"Next." The barista hollers, sighing as he slams the drawer of his cash register closed. His tone is unpleasant, clearly frustrated by the day's more-than-average work load.

Kris stands in the very front of the long line, which nearly leads back to the small coffee shop's exit, as she types a text on her phone.

He sighs again, this time more dramatically. "Next!"

She looks up, lowering the phone to her side. Smiling, she quickly approaches the counter. "Sorry. Yes, can I get a small caramel macchiato please?"

The barista doesn't make eye contact with her as he reaches over to snatch a permanent marker and presses it against the size of a small plastic cup. "What's your name?"

"Kris."

"Alright, Kris, it'll be—" He presses a few buttons on the register, bringing the total cost to just over four dollars, before his eyes shift over to look at her. "Wait. Kris?"

She glances off to the side awkwardly. If this is some kind of poor pick-up line, she is finding it awfully pathetic. "Umm, do I know you?"

The server shakes his head as a foolish smile stretches across his cheeks. His attitude completely changes. "No. You did a show last night at the lounge, right?"

"That was me." She nods. "I take it you were there?"

"Yeah, me and like the whole town." He finishes writing her name on the cup and hands it to one of his coworkers who passes by behind him. "Okay, not the whole town. Like it's impossible to fit the entire town into a little bar like that, you know? But there were a lot of people there. Like a lot. Anyways, sorry I know I'm babbling. It's just, dude, you're like famous!"

She laughs, unsure whether or not to take him serious. "Relax, dude. I am far from famous."

His eyes shift at a bulletin board to the right of the counter and she follows his gaze. Pinned dead center on the board is a picture of her on stage, taken at an angle where Jesse is barely visible in the background, and below it is her name in a bright yellow cursive font. The date for their next show, which she and Jesse agreed on last night, is posted at the very bottom next to the Lager Lounge's address.

"In this town, you're getting pretty well known." His coworker reappears with the cup, now full of espresso, and hands it to him. The barista sets it on the counter and slides it over to Kris. "So, star, the coffee's on us."

"Thanks." Kris smirks as she takes the macchiato. She turns to walk around a display stand full of packaged biscotti, staring at the poster of herself on the bulletin as she makes her way to the table Jesse is sitting at.

Wearing a thick pair of glasses, Jesse leans in to focus on his laptop screen as he scrolls through several comments posted on a YouTube video.

"It's nice, but you could have picked a better font."

Smiling, he turns around to the familiar voice. He shuffles over in the bench to give her room to sit on his side of the booth. "I was wondering if you'd notice."

"It was a little hard to miss." Still not sure how she feels about having pictures of her up for everyone to see, she glances back at the flier. "The poster covers nearly half the board."

"Well, don't be surprised if you see more around town. Gotta get your name out there."

Raising her eyebrows, she takes a short sip of her espresso before sitting down next to him. "Oh, apparently it's out there."

"I'm thinking beyond the scope of Riverside." He turns the laptop so that the screen faces her. He scrolls up to the top of the comments, most of them positive and filled with overzealous emojis, to show that it is a video recorded last night from somebody's phone. "People love you, Kris. Only two shows in and you're already building a fanbase."

She laughs. "Really, a fanbase? What's next, are we gonna start making hashtag 'Team Kris' shirts?"

"If it sells." He says solemnly, removing his glasses to set them on the table next to his laptop. Her smile fades as she realizes that he is being serious. "Look, you write amazing lyrics. Your voice is stunning. You're freaking gorgeous. We have all the right ingredients here to make something spectacular. It's just a matter of how we utilize them."

Kris nods and glances down at her phone, turning on the screen to see that she has no new texts.

Already knowing where her mind is, Jesse turns in the bench to face her more directly. "Is Taylor okay?"

"I don't know." She sighs, setting the phone down next to his glasses. "I've been texting her but she hasn't responded. I'm worried."

"Yeah, she was acting really strange at the lounge last night."

She continues to stare at her phone until the screen turns black. "I know."

"I'm sure she's fine." Smirking, he leans in to reassure her. "She probably just didn't feel good after those drinks they took at the bar."

"Yeah, you're right." She's not convinced. Sure, she and Taylor are not the best of friends, but she could tell that something was seriously wrong with her last night. It was completely out of character for her to act like that.

Jesse reaches over to close his laptop, the sound of the screen slamming shut snapping her back to reality, and he places it into the open laptop case sitting next to him. "So less focus on work, more focus on fun. You want to go catch a movie?"

She takes another sip from her coffee and smirks. "Sure. But I'm warning you now, I don't share my popcorn."

Laughing, he grabs his glasses and clips them onto the collar of his shirt. The two stand up to leave the booth and he leads her past the even larger line to the exit doors.

"Thanks." A mellow, yet still masculine, voice says and Marc steps away from the counter. He carries his small glass of coffee over to a table placed in the far right corner of the building.

He sets the black coffee down on the table and tosses his satchel onto the chair next to him. He unzips the bag and digs into it to pull out a thick manila folder and places it onto the table. Before opening the folder, he glances around to make sure no one is nearby, and slides out a small stack of photographs he had developed earlier this morning.

There are several pictures taken the night before of Cesar's apartment complex, shot from low angles as he had must been hiding behind a car in the parking lot. He goes through the pictures, flipping past several of Mr. and Mrs. Juarez crying, until he stops at the last two photographs. One is a close up of where he zoomed in on Taylor and Morgan through the side window of the car they were sitting in. Another is the back of Morgan's Mustang as they drive away from the scene.

Marc picks up his coffee and takes a heavy sip, paying little attention to the burning sensation on his tongue. He slowly runs his finger across the photo, tracing Taylor's face as thoughts begin to flood his mind.

♫ ɪɴsɪᴅᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ / ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀɪɴsᴍᴏᴋᴇʀs ғᴛ. ᴄʜᴀʀʟᴇᴇ ♫