I do not own any of the characters presented in this story other than Terry. No copyright infringement is intended. All other characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

12. FRIEND

My paws carried me away. Away from my house. Away from the painful memories. I was just running through the trees, but my mind was racing. I can't believe I hit Bella… What's going on with me? Violence isn't a result of depression. I wish Terry was here, he'd help me through this…

Maybe I can help. It was Seth.

Seth leave me alone. I'm not in the mood.

I can see that. You hit Bella? Is she ok? He was persistent.

I don't even know. I ran away as soon as I realized what I did. I stopped running then. I had reached a destination that I did not plan on going to. I thought I was being led subconsciously away from all the pain.

Apparently not. I was being brought back to the epicenter of it all. The babbling brook in the background was at complete odds with the surge of painful memories flooding my mind.

I looked around and saw the spot in the grass where Terry had scrambled around trying to get away from me. The mental image was almost as bad as it actually happening. The entire scenario played out in front of me.

I collapsed to the ground in pain. I just wanted it to go away.

Jake… Are you ok?

God damn it Seth! Why does everyone continue to ask me that? Does it look like I'm ok? I hated yelling at Seth but I was fed up with everything.

Seth didn't respond. At all.

I lay there in silence, trapped by torturous memories. Why did I come here…?

"To heal." Edward walked out from behind the trees. "There's an old saying, 'to heal, we must first bleed'."

Why are you here? Why do you keep checking up on me? Is it you feel you owe me something? I was the one constantly trying to take Bella away from you, I even just HIT her! Why are you trying to help me? I don't deserve your help! I couldn't even help Terry when he needed it most…

"I'm here because I promised Terry I would be." He sat down next to me.

What?

"Before Terry left he asked me to do him a favor. He said, 'Jacob was there for Bella when you left. Please, can you be there for Jacob?'. It made me realize that this could be my way of showing you that I care about you. We are friends, right?"

I guess…

He smiled. "Now Jacob, I need you to come with me."

Why? I don't want to move.

"If I'm going to be able to help you to the best of my ability, I need to actually feel what you're feeling."

It made no sense to me. You're going to get Bella to leave you?

Edward shook his head, laughing. "No, no. We're going to see my family. Jasper can control people's feelings, you know that, correct?"

I nodded. But I don't want him to manipulate how I feel. I don't want to feel better because of his voodoo magic.

He laughed again. "That's not what I meant. Jasper can control people's feelings, but he also feels every emotion the people around him have. So he will be able to know exactly how you're feeling.

And then project the exact emotion on to you?

He nodded.

I don't want that. I don't want anyone to feel the way I feel, this is a miserable experience that I wouldn't want anyone else to feel. I wasn't that heartless.

"Trust me. It'll be fine. Besides, I made a promise to Terry and I intend to keep it." He stood up and looked at me. "What do you say?"

I felt compelled to trust Edward. It seemed like he genuinely wanted to help me. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't demanding I go with him that made me stand up after him. He was giving me the choice to come or not.

Edward started to run towards his house and I followed him. For a brief moment I felt better. Not happy, by no means was I happy, but everything felt a little lighter.

Edward?

"Yes?"

Thank you.

He laughed. "No problem. That's what friends are for, right?"

Right. I was really beginning to like Edward. If his idea to feel what I feel worked and he wanted to help me feel better the way I did for Bella, maybe we would become really good friends.

Don't get me wrong, the pack was always there for me, but they didn't know what I was dealing with. And if Edward could actually pull his plan off, maybe he could help me.

After all, misery loves company.