For Lovers Only by Alex Hairston

of telling Joel to stay the hell away from his stash.
    Joel never told his parents that he caught his brother smoking weed in their house because they would have killed Shawn. Months later, Mrs. Davis found a big shoe box full of cigar tobacco and empty Phillies Blunt boxes under Shawn’s bed. He was emptying the tobacco from the cigars and filling them with weed to make marijuana blunts. By the time she figured out what was going on, Shawn was already snorting cocaine. Joel felt that if he had told on Shawn right away, then maybe things wouldn’t have progressed like they did. Their mother punished Shawn and their father beat him, to no avail. The boy was so messed up and strung out on drugs that he didn’t hear half of the things they said. He was absolutely immune to any form of parental disciplinary actions. Joel’s parents were forced to seek professional help for Shawn.
    While most of Shawn’s classmates were graduating from high school he was sitting in central booking. He was charged with possession of a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance. Joel’s big brother broke their parents’ hearts and shattered their dreams when he was sentenced to five years in the Baltimore city jail.
    Joel and his parents were at all of Shawn’s court dates. Mr. and Mrs. Davis spoke up for Shawn. Everybody in the courtroom eventually got tired of hearing his parents say things like, “Shawn could’ve ... Shawn should’ve ... Shawn would’ve.” His mother cried, “He’s my baby and I love him! God knows he’s a good boy!”
    It was sad that Shawn had to learn life’s lessons the hard way. Things were completely different for Joel. By learning from Shawn’s mistakes, he avoided making certain fatal mistakes of his own.
    By the time Joel’s senior year rolled around his parents were harder on him than ever. They were in his corner, by his side and had his back at all times. They flat out refused to allow Joel to become a negative statistic. Having a strong, hardworking father around definitely made Joel’s life easier. Mr. Davis eventually recognized some of his wrongs when it came to how he raised his boys and made subtle changes.
    No matter what Joel and Shawn did, their parents were always supportive.
    Joel ended up breaking his parents’ hearts a different way. All of his mother’s lectures about avoiding premarital sex fell upon deaf ears when he started getting attention from countless girls in his neighborhood. With his Christian beliefs firmly planted in his mind, Joel fought sexual temptation on a daily basis. He got involved with a few girls, but out of all of the girls who sought Joel’s attention only one was truly able to tempt him sexually and stole his heart.
    There aren’t any words in the English language to describe how special true love really feels. Love is meant to be mentally and physically uplifting, spiritually soothing and comforting beyond anything imaginable. Joel found true love at the age of eighteen when he hooked up with Nia Thomas, the pastor’s daughter. The most beautiful, intense, and exciting feeling Joel had ever known happened the day he lost his virginity to Nia.
    People suspected that Joel and Nia were dating, but no one suspected that these two squeaky clean, God-fearing kids were actually having sex. Joel was just about to start his freshman year at Morgan State University when Nia told him that she was pregnant. Nia only told one other person, her best friend Tonya, and that’s when Joel and Nia’s world began to fall apart.
    When word got out that Nia was pregnant with Joel’s baby, it caused a major uproar and embarrassment for both of their families. Joel’s parents were stunned and heartbroken. Now they had two sons who had disappointed them. They feared that Joel was headed down the wrong path. His parents feared that he wouldn’t be able to attend college