I steadily step out of the car, pulling Genevieve with me.

"Come on," I urge her, "you'll love these people. I mean, sure, they seem weird at first... but I couldn't let you go to the hotel without meeting my friends before that!"

She smiles. "I'm excited!"

We walk into the door, and I see Steven and Victor out of the corner of my eye. They're not saying anything to each other, which probably means that they're listening to us.

I take this as an opportunity. "So... what's the word on Alex? We never got to talk about our relationship, so can you kind of... explain it to me?"

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Fine." We stop walking and she turns to face me, the boys still behind us. "You and Alex... had a pretty... quiet relationship for the most part. The tabloids made it seem like more than it was. I mean, at first you two were crazy about each other. But then... I don't know. He became shallower, and I guess it just kind of turned into a mess."

"Why did he become that way?" I ask, now interested in more than just bringing Alex up again.

Genevieve shrugs. "He was always that way. He just hid it well at first because he liked you that much."

"If he liked me that much, why would he cheat on me?" I ask, keeping my voice down.

"It's Hollywood. You have to expect these things." She gives me an apologetic look.

As we're sitting in the living room, I realize that Donna and Eric are downstairs.

"I totally forgot what we came here for!" I exclaim, dragging Genevieve with me downstairs. Of course, the guys follow.

Once we make it down the stairs, I see Donna and Eric making out on the couch.

"Ew, gross!" I shout, and flop down next to them on the couch. "This is Genevieve, and her husband Victor. They're staying at the local hotel. Well, the nice one, anyway."

"Nice to meet you." Donna nods in their direction.

"Yeah." Eric does the same. "And Jackie? What nice hotels are there in Point Place? I mean, really."

I shrug. "We'll find one."

Steven walks over and sits in his chair, reminding me vaguely of the incident at the airport.

"Oh my God, I forgot to tell you guys... Steven, like, saved me from this crazy guy. I swear, it was crazy! That's why I needed you there, Donna!" I throw my hands in the air for emphasis.

"Jackie, I didn't save you," Steven cuts in, rolling his eyes. "I was merely trying to save the guy some torture from your loud mouth."

I open my mouth in protest, but Donna interrupts me. "Aw, Hyde. It's always nice to hear some kind things to come out of yours," she says sarcastically.

I try to say something again, but Genevieve coolly interrupts me. "I think it's about time you helped me and Victor find a hotel... right, Jackie?"

"Um... yeah. Okay." I smile and start to walk towards the door. "Steven, you mind if we use the car?"

"Whatever." He waves me off.

"I'll be right back," I tell them, and take the keys that he hands me.

"I can drive, if you want," Victor says as we walk to the El Camino. "If I recall correctly, you never were good with driving."

"Sounds good," I say, and hand him the keys. "Just be careful. I don't want Steven hating me any more if anything happens to the car."

We sit in the car. "Speaking of Steven," Genevieve says, and grins at me, "what's going on between you two? He /is/ the guy you always talked about, right?"

"I guess so." I shrug. "Apparently we had some... disagreements.... stuff happened before I left. Something about a... stripper. I don't know."

"I know." Genevieve nods. "You told me all of this. They met in Las Vegas after he thought you were cheating on him with your other ex boyfriend."

I look at her in amazement. "I must have talked about this a lot."

"Yeah," Genevieve admits. "You still had pretty strong feelings for him. Have, I mean."

I narrow my eyes. "What are you trying to imply?"

"Well, Jackie, don't get me wrong, but... you used to talk about him all the time. Right before the accident, in fact. So feelings can't just vanish, especially when it seems like last week you were dating him." Genevieve gives me a small smile.

"Wait," Victor interrupts. "Jackie, you dated this guy?"

"Yeah." I sigh. "He's the one who sent me over the edge... to L.A."

"Huh." Victor continues driving.

Genevieve goes on. "So what I'm saying is... you must still love him. You seem like you do, the way that you seem to.... argue, and stuff."

I sigh. "I don't know. Maybe I do. But that doesn't change the way he feels about me. And I know that he thinks I'm... as good as... a Little River Band record."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Genevieve asks, confused.

I frown. "He hates the Little River Band." o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

HYDE'S POV:

After Jackie and her fancy, famous friends leave, me, Forman, and Donna are sitting in the basement.

"So what do you think of Jackie's friends?" Forman asks us.

"They seemed nice," Donna says. "They barely talked though."

"Seemed alright to me," I say.

Huh, Jackie. It's weird, like, I hadn't thought about her in forever, and then out of nowhere she just shows up. Okay, that's a lie. I have thought about her, but only from time to time. Only...

Somebody opens the door, but I'm too distracted by my thoughts to even look up.

"Hyde," Donna calls, even though I'm barely listening. She waves a hand in front of my face. "Hyde!"

"Huh, what?" I snap out of it and glance at her.

"I said, your girlfriend's here," she mutters.

I look up and see Amber. "Oh, uh, hey. Let's go in my room." I lead her to the small doorway as Forman and Donna start 'oohing.'

"Shut up!" I yell out at them. Assholes.

I close the door, eager to block out Forman and Donna. I quickly turn around to face Amber. "What did you... what are you here for?"

"Can't I stop by to say hello to my fiance?" she asks, smiling at me.

"Come on, Amber." I roll my eyes. "You never come unless there's a reason. What's up?"

"Well... okay." She sits down on my bed and motions for me to join her, so I do so. "I was just thinking. We've been engaged for eight months now, and... well... nothing's happened. No plans, no nothing."

I sigh. Not this again. "Why do we have to rush? I'm in no hurry."

"If you're in no hurry, then why did you ask me to marry you?" she asks, sounding a little angry.

"I did because you practically forced me to!" I shout at her, causing her to draw back in fear. She stands up, looking sad, scared, and mad at the same time, and starts pacing around my room.

"So what? You don't want to marry me then?" She throws her hands in the air and starts looking at the things on the floor.

"I didn't say that," I comment.

It's quiet for a few seconds as her eyes are still focused on the floor.

"You have pictures of me on the floor," she says, taking notice of the photos. "Of me and you." She picks them up and starts leafing through them. "Only three. Why only three, Hyde?"

I shrug. Doesn't she know when to stop? "I didn't feel it was necessary to cover every inch of my room with photos of you."

She ignores my comment and continues looking through the pictures. "Aw... there's one of you and your friends when you were little." She looks up at me and smiles, flipping to the next picture. "Oh, that's nice. Some random guy flying off of a water tower."

"That's Kelso. The idiot guy we talk about that moved to Chicago," I say.

"Oh. Well, I can see why he left," she says, raising her eyebrows and flipping photos. "Graduation day. That's cute." She inspects it a little closer. "Who's the girl that's not wearing the cap and gown?" she asks, pointing to Jackie.

I look at the picture. "That's my ex, Jackie."

Amber narrows her eyes at the photo and flips to the last one. She frowns, seeing that it's of me and Jackie; we're holding hands and she's smiling at me. "Is that... Jackie Ralwine?" she asks, sounding amazed.

"Uh... yeah, I guess so," I say uncomfortably. It's weird to hear her with another last name now.

"You dated her?" she asks incredulously.

"Yeah. For a couple years."

"Oh my God. It totally makes sense." Amber stares at me. "I've heard all the stories about her moving back here. About how she grew up here. She's staying here, isn't she?" she asks, looking mad.

I nod. "She's staying on the couch out there."

She rolls her eyes. "A girl other than me is sleeping one wall away from you? A famous and divorced one at that? And an /ex girlfriend/?!" She gives me a 'look.'

"It's no big deal," I say. "I barely even talk to her."

Amber stays silent for a couple seconds, and sits on my bed again. "You haven't even told your friends, have you?" she asks quietly. "About us. You haven't, have you?"

"No," I admit. I don't want them running off telling everybody that we're engaged, especially when I'm not very sure about it as it is.

"Well." Amber sighs and looks at the floor. "I guess I'm just gonna leave now." She gets up and walks away, leaving me sitting there in silence.

After a minute, I get up and go into the main part of the basement. I sit in my chair and notice that Forman and Donna are staring at me.

"What's with you?" I ask them.

"What's wrong with your bitch?" Donna asks. She doesn't like Amber that much.

I scoff. "I don't even know."

Forman comments, "You two have been together a while, huh?"

"I guess. Almost a year, I think." She's my first real relationship after Jackie, too, I remember.

"When are you gonna trade her in for another one I can stand?" Donna asks pleadingly.

"Yeah, really. Even /Jackie/ was better then this one," Forman puts in.

"What's so bad about Amber?" I ask. I never even see them communicate with each other.

"Are you kidding me?" Donna asks. "She's rude, obsessive, needy-"

Forman finishes her sentence. "Even /I/ can see that!"

I shrug. "Well, what can I do," I say, leaning back in my chair.

"Uh, ditch her?" Forman asks in a hopeful tone.

I'm about to respond until the door opens. I quickly turn my head towards it, figuring that it's Jackie. Sure enough, it is.

"Did you guys find a hotel?" Donna asks her as Jackie sits down on the only open end of the couch.

"Yeah. I found them a decent one. I think it was the one that Steven worked at. The place where he cheated on me with the nurse." She glances at me, her eyes shooting a menacing glare.

"That's good," Donna says awkwardly, noticing the stare that she's sending me.

I try not to look back at her, but somehow my eyes wind up locking with hers. God, she's hot. Everything about her is always so... perfect. Tight clothes, high shoes, great body... I realize that my eyes are drifting elsewhere, but then her voice interrupts me.

"Steven?" she asks abruptly.

"Yeah?"

"Quit staring at me," she says, turning back to Donna and pulling a pillow over her chest, blocking my view.

What the hell, she was staring at me first. Oh well, too late to say anything now. Why am I checking her out anyways? I'm /engaged/, even if I really don't want to be married. Plus, even if I wasn't, Jackie's made it pretty clear that she's not into me anymore anyways. Well, except for when she first got here and kissed me. But I was supposed to be the logical one and stop her, right? She's freakin' married!

"Hyde," Forman says, interrupting my thoughts. "You okay, man?"

I turn to him. "Yeah, why?"

"You sounded like you were talking to yourself or something. No big deal." Forman shrugs.

"Yeah, maybe he's going crazy," Jackie comments.

"If anybody's crazy, it's probably you," I shoot back at her. "You're the bitch who ignored us for a few years, then you barge back into our lives like nothing happened."

"Do I /have/ to tell the story again?!" she asks angrily.

"Well, I'll say this. Had that accident not happened, you sure as hell wouldn't be in this basement with us right now." I lean back in my chair casually, like I don't care anyways.

"You know what, you're probably right," Jackie says, which surprises me. "I became a bitch, and-"

Forman laughs lightly, interrupting her. "No offense, Jackie, but... weren't you always a bitch?"

Jackie rolls her eyes. "Do you guys /want/ to wreck this epic moment where I admit that Steven's right?"

"Alright, alright." Forman waves his hand. "Continue."

"I became a... bigger bitch. And that accident took back all the years of whatever made me worse. And so now... it's just like I'm a teenager again." She shrugs and kind of lowers her head.

I raise my eyebrows. I wasn't expecting this. I look at Jackie, who now stands up and walks upstairs to do God knows what. I just roll my eyes.

"Man, what was that all about?" Forman asks.

"What?" I ask.

"I don't know. The staring at her, arguing with her." He laughs. "It's just like when you two were dating."

I'm about to come up with a smart response but the door opens again, revealing Amber.

I sigh. "What do you-"

She interrupts me. "Hyde? Can you explain /this/?" She holds up a magazine with a picture of me holding Jackie's arm on the cover; the headlines say "IT WOULDN'T BE THE FIRST TIME I BEAT UP A GUY FOR JACKIE," in big, bold letters.

I stare in shock as Amber pulls me into my room.