For Hyde that winter plodded along, one long cold day after another. Every day except Sunday found him at Grooves, making sure W.B. didn't regret giving him the store. Time went a little faster if Eric worked with him or Fez stopped by but he couldn't remember a winter that had been so miserable. Most evenings' were spent at home, his ass parked in front of the t.v. or in his room listening to music. Zeppelins' "Since I've been lovin' you" got a lot of play until one night, half baked and half asleep, he swore Jackie was laying next to him. She had always liked that song. They used to make out to it a lot. After that night he never played it again.
Kelso came up from Chicago one weekend in early March and they hung out. Most of it was a blur. They had partied pretty hard Saturday night and when Hyde woke up on Sunday morning he had a vague feeling of unease. Cracking open one eye he saw a pair of women's boots on the floor next to the bed and then a warm hand stroked his shoulder. He closed his eyes and sighed-may as well face the music. He rolled over and came face to face with Racquel, the biker chick he had gone out with once just to piss Jackie off. She smiled at him with drowsy eyes.
"Hey babe, " she said in her throaty voice.
"Hey Racquel-uh-how are you?"
She laughed and pressed her sizable rack against his chest. "I'm good-real good. You don't remember much about last night, do you?"
"Sorry, guess I was pretty wasted," he said. She looked a little rougher than he remembered but she was decent looking and ready for more apparently as her hands moved lower on his body.
"You were but that's okay. You're a lot of fun when you're wasted, Hyde."
What the hell, he thought and pulled her on top of him. Afterwards they smoked a joint and had a few laughs. She had a dry sense of humor and hated some of the same things he did. Reaching across him for her cigarettes she asked, "Say, whatever happened to that snobby little princess you used to date?"
"Jackie? She's still around. She's going out with Jake Bradley. Remember him?"
"Sure, who doesn't? We graduated the same year. He was pretty hot-in a preppy, trust fund kind of way.
They would actually make a cute couple. I never could see what you saw in her," she lay down next to him and passed him her lit cigarette.
"Nah, I'm trying to quit," he said.
"Really? So weed doesn't count, huh?" she laughed.
He shrugged, "One vice at a time."
"Yeah, right. You'll always be a burnout, Hyde." She took a drag and blew the smoke in his face. Annoyed he waved it away. "That's what I like about you," she winked. When she reached across him to stub out her cigarette the feel of her breasts was no longer stimulating but oddly suffocating.
"You want something to drink?" he asked, getting out of the bed and pulling on his jeans. She was eyeing him up like a piece of raw meat and he just wanted her gone. Still, he had some manners left and it wouldn't be cool to just shove her out the door.
"Sure, whatever you got. Hurry back though. I'm ready for another round," she called after him. He left the room as quickly as he could without it looking like he was trying to escape. Shutting his door behind him he padded barefoot out to the rec room then stopped short when he saw Jackie sitting in his chair. He stared at her, his mouth falling open a little bit.
"Hi Steven," she stood up, her big eyes on his bare chest. He was as lean and muscular as she remembered and she couldn't help her gaze from following the arrow of dark hair down his abdomen to where it disappeared into the waist of his low slung jeans.
"Jackie, what are you doing here?" Damn, she looked good. Her dark hair curled around her pretty face and she wore pink lip gloss-his favorite shade on her. She wore a frilly white blouse and a skirt that hit her boots. Boots! Crap! He remembered that Racquel was in his room. God, he hoped she stayed quiet in there.
"I'm waiting for Donna. We're supposed to go shopping," Jackie explained, her tone friendlier than it had been lately.
"Oh, well-she isn't here," he stammered, feeling like an idiot.
"Do you mind if I wait?"
"Uh-maybe you should see if she's upstairs-or go say hi to Mrs. Forman," he suggested, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous hand.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, "I already did. What's going on?"
His bedroom door opened and Racquel, dressed in only her panties and one of his t-shirts came out, scraping her dark blonde hair off her face.
"Oh, hey midget," she sneered and gave Jackie the once over. Jackie's face went still and as usual when she smelled trash, she turned up her nose.
" I'll just go upstairs. Sorry to disturb your little orgy," she waved a hand in Racquels' direction and muttered "skank" as she turned towards the stairs.
"It's only an orgy if there are more than two people. Want to join us, Princess? Oh, wait-Hyde's been there, done that. Guess he's moved up in the world, huh?" the biker chick smirked.
Jackie's amber eyes shot to her ex's face but he was staring at the floor, arms crossed over his chest. He obviously wouldn't be defending her from this slut. Not that she had expected it but part of her had hoped he would. So she tossed her hair over her shoulder and headed for the stairs. "If you call sleeping with random biker trash on an old cot in a smelly basement moving up then so be it. What can you expect from someone who thinks getting high is the best thing in life?"
Hyde found his voice before she reached the landing. "What is the best thing in life, Jackie?"
She looked him over, from his curly hair to his bare feet. Eyes that had been warm were now cold and hard. "Why should I tell you? You don't care anyway," and she was gone.
The room was silent for several minutes until Racquel wrapped her arms around him and said in her raspy voice " That was rough. So, you wanna go back to your room?"
He pushed her off him. "No. Sorry but I think you should leave."
A few minutes later she was putting on her jacket and he was sitting in his chair with his head in his hands.
"Guess you aren't over her, huh?" she asked and he looked up at her. She gave him a wry smile. "It's okay. I had a good time. You take care, Hyde."
He nodded and watched as she closed the door behind her.
After that incident Jackie avoided the basement as much as she could. If she had to go to the Forman's she made sure to never venture downstairs. Steven lurked down there like a troll under a bridge and she had no desire to see him again. Sometimes she couldn't remember why she had ever thought he was the one. The Steven she used to know seemed like a different person now. The curly haired boy with the laughing blue eyes was a grim faced stranger with an ugly mustache who seemed to exist only to hurt her.
She knew she had changed too but she liked to think it was for the better. Being with Jake had eased some of the tightness around her heart and some of her confidence had come back. When she thought about last year when she'd lost Steven to her own demands and a bleached blonde stripper she thought about the angry, broken girl she had become. She had struggled to find a way out of her despair and settled on Fez, who treated her like a queen but in the end she couldn't think of him as anything but a friend.
Jake was a great boyfriend. He made her feel special without catering to her every demand. He listened to her and encouraged her but he didn't spoil her. Sure, he had money and took her to nice places but she appreciated it and made sure he knew it. When he told her she was pretty she believed him because he wasn't always trying to get in her pants like Michael or Fez. She hadn't felt especially sexy ever since Steven decided to stay with his stupid, silicone breasted whore of a wife.
The first time she and Jake went all the way she had cried afterward. Not so he could see-she went into his bathroom and stifled her sobs in a towel. She told herself it was because she was so relieved. She had been so afraid she wouldn't enjoy it with anyone but Steven but it had been good. Not mind blowing like it was with Steven but she knew it would get better because she was determined to make this work. Jake actually wanted to be with her. She didn't have to pull his feelings out of him or force him to say he loved her. He did it all on his own, just a few days after they slept together for the first time. She told him she loved him too. Maybe not with the same intensity as she had loved Steven but where had that gotten her anyway? When the spring semester was over and Jake asked her to marry him she didn't have to think too hard about her answer. He wanted to take care of her and honestly, as much as she had matured, she was still a girl who wanted to be taken care of and so she said yes.