'd been having. As he started on one of his science packets, Diana walked upstairs and opened his door.

"Aye Jionni, I'm out." Diana murmured.

"Again?" Jionni said in a sarcastic and unsurprised tone, turning the page in his packet as he laid frontwards on his bed. "What a surprise."

"I mean, unless you wanna get out here n' pay dese bills yourself?" Diana scoffed at him.

Jionni shook his head and kept his eyes on his work Diana leaned against his door.

"Look Jionni, it's only temporary-"

"Ma, ion' eem care no mo'. You grown." Jionni said, looking up at her. "Do whateva' you gotta do..."

Diana scratched her head, standing all the way up as she prepared to leave.

"Say uh.......did you ever get a return call on dat' gold chain?" Diana asked, turning around. "I wanted to know because I need a little bit of da' cash."

Jionni paused, flipping another page.

"I gave it to Kisses as a gift instead, ma."

"Oh damn. Alright." Diana laughed as she jogged down the stairs. "Love you, babe."

Even though Jionni's mother was home, it didn't even seem like she was there. Jionni started adjusting to being by himself and in his own comfort instead. When he heard the door to his home shut, he looked up at his door and slowly got out of his bed. He opened the top drawer to his dresser, moving around to check and see if it was still there.

It was.

The gold chain Melissa gave him was still there. He stared at it for a minute, slowly shutting the drawer back as he got back to finishing his homework. He didn't want to talk or even be bothered with Melissa. Not after the way she sold him out in front of her relatives.

Still, the chain she gave him was still special to him.