"My name is Hyde! H. Y. D. E. Hyde. Not Steven, and sure as hell not any cutesy nickname you come up with!" He screamed
The poor girl looked downcast with her bright smile fading. "But shnuckums…"
"I'm sorry, did I fail to mention that I'm not you shnuckums? Dumbass."
Her bright blue eyes pooling with tears, the girl picked up her bag and left his room, and him, behind her.
Hyde rolled his eyes at her dramatics. Honestly, didn't she know him, or at least OF him? Didn't she know that his name was Hyde, and that he never went by Steven, or let ANYONE call him that? And how could she possibly think, having SEEN him that he'd let her call him Puddin-Pop… uh… Shnuckums. Damn it. He'd done it again. He'd thought about HER. Once again, Steven Hyde had failed miserably. But then, he told himself, that's what he'd always been destined to do. Fail. At everything, be it tests, work, life, love. He was, inherently, a failure. As was evidenced by the long stream of girls who had come into and out of his room, not only not lasting, but never actually doing anything while in his room. One after the other he'd either scared them off, or sent them away.
Not that that had anything to do with Jackie. He was completely over Jackie Burkhart. Had been since the day he'd found her with Kelso. She was not the reason he'd kicked his ex-wife out, nor was she the reason he was unable to settle down in a relationship. She was so far from the reason he had left the gang. He certainly didn't do that because they reminded him of her. Not at all.
She also wasn't the reason he watched "Saturday Night Live" religiously. He didn't do that because she was one of the stars, he simply watched because a) it was funny, and b) it made fun of the man. Perfect for someone like him. Who liked to laugh and hated the man. And he didn't watch her bits closest because he was still in love with her because a) he'd never actually been in love with her, and b) he only did it because she was given, by some cruel trick of fate, the best parts.
Besides. He'd heard she had a KID now. Clearly she'd moved on, and if she was over him, he was so far beyond over her. Steven Hyde didn't love anyone who didn't love him ten times more. And he certainly didn't to the whole 'love, unrequited' thing. That was for nancy boys like Forman.
Or, rather, he'd already done the whole love unrequited thing. For Bud as a child. Because what kid didn't love his dad, even if that dad didn't return the sentiment? Then he'd felt it for Edna. Even if she had left him, she was still his mother. And every kid loves his mother. And that, he concluded was why he kept kicking girls out of his bed, not Jackie. He was just ditching them before they could get too close, and before they could ditch him. Because Steven Hyde didn't do getting ditched. And that, again not Jackie, was why he'd left both the gang and the Formans. Because if someone was going to cut their ties, as someone inevitably would, it would have to be him, not them. If it was them, then he'd be the one left feeling abandoned and unloved. Better that it be them.
With that settled Hyde returned to his favorite activity: going through pictures of Jackie. But not because he was in love with her, but simply because she was hot. Who needed Playboy when you had your own personal collection of photos?