A/N: Chapter Four.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bridge to Terabithia or any of it's characters or places.
Little House
Chapter 3
Just a while later
With Leo and Leslie
"So, how were the waves?" Leslie noticed how Leo talked faster than normal. She assumed that he was nervous about something. "They were great. What's up?" Her eyebrows rose slightly. Leo sighed. He knew he had to tell her. "Well, you know when I was talking to Jesse earlier?" Leslie almost groaned in frustration. She didn't want to talk about Jesse. She didn't want to think of Jesse.
Leo stared at her. "Yeah. I know." Her voice had a hint of annoyance, but she quickly straightened herself up. "What about it?" Her voice got more cheerful. "Well, he kinda said that he didn't want to hang with her. Not really. She keeps pushing on him, or so he says at least." Leslie kept silent for a couple of minutes. Neither of them needed to say who she was for the other to understand. "She probably is." Then she shrugged.
Leo stared at her for a second. "Wait, you actually believe him?" Leo looked shocked. He obviously didn't expect that. "Sure. Why wouldn't I? You see how she is." Leo obviously still didn't get it. His eyebrows were knit together in concentration, and his lips were pushed together tightly.
"Then, why are you so angry with him?" Leo finally seemed able to form a coherent sentence. "I'm not angry with him. I just know that I can't handle getting hurt by him again." Leo looked at her. It didn't take a genius to understand that she was talking straight from her heart.
"Is it okay that I-" Leslie cut him off. "Yes. Of course you can start to talk to Jesse and be his friend again." Leo kept his gaze looked on her for a while, trying to analyze whether or not she actually meant it. After drawing the conclusion that she did, he nodded thankfully.
"You could possibly be forced to talk to him then, you know that, right?" Leslie nodded. She was aware of that. But she knew it was worth it. For Leo's sake, it was worth it.
Later
At the mall
Jesse was truly suffering every second of it. Every single second used on watching Vicki looking at and buying clothes was torture. Jesse cringed every time she drew money from her credit card, and he shuddered every time she asked him if he thought she was fat. She was nowhere near fat, and she knew it. She just wanted him to say it.
After the sixteenth store, and the third hour, Jesse had gotten pretty tired of it. That's why, when Leo texted him and asked if he could come to the mall, Jesse told him where he was. Which is again is why Leo conveniently stumbled into them.
A week later
On the beach
For once Leo had managed to drag Leslie down to the beach without her bringing her surfboard. Leo had told Jesse to come too, and told Leslie to prepare herself that Vicky probably would come too. Leslie had sighed, but had come with Leo nevertheless.
And, just as Leo had predicted, Jesse showed up, looking rather defended, with Vicky hanging on his arm. Jesse greeted them both with a smile, while Vicky on the other hand rolled her eyes at them.
"I don't understand why I have to do this." She hissed in Jesse's ear, just loudly enough for Leo and Leslie to hear. "You don't. The fact that I want to do this, doesn't mean you have to do it too." Jesse replied, his voice normally loud, demonstrating that he didn't talk behind Leo and Leslie's backs.
Vicky rolled her eyes again, this time at him. "Of course I have to come! I can't leave you alone with her!" Leo then decided to interfere. He knew it probably wasn't a smart thing to do, but it would be very humorous. "Yeah, hi, I'm here too you know."
Leslie smiled in support to him at once, and Jesse desperately tried to hide a smile. Vicky looked like she absolutely hated him. "Fine. See you later, Jesse." With those words she stomped off.
"Can't say I'm disappointed that she left." Leo smiled. Leslie nodded in agreement, while Jesse surprisingly enough replied. "Me neither. She's driving me nuts." As the two in front of him laughed, Jesse eyed them both. He eyed Leslie for some more seconds than he probably should, but heck, he had missed her.
A lot.
So nobody could blame him. Not really. After all, he had spent two whole, freaking years without her. This was the closest she had been standing to him for as long as he could remember.
Leo noticed this, but didn't say anything. How could he? Even if he had tried to deny it, he had seen just how badly Jesse had hurt because of this whole situation with Vicky. The way Jesse had been so pale the first weeks, the way he had been staring over at Leslie in every class they had together, the way his eyes had been so bloodshot.
Leo had noticed. He had wanted to help him, so very badly. But he couldn't. The reason he hadn't done anything for Jesse, was the reason he had done everything else; Leslie.
She may not have been hurting more, but it seemed like that to Leo, since he could see her suffering up close. No matter how obvious and visible her hurting had been though, Leo had never seen her cry.
Not once.
And it amazed him, merely because he saw how badly hurt she really was. Yet she acted like everything was fine. She always smiled and laughed when others was around. She pretended to be that happy girl everybody expected her to be.
Leo was surprised she was able to act as if nothing was wrong to everyone else. He could see how her world was shattering every time she just saw Jesse the first couple of months.
Leo wasn't quite sure if she really had stopped hurting, or had just gotten so good to hide it that not even Leo could tell whether or not she was fine. Leo didn't know, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know either.
In all honesty, he'd rather not know if she was hurting. It would have been best for everyone if she and Jesse just became friends again. They probably would have become friends, hadn't Vicky told Leslie that Jesse was talking crap about her behind her back.
Now, that was not the problem. She didn't have any proof, and Leslie didn't believe nor care about it. It just got complicated when Vicky started to tell Leslie how immature and childish and stupid Jesse thought Terabithia was.
Leo was pretty sure that it wasn't true, but Vicky knew where Terabithia was and what Jesse and Leslie had been doing there and stuff. It was clearly no way she could be guessing all the things she knew. And telling Vicky about Terabithia, that was the worst thing Jesse could possibly do to Leslie.
Jesse wasn't aware of what Vicky had told Leslie. If he had known tough, he would tell you that it was bullshit. That it wasn't true. After all, he had never said a word to anyone about Terabithia. Leslie and Jesse had told Dakota about Terabithia.
But they had done it together.
For one of them, alone, to tell someone else about Terabithia, that would be the same as betraying the other person.
Leo knew that Jesse was unaware of what Vicky knew. Leo didn't know how she figured it out, but she didn't hear it from Jesse, he was sure of it.
That's when Leo decided to tell Jesse exactly what had been going down.
