It all happened so fast. One minute, Joe and Jon were happy in their suburban home, catching a game of Sunday night football while pigging out on some pizza and beer, the next, their world had changed completely. Joe was thrown on the ground, handcuffs placed around his wrists and was being told not to resist, one of the men reading him his rights. Jon was being held back as he cried and screamed out, asking what was happening and warned that if he didn't calm down, he'd be arrested too. The Samoan begged for his boyfriend to calm down, telling him that everything was going to be alright, that they'd gotten the wrong guy. Only they didn't- Joe was guilty of a crime; one they thought he'd never get caught for.

Three hours. That's how long it took for the twelve jurors to convict Joe after months of court dates and appearances, trying to plead his innocence. He had been part of a murder earlier in the year, a young seventeen year old girl the victim of a drug deal gone bad. Though he didn't pull the trigger, Joe had lied to the cops countless times about his involvement and when the truth came out, he was charged with being an accomplice. Thankfully his five hundred dollar an hour hotshot lawyer had been able to talk down his sentencing to five years due to his clean record and his parents being pillars of their community, having donated millions of dollars over the course of twenty years to the streets of New Orleans.

Nonetheless, that was five years that Joe would never get back. Five years that he'd be forced to wear an orange jumpsuit, eating three meals a day, limited contact with the outside world, sleeping on a hard cot in a small cell with some creep for a cellmate. Five years away from Jon, which was ultimately the hardest part in all of this and hard how would be proven once the prisoner would be set free and return to the place he'd called home all his life.

But that's skipping too far ahead- both Jon and Joe had faced a hell of a lot more before that jail cell opened to let Joe out and ignoring those hardships would be a fool's mistake. Their story isn't necessarily a happy one, but one of heartbreak, twists, turns, and secrets that will leave anyone wondering how much more two men in love can take before it shattered that sacred bond forever.