Quentin's Way

Chapter 3

            As I waited alone for Demi to meet me behind the library, I tried to calm down but couldn't. Reggie had crossed a line with me and once someone pisses me off on that level, I never let it go. I felt like going back and fighting him again. I was upset the most by him and them other two lame ass niggas jumping me. How was I supposed to play football with dudes who provoked me into a physical altercation? Were they gonna sabotage me during football games because of how bad things were between us? All I could do was hope that things wouldn't get worse.

            "Why did you want me to meet you out here?" Demi asked as he approached me. He stepped up to me under one of the campus lights and noticed my new bruises. "Quentin, you got into it with your roommate again?"

            "Him and his two fuck boys jumped me," I told him. "Punk ass niggas."

            "Are you hurt? Come on, I'll walk with you to the school clinic."

            "Nah, I'm good."

            "Quentin..."

            "I'm good, Demi. And I'm sorry I'm botherin' you right now. I really am."

            "It's fine."

            "The dorm director told me to take a walk to cool down and you always calm me and...you don't have to be here if you don't want to."

            "Quentin, I said it's fine. Come on."

            "Demi, I don't wanna go to the clinic."

            "We're not going to the clinic. We're going to my dorm room. You're bleeding so I'm gonna stop by the campus mini-mart and get some Neosporin and bandages for your cuts. I don't know much about First Aid, but I guess I'll have to wing it."

            Luckily, we made it to the campus mini-mart just before it was about to close. I waited for him outside and when he came back out with the stuff to clean and bandage my cuts, I followed him across campus to Cub Central, the only co-ed freshman dorm building on-campus. He made me pull the hood of my hoodie up as we entered the building lobby so no one would know who I was. After taking the elevator up to the eighth floor, we stepped off and I followed him to dorm room 818.

            "Is your roommate here?" I asked him while he was unlocking the door.

            "Nope," he answered. "He dropped out after his first class this morning." He opened the door and led me inside. He then closed and relocked the door before turning on the light.

            "Your roommate dropped out after one class?"

            "Yeah. After my second class, I came back by here and he was literally in the middle of a panic attack. I got him to calm down but he immediately began packing. Then he called his parents and told them he couldn't handle college and left."

            "Damn, so you got this whole room to yourself now?"

            "For the time being. The RA told me if a male freshman transfer student comes here then he'd be placed in this dorm automatically, but the room is all mine until that happens. It might just be mine for the whole school year."

            "That's crazy." I sat down on the swivel chair at this computer desk and asked, "Did he seem like a cool dude?"

            "Yeah, he was alright. I could tell he's never been around many black people though."

            "He's a white dude?"

            "Yep." He went over to his dresser and opened one of the drawers. After pulling out a washcloth, he closed the drawer and told me, "I'll be right back. I'm going to go put some warm water on this so I can clean that blood off your face."