Reina’s Rules

Prologue

LAREINA

“Let this be the last time I gotta bail yo ass out, LaReina. You getting too grown for this shit.”

“Well, that nigga shouldn’t have played with me!” I retorted to my twin brother, Reign. He glared at me from the corner of his eye, then refocused on the road and left me with silence.

I’d gotten in trouble for popping up on a nigga I was fucking after he ignored me for twenty-four hours.

When I got there, his girl answered the door, trying to get buck with me.

After mushing her out of the way, I pistol-whipped him, only to turn around and be greeted with handcuffs because that pussy ass hoe called the police on me.

The moment I got my first phone call, I called Reign, and he came and got me — but not without a lecture.

I knew I would have to do some court appearances, maybe even a few hours of community service, but jail time was a no-no.

This was the first time I got caught doing something anyway.

Reign pulled up to our Nana’s house and turned off the engine.

“Rei,” he started. “I meant what I said, man. You start that hair school shit in a few weeks, and then you’ll be on yo way to owning yo own shop.

What the fuck have I told you about putting yo time and energy into these niggas, bro?

If a nigga ain’t adding onto yo paper chase, then you have no reason to entertain him.

And you definitely shouldn’t be using that muthafucka all fuckin’ willy-nilly,” he referred to my gun he got me for our birthday.

The cops confiscated it for evidence, but Reign paid one of them on the low and they had to give it back once they learned that I was actually licensed to carry.

“You said it was for my protection,” I muttered. “I was protecting myself.” I crossed my arms and looked out the window, pouting.

Reign sucked his teeth and grabbed his swisher, dumping out the tobacco and filling it with the green that kept us level-headed.

Sealing it with his tongue, he lit it and took a pull, then handed it to me.

I took a deep pull, almost coughed up my lungs in the process, and handed his blunt back to him.

“I’m saying, though, Reina. No nigga is worth knocking you off yo square. Take it from a nigga, these niggas ain’t worth crashing out over. Focus on you and yo pape; all that other shit is irrelevant,” He ranted with a wave of his hand.

I sighed. It was the same song and dance every time from Reign.

He barely entertained the bitches who wanted to be in his face if doing so didn’t make him some money.

He and our cousin LaShawn were heavy in the streets lately, and while they both kept me away from the ins and outs of what they were doing, I still prayed over them both.

Chicago was treacherous, known for taking those who didn’t deserve it.

I didn’t want that for my family or me because even though a few of my screws were loose, I had no idea where I’d be without my twin.

“You not my daddy, Reign.”

“Yet I’m the nigga you call every time you get in some shit.

Get out my fuckin’ car, Rei. You gotta explain to Nana why you ain’t come back home last night,” he chuckled on the last part, knowing that was the last thing I wanted to do.

I loved my Nana, but sometimes she could be overbearing as if Reign and I weren’t grown.

After our daddy died when we were ten, Reign started getting in all types of shit — fighting, stealing, you name it, he was doing it.

Our OG got frustrated and exiled us to the south suburbs, Chicago Heights, to be exact, to live with our Nana.

Well, really, she only exiled Reign, but I wasn’t gonna be anywhere that my twin wasn’t, so I opted to come live with Nana, too.

Reign still got in trouble, but got sneakier with it.

I, on the other hand, was forced to learn how to become a proper young lady, but I rejected most of the lessons aside from learning how to look good, feel good, and have something going for myself.

I had a natural talent for doing hair, so I decided that I would be one of the top hairstylists in the city after I completed cosmetology school.

I wanted to open my own shop and employ other stylists.

I also liked dressing well in designer clothes, specifically wearing purses.

Reign and Shawn bought me whatever I wanted, but I liked making my own money and buying my own things, too.

I also liked the feel of a gun in my hands.

When we were teenagers, I bullied Reign into teaching me how to shoot and got my concealed carry license a few months ago, after we turned eighteen.

Reign knew somebody who could doctor birth certificates, because in Illinois, you had to be at least twenty-one to legally carry.

The weight of the steel and the power of what a bullet could do invigorated me.

I didn’t go anywhere without a gun in my purse.

Which is why I didn’t know why niggas wanted to play with me. I was already hard to get next to, so if I gave you a chance, then that meant that you weren’t supposed to fuck it up.

Reign told me that most niggas didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as me, and I was starting to believe it, too.

“Ugh. Reign…you bogus as hell for leaving me to face her by myself!”

Reign’s lips curled as he pulled on his blunt. “You swear you grown, right? Well, grown people do the hard shit. It’s just Nana, Rei… she ain’t gone whoop you.”

We gave each other a look and then burst out laughing. We may have been eighteen now, but our Nana would not hesitate to pick up her shoe and throw it at us if we pissed her off enough. Nadine King was nothing to play with.

“Whatever, man. Be safe, okay?” I knew that Reign was going to ‘make moves,’ as he called it, and it worried me.

I wanted nothing more than for my brother to find something more positive to do because the street life wasn’t it.

And it’s not like he didn’t know that or wants to do something better — safer — more legit.

But hustling was just a means to an end right now. We all had a hustle.

“Always, Rei. Imma check on you later. Don’t get in no mo’ shit. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

I exited his car and walked down the walkway to our porch, taking a deep breath once I got to the last step.

Using my key, I eased in as quietly as I could, noticing the living room of the one-level home was completely dark.

Easing past Nana’s room and heading towards mine, I almost made it until I heard a light in the kitchen flick on.

“‘Mmmmhmm. LaReina.” She started, her voice laced with disdain.

“Hey Nana —“

“Don’t you 'hey nana' me,” she mimicked my voice. “Yo’ tail ain’t gone be satisfied until you get in some shit you can’t get out of.”

“But —“

“I really don’t wanna hear it! Now what do you have to say for yourself?

” She put her hands on her small hips. Nana was tall in stature and had small curves with the same caramel macchiato skin tone as my mama and me.

Long grey hair that she kept in rollers and faded brown eyes with long lashes completed her physical makeup.

I knew I was gon’ be a bad bitch forever because my grandma was.

I smirked. “But Nana, you just said you ain’t wanna hear nothing I had to say.”

“You and that big head ass brother of yours ain’t gone raise my blood pressure.

Get out my face before I get my shoe!” She waved her hand dismissively, and I took that as my cue to scurry my ass to my room.

Lying in bed that night, I let my mind wander.

Dude wasn’t worth the crash out I had, but I had a point to prove.

You don’t get to take my virginity and then ignore me.

Like, what did his bean head ass think this was?

! Then to have some bitch answer your door and turn around and call the police on me?

One thing was for sure, though, this was the last time I was letting a man get me outta character.

“Don’t no man want no crazy ass woman!” Nana often preached.

The thing is, I wasn’t crazy… I just also wasn’t the one to play with. And if anybody forgot, my .22 and I wouldn’t have a problem reminding them.

“I don’t know how you expect to find love acting like that,” Nana scolded one day. But the thing was, I wasn’t searching for it, and I didn’t expect it. Love seemed far-fetched and extremely overrated to me… and maybe that was a problem in and of itself.