Dear Readers,

It's been way too long since I last posted to this story (Nov 29, 2013). I apologise, as life had a way of always taking up my time. Sometime around that time, I had written two Chapter 4's and posted the one I preferred. Then the work got left behind for several years until 2015-2016, and I began to write Chapter 5. As you may imagine, that got lost too, and I had to really dig for it, truly, to find it and again work on it in 2018. Well, here it is, and I have incorporated elements from the Chapter 4 I never posted. In short, I have tried to keep the story as true as possible to when I first began writing it. I will post the remaining chapters in the coming days! As a side note continuing the "flashback structure," I have tried to use - lines to show where the chronology in the story changes but the formatting on FanFiction may not allow this very well.

Thank you for your YEARS of understanding and support. Please don't forget to review!

Chapter 5 – Waking Up to Reality

"Hello!" buzzed my phone.

It hadn't even been two hours as my dad and I made our way home.

I didn't reply with any words that were memorable as I immediately forgot what I had typed. Somehow though, I could read between the lines of Skylar's texts. She was eagerly interested in me.

"How was your trip?" Leslie asked as I walked in the front door.

"It was good." I muttered under my breath. "I got the job!"

Leslie's face lit up like a birthday cake for a great grandfather and she openly embraced me. The most embarrassing part about this, however, was my vibrating phone in my pocket which she immediately noticed.

"Boss calling already huh?" Leslie bit her lower lip and lifted her eyebrows.

"Uh yeah, something like that. I uh start tomorrow."

"I'm so happy for you Jess!" she said kissing me.

Brenda and Ellie were gawking at us from afar in their bedroom. It rudely offered an awkward vantage point.

By now the whole house was aware of my accomplishment. My dad though smiled to himself in the kitchen as he prepared himself a steak. He respected my anxiousness.

"Come over to my...house." Leslie yelped then lowered herself to a whisper. Her eyes beamed at me with a passion.

"I uh..." my phone buzzed again.

Leslie took my hand and started tugging.

"I uh..." I tilted my head and saw May Belle snickering.

"What is it with you?" I cried angrily.

"Jess and Les are going to..." I covered her mouth as she began to giggle uncontrollably.

"Maybelle, Maybelle!" my voice sounded in a dire attempt to cover her accusation. Leslie though seemed disinterested in the subtle implications going about and tugged yet harder. "Come on Jess!"

Without further adieu, at least as Leslie's father, Bill, would say, we were off.

The trek we took ended not where I thought, at the Burke's house, but at Terabithia. Leslie was on top of me kissing me widely from our treehouse. I returned the affection.

"We can get our own place and live together and move in together and I can do my studies and blast my music as loud as I want and..."

"Whoa, whoa Les!" I laughed. "What's gotten into you?"

"Your job of course!" she chuckled. "We can be fully independent!"

At this point, I realised that the whole stay between the Burkes and my family, the Aarons, had caused Leslie discomfort. She was proud to be my wife and wanted to love me without the censure and commentary of seven members of the now, 'extended family;' eight when Julie was over.

Perhaps I was a bit slow to catch these things, but it all made sense now.

"Oh of course," I replied an instant later with a deceiving smile, "Our own place...!"

"Yes stupid! Our own place."

"What about Terabithia? How far must we go my queen?"

"Why, we can visit when we must for our meetings and to keep up the Kingdom and..." she paused. Leslie had always been a practical joker, but I could tell she was rapidly losing interest in this fantasy of Terabithia. The magic in her eyes seemed instantly to dwindle at imagination's childhood images, but to excite at the prospect of a fully autonomous adulthood.

"...Jess, this is our future."

I swallowed and replied dismayingly. "What about our past?" "We promised never to forget."

She stuttered and moved off me. Her stance became upright and her legs crossed Indian style. "Jess, I've been your best friend since the fifth grade. But I'm a big enough girl...young woman...to admit it's a little awkward having this childhood fantasy while we're married. Men and women don't play in tree houses like we do. Maybe it's time to grow up."

I was stunned. Leslie's countenance seemed to change from playful to serious in that split second. The words from her mouth completely caught me off guard. I had made a revelation about my wife today; she wanted to be an adult. Perhaps though I wanted to stay young at heart.

"Well you can abandon Terabithia Les, but this place has been home to me during the best of times and helped me keep going through the roughest times. I thought you knew how I felt..."

"I do," Les spoke looking down at herself. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"I want our marriage to be special. It's been a year and I feel as if we're still just boyfriend and girlfriend. The excitement of being married to you is there, but I... want more. I want to lead a life with you, and only you. I want to start our lives anew like real married couples do..."

"It bothers you that much?" I spoke again.

"Yeah. Bill and Judy keep their distance but sometimes it's just awkward trying to be close to you...at school or in public or even together above my parents' bedroom."

I let a moment of silence pass between us.

Hearing her sigh, I let my gaze stare out amongst the treetops of this forest of ours, a place that a benefactor had secured and decided not to develop-incidentally to our fortune. Yet, the separation from my life that I knew so well was one I had never contemplated. Lark Creek was my home. The Aarons were my family, along with my rebellious sisters. Even with my past here in Lark Creek full of the dangers of hurricanes and tornadoes, or burglaries and bullies, or tragic incidents however seemingly numerous, or finding the best friend of my life in the turmoil of it; oh, how Lark Creek was the nursery developing what I was. But more than this, it was Terabithia that remained a focal point of my life. It was a childhood fantasy that made life bearable in times of despair and life unbelievable in times of rejoice.

Without a moment of thought more, I told Leslie how I felt...not so poetically of course; it always came out a jumble. But then she began to quarrel, and I decided to flee the tree house. I ran home. I slammed the front door shut with thoughts of how my best friend was herself no more and it was all my fault.

-"Print damn it!" I yelled. The printer powered on and printed out the reservations. My hands took a hold of them and felt the thin, slippery surface of the hot page. With eyes that gazed upon a window showing the evening rain pour and ears that listened half consciously to the constant yet relaxing pitter-patter of rain, my mind drifted. Leslie was upstairs packing the bags. She was humming to herself as she brushed the golden lochs of hair that I loved so very dearly. I knew she was thinking of Judy, and I began to recall awhile before I got mad with Leslie, awhile before I met Skylar, before summer—the day of Judy's accident.

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