• My 15 year old brother is hooked on weed. He smokes two packs every day. Every day I see him smoke outside behind the school in a little ally, with his so called ‘friends’. Since he is a follower, not a leader, he does everything his 'friends' do. It scares me that he might forget his kid sister, me.
    One night I walked into his room while he was smoking. He looked at me with a smile and said, “Hey Jamie.” I always wonder how long I’m going to see that smile before he gets caught or gets lung cancer.
    ‘Hey Jared,’ I said while he puffed some smoke. ‘How long are you going to keep smoking that stuff?’ I asked. He stopped and looked at me. Then he turned away back to smoking his weed. Great… “I don’t know,” he answered. There was a long silence. Then I mumbled something under my breath.
    “What?” He asked. I looked at him for a while then I decided to say what I wanted to say. ‘Bet you can’t stop smoking Pot for a month,’ I said. He put the cig in the ash tray, and looked back at me. ‘How much you want to bet?” I thought for a moment, and then said, “I’ll give you something so precious to me, that I wouldn’t show anyone else.’
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “It’s a surprise.”
    He thought for a moment, then said, “Jamie I trust you because you never have lied to me. Ever.” We shook and then he said, “You’re on!”
    Throughout the month he was angry lots of times. And when he was I would cry and hug him telling him to stop, and calm down. He would stop go to his room, and I would chase after him.
    He got better in the last week, and was happier, but then when it was the end of the month, he started to smoke. Again. I rapped the prize in paper and left it in his room. I hid somewhere outside of his room so he wouldn’t find me. When he entered his room he found the gift and two pieces of paper.

    Dear Jared,
    Here is a scrap book on all the pictures and fun times of us before you started smoking pot. When you did start smoking I started hating a lot of things.”
    He took a look at the sheet of paper attached to the letter. This is what it said.
    The Things I Hate
    • My brother smoking Pot.
    • I hate that he doesn’t know what it does to him.
    • He wastes a lot of money just to get it.
    • He might be found out
    • Jared might end up expelled and might not make a living of what he wants to do. (chef)
    • Jared is failing in school.
    • My brother might forget me someday.

    Then he went back to reading the letter.
    Brother it’s hurting me as much as it is you. So please stop smoking weed. Please.
    -Your sister,
    Jamie
    P.S. Happy Birthday.

    “Jamie…” he whispered softly. I appeared at the front of his door. He turned around almost crying. I was too. As I expected he forgot today was his birthday. He walked towards me weakly and gave me the biggest hug ever. We were both trying to hold back tears he whispered, “I’m sorry Jamie. Today is my birthday? All this time even when I smoked weed you still cared… I’m sorry.” He started to cry. I did too and said, “You’re not the same anymore. Please stop.” After that there was silence and then I thought.
    The Things I love
    • My Brother