Good Grief Pt 2

The changes. They keep on coming. Yesterday, my beloved brother told me he broke up with his girlfriend of the past EIGHT years. A few weeks ago. AFTER I had emailed her about dropping by this past weekend and giving her some gifts from my trip. AFTER I had even told him I was going to do that. Argh!

Though she and I were never close, I was still puzzled by why she kept insisting that it was ok, I didn't have to drop by, we could wait until the next time we saw each other, which was supposedly when my brother would come home. So when I casually joked to him that "hey your girlfriend seems to be scared of me," and recounted the incident he responded with "oh, we broke up. A couple of weeks ago."

"WHAT?!!!! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because I knew you'd freak out. You don't like change."

Sigh. Either I am certifiably nuts and much too fragile for human consumption or the people around me are much too protective. I think with BF, it's more the latter. With my brother, he just thinks I'm a huge hassle to deal with.

When I asked him more about it, he said "You're too nosy. And pushy."
"I'm your sister. You're supposed to tell me these things." Deal with it. I was the one who stood up for him when our mom said he was too young at 19 to date this girl seriously. I was the one who didn't take sides when our mom stopped speaking to him for weeks because he lied about going away for a weekend trip for their first anniversary. I believe I was also the one who told our mom she was being completely ridiculous when she started nitpicking about this girl's height and ethnicity.

I have been bracing myself for them to get engaged within the year once he comes back home. "Well now, you can unbrace yourself." he tells me.
I asked him what changed? And he says "I've grown and realizing more of what I want in someone."
I tell him, "I just want to know what that is, because I'm curious. I've always admired how well you balanced your relationship with everything else."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," he replies.
"You nitwit, I'm not trying to flatter you. I was being sincere."

Brothers. AUGHHHH! I said I'd call him but he decided to go play poker with his buddies instead and wouldn't pick up my call, nor call me back. I wonder how the rest of the family will cope because I'm sure not saying anything. I wonder how she's coping, because so like a guy, he actually thinks she's fine by now. He had been thinking about it for awhile but when I asked if he had discussed his thoughts with her earlier or if he just sprung it on her, he said "uh, more the latter." When I told him that it would likely take her over a year to get over this, he replied "wow, that's a long time." Duh.

So with that, another person out of our lives. I've decided to send her the gifts anyway and not mention the breakup or my lame-ass brother. I've decided that even though I'm disappointed in him in how he handled the breakup, I'm not going to tell him that. And I've also decided that I'm gonna have to figure out some mad coping skills before everyone is afraid to tell me anything. Either that, or I'm going to learn to at least fake it and feign the rock solid exterior of Queen Elizabeth.