“And you think you got me figured out already?”
He shook his head slightly.
“No,” he said. “I just think you’re carrying something you don’t feel like explaining, and I’m not here to try and force it out of you.”
My chest tightened, but I didn’t immediately shut it down as I had since I moved to campus. Typically, I would deflect or joke, sometimes even cuss someone out at their audacity.
But something about Charles felt safe. Looking at him, I saw the opposite of X, and the dichotomy made me feel protected.
“What if I don’t want to explain it?” I asked.
“Then don’t,” he said simply. “Tell me about the last TV show you watched.”
That’s it, I thought, simple and uncomplicated.
And just like that, I decided I wanted Charles in my life. The pressure was gone.
No expectation.
No need to perform.
No need to be anything other than exactly what I was in that moment.
“What are you studying, Chanel?” He asked.
“Criminal Justice,” I said.
“You want to go to law school?” He inquired
I nodded yes and put my head down. “Yeah, that was the plan until I fucked up my GPA.”
The words felt strange coming out. Like I hadn’t said them out loud in a while. I was finally admitting that my selfish ass fucked up the family’s chance to get Jared out of his life sentence in prison.
“My family are local lawyers and judges. We’ll pull some strings, Princess.”
I looked at him with so much hope in my eyes. “You would do that for a stranger?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m in my first year now. We need more Black attorneys. My parents would love to help a Black woman succeed.”
That caught my attention.
“You swear?”
He nodded.
“Yeah. I can introduce you to them. But fair warning, once you tell them you want their help, you cannot let up on your grades. They’ll help with LSAT prep and tuition assistance. The first year of law school is a lot of Princess. You gotta put down the bottle. But it’s worth it.”
Something in my chest shifted.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I admitted.
He leaned back slightly, casual. “Start with me,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“I can help you study,” he said. “If you’re serious about it.”
And for a second, I didn’t know what to say. Because nobody had offered me something like that in a long time. Something that didn’t take from me. Help that didn’t expect anything in return.
