Page 23 of Dope Boys: Most Wanted
“Don’t,” Camden softly scolded. “Don’t you worry about me. Did you get the money?”
“Yeah after being haggled for twenty-five percent of it because I don’t have my ID. KC has everything,” Reign informed.
“Shit, I’ll send more,” Camden rushed out.
“No, I’ll find a job that’ll pay me under the table. I’ll be fine.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Camden pressed. “MH is expensive. I’m sending the money. Just promise me you’ll lay low.”
“I promise.”
“You sure you’re okay?” Camden asked once more.
Reign pulled in a deep breath. “I woke up this morning in a panic but outside of that, I’m fine. Trying to find my way is better than being beat. I can handle the panic attacks.”
“If you need anything, Reign, call me. Any time, any day. I will make sure you get what you need.”
Reign hummed to herself. She needed to see about her health not just mental but physical too. The only thing on her agenda was to lay low and to take care of herself – finally.
“I’ll call you when the JoyUnion is sent. Please take care of yourself,” she urged. “Promise me again.”
Reign dropped her eyes on the Danish and latte she barely touched. The thoughts of why she was here in the first place lurched her stomach. “I promise, Camden.”
“Good. I’ll call you. Develop the habit of keeping everything important on you. Okay?”
Reign slightly touched her chest and nodded as though Camden was standing in front of her, brows pinned with intensity. “Okay. Soon?”
“Soon,” Camden assured. “I have to go. He’s coming.”
“KC find her before I come up there and kill your black ass in the street!” Javier roared in the background before Camden hung up. The shout turned the lurch in her stomach into her heart racing, mouth drying. Palms sweaty. Abandoning the food and the trash from the cellphone, Reign rushed toward the back of the café to the restrooms. Locked inside, she dry heaved into the toilet as hot tears ran down her face. It was five minutes of this. Sobbing, dry heaving, trying to collect herself. Javier was over a thousand miles away, but somehow, still too close for comfort. Reign gripped the sides of the sink and stared at herself.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay. You are okay. You’re going to be okay,” her voice broke. Her eyes clenched and she pulled in a deep breath and slowly pushed it out. Techniques she used in the few quiet moments she had while with Javier. Anything not to go crazy.
Five deep breaths before she was okay enough to brave the bustle of the city that moved around her. She was merely a speck in the sea of people and while she could appreciate not being seen, it only amplified the weight she carried. As if she were wearing a big sign that read: look at me I’m broken.
Brokenness that started far before Javier. Brokenness that taunted her with the neglectful mother, absent father, and the unhealthy need to be seen. The attention she craved more than the respect she needed. No one taught her the value of being respected. A lesson far overdue, a lesson and a boundary she had to learn and set for herself.
Reign slipped out the bathroom and rushed back to the table she occupied to grab the phone she left behind. In her haste, she bumped into a woman in a pair of fitted scrubs holding an iced coffee.
“Bitch, do you watch where you’re going?” the woman snapped, iced coffee barely spilling over her black scrubs.
Reign swiped the residue of tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
“Clearly, you ran your ass right into me. Shit,” she huffed, shaking the coffee off of her hands. “Nia, order me another coffee please, extra caramel.”
Nia looked over her shoulder to see what the commotion was and spotted Reign and Cyn exchanging expressions.
“Hey girl, you’re good?” Nia asked remembering her from the other night. It’d been hard to forget her, actually. “Cyn, relax, it’s just coffee, you’re being dramatic.”
Nia turned her attention fully to Reign who’d made her way back to the table to clean up her mess and retrieve her phone. She wasn’t as flustered as she was the night she’d ran in front of Nia’s car but it was evident that Reign was consumed with trying to get away from KC.
“I have to go,” Reign muttered, trying not to linger or draw any more attention to herself. Mere minutes ago, she was a speck in this place, insignificant, someone no one would remember and everyone who did would quickly forget. Now, all eyes were on the commotion and dramatics from Nia’s friend.
Nia gently placed a hand on top of hers, guiding her to stop for a moment. Tears danced at the brim of Reign’s eyes. She trembled and Nia picked up on the signs of panic. She knew it all too well. Willed off by keeping people away from her. But there was Svyn, always lurking in her shadows and swooping in to catch her every time she fell, and when she got back up, she sent him away.
Nia studied her. Face free of the makeup, bruises fading but the pain was still evident. Still tattering her soul. “Where you going?”
Reign rolled her dry lips over one another. “Just around. Thanks.”
