Dear Readers,

This is the last content from the previously unreleased story chapters over the years. It involves a new girl, a story narrative I had hoped to develop into a full scheme of jealousy between Leslie and Skylar. I've preserved some of that beginning friction, but ultimately, I never did finish beyond this point, so I have tried to best tie off and finalise things from my thoughts from years ago. This mostly takes place as a flashback after Judy's accident, continuing the series of flashbacks that Jess is having, and ultimately, serving as the final and last one in this story.

Chapter 7– A Bit of Dubiousness

"Damn what? Everything okay down there Jess?" Leslie pondered.

"Yeah, I was uh...just having trouble printing but it printed...how about you?"

"Did I print?" she whimsically replied. "Almost done with the bags, Jess."

I smiled. At least some of her joking behaviour had returned. It seemed ever so relevant to my thoughts from a year ago, when she was still herself; a younger, more playful teenager.

Then again, high school had proved a challenge for us both; I tried to pass as Leslie tried to excel. But yet again, what had really changed? I was beer and she was wine...or so the phrase I heard from Dayton Park went.

Still, even though I hadn't got any smarter, (Les would always say I knew more than I'd admit, which was true, but I wouldn't tell her) I had hoped things for us would get easier.

-Hopefully, the answer was within our inextricable past...parts of a past that I regret. My mind resumed to those regrets, awhile later from Judy's accident.

The next day I woke up late due to the work of the weekend. With no time to eat or even comb my hair, I stormed out of the house and into my dad's pickup in time to ride with Brenda to town—an arrangement we both tolerated while most of the family was still busy working clearing brush and rearranging a scruffy and roughed up house. It had already been more than a month and I hardly noticed anymore any of the damage. I paid little attention now with my part-time job consuming much of my time, much the same as my Dad. He had to balance his job and working on the house.

At 7:58 A.M, I ran into the office. My boss raised his eyebrows.

"In a bit of a rush?" he posed half-heartedly noticing my shortness of breath and dishevelled appearance.

I must've blushed before I found myself at a desk with a stack of request orders for certain drawings. I was a one-man creativity department for this small paper company and the pressure was on.

Like the famous Michelangelo of the Renaissance, the images already existed, yet needed a helping hand to become fully visible. The medium was paper and pen, the translator myself, from the lands of imagination to the bounds of tangible reality. When I was in the zone, so to speak, the world faded away. From time to time, I'd find myself in deep contemplation of my personal affairs, but I was too upset to think of her. No, make Superman a little taller...how his legs are a bit thin...add some blue paint to his cape.

"That isn't superman." I muttered to myself crumpling up the paper.

"No, it's best not to think of her now; It's just a phase she's going through I'm sure, you know how girls are Jess." My hand found itself drawing yet another super hero as thoughts of Leslie faded away. If it wasn't for my passion and focus, I'd have broken down and cried.

However, at noon that day right at lunch, my phone buzzed again.

I answered it.

"Hi Jess? I'm in town today shopping. I dunno if you want to meet up and talk about yesterday but…"

I interrupted her.

"No Leslie, have fun."

"Jes..." I hung up my phone without a further delay as I took a large bite into the freshly crisp sandwich my Mom had prepared. The salty turkey combined with the whole wheat bread and light American cheese seemed to bring a nostalgia upon me. The familiarity of home could be tasted here in that sandwich.

Again, my phone wrung.

"No damn it, I don't want to talk about yesterday or think ab…..."

"Jess?" said a shy voice.

I froze. "Skylar I'm sorry, I am having a rough day and I thought you were...someone else."

"It's all right," she chirped. "Wanna meet me at the Cafe quarter to four?"

"Absolutely" I replied with a mouthful. "I'll be there."

She giggled, "See you."

Any cessation from the world of Leslie would do. Even though I realised Skylar liked me, I wouldn't let that hinder this little journey. Of course, I still loved Leslie and that would never change. But for now, I couldn't stand her name, nor her changing attitude about Terabithia.

At 3:30 pm, I trekked to the small corner cafe. The cafe's outside patio provided a refreshing break from the relentless rush of life, with the cool light breeze and the tall oak trees granting shimmers of sun-rays passage through late summer leaves which hit upon my face. The sunny warmth made the moment feel idyllic, as if time stopped.

I sipped from the fabric-like coffee cup and let my mind zone-out as if I were painting. "Work went well," I thought. "Dad will be busy fixing the house's tornado damage and Brenda won't pick me up till 5:20."

There was a thought that made me shiver. Brenda providing taxi cab service, so to speak. But that's what I had to live with until my dad was free from repairing the house, or I had bought my own truck. I sighed resting my back further in the cafe chair.

At that moment, I saw Skylar.

Her beautiful yard long reddish brunette hair that stretched from her delicate freckled face to her bosom blew gently in the wind. Her soft yet delicate eyes seemed to light up catching first sight of me, and then there was her smile; white as the twinkle of a star and as gorgeous as perhaps a spring day in France; it opened so wide and welcoming-as if she had either won the lottery or found a joke so amusing she couldn't contain herself. I smiled back as her petite figure came within an arm's distance and she sat nimbly down, even pulling the chair closer to get a better look at her crush—Jesse Aarons.

"Holy shit," I whispered, "She's hot."

"How are you?" Skylar practically giggled.

"I'm doing good. Long day at work!"

Skylar picked at her dark bomber leather jacket—it wasn't even that cold I thought, but perhaps I was so warm. Then she started sipping from my coffee cup and chuckled, "Frappuccino huh?"

"Um, yeah...little mocha..."

"How's home?"

"It's great uh...things going well with the parents and my sisters..." I fibbed, hating the driving to work arrangement with Brenda, the storm repair going on at home, and still a slight bit dazed over my mother-in-law's health from the prior accident.

Skylar's lips were biting her sheepskin's wool.

"Pretty day out, isn't it?"

"Yes." she said softly offering her arm: "Care for a walk?"

I interwove my arm with hers and carried down the light thoroughfare.

For a while, we walked in quietness until I finally had an urge to break the rather awkwardly long silence.

"So, what are you in town for?"

"Just felt like it" she laughed.

"How's your grandmother doing?" I quipped a bit nervously. Yes, I could tell clearly, she felt the same as I did, even since we only briefly first met, but I had never communicated so flirtatiously with another young woman, much less someone like Sky.

"She's good. We're getting moved into the Langshires estate still."

Ah, the Langshires: a well-to-do family, much like the Burkes. They were composed of some of Lark Creek's finest snobby residents and neighbours of Gary Fulcher's well-to-do Aunt Bethany. I hoped Skylar hadn't met Gary's family for her sake.

"Ah, that's a real great place up on some great hills and the neighbors are fantastic" I lied.

"Yeah," Skylar smiled, "maybe you could come up and visit sometime?"

"You see, I don't really have my own car." I laughed half-heartedly, trying to perhaps distance myself from the invitation. "I borrow a ride with my dad or occasionally my sisters."

Skylar smiled. "Well I could drive you."

By now we were flirting beyond merely between the lines. This must've went on for a good half-hour as we covered the small city limits of Lark Creek at least twice passing the cafe. Regardless, the walk seemed short and I will not recall what we spoke about for it brings such regret to mind. At this point though, we found ourselves in front of Skylar's BMW and the local grocery store, the same and only store that my Dad would work at. I felt obliged to at least go in with her to buy some "muffins" as Skylar had wanted. Of course, she didn't come to town for merely my company.

Just like the Burkes, she favoured the English muffins. I couldn't help but smile at the similar selection of foods she desired. I just followed her lead and helped carry her basket; by now brimming with more than purely muffins. She seemed so excited at the prospect of organics, and fashionable delicacies from regions of the world I could hardly pronounce. No, my world in comparison to hers was by far a simple one; a canvas, some paints and a brush was all I needed to explore the world by which she found through taste and fancy labels.

"I won't hear another word of it!" she gossiped with one of the employees. "I must have the Earl Grey, Darjeeling will not do!"

At that moment, snickering, I looked at my watch. It was getting late and my ride with Brenda would soon be arriving.

The gentle ringing of the store door bell, the heels of shoppers and their little one's running a-round. I smiled remembering when I once was a child too, a sentiment no doubt triggered by Skylar's childish playfulness. Why did I find that so attractive?

Inevitably, I moved over beside her, hesitant with some reservation until the point I asked, "Skylar, why me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you like me?"

She came closer to me, face to face and still moved closer. At this point, it was way too close for comfort, but I didn't resist.

She kissed me.

"You know why."

"Skylar." I said after a small pause. "I'm..."

My mind wandered and played a most troubling scenario as I contemplated the kiss and what I'd say to Skylar:

"Jesse Aarons!" yelled a shrill voice.

I quickly turned my head to see a blonde Leslie Burke with a gaping mouth and a bag full of groceries in her arm in deep disbelief.

Skylar frowned at my pause, a gaze lost apparently not in her.

"I am with someone else." I muttered.

"You are? Oh, you didn't tell me that-she's very lucky."

"I uh...I'm sorry."

Skylar bit her lip, which seemed on the verge of pouting as her eyes became teary.

"Skylar..."

She smiled uncomfortably and held my hand to the cash register. Together we loaded her "goodies" all amazingly into one brown bag without exchanging much conversation, just the occasional "here" or soft mutter when at last she whispered, "You know where to find me."

Then she kissed my cheek and left as mysteriously as she came into my life, like a daydream on the wind. "Poor girl," I thought to myself watching her climb into her car and drive off slowly down the sunsetting avenue.

At that same moment, the real Leslie Burke rolled into view.

"What are you doing here? Why did you hang up on me?" Les' eyes welled with surprise and sadness.

"I'm not sure, myself." I echoed, still a bit shocked from what had just happened.

Never again would I stray from my love.

Eventually, I told Leslie about the whole story and for a while, it set our feelings back a bit. Eventually, she forgave me for it all, and I forgave her for being a bit insensitive about Terabithia.

-For, if my entire past taught me anything, it was that we always made up. Leslie knew when I needed her, and I knew when she needed me, and that was for life—in every point of our lives that we knew each other.

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