Blood Ties by Josephine Barly

holier-than-thou attitude. Do you think it’s easy, trying to live my life with you and Kelly by my side, always nagging me to change my ways? Haven’t you ever considered that maybe you’re the ones who need the attitude change? Mom sees nothing wrong in me, and she’s the sanest person I know! I do not have a drinking problem; I’m always fine, but all Brody does is overreact and make a huge deal out of everything! And you certainly like to magnify what you consider to be my problem Samantha, so that you can come in riding your stallion and save the day, don’t you? Stop trying to find bad things in me to make yourself feel better, and focus on your own defects!” Noel spat out at me, shoved his chair back, stood up and stormed off; I heard the door slam shut.
    Jared entered the kitchen, pulled a chair, sat by my side and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned onto him and took a deep breath; I was shocked. Noel’s reaction had surprised me; I’d expected an outburst like the one he’d had if he’d been drunk…But sober? He was in a deeper denial than I’d thought.
    “I’m sorry you had to endure that because of my insistence,” Jared said apologetically, after kissing my forehead.
    I shook my head slowly, dismissing his statement.
    “I needed to get that out of my system, Jared. The conversation with Noel was inevitable; the fact that it took place now is actually a relief for me; I’m at peace with myself, I’m not carrying the pressure of caring for him anymore. I know it sounds awful, but he’s quite literally drained me.”
    “You don’t owe me any explanations, Sam. I only care about your feelings; Noel is a big man who should take responsibility over his actions. If he can’t do it and he’s in the denial I think he is, I believe the answer would be a serious therapeutic treatment. But that’s none of my business. Will you be all right?”
    I sighed and nodded. His embrace felt comfortable and safe, exactly what I needed.
    We remained seated, holding each other for a short while. Neither of us spoke, for we both dwelled in the silence.
    Jared’s cell phone rang and we parted. I decided I’d take a shower, get dressed and go over to Susie’s to carry out my part of her will.
    Once I was set to go, I went to the living-room to let Jared know of my plan for the rest of the morning and possibly early afternoon. He agreed but told me he’d obviously join me, so I had to wait about twenty minutes until he was ready to go as well.
    At Susie’s apartment, we ran into Ray, who was looking at photo albums, piling up the ones they appeared in together and the others separately. He nodded in acknowledgement at us, but wasn’t very sociable. I guess he was still upset at my interrogation, plus the emotional pain brought by going through Susie’s stuff.
    I went to her bedroom and was surprised to find the bed was bare. Then I realized the police or crime scene investigators had probably taken the linens as evidence. Jared confirmed my suspicions.
    I took a deep breath and looked around. Where to begin?
    I decided to start with Susie’s jewelry . We’d shared a passion for long, dangly, colorful, eye-catching earrings, so most of them I kept. I separated the ones I wouldn’t be taking back home with me and placed them in a small bag. I moved on to her walk-in closet.
    I gazed around at the folded shirts, the hanging pants, skirts and dresses, the lined up shoes an d boots, the piled up sweaters…Susie’s scent was still there. I had to blink repeatedly to keep tears from running down my face. Jared had realized I’d gotten upset, and he gently squeezed my hand to let me know I had his support. I nodded, took a deep breath in, and started going through sweaters.
    Unfortunately, Susie often chose creamy or camel colored clothes; I say unfortunately because due to the fact that my skin color is very light, if I were to wear her clothes in winter, I’d look like the living-dead. I’m not the kind of