Chapter 10
REINA
“You carry?” Vasiah glanced at my gun, and I nodded. “You don’t?” I rebutted defensively. I’m not sure why, and maybe he didn’t mean it that way, but I felt like he was judging me.
“Relax, Hayami. I’m not judging you… I’m intrigued. I’ve never been with a woman who carried before. I’m happy to have you teach me,” he winked, and my resolve softened.
My whole life, I’ve always had to defend my choices, my interests, and my quirks. With Vasiah, I was quickly learning that I didn’t have to do that. Figuratively, at least, I could put the guns down. What the fuck was this nerdy ass nigga doing to me?
I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, boo. I can be a lil… defensive at times,” I admitted. Rule #678 was never to admit my feelings or show too much of my hand when it came to dating, but with Vasiah, I didn’t feel like I needed to be so… rigid?
Again, what was this nerdy ass nigga doing to me?
“Water under the bridge, love. Now what kinda gun should I get?”
I got giddy then, showing him everything I knew about firearms. I loved having the ability to protect myself, and truthfully loved the power and feel of cold steel in my hands.
Reign taught me that if it were ever between my life and someone else’s, then I’d better choose mine because the other person wouldn’t hesitate to choose theirs.
We walked in the target practice room and got set up in our lane.
There’s a small crowd here tonight, mostly white men who look like they were a part of the Ku Klux Klan.
A few faces I recognized, and they immediately tried to give up their lanes for me, but I declined.
It was always funny to me how easily I could make men do whatever I wanted, no matter the race.
They stumbled over themselves and looked curiously at Vasiah, but my boo was oblivious to it all.
Alright, let me show you how it’s done. The key is to hold your arm steady and widen your stance.
The kickback from the gun might alarm you at first, but remember you are in control.
” I pushed the button to bring the paper up about seven feet away and fired three shots in the head, chest, and stomach area.
I felt Vasiah jump slightly and smirk. Bringing the paper up closer, I examined it and smiled at how I hit each target perfectly.
“How long you been shooting?” Vasiah asked, while loading bullets in the chamber.
“Since I was fourteen.”
He paused and looked over at me. “I promise I’m not judging, but why so young, Hayami?” “
I smiled at hearing that name again. “Because… my brother was kinda in the streets and I bullied him into teaching me…. Or I was telling our mama and Nana. Whole time, they already carried. Nonetheless, he got tired of me threatening to snitch on him, so one day he took me to the forest preserve and made me practice for what felt like hours until I was able to aim correctly. I ain’t get legally licensed til I was eighteen though. ”
“Damn… that’s… kinda cool. Why was your brother in the streets?”
I stared at him dully for a second, because what other reason would somebody be in the streets other than getting some money? But then I realized Vasiah was asking about me, and that included knowing about those closest to me.
“Man… Reign was bad as fuck,” I snickered. “But our dad was in the streets too, before he got… murdered.”
He paused. “Damn. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that… It’s just hard to really talk about someone you hardly even knew.
According to my Nana, our mama gave him an ultimatum as soon as we were born, and he chose the streets.
He passed when we were like ten. He spent more time with Reign when he was alive, showing him stuff that he never showed me.
He was in the streets up until we were 21, then turned his life around. ”
“That’s wassup,” he nodded. An awkward silence fell between us, which I expected.
He then squared his shoulders and attempted to make a chest, head, and stomach shot as I did with a shaky hand.
After some coaching, he was slowly improving.
I thought about what I shared with him and tried to process how I felt about it.
Me and Reign weren’t the closest with our mother, especially after Nana died.
Renita wasn’t a bad person, just a workaholic who traveled a lot and kept to herself.
Now that we were grown, we knew that we should pull up on her more and make an effort to connect, but it seemed like our efforts were pointless at times.
She even almost missed Rae and Reign’s wedding, and that was crazy to us both.
I loved my mother, but I didn’t even know her for real.
When Nana was alive, she was my go-to for everything, not my mother.
Me and Reign were so fucked up when she passed when we were 25.
I was just happy that she lived long enough to see Reign get out the streets and both of us open our shops and actually make something of ourselves that she would be proud of.
I shook myself out of the somber thoughts and focused back on Vasiah.
We probably had about thirty minutes left here at the range, and then we would be on the next part of our date.
Since he told me that he liked anime, I found a rare comic book store that had some comics and manga that I thought he would like.
I enjoyed watching his eyes light up when I first met him, when I asked what he was reading.
“Vasiah?”
“Hmm?”
“Did people ever make you feel weird about your interests?”
He snorted. “Hell yeah. I was called all types of shit in grammar and high school. In college, it was more accepted; I even started a club for it. It was called BLERDS. We had anime movie nights, traded comics and manga, and even went to different cons.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, but my Pops instilled in me how important it was to just be yourself. I didn’t care to be the most popular nigga or even have a lot of friends. As long as you were cool, I would be cool, but I’m also an only child, so I was fine with rocking out by myself if need be.”
“Your dad sounds like such a cool person.”
He smiled. “Coolest man I know.”
“I can’t wait to meet him one day,” I blurted. I really did wanna meet his dad, though, to thank him for helping create and raise his amazing son.
“Funny… he said the same thing about you.”
My brows rose. “What? You be talking to yo daddy about me?”
“I do, Hayami. I do.”
I was speechless, for once. And that’s when I knew that me coming off of Vasiah Hill was highly unlikely.