Quentin's Way

Chapter 1

            I was woken up five minutes before my alarm was to go off because my roommate Reggie was talking loud on the phone to his girlfriend. He'd been doing that shit off and on ever since we'd moved into the athletic dorm that summer. I usually let it slide but that morning was the first day of classes and that nigga messed up my sleep knowing damn well I take my sleep seriously. It didn't matter that I would've only gotten an extra five minutes of sleep, it was my damn five minutes.

            "Nigga, get off the phone," I said as I stood over his bed.

            "Man, you better go sit yo ass down somewhere," he said back with an attitude.

            I snatched the phone out of his hand and told his girlfriend, "Reggie will call you back later." I ended the call and put his phone in my pocket.

            "Quentin, give me my fuckin' phone!"

            "You'll get it back when I wake back up." I climbed back into my bed and set my alarm to go off in ten minutes instead of five. Before I could even go back to sleep, my blanket was snatched off of me and I was pulled down to the floor by Reggie. I looked up at him and shouted, "Yo, what the fuck!"

            "Give me my phone, nigga!"

            "You want your phone? Take it from me, bruh."

            The moment I said that, we started fighting. And it wasn't a typical petty fight between two football playing roommates, we were swinging out on each other like boxers. He tried to reach into my shorts pocket to get his phone and that's when I head-butted him. He started bleeding like crazy and that definitely made him madder. He clocked me with two hard hits and almost knocked me out. I thought he was gonna keep going but he hurried out of the dorm and like a minute later, he returned with the dorm director.

            "He started it," I said immediately while checking my jaw to make sure he didn't fracture it.

            "He took my phone!" Reggie shouted. "I ain't do shit to his bitch ass!"

            I laughed and asked, "I'm the bitch? Nigga, I'm not the one leakin' all over the floor right now."

            "That's because you fuckin' head-butted me, nigga!"

            "Alright, that's enough," said Mr. Jamison, our dorm director. "Y'all are too old for this shit! Damn! Reggie, get dressed and go to the school clinic to see if you're gonna need stitches. When is your first class?"

            "It's at ten-fifteen."

            "Be in my office immediately after that class."

            "Yes, sir." He gave me a look before going over to his side of the dorm and putting on a pair of sweatpants and his shoes. He then stared at me as he grabbed his wallet and keys and left the dorm room.

            "What's going on with you?" Mr. Jamison asked me.

            "Huh? What do you mean?"

            "Your temper, Quentin. That temper is going to get you into a world of trouble. You need to keep that anger for the football field, son. Your first game is this weekend and..."

            "I took his phone because he's always wakin' me up early talkin' as loud as he can on that fuckin' phone. I talked to him about it more than once and he don't give a shit. Well, I don't give a shit either. If he keeps doin' it then we're gonna keep fightin' until y'all separate us."