Shane:

"Are you sure about this?" I asked searching her eyes for an answer.

She averted her brown eyes for a moment before looking at me again, "Jenny was my girlfriend, Shane. I want to help you clean out her room."

I sighed and put a tentative hand on her shoulder, "thank you, Carmen." I turned around to look at Max who was sitting oddly silent on the couch. "Max, what about you?" I asked.

"I can’t, Shane," Max responded tears welling up in his eyes, "I just can’t go in that room."

"That’s okay Max, you don’t have to," I said softly.

"Thanks," Max said softly, averting her sad eyes away from my blue ones.

"Hey Max," I said tenderly, "Tom is an asshole okay. You’re gonna be a great dad." I don’t know what possessed me to say what I did, but it was the right thing to say. She gave me her small Max smile and nodded.

I gave Carmen a small nod and we went to Jenny’s door. I stood there watching the door, unable to move, unable to open it. It was Carmen who let out a sigh and opened the door. She went in and looked around the room. I froze at the doorway, the smell of my best friend entering my system, memories flooding my brain, and tears filling my eyes.

"Shane," Carmen said wiping tears from her eyes, "come on."

I nodded and stepped into Jenny’s room hesitantly. "Let’s start with the closet," I said softly. Carmen nodded and we walked to the closet. We looked at Jenny’s clothes and art supplies and we stood there frozen for moment.

"I remember when we were cleaning out her closet, things that she wanted to forget about her life," I said, "she didn’t want to throw anything away. She threw away some things from her relationship with Tim but refused to throw away anything from her relationship with Marina or anyone else after her."

"I guess they all meant something to her," Carmen commented, "well except Tim, I guess."

"No," I said, "look." I pointed towards a dirty, torn up pink sweater that was hanging on the side of the closet. "That was the shirt she wore when she married Tim," I said, "she didn’t even grab it as an option to throw away."