"Just… go!" And with that last statement Leah pushed me into Jake's room. I stumbled slightly over the door frame before grimacing at Leah as I shut the door. It's not that I didn't want to talk to my brother about what was happening. It was just that I found it really hard to see him this broken up over a girl that didn't deserve it.

I am biased. Sue me.

Jake was sitting up – as he frequently altered positions to avoid arm and leg cramps with all those braces – with his eyes closed. I crawled up on his bed and I'll admit that it was nice to feel small for once. I was still getting used to having Jake be bigger than me, but it was not an unwelcome change. I leaned against the wall with him and let my head fall onto his shoulder.

"So," I began, "I have this friend…"

"No. Way," Jake replied without moving. "Call the press. Rachel Black has a friend." Normally Jake's taunting me was funny, but his heart just wasn't in it and I myself didn't have the heart to give him that swift punch to the bicep.

"Believe it little brother. Anyways, this friend of mine – well – she just cut it off with somebody."

"Really now?" Jake was obviously not buying my weird line of 'my friend' scenarios in order to see the solution to his own problems. But I didn't plan on keeping on that path. My chemistry degree didn't come with an introductory psychology class for nothing.

"Yeah, and she's kinda torn up about it. I don't know what to tell her."

"Tell her there are plenty of fish in the sea."

I rolled my eyes, but glad this was going how I hoped it would. Now I could properly turn the tables on him. "Well that just doesn't work. She can't just get over someone – someone she's been so close to with some ancient proverb."

You see, my brother loved an argument. He'd make a great lawyer some day because he'll argue points-of-view that aren't even his own, just for the sake of debate. So what I was hoping here, that because I took his position on the break-up matter – he'd be forced to take the role of me: the person who was supposed to snap him out of it. Thereby snapping himself out of it with his own logic.

Because if there's anything more closely tied to a love for argument than being able to approach the matter from the other side, I don't know what it is. Sure, Jacob might've thought I'd originally been reverse-psychology-ing him, but he was not of clear enough mind to see that I was reversing my reverse psychology.

"Well, geez. I dunno. You can't really talk someone out of their own emotions. She's gonna feel what she's gonna feel."

"But she's so upset," I emphasized. "It's really hard to see her the way she is."

I felt Jake shrug beneath me. "You think you have it hard, you could be actually experiencing it."

"But she is the only one in charge of herself. She has the power to change her own state of mind more than anyone else. All I can do it watch and hope. I feel like I can't affect any change in her."

"You probably can't. Some things a person just needs to work through themselves. There's a process y'know? And it sucks to have to watch it, but it is what it is."

Oh no; Jake was not trying to teach me a lesson here. This was about him.

"So you're saying that this will all pass?" I queried trying to turn the conversation a bit.

"Pretty much. I mean think about it, she's not going to be upset forever. It's fleeting. The joy of the human mind is that it will only retain and mourn over the same thing for so long. She'll get better and it fades out."

"So it's just a simple matter of the passage of time?"

"Yeah, and after she's gotten over the shock of it, she'll probably realize what an asshole the guy was – or a moron or chump or whatever made him bail on her – and she'll realize that it's better that way."

"That's all fine and well, but what the heck am I supposed to do in the meantime? Just sit and watch?"

"Yeah," Jake nodded. "It's not your battle to fight Rach, sometimes there are things in this world that you just can't help someone with. You can be there if they need you, but you can't fix it for them."

"But that just doesn't seem right. To sit and watch."

"Well I guess it's a good thing. It means you care a lot, and I bet this friend of yours sees that and really appreciates it – knows you love them – but if you keep over-worrying about them, they're gonna feel bad."

"What do you mean?" This was genuine question as Jake was taking by triple reverse psychobabble to unexpected places.

"I mean, she might feel guilty that you're tearing yourself about her issues. So she'll start acting like everything's fine – before everything is fine, because she doesn't want you to stay upset either."

"What? She would do that?" I was shocked. Was he onto what I was doing or really just talking in abstractions with me.

"I dunno," he shrugged again against my own shoulder. "It makes sense though. She probably doesn't want to make the situation worse and drag someone else down with her. This is why you sometimes need to give people some space and not worry so much."

With that one, I was fairly certain he was crossing the boundary from my theoretical friend to the real situation we were both living in. I glanced up at him, my eyes narrowed. Help I may be trying to give him, but I didn't like him painting me as some kind of nag.

"I'm not a worry-wart."

"Ha!" he laughed once. "You totally are, Rachel. You worry like it's your damn job. And part of that is awesome because it shows that you really, truly care. But part of it's also gonna make you sick one day. You can't fight every battle for everyone. Otherwise you'll forget about your own."

No. Way.

My little brother just owned me at my own game. I guess he was growing up.

After Jake figured me out, he at least humored me by eating some food. He never made any mention of eventually getting over this. Just because I never liked Bella doesn't mean my brother never did. I didn't want this to stay with him forever. That kind of thing could totally happen, right? If you cared about someone so much. I just didn't want him sad forever. Or going crazy.

When my eyes started to droop he insisted he would be fine – though the timeline on that was not mentioned – and I should go to bed. I agreed, only because I wasn't sure there was much more I could do. Jake was right. All I could do was be there.

Jake also didn't let me forget about the 'solving my own problems' bit of his advice. Though I speculate this was purely for selfish reasons, because I saw his phone had 23 missed alerts from Paul. Boy was damn lucky, because I had 57.

I finally turned my phone off – deciding that would be more effective than my heaving it against the wall of my room – and went to bed. The last few days had been taxing – though I wouldn't admit it. Yesterday, I was attacked by a vampire – there wasn't really any getting around that. Today, I had crossed into enemy territory, tried to heal my brother's soul and royally screwed up my relationship with Paul.

That last bit I didn't even want to think about. So with a grimace I shrugged into some sweats and burrowed into the soft warmth of my own bed.