"Are you quite certain that you even want to get married?" Harry chuckled from behind me, rubbing my shoulders. I was sat up on the couch, typing an email to a seamstress about my dress that just didn't fit quite right. "It seems more trouble than it's worth." I know that it was the stress in my body that made me react this way but I turned around so fast.
"Do YOU not want to get married?" I snapped at him. And he looked back at me like he had actually been bitten by something. "You seem to forget that you asked ME to marry you."
"Charlie, you know that's not what I meant." he said softly. "I meant all the planning seems to be a lot of trouble. I didn't in any way mean to imply that it's more trouble than you're worth. You're worth more to me than anything in this world and you know that."
"I know. And I love you... This is just stressing me out is all."
"I know this wedding is important to you." he said. "Just don't let it effect your health. I'd be happy simply marrying you in jeans and a t-shirt at the court house. I guess what I mean to say is just don't worry about disappointing me. I'll do whatever I can to make this less stressful for you. Just let me know if you need anything." he smiled, rubbing my shoulder again.
"I think I'm going to change my major." I said abruptly.
"Change your major?" he repeated, turning around to look at me again. "You're nearly done with school. What would you want to switch your major to?"
"Criminal law..." I said, slowly. Harry laughed at this and I had to bite my tongue seeing as this hurt my feelings slightly.
"Charlotte, you hated sitting in the court room every day for Michael's case. And now you want to do it as a career?"
"Well, I'm passionate about people who are victims in shitty situations."
"Criminal law would give you nearly 5 more years of school. Are you sure you want to do that? That's a long ass time and think of the student loans." I rolled my eyes at this, starting to get irritated. I wasn't sure why he was so intent on talking me out of it. I shrugged and sighed.
"Well, I'm probably going to do it either way... Besides, criminal law isn't all that different from psychology. A lot of the classes I'd need, I've already taken."
"Hey, I'm not telling you what you can and can't do. You know that I want you to do whatever you want to do. I'm just saying, not every gang member out there is Michael. In reality, most of them ARE bad people."
"I don't know. I tend to believe that most people aren't inherently bad. I tend to find that there's always a reason for people's behavior. And it usually stems from something else besides mal intent."
"That's more of a social work thing, though."
"It all ties together, I guess." I said, closing my lap top. He sat down next to me on the couch and smiled. "I want to save the people that the system failed. Social workers can't help everyone. They need someone further down the line too."
"You know I'll support you in whatever you do but I really don't think this is a good idea."
"Oh, then I've totally changed my mind." I said, sarcastically. Harry took a step closer to me as if to be more intimidating. He almost smiled for half a second but then his face grew serious again.
"i don't know if you know this or not- something tells me that you don't- but defense attorneys often end up dead. Do you know why that might be? Hm?"
"What are you talking about?"
"When you defend one criminal, you get another one sentenced to a very, very bad fate. If they're like me- which I'm assuming you want to represent gang members- they have other people that ride with them. There's hitmen all over defense attorneys, Char. I can't let you do that to yourself."
