The Turning Point

[R-S-Lee†]

At first glance, that fateful Sunday afternoon hadn't seemed at all different from any other. A sixteen year old Montgomery Pondsworth entered the 7-11 on Peterson St. with a mission. To pick up a couple of groceries for his mother. Little did he know, this was going to be the most important day of his life.

Things started fine. Monty entered the store, grabbed a basket, and quietly headed to the back. Without even bothering to glance at any of the other customers, Monty stepped over to the refrigerated section and grabbed a carton of milk.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Monty Pondsworth."

The voice belonged to Tobias Quinn. He was an African-American classmate of Monty's, probably one of the few who managed to be a bigger asshole then Monty. Quinn wasn't what anybody would call tough or scary, but he had one helluva mouth on him. The kid never seemed to shut up and was quite the jackass. Of course, he was a year younger than Monty, so they hadn't really encountered each other very often.

Quinn was surrounded by a posse of his buddies. There were five of them. Each and every one of them was a pothead. Hell, Monty could still smell the marihuana on them. And from Monty could smell, Quinn and his friends seemed to have smoked enough to put an elephant down.

I can practically feel my brain cells dying just from breathing the same air as these dumbasses...

"Fuck off, Quinn." Monty stated simply, not really wanting to have anything to do with them as he put the milk in the basket and started to head towards the bread. Unfortunately, Quinn and his pals followed. It seemed that, in their pot addled minds, they thought it'd be fun to bother the school bully.

As Monty began sorting through the bread for some fresh whole wheat, Quinn stepped behind him, his friends standing off to the side and mindlessly enjoying the scene.

"So, I just gotta ask. Are you gay?" Quinn said into Monty's ear, a slight giggle escaping his mouth.

Monty had grabbed a loaf of bread and shoved it into his basket. He immediately decided not to let Quinn get to him. The kid was just some random asshole. He just wasn't worth it.

"No, I'm not. Now, fuck off." Monty replied coldly, starting to step towards the packaged meats. Monty Pondsworth was not a patient kid, but he wasn't quite stupid enough to assault some random kid in public.

But Quinn still didn't give up. He continued to follow Monty, pausing only briefly to snatch a chocolate bar out of one of the displays. He was just having too much fun to quit.

"It just would explain so fucking much. I mean, come on. You've obviously got issues. You've never had a girlfriend. And, of course, there's your mom..." Quinn added with a proud smirk.

At this point, Monty placed his basket of groceries on the ground and turned around to face Quinn. He took a deep breath and looked down on the smaller kid.

"What about my mother?" Monty questioned, crossing his arms.

A shit-eating grin grew on Quinn's face. He could sense that he'd found a way of getting under Monty's skin. And, since they were in public, there really wasn't anything that Monty could do to get back at him. So he decided to keep pushing the button.

"Oh, it's just that, if I had to live your mom, it'd probably turn me off of women too. I mean, fuck. What a cow!" Quinn replied mockingly, each word making Monty angrier and angrier. "I mean, how does a person get so ugly? Were her parents brother and sister? Because, again, that would explain so fucking much. Did she get hit by a bus? Is she half-chimp..."

It was at that point that Monty had lost any self-control. With almost no warning, Monty uppercutted Quinn. Quinn was knocked off his feet and slammed into one of the candy displays, taking it down with him.

As packages of candy splattered across the floor, Quinn struggled onto his feet. In a brash action, Quinn rushed at Monty again, hoping to tackle him at his feet.

Monty was ready though. He managed to kick Quinn in the side of his head, knocking him back down to the ground. Quinn tried to recover, only for Monty to stomp on the back of his head.

At this point, blood began to ooze from Quinn's face. His nose was broken by the hit and he found himself quite dazed from the repeated hits to the head. Quinn's posse contemplated getting involved and trying to help out their friend, but each one was hesitant to step in. So, instead they backed away and left Quinn and Monty alone.

Taking several deep breaths, Quinn jumped to his feet and swung a fist at Monty's face. He was starting to slow down, so Monty managed to block the punch and responded with two more strikes to the face. Quinn was sent stumbling back to the ground.

At this point, Quinn was barely conscious. He could barely stand and was starting to grow legitimately scared. So, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a jack knife. With one last burst of strength, he jumped to his feet and lunged at Monty, attempting to plunge his knife in Monty's stomach.

Monty just barely managed to catch Quinn's wrist, mere inches away from piercing Monty's chest. Quinn futilely wrestled with Monty, still trying to get the upperhand. Unfortunately for him, Monty still had one free hand. A hand which he would use to backhand Quinn.

Quinn began to stumble. Sensing this, Monty let go off the younger boy's arm and pushed him away, putting him even more off his balance. As Quinn struggled to keep on his feet, Monty proceeded to kick his feet away, slamming Quinn face first into the floor.

Quinn let out a loud grunt of pain. Monty calmly stepped over to his opponent and stomped on the boys skull, hoping that this would be enough to keep him down.

It was. Quinn stopped squirming and blacked out, allowing Monty a chance to kneel next to him and examine his handiwork.

Quinn was bleeding. Badly. He had broken his nose and sustained a pretty bad head injury from the stomp to the skull. Upon closer examination, Monty saw that he also seemed to be bleeding from the torso. So, Monty turned the unconscious boy over and saw that the boy had fallen onto his own knife.

Upon seeing this, Monty took a deep breath and jumped up to his feet. He took a step back and stared back down at the boy. The knife was wedged in Quinn's gut, just below his rib cage.

Holy shit.

Monty was stunned. He felt as if he was going to throw up at the sight of all that blood. Finally taking his eyes off of the badly beaten Quinn, Monty examined the rest of the room.

Quinn's little gang of potheads were standing way back. They were each silently stunned and were standing as far away from Monty as they could. And it wasn't just them. An entire store full of people were just standing around, staring at Monty. More than twenty people had stood by and watched Monty commit the biggest mistake of his life.

Monty was speechless. Not even bothering to grab his basket of groceries, Monty turned around and ran out of the store. He just had to get as far away from there as he could.




And with that, Monty Pondsworth's life was changed forever. Later that night, Tobias Quinn would arrive in a hospital, his parents would press charges, and Monty would get charged with aggravated battery. Over the next month, Monty would face expulsion from school and his sports teams before going to trial and pleading guilty. The courts would punish Monty with one month in juvenile hall and three years probation.

Upon his release, Monty's mother would decide to move away from Reno and take him to live at her brother's old home in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, Monty would prove to continue being a disruptive figure and his probation officer would assign a therapist to treat Monty.

Today, Monty Pondsworth is on the verge of being sent back to prison for violating his the terms of his probation. He could very well end up spending serious time behind bars. All because of some mouthy pothead.