Weeks went by without any contact between her and me.
It was a pretty eventful time, too. Foreman screwed up getting back together with Donna and Kelso ran away from being engaged with Jackie. Eventually we found out they both went to California and stayed with Donna's Mom. And I was stuck in Point Place with a bunch of moping people.
It took quite some time until everything settled down again and after that it just became boring. Even more boring than usual. Hard to imagine, I know.
Sometimes I thought of Becca when I looked at Jackie. She also had this air of helplessness and a certain type of innocence. Then, one day, I started making out with her. I don't know, I guess she had been coming on to me for a while. That whole business after her second break-up with Kelso, when she caught him cheating... now he'd run off, it just happened and anyway she's hot. I mean she's also totally spoiled, bossy and shallow, but then there are times when she's just really hot. And at least it is fairly obvious what she wants, most of the time.
And then one day, I saw Becca again.
It was still pretty early in the day, barely three in the afternoon. I was out, looking for something to do. Which of course isn't easy in Point Place but right then and there I was sick of sitting around in the basement. So I had gone to Kenosha to get a few records, I had wanted for a while. And when I came back andI went into 'The Hub', there she was.
As soon as she saw me, a smile lit up her face. "Hyde!" she exclaimed and practically flew around my neck. "It's so good to see you." The way she initiated those hugs always took me by surprise. There wasn't anything sexually explicit in the way her body pressed against mine, it was yet another sign of her seemingly innocence. But when I looked into her hazel eyes I knew she didn't mean to tease me. She just didn't know what having her so close did to me.
She blushed, I don't know what she saw when she looked at me, what was in my face, in my eyes? "Hm, are you busy or could we talk?" I guess most girls would have said 'We need to talk' but not Becca, always so very polite, always very concerned about bothering you. And still she had this wild side, all these impulses she just followed.
Like that one time when we were driving around in the El Camino and she stuck her head out of the window and asked me to go faster, leaning out wider and wider, laughing and shouting when I took a sharp turn on the empty road. And then the glint in her eyes, her windblown face and her smile when she sat back down totally out of breath.
I shrugged and she took it as a sign of consent, because she gave the girls she was with a wave and asked me: "Is there somewhere a bit more private to go?" I took just one look at those girls and knew they were dying to hear what we would talk about. Jeah, well I'm not the only one having a hard time to amuse myself in this dump and a lot of the girls, which means practically all of them would gossip to have something they could do. This probably was the most exciting thing that had happened all day. "I guess we could just sit down in my car." "Great!" She was eager to get out and was already standing by my car when I was back on the street.
I opened the door for her then went around and sat down in the driver's seat. She fidgeted. I didn't remember her ever being this nervous before. "Look Hyde, it's been weeks since we saw each other." "Yeah, I know." I tried to be as nonchalantly as possible. "So it took your Dad that long to cool off?" "Pretty much. At least I'm not grounded anymore." "You've been grounded? What happened?" "What do you mean: What happened? You were there." She waved that off. "But that's not the point. I expect you've been spending time with other girls?" This was going fast. I didn't have any time think and she looked straight into my eyes. I couldn't lie to her, but... "Well, ..." I paused "Actually I..." What had I been doing? I guess at first I had been staying in most of the time, planning on waiting for her, not that I was that serious about her or anybody but I just don't usually date several girls at the same time. Now there was Jackie. How could this have happened? "Look, Hyde, it's alright, believe me. You're probably the coolest guy I ever met, definitely the coolest guy around here and we had a lot of fun - but with my father going crazy and my brother shipped off to military school I really don't see a way to spend as much time with you as I would like to, so I think it's for the best if we're just... like friends?" The last bit was a question. "Yeah, friends, cool." I replied. I wasn't too sure about this, but at least it offered me a way out of being skinned alive.
"Cool." Now she smiled again. "I'm really glad. I guess you already know that you're a pretty awesome kisser, right." She grinned and there it was again, that twinkle in her eye and her smile had turned into a mischievous grin, it really seemed as if everything was fine between us. I could loosen up: "Babe, you don't have to tell me." And that was the start of a pretty good afternoon. Catching up on our latest musical discoveries and generally talking.