I own squat.
Steven:
Hanging in the basement just wasn't fun anymore. We'd all grown up and gotten boring. Nothing was fun anymore. I remembered when we were all younger and carefree. I wished to go back to how things were in a simpler time. Like that first summer with me and Jackie. It started playing before me like a movie…
We had been watching the Price is Right for hours and it was miserable. There was nothing to do. Me and Jackie, just sitting there in the basement. We weren't talking at all, just watching the show.
"Another old lady. She can't even reach the wheel!" she complained, breaking the ice.
"I can't watch The Price is Right again, I just can't," I said, desperately bored.
In that moment some sort of electric current just ran between us. When I saw her lean in towards me I didn't think, I just leaned in too. Our lips touched, sort of hesitantly and we both sat there in a 'holy shit, did that really just happen?' way. And then it happened again, but neither of us were being hesitant this time. We began to kiss more passionately and I pulled her closer.
And that's when summer really began…
"Hyde, are you even listening to me?"
Kelso's voice woke me up and I remembered where I was. Kelso, Fez, and I were hanging in the basement, watching some mindless sitcom. Donna was out somewhere. Eric and his parents were eating dinner and Jackie was asleep in her room.
"What was that?"
Kelso rolled his eyes. "I was asking you about what happened this morning with Jackie."
"Yeah. She caught this girl sneaking out of my room. It was awkward as hell."
"Fez said she seems different. Right Fez?"
"Yeah, she got really skinny and depressed looking. It's gross." Fez said disgustedly. "She was once my beautiful goddess. And look what she's doing to herself," he shook his head.
"Fez, when did you see her?" I asked, suddenly interested into what Fez had to say.
"I explained this before, Hyde. Gosh. Rhonda and I were at the mall and we ran into Jackie shopping with Donna."
"Well, I don't care what you all say. I bet she's still freaking hot," Kelso said.
"Trust me, man. She's not," I retorted.
"I don't even get why all this happened. Was she really that upset about Pam? I mean, she couldn't have been more upset than I was. I locked myself in a room for days. Never able to see Pam again," Kelso said with tears coming to his eyes. The only reason I had gotten upset about Pam was because I knew it was hurting Jackie. I didn't care so much about Pam being hot anymore. Sure, she was hot, but compared to Jackie? No one was hot compared to Jackie.
"Kelso, you are such an idiot. This isn't about Pam. It's about Hyde," Fez told him.
"Huh?" I asked confusedly. About me? I mean sure, the note she left me might have suggested that she still had some feelings for me, which didn't really make sense to me, but nothing major. Nothing that would send her into a depression.
"She never got over you, Hyde. I could tell. When we were together, she never looked at me the way she looked at you. That's why I let her go," Fez explained. "And when we were in bed-"
"I'm gonna kick your ass, Fez," I threatened. The thought of Fez and Jackie in bed together made me sick.
"So. Jackie still loves Hyde. And Hyde obviously still loves Jackie. So why don't you guys just get back together?" Kelso asked.
"Ugh, I don't love her. I don't love period. And all this Jackie talk is pissing me off. All day, the only thing anyone's talked about is Jackie. Just shut the hell up about Jackie." Hearing that Jackie still loved me would just get my hopes up.
Kelso and Fez looked taken aback.
"Dude, calm down. We'll stop talking about it," said Kelso. We all went back to watching the show for a little while. I wasn't really paying attention. I was thinking about that first summer again. Oh, and what I was going to say to Jackie when I actually had to talk to her.
I heard the sound of feet clomping down the staircase and looked back. It was Eric, followed by Jackie, or what was left of Jackie anyway.
"Look who I dragged out of bed," Eric said.
Jackie walked down the stairs tiredly. It didn't even look like her. It looked like a ghost, or a zombie.
"Jackie!" Kelso exclaimed as he jumped and ran over to hug her. She hugged him back expressionlessly. When he pulled away and got a good look at her, his mouth dropped open.
"Jackie," he whispered, "you've turned into…an uggo!"
"Kelso!" Eric, Fez, and I shouted at once.
"What, it's the truth!"
"Kelso, that is no way to talk to a lady!" Fez said angrily.
Jackie's mouth had dropped open and she stood there wordlessly for a few seconds. "Well, Michael, you haven't changed at all. You're still a thoughtless pig with no respect for anyone."
I smiled. Now, there was my girl. I noticed that even if she'd lost a ton of weight, looked like she hadn't seen sunlight in years, and just looked dead, she was still beautiful.
"Well, I'm going to go upstairs now, since I have now greeted everyone. Goodnight," she said as she trudged up the stairs.
"Nice going Kelso. Very mature," Eric said. "You guys should have like, prepared him better."
"I tried, Eric, I did," Fez squealed.
I stood up without really thinking. "I'm going to go talk to her," I blurted out. Then I realized what a stupid idea that was, but I had already gotten up. And we really did need to talk some things over. Eric stood up and held his hands in front me.
"Whoa, Hyde. Really bad idea," said Eric.
"Calm down, Forman. I just want to explain what happened this morning."
He opened his mouth to protest but I ignored him and walked all the way up to Laurie's room.
She either didn't hear me open the door and walk in, or didn't acknowledge it. "Hey," I said carefully.
"Steven," she said without looking up.
"Look," I started, "I'm sorry about this morning. Really. You shouldn't have had to see that."
She laughed humorlessly. "Why should I care? I'm not your girlfriend. I don't care who you sleep with."
I shrugged. "I just thought I should say something."
She didn't answer so I started on a new topic. "So, how are things going?"
"Fine."
I sighed. I hated seeing her like this. "Jackie. You can talk to me about anything."
"There's nothing to talk about. Everything's fine."
"No, Jacks, everything is obviously not fine. And I don't get why you're being like this. I thought things were okay between us. Last time you were here they seemed to be alright."
"Well, Steven. Since my mom had just died, I was a little distraught. Just a little. Of course I needed someone there for me. That doesn't mean that things are okay between us."
I cringed. That hurt a little. "I just thought that maybe while you're here we could at least try to be friends. I don't want things to back to how they were when we weren't talking. It sucked. I really missed you," I admitted. I would have never done that normally, but these weren't normal circumstances.
"Well, you didn't act like it. You just made fun of me and said nasty things. You called me a slut."
"I'm sorry. For everything," I said, really meaning it.
"Well, we can try, I guess. To be friends, I mean. But I'm still mad at you."
Her words shocked me. "Talk about a 360."
"Yeah, well. I just remembered how nice you were to me after my mom died. Thanks for that, by the way. It really meant a lot to me."
"Anything for you, doll," I said, repeating the words that I'd spoken so many years ago.
"But just to be clear, you aren't being forgiven for anything."
"Yes, Jackie, I know," I said sighing.
"Kay." She still seemed upset; she just stared in front of her blankly. It was hard to watch.
"Why don't we go back downstairs?"
"I don't want to hang out with anyone. I came back on the condition that I would not have to see or speak to any of you. And although that already happened, I'm going to try and avoid it as much as possible."
"Jackie. Don't be like this. Everyone is dying to talk to you."
"Well, I don't want to talk to them. Everyone wants to hear about New York, right? How am I supposed to tell them I spent three years practically locked in my apartment, not speaking to anyone?"
Not speak to anyone? How the hell could she be that depressed?
"Jackie-"
"No, Steven. I just want to stay up here."
I gave up. "Do you want me to stay with you? Keep you company?"
"It's fine. Leave me alone."
I stood up, but before I left I grabbed her head and lightly kissed the top. Then I walked out the door and went back to the basement.
"Is she okay?" Kelso asked right when I entered the room.
I punched his arm with all my strength. "Nice going, moron. She doesn't even want to leave the room."
"Ow! Hyde, that hurt!"
"Kelso, you should go apologize or something," Eric suggested.
"Fine," Kelso said as he left the room.
"So, what'd you talk about?" Eric asked curiously.
"Not much, man. I said sorry about this morning and she said she didn't give a shit. I said we should try and be friends as long as she's here. She said sure, but she's still pissed at me."
"No. Big no-no. You guys can't be friends."
"Why the hell not, Forman?"
"Hyde, you've hurt her enough."
"Maybe this time will be different. Just friends. No strings attached."
"Yes," Fez said, "but that will lead to something else and then you'll just be breaking her heart again. I mean, look at her now. That was all brought on by you."
"I don't believe that for a second. It wasn't all caused by me anyway. It was probably what happened with her mom. Oh, and Fez dumping her. And how would that have been led on by me? After we broke up, she seemed fine. Then she got together with Fez and he dumped her. If anything, you should be blaming Fez." Somewhere deep down I probably knew it was my fault and not Fez's, but I wasn't able to take responsibility for something this drastic just yet.
"Come on, you know she didn't really care that much about her mom. I mean sure, death was kind of traumatic, but she barely even knew her," said Eric.
"Yeah, and you know she never really had feelings for me. I was just a rebound. That's why I let her go," Fez said sadly.
"Whatever, man." None of this mattered anyway. Right after the wedding, she would go back to New York. It would be like nothing ever happened.
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Jackie:
I wondered why Steven was being so uncharacteristically kind. I'd only seen that side of him several times, each time when he was alone with me. Whenever he acted like that, it made me wonder what he was really like. I'd always thought that even if he acted like a tough guy, on the inside Steven was sweet and sensitive. But then he'd always do something that contradicted it, like marrying a stripper.
I'd told him that we could try to be friends and at the time I meant it, but I was starting to think that I'd made a mistake. Us being friends? That was the recipe for a disaster. I didn't think we could be friends after everything that happened between us.
Despite sleeping all afternoon, I was exhausted. I pulled a book from my suitcase to read before I went to bed. It was my favorite, my much-abused copy of Pride and Prejudice. I went to get tucked under the covers, but then it hit me whose bed I was sleeping in. And what she had done in it and all the people she had done it with.
Disgusted, I pulled the blanket and pillow off the bed, laid them out on the floor, got in and began to read.
I'd only read the first page when I heard a knock at the door. "Come in," I said, annoyed. Couldn't I sleep at all today without any interruptions?
It was Michael.
"Hey, Jackie."
"Go away. I don't want to see you. You're disgusting."
"Look, I'm sorry about before, really. I didn't mean to make you upset. But seriously. You used to be the hottest chick in Point Place and…well, why would you do that to yourself?"
"Every single person I've seen today has said that! Just shut the hell up! I'm fucking fine!" I shouted. This was really getting on my nerves.
"You're not fine," he said quietly.
"Look, I know what's wrong. So if you guys could stop pointing it out, I'd really appreciate it."
"Okay. But. Well, remember that time when we were going out and you got sick? And I came to visit you and you didn't have any makeup on and I couldn't even look at you without screaming? Well, it's like that, but ten times worse."
"Michael!"
"Fine, fine. I'm sorry. I'll be quiet."
"Leave me alone. I want to sleep."
"Gosh, stop acting all pissy."
I pulled the book in front of my face and began to read again.
He looked horrified. "Is that a book?"
"Yeah. I like to read."
"You don't read anything that's not Nancy Drew."
"It's Jane Austen. I got into her stuff while I was in New York. I'd recommend it to you, but you don't have the brain capacity to comprehend what's going on."
"Even if I did have the brains, it's a chick book. You can tell 'cause the cover's pink."
"It's a classic, Michael."
"Gosh, when did you get smart?"
"Not hanging around you guys did me some good, didn't it?"
He laughed. "We really missed you Jackie."
"I missed you guys too. I guess."
"Well, I'll leave you to your books," he said. "But, why are you on the floor?"
"I don't want whatever diseases are in Laurie's bed."
He chuckled appreciatively. "Yeah. Good times, good times. See you around, Jackie."
"Wait!" I shouted after him. He poked his head back in the room. "How's Betsy? And Brooke?"
"Betsy's great. She's four years old now and in preschool. She can talk and everything. And Brooke's doing well too. We might move in together, actually. Betsy wants to live with her daddy."
"That's great."
"Thanks for asking."
"Of course. She's my goddaughter, even if I haven't seen her in three years. I can't wait to see her."
"I'm sure she wants to see you too. 'Night, Jackie."
I smiled. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Another chapter, yay. Next chapter tomorrow. Don't forget to review!
Thanks,
Anna
