west side

.06

"baby, get up." reina frantically searched for the keys as seb stood impatientally at the door.

"¿qué?" he got up and went to the fridge for a beer.

"i'm taking seb to mario's. then i'm going to get groceries. t-t called and said you two are supposed to go talk to the rivera's at two." she placed his keys back on the hook finally and opened the door to leave.

"who's car you takin?"

"tía susie's." she opened the door and started to walk out. "come on seb."

"come here." he yelled to her. she was only a few feet away and barely out the door. she turned around and walked towards him, giving him a kiss.

"reina?" seb sounded confused. she turned around to look at him. he was holding a 9mm cartridge between his fingers.

reina furrowed her brows.

"where'd you get that?" she pulled it out of his hand.

"it was on the steps. is it yours?" he looked confused at her reaction.

chico and reina shared a look. chico's was a .45, and she knew exactly what it meant.

"get back in the house seb." she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the house quickly. chico took the cartridge from her hand and placed it on the counter.

"call mario and tell him you can't come." chico closed the door.  sebastian continued to look confused but did it.

reina was already on the phone with t-t.

"nobody's coming anymore. stay at home. call them and let them know we're greenlighted." she rambled and then hung up quickly, throwing herself on the couch.

"reina, calm down." chico sat beside her, pulling her into him.

"what the hell is happening?" sebastian looked between the two. chico looked more upset than he'd been since his mom died.

"that cartridge." reina sighed. she knew seb must've been scared. she didn't want to worry him. "it means we're greenlighted."

"what's t-"

"it means theres a hit on the house. anyone coming in or out gets shot."

"by who?" seb felt like there was no way it was loseqiues because olivia wouldn't let him be in danger like that.

"i'll let you guess." chico mumbled and walked into his room to get his gun. "here."

he walked back in, tossing a gun to reina and giving one to sebastian as well.

"it's loaded. learn how to shoot that shit if you need to." he pointed at sebastian.

reina had already checked to see if hers was loaded and placed it beside of her.

what was really shitty, was that chico's p.o was supposed to visit in a few days. if chico and t-t didn't go speak to the rivera's today, they were screwed. reina needed to get groceries sometime by tomorrow because they barely had enough food for tonight.

"chico i've got to get groceries." she looked up at him worridly.

"i know. i'm leaving to talk to the rivera's at 1:45. I'll get some stuff at the corner store just write me a list." he rubbed her shoulder.

"i don't want you leaving." she leaned into him and sighed, flipping the tv on and going to the news.

"it'll just get worse if we don't negotiate."

"call them." reina frowned. "this is on them not you. negotiate over the phone."

"reina. you know i can't do that." he walked into the bathroom, took a shower, and changed. reina and sebastian sat on the couch watching the news in silence.

"ight i'm leaving baby." he grabbed his keys and a beer, waiting at the door for her.

"you better come back in with the same amount of bullet wounds you left with." she chuckled but he could see that she was nervous. she kissed him and pushed him out of the door.

she knew they'd be the first target after the tape was broken. her grandpa was the biggest supply of cocaine in la and chico was supposed to take that over after he died. chico was also the front. front goes down then reina was open for ratpacks,   t-t would be the front, and the core eight gets broken. nothing rude against t-t, but he'd never been able to run shit without help on decisions. if chico got hurt, or was out of the picture the core eight would be gone, and thst meant the entire romanos went under. if chico was out, then reina, then t-t, ciggy, pencil, and jave. daniel and natalie were already gone.

she worried for an hour and a half before he came back. seb was already in his room playing video games.

chico came in, completely fine.

"they said no." he sighed, throwing himself onto the couch.

"fuck." she placed her head in her hands.

"t-t overheard them outside. jump season is early because of tapes." he rubbed her back lightly.

jump season normally was mid-june. starting it in february was dangerous. that was smart as hell on their part. jump season was basically a more dangerous junior senior prank war. a month and a half of losequies and romanos broke the agreement and jumped on free. that was how chico's mom died. their house got shot up right before chico got out in october. off-season of jump season, but because their dad had killed four losequies back in the early 2000's and their kids went over and shot his house up. sebastian was at school at the time and their dad was out selling weed. sebastian came home an hour later and found his mom.

that was the first and only time she'd seen chico cry. at maria's funeral.

he was fresh out of juvie, attempting to get used to everything after three years and his mom was dead. his dad was going to prison. his dad didn't matter much though.

"that's in a week." she sunk even lower and shook her head.

"i know. it's ight. we've lasted 19 seasons before this one."

she agreed, finally calming slightly and making him dinner.