The Collegiate Chronicles

Chapter 2

It was one of those hot summer nights where the humidity was what made things feel so bad as opposed to the heat. I guess I hit my head harder than I thought when I fell because I staggered all the way to the free clinic located two blocks away from the dorm. Nonetheless, it was all worth it because Jose helped me keep steady by putting his arm around my waist.

"So, what's your name?" he asked me.

"Landon Baxter," I was surprised I could even muster up those two words.

Jose nodded, "Cool. I figured I should know your name since you keep looking at me in class."

Here I thought I couldn't be any more embarrassed than I already was, but nope! I didn't even know how to respond to that, "Sorry," I meekly apologized.

He chuckled, "You good. You remember what my name is, right?"

"Jose. You only told me five minutes ago."

"I know, but if you had forgotten already, I'd be a lot more worried about how severe your concussion is."

My heart fluttered. Jose worried? About me?

"Prescott's my last name by the way," he added.

I looked over at him, "Afro-Latino?"

"Yup. Black mom, Dominican dad."

"Cute," I immediately regretted saying as soon as it slipped out.

He laughed, "I'll be sure to let my folks know that you think they do good work."

I let out a small laugh since I was too flustered to say anything else.

"Tell me about yourself Landon. What made you pick Richmond University? You know your major yet?"

"It was affordable, and I have no idea yet. I've kinda been more focused on the redefining yourself part of college more so than the academic part."

"Why you wanna change yourself?"

I shrugged, "I'm used to being the goody two shoes. I always make the right decisions, and I never take any risks."

He scratched his head confused, "But weren't you just throwing a party and got into a fight with a homophobe? You sure you're the goody two shoes?"

I genuinely laughed, "That's a good point actually. Blame it on the alcohol."

"Or maybe you've always had that inside of you. You could just be too critical of yourself you know."

"Could be a possibility I guess, but I doubt it. It's hard to explain. You'd have to get to know me to understand."

"Then I guess that's what I'ma do."

I looked at him surprised, but Jose stared straight ahead. I followed his gaze to see that we made it to the free clinic.

"Now you're underage, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"You smell like Henny that's why. We need to play this carefully because I'm not tryna get us reported to the university already. Let me do the talking for now, alright?"

I nodded in agreement as we walked inside of the building.

---

Ricky, Kynsey, Deion, Natalia, and Mae sat around in Ricky's apartment. The aggressor of the altercation was still seething, but Kynsey tried to do her best to soothe him.

"Those niggas got me fucked up!" Ricky shouted.

Mae shook her head annoyed, "Ricky, they said if you were a homophobe, you aren't welcome. So why did you go?"