I dont' claim ownership of any of the characters, the background story or some lines of the show's dialogue woven between my own writing, nor the few verses of the songs included
January 5th, 1980
10:24 am
Pinciotti residence
"You broke up with Fez?" Donna asked as soon as they were in the kitchen. She went to the fridge to grab a soda for Jackie and one for herself. Jackie just nodded, not looking at her. "When?"
"New Year's" said Jackie, simply. She took a swig of her bottle and run a finger along the side of it, still not looking at Donna. They left the kitchen to go to Donnas room, and Jackie could feel her friend's gaze over her, pushing her to explain further, all the way there. "I wanted to say happy New Year to Steven, so I followed him to the basement. He was sitting in his chair listening to that new Pink Floyd album" she explained, sitting in the edge of Donna's bed. She smiled timidly, finally looking at Donna. "Was it you who put the whole thing on air a few days after it was released?"
"You listened to it?" she asked incredulously. It was an 81 minute album. And a band that Jackie didn't even liked. Or did she? Jackie simply shrugged her shoulder, a very Zen move. Maybe some of Hyde's music taste had rubbed onto Jackie after all. "The whole thing?"
"Yeah, it's a good one" She said. She had actually bought it a few days after she heard it on the radio. Of course she'd made sure Hyde wasn't at Grooves when she came in and bought it from Leo. "Have you ever paid attention to the first song on the second record?"
Donna went over to her collection of records and put the aforementioned vinyl on the turntable. They listened to the first song it in silence. Jackie was mouthing the lyrics with her eyes closed, Donna was looking at her in disbelief. Since when does she like Pink Floyd so much?
"So, what happened?" asked Donna when the song was over, turning the volume down.
"Nothing" said Jackie with a weird smile. "I didn't even went downstairs" she added, and remained silent for a moment. Donna waited patiently until Jackie spoke again "I don't know, he looked… defeated? Sad?" she said, not sure how to describe what she saw. "He had his eyes closed, and then he was holding his head in his hands" she explained, looking at Donna as if asking what it meant. "And he repeated the las verses: Together, we stand / Divided, we fall"
"And you just left and broke up with Fez?" Donna asked, assuming that was the end of the story. Jackie nodded. "But you two looked fine back in the party…"
"Yeah" Jackie sighed, "he was very understanding and supportive" she said, heading to the turntable and switching Pink Floyd for Supertramp and sitting down on the floor, leaning on the desk. What? Jackie likes Supertramp?
"And now what?"
"I don't know"
They remained silent for a while, listening to the music until a knock on the door pulled them out of their thoughts. "Hey" said Fez's voice before opening the door and peeking in, looking questioningly at Jackie.
"Yeah, she knows" she said, answering the silent question. Fez entered the room and sat on the floor next to Jackie and took her hand on his. Donna watched the gesture uncertain of what it meant, but smiled anyway, seeing now what Jackie meant when she said Fez had been fine with their breakup.
"So… it's Saturday, what are we going to do tonight?" asked Fez after a little while, half growing impatient with the silence from his friends.
Donna shrugged, she had to work tonight anyway. "I'm getting my stuff out of the apartment" said Jackie standing up. Fez pulled a bag of saltwater taffies from his coat pocket and put one on his mouth as Jackie left the room. Donna looked at him half expecting him to leave as well, but he just stayed there looking at nothing, chewing his candy.
"We should do something" stated Fez, after swallowing, turning to look at Donna, who was still sitting in the edge of her bed.
"I have work tonight" she said.
"I don't mean tonight" he said, putting the bag back in his pocket. "I meant about Jackie and Hyde".
"So you really are fine about this whole thing?" she asked, incredulously. He had been so happy when he and Jackie first got together, that she didn't understand how he could be so cool about it to the point of suggesting to help Jackie and Hyde to get back together.
"Well… she was right" he said, shrugging. "And I do love her, just not that way" he explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Wow… I never thought I'd hear you say that" Donna confessed. She stayed silent for a little while pondering about the Jackie-Hyde situation. "I think that for once we should all just stay out of it".