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CHAPTER 03

TEASE ME

Jackie was already waiting by the front door of her building when the black El Camino arrived at 7am. The night dew moistened the green grass in front of her, making the weather feel slightly colder than usual. For a split second, the tiny chick oddly wished she was already in Vegas, enjoying the heat of the desert warming her skin.

A couple of hours later they had arrived at Milwaukee's airport, bought a pair of tickets to Vegas and were waiting inside the plane for its departure. Later, as Lake Michigan disappeared from view on the horizon, Jackie tilted her head to look at Steven, who had his shades on and eyes closed, probably tired for having to wake up so early.

"Steven?" She whispered, earning a mumble back from his lips. "Are you awake?"

He took his aviators off and hung them up on the collar of his shirt before turning towards Jackie, mirroring her position on the seat. Satisfied with his attention, she smiled and continued.

"Have you thought about what are you going to say to her?"

"Not entirely. In fact, I was thinking about letting her say everything she has to and then I'll figure it out."

"Fair enough." Jackie nodded slowly. "But you know you have to let your heart open up a little bit, don't you? She'll tell you her reasons and, even if you might not agree with her, you'll have to listen and try to understand."

"Yeah, I know."

He was aware that would be no easy job to keep his Zen around Edna. Among all the people who somehow disappointed him throughout his life, she was probably his least favorite one. She was his mother, for Christ's sake, the one person who was supposed to love him unconditionally. Nonetheless, she preferred to hit the road with some trucker than stick to her own son. That was something he would probably never be able to understand or forgive.

"Let's just take a nap before we get there, okay? You need to be rested," Jackie said, entwining her arms around his and resting her head on his shoulder. Hyde decided it was a good idea and rested his cheek on the top of her head, attempting to make this trip go fast by sleeping.

Las Vegas looked like a horror show through Jackie's eyes. Everything screamed fake in that city. The buildings, the monuments, the trees, the people. Nothing seemed to be real, and she made a mental note to not be fooled by this city.

The cab driver left the couple of friends at a nice hotel a few blocks away from The Strip. It wasn't superfancy, but it had got its charm.

"This is not the same hotel you've been your last time here, is it?" Jackie asked apprehensive as she looked around the front lobby.

Hyde chuckled, as they headed to the reception desk. "No, that one was pretty crappy. You wouldn't last a day in it," he said, earning a slap on his forearm.

"I'm pretty badass, you know, Steven. I confronted that bully you fought with the other day while you were puking your insides out," she informed him through narrowed eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh yeah? Then we should go to that other hotel, if you want." The curly haired boy teased her. "It's cheaper anyway and there's a strip club right next to it."

Jackie's eyes grew wide with the information. She understood immediately what he was trying to imply with it and decided against pushing the conversation forward. No way she would stay in the same place where Steven and that skank spent a whole month screwing each other.

"Let's check in." She said seriously, walking over to the front desk, followed by a smirking Hyde. He liked to win.

The couple of friends decided to share a bedroom. The suite was big enough for the two of them and there was a double bed for each one. None of them was planning on hooking up with anyone, anyway, so there was no point on paying for an extra room when they were already so used to having each other's belongings spread all over the place – even if it's been more than a year since they actually did that.

Jackie was looking at the city outside from the balcony when Steven came out the room with two bottles of beer in his hands.

"Thanks," she said, taking one from his hands and clinking his on a toast.

Hyde took a gulp from his beer and leaned on the parapet, also looking at the horizon. "So, I was thinking we could go to the bar Edna works in tonight after dinner."

"Do you really want to have this kind of conversation in a public place?" Jackie asked concerned.

"I guess so. She didn't give me her address anyway. Besides, a public place may force me to keep cool."

Jackie stared sideways at him, searching for something behind his facial expression. Was the zenmaster afraid to lose his Zen? Sure, he'd already lost it the other day, but he was drunk. Seeing Steven lose his control sober was something she'd got only few memories of. Edna had really fucked her kid up.

"Fine. We'll do it as you say." She took hold of his hand, making him look down at her. "It's gonna be fine. Don't worry."

Hyde smiled at her, glad that she hadn't tried to force him to do it other way. If she was still his girlfriend, she would probably be trying to convince him to face this monster on the way she thought it was best. But now they were just friends, and it felt good to have her agreeing to deal with it on his terms.

"So what do you wanna do the rest of the day?" He asked eventually.

"Dunno. Nothing really attracts my attention in this city."

"I know what you mean. We could have lunch, then stay in and watch some cable."

Suddenly Jackie heard laughing and water splashing noises coming from several floors below, causing her eyes to draw attention to what was going on downstairs. Maybe it was the overheat this city was settled on, but she could swear the azure spot on the ground floor was calling her name.

"Lunch is fine, but why don't we go to the pool downstairs afterwards?" She suggested. "It's freaking hot. We could enjoy the heat Wisconsin is lacking the last few weeks."

"No deal. Pool means shorts, and I don't wear shorts." Hyde pointed a threatening finger to her before coming back inside the bedroom.

"Come on, Steven. I've seen you in shorts once when we've been to the beach in Kenosha," Jackie whined following him in and lying down sideways on the bed, propping her head with one hand. "You look pretty good in them."

"You mean hot." He looked back teasingly while taking some things out of his suitcase.

"Whatever." She laughed, throwing a pillow on his back.

"My turn! Eric and his hot cousin or Eric and the bathroom incident?" Jackie asked Steven once they were hanging out by the swimming pool that afternoon. After lunch, she'd finally convinced him to put some shorts on – actually, bribed him with a couple of drinks. She was lying on her stomach on the edge of the pool while he was inside of it.

"Nice one!" Hyde nodded impressed and brooded for a few moments. "I guess… Hot cousin. The face he'd got when Red and Kitty showed up was priceless, man. And then we came out of the shower and he freaked out even more. I heard Penny's framed his red underwear so she could always remember the burn." He finished with a nice laugh, followed by a louder one from Jackie.

"God, I wish I was there. I never get tired of burning Eric," she said between chuckles, sipping from the margarita she got in hand.

"Yeah… Okay, I got one. Crashing Kelso's van or Bowieing him up?"

"Steven, none of those were actual burns. I didn't intend to crash his van, and he agreed with me he would look good if I put some make-up on him."

"Yeah, but you crashed his van going out with another guy and the make-up didn't come out for two days." He smirked wickedly, staring at her behind his shades. "Let's face it, doll, you burn people good without even noticing. You're like a burnmaster."

"Ooh, I like that." She giggled at the new title. "And well, I guess I choose crashing his van. I know it's a horrible thing to say, but it actually felt good to destroy something important to him. He crashed my heart first anyway. And it was nice to have you on my side for one of the first times ever. You were pretty sweet helping me figure out how much Michael owned me." She smiled smugly, knowing she was poking his weakness – Steven hated to admit he'd been nice to her before they started dating.

"I wasn't trying to be sweet, Jackie," he denied immediately, just like she assumed he would. "I only thought he was being a jerk. He's my best friend, but he's always been a hypocrite when talking about relationships."

"Whatever, Steven. You liked me back then, but you just couldn't admit it." She turned around so she was now lying on her back, exposing her tanned tummy to the sunny sky.

"Whatever." His face went Zen before he dove to the bottom of the pool, rising up a good thirty seconds later with a blast, splashing water all over Jackie's body.

"Steven!" She yelled angrily and sat up, water dropping from her neat ponytail. "You're so dead, mister!"

Before she could decide which torturous way she would kill him, Hyde reached for her hands and pulled her into the swimming pool, making her scream even harder. As Jackie rose from the water gasping, she jumped to Steven, trying to force him down inside the water with her body weight to no avail. He was way stronger than her.

Eventually, he let her win, sinking down slowly. Once underwater, his eyes opened and met her bikini clad curves standing in front of him and he had to fight all the strength in his body not to pull her closer and hold her. She wasn't his chick anymore. However, that was no problem on keep teasing with each other.

"Okay, you win, you win," he said once his head emerged on the surface, making the brunette smirk smugly.

"Of course I won, Steven. I'm superstrong, you know," she said jokingly, as she took the elastic off her hair to undo the ruined ponytail. Once off, she dove one more time to settle the raven locks down.

As Jackie brushed up from the water, Hyde couldn't help but stare at his ex-girlfriend. She looked good with wet hair, something he'd seen very few times before. She was meticulous with her appearance, so her locks were always dried, coiffed and curled to perfection. Even when they've been to the beach, she never went for a swim, so it was quite endearing to see her face clean of makeup and her hair in a wild beautiful mess.

"What?" The brunette asked, once she noticed Hyde had been watching her.

"It's been a while since we've hung out only the two of us." Hyde smiled sincerely, looking directly into her eyes. "It's pretty cool."

Jackie smiled back. I was cool indeed. "Yeah, it is."

They swam back to the edge of the pool, leaning against it and taking hold of their drinks.

"You're still paying for ruining my hair, Steven. Just wait and see."

"I'll figure something out to make up for it." Hyde reached up to mess Jackie's preciosity even more, earning a gasp and a splash right onto his smirking face.

"I so hate you!"

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