Free My Heart is Yours by Amanda Morey

hugging him tightly.
    “Ow.” He said. She pulled away. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are
you okay?” She gently touched his cheek.
    He smiled at her. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?”
    “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” She beamed. She took his
face in her hands and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He put his
hands on her waist. After a few minutes they pulled away. Jason was
blushing.
    “I love you.” Sam said.
    “I love you, too.” He said, and pushed her hair back
out of her face.
    The phone rang and Craig walked from the living room
to pick it up.
    “Hello?” He said.
    “Oh yeah, Sam and Jason are fine thanks. How’s
Derek?” He asked.
    Then he was completely silent, listening intently to
the people on the other end. Derek’s parents probably.
    Craig hung up the phone with a grim look on his
face. He let out a long breath.
    “Craig? What is it?” Sam asked, leaning forward from
her spot on the couch.
    “Derek.” He said.
    “What about him?” Sam asked slowly.
    “That was his parents.” Craig began.
    “How is he?” She shot the question at him.
    “Sam, Derek was shot in the chest . . .”
    “I know . . .”
    Craig sighed again. “The bullet went right through
his heart, they did everything they could but he didn’t make
it.”
    Didn’t make it . . . the statement wasn’t
sinking in.
    “Sam, he died. I’m sorry.” Craig dealt the blow to
his baby sister’s heart.
    “He’s . . . he’s dead?” She said to no one in
particular. Then she shook her head trying to shake off the thought
and walked toward her room because she felt tears beginning to form
and she wasn’t one to cry in front of people.
    “Sam.” Craig said. “Sam.” She shook her head and
walked past him.

    They heard her bedroom door close and Craig sighed,
pulled out a chair and sat next to Jason.
    “You think she’ll be okay?” Jason asked his brow
furrowed, looking in the direction of Sam’s bedroom.
    “Yeah, she will. It’ll take a while. But she’ll be
okay.” Craig paused. “Before you go see how she is I want to talk
to you about something.”
    “Okay.” Jason said.
    “You’re gonna be in physical therapy for a while and
you’re gonna need at least some help. You know, you can always stay
here when you need to. Sam really cares about you and she’d never
forgive me if I didn’t ask you to stay with us for a while.”
    “Oh.” Jason raised his eyebrows involuntarily.
    “Look, don’t take it the wrong way. I just know that
your dad’s not gonna be willing to help you. And Sam is gonna
really need you around here now too.” Craig said.
    “Okay.” Jason said. “I’ll stay. Thanks Craig.”
    “You’re welcome.” Craig replied crisply.
    “I’m gonna go check on Sam.” He grabbed up his
crutches and limped to Sam’s room.

    As soon as Sam closed her door she slid to the floor
and started crying. She held her head in her hands and the sobs
came roughly from inside of her.
    Someone else she cared about died. Again. Something
devastating happened. Again. Someone abandoned her. Again. Why did
this keep happening?
    Someone knocked on her door. She didn’t get up.
    “Sam?” She heard Jason’s soft voice. She pulled
herself together, stood up shakily and opened the door.
    As soon as she saw Jason standing there she began
sobbing again. He walked in and closed the door. She wrapped her
arms around him and sobbed into his chest. His white t-shirt was
soaked in a matter of seconds.
    He walked over to the bed with her and sat down so
he could drop his crutches and wrap his arms around her. “I’m
sorry, Sam.” He whispered. Then he just held her.
    Sam continued sobbing with the only person she was
completely comfortable crying in front of. He just held her and
that was all she needed right now. For Jason to hold her. To try to
comfort her because she lost someone again. Just having his arms
around her made her a feel a little bit better. She hoped that she
never lost Jason. She didn’t know what she would do