A Move That Would Provoke Even The Staunchest Of Pacifists

CONTENT WARNING: Violence, Animal Abuse

I like to consider myself a very gentle person. I live in the dorms. It’s against the dorm rules, but I recently acquired a semi-feral kitten, and I’ve been secretly taking care of her in my dorms.

One night, my roommate comes back drunk. He’s absolutely sloshed. He bangs open the door of the dorm, walks up to me, and presses his chest against mine.

Roommate: “I don’t f****** like you. I’mma… I’mma f****** kick your a**. You’re so f******… f****** uptight all the time. You gotta relaaaax some. Let’s fight. Come on. Let’s fight. Let’s get these feelings out and fight.”

Me: “Yeah, no. I’m not going to fight you. You’re drunk. Go to bed.”

He looks around the dorm. First, he knocks my books off of the table.

Roommate: “Come on. Fight me, man. Fight me. We gotta work… gotta work these feelings out.”

Me: “No.”

Then, he grabs my laptop and slams it against the wall. It breaks into pieces. I pull out my cell phone and start to dial 911 since I figure this has gone far enough, but he slaps that out of my hand, too, and stomps on it.

Roommate: “Come on, man. Be a f****** man, not a p***y. Fight me.”

Me: “No.”

I was looking for a way out now; I was planning to run to the Resident Advisor’s office.

My kitten chose this inopportune time to make a noise.  [Roommate]’s eyes lit on the kitten. Before I could stop him, he grabbed the kitten and slammed her against the wall. Hard.

Lord help me, I started giving him that beating he wanted. I grabbed my desk. Not stuff off of the desk. Not my books. I grabbed my whole desk and, in a fit of hysterical strength, I hit him with it.

He went down. I kept beating on him, punching and kicking. I didn’t let him stand up. The only thing that stopped me was hearing my kitten start to whine.

I grabbed her and ran out, looking for a late-night emergency vet clinic.

The next day, I got back into my dorm, and my roommate was in his room, apparently asleep. The next time I saw him awake and active, he had casts on. We didn’t talk about it. I don’t know if he even remembered it.

I requested emergency roommate reassignment from the RA, and we were reassigned.