Sharp-Tongued Orphan Armor
Jackie told Hyde that she loved him. Boldly she proclaimed it, so confident in her words. Hyde was her knight in shining armor, a discontented teenaged burnout that had a well-disguised weakness for her. He had Zen and thousands of callous burns, but she could see the fragility within, and she exploited it. She made him take her to dances and protect her. She made him go to jail for her.
Jackie had forced her way underneath that armor of his, and he had willingly taken the fall. He had never taken the fall for anyone. He had never fallen for anyone before Jackie, either. Somehow she got to him, despite being the antithesis of everything he believed in. And so it hurt him every time she said she loved him.
Hyde knew that Jackie didn't love him. She had a crush, a silly, wild crush that flitted excitedly around in the shallow waters of her emotions. She loved him on the surface, and she embraced it because he was the opposite of Michael, and Michael had hurt her. She wanted love to be something different, something purer than controlling games she'd played; something purer than being cheated on. Hyde was scruffy, and poor, and dirty in more ways than one, but despite his caustic exterior, he was genuine and real. Jackie wanted love that was genuine and real, and so she went after it.
But she'd forgotten that love was a two way street—that she would have to love him back the same way. It was not something she was capable of, not yet. She still lived in a fantasy land, one with unicorns and roller disco and piles of money. She didn't want to leave her artificial world: her distant parents, her cheating boyfriend, her plastic pompoms. She wanted into Hyde's heart without letting him into her own.
It was not Jackie's intention to be cruel, but every time she told Hyde that she loved him, she broke his heart a little bit more. With wide, innocent eyes she tempted him to open up, to trust, to feel. She started a war within him. He knew that people only disappointed him, people like Bud and Edna who were supposed to love him. He knew that all people ever did was screw each other over. He knew that he had his armor for a reason. However, he also knew that the Forman's took him in when money was tight, and that Eric had always been there for him. And there was a part of him that was desperately searching for love and affection his parents never gave him. But Hyde was strong, and even as Jackie started to win the war inside of him, he contained his feelings. He wrote hate-filled haikus and kept a Zen face at all times.
It was not until Chip called Jackie a bitch that Hyde lost control. Jackie was ecstatic, having finally broken through his walls. Mrs. Forman, seeing more than most, but not quite enough, encouraged him, and he gave in.
The date was a painful glimpse at something he couldn't have, sweet and fun and something more. The kiss was even worse, because pulled him from his Zen and his walls and left him vulnerable for when Jackie felt nothing.
It was painful for her as well, because when he kissed her she realized what love really was. She realized that he felt something that she couldn't even understand, and that what she felt was silly and insincere in comparison. Any relationship she tried to have with him would be hollow and hurtful to both of them.
That night, he lay down on his musty cot in the basement and rediscovered his sharp-tongued orphan armor. Across town, Jackie lay down on her fluffy pink bed covered in stuffed animals and rediscovered her shallow life, filled with lots of money and empty promises of love.
Years later, she would tell him she loved him, and she would mean it, but on this night, they went separate ways.