A/N: Wow, thanks for all the reviews, guys! They really inspire me and encourage me to keep on going! This, similar to the last chapter, will be in both Jackie and Hyde's point of view in different sections, just to get a peek in their minds, and so you can know what either one is up to without the other one there. Anyway, here's chapter eight; review, and enjoy!
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"Hyde, I can't believe that you, of all people, would stick up for her!" Amber exclaims at me. "I mean, you could care less about anybody, so why would you try and help her? I bet you wouldn't help /me/!"

I roll my eyes. "The guy practically had her in a chokehold. I'd go to hell if I ignored that."

"Oh, please. You know you're already going to hell anyway." Amber looks at the magazine again. "I just, I don't know what to do anymore. You never give a rat's ass about me, but then /Jackie/ comes along and it's all different."

"Are you kidding me?" I ask. "How do I not give a rat's ass about you? Remember two weeks ago when I bought that jewelry you wanted? That, my friend, was a given rat's ass."

Amber sighs, and at first I think she's gonna blow up at me again, but then she sits down and seems calm. "You know what? Forget it." She gives me what looks to be a forced smile.

"Alright, come on. Let's go see what Forman and Donna are doing." I start walking towards the door.

She gives me a hopeful look. "Does this mean we can tell them we're getting married?" she asks when we start walking out the door.

"What?!" I hear Donna yell, and when I step out, I see her giving me the weirdest look.

JACKIE'S POV:

After I had admitted that Steven was right about me, I went upstairs to get a Coke. Once I came back down, I noticed that Steven had left. I didn't even mention anything about it, because... well, I don't care. At least, I shouldn't care. Right?

"Thanks for getting me one, Jackie," Donna says sarcastically.

"Oh... sorry." I smile sheepishly and look toward Steven's door, noticing that it's shut. I quickly move my eyes, for fear that Eric or Donna will notice where I'm looking. "So... what'd I miss?"

Eric laughs. "Well," he starts.

Donna shuts him up, giving him a stern look. "We talked about... fruit."

I give her a weird look. "Always about the food, isn't it, Donna?"

She rolls her eyes. "Why is there nothing ever on TV? God." She's flipping through the channels, but nothing seems to come up.

"... are doing." I hear Steven's voice and the door opening.

"Does this mean we can tell them we're getting married?" a female voice asks.

My neck jerks toward them. Who? What? When, where, /why/?

It's Amber, that girl from the other night.

"What?!" Donna exclaims toward them.

I see Steven give an exasperated sigh, putting a hand on his forehead. "I told you to shut it."

Donna stares at them. "What's this all about?"

At about the same time, Amber gasps and points at me. "It's /her/."

I'm almost too shocked for words. Almost. "What about me? Who are you?" I lie. You know, it's truly amazing that I never made it in the acting business.

She simply holds up a magazine, giving me a 'look.'

I read the headline and gasp. Then I try to act like I never lost my cool. "What about it?" I pause again. "And who /are/ you?"

"I'm Amber, Hyde's fianc e." She gives me a smug look again.

My heart kind of freezes for a moment. "And, my other question?" I ask, ignoring the feeling in my chest.

"Well... you and Hyde are kind of on it. Together."

Steven shakes his head at her. "Amber, will you shut it? I thought you said you were gonna forget about it."

"Not when she's here." She pulls Steven to the side, talking quietly, but we can still hear her. "I don't want you to ever talk to her again, okay?"

He shrugs. "Whatever." He walks away and sits down.

Donna stares at him in disbelief. "For the third time, what is the whole marriage thing about? You just listened to us insult her and didn't say anything?"

Steven nods. "Pretty much."

"Um, hello? Still here." Amber waves.

"When did this even happen?" Eric asks.

"I don't even remember." Steven scoffs and leans back, and it's quite obvious (at least to me) that he wishes that they weren't talking about this. Then again, he's always been that way. He doesn't like the spotlight, unless it's for something bad he did. I smile at the thought, then remember where I am and the smile vanishes.

"Yeah, and tell your bitch of a girlfriend to not drag me into this," I add.

"Jackie, shut your piehole." He rolls his eyes at me and stares at the TV.

Amber jumps in. "Hyde! I told you not to talk to her. /And/ I'm the only one you tell that to! Me!"

I stare at her in amazement. Why did Steven chose to be with /her/?

"Amber, for God's sake," Steven mutters.

"If you talk to her again, I'll break off the engagement." She raises an eyebrow in a 'ha ha, what can you do now' sort of way.

"Hey, Jackie, pass me the remote," he says, still staring at Amber, his eyebrows raised now.

Her mouth opens, and she's at lost for words for a minute. "Okay, I'm not gonna break it off. But I really don't appreciate you being by her."

Upon hearing this, Steven gets up and sits next to me. I try not to smile, but I'm not sure if it's because he's sitting by me, or because he's trying to irritate Amber.

"Hyde." She glares at him. "Do you /not/ want to be with me?"

"I didn't say that," he simply says.

"So you do want to be with me."

He stares at her. "I didn't say that either."

She throws up her hands. "Well, say something! I'm so... sick of this!"

Steven looks down. "I'm not ready for marriage, I'll tell you that."

"I can give you time." She looks hopeful.

"You know what? I don't need time. Maybe /we're/ not ready for marriage. And won't be. Because really, I never expected to get this far with you anyway."

Amber looks shocked, and I notice a tear starts to fall down her face. "Are you sure?"

He nods slowly, causing Amber to grab her purse and walk out the door, and we can hear her start to sob once the door shuts.

Eric turns to Steven. "Hey. You okay, man?"

He nods. "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry," I say to him, just turning my head since he's next to me. "I didn't mean to cause all of this."

He gets up and goes to his chair, which disappoints me a little. "It's fine. I was waiting to get rid of her anyway."

"Hyde, you don't make any sense," Eric puts in. "I mean, you married Sam, right? None of this 'I was drunk' crap either, I mean, you stuck with her. And then you were engaged to Amber, who was extremely annoying, but somehow she conned you into it. And then there's the freaking devil," He gestures to me, "And she couldn't get you to propose? No sense, man."

"Don't bring me into this, Eric," I say. "I don't even remember it."

"Yeah, shut up, Forman." Steven inhales deeply, in an irritated manner.

"You know what? I'm clearly not wanted here," Eric jokes. "Come on, Donna. To the shuttle!" They headed upstairs.

"I don't even know what they're gonna do," Steven said, shaking his head.

I lean over toward him, because I know that my shirt is low cut. "Steven... if that girl meant anything to you, I'm so sorry."

I see him glance down for a second, then pause to meet my eyes. "It's fine. I swear I was sick of her."

"That's a good theory, Steven," I shoot at him. "Use them once or twice and throw them away?"

"Nah, not that. She was just too... bitchy." He laughs, so I smile.

"Were you really gonna marry her?" I ask.

"Doubt it. /Really/ doubt it. I just don't like commitments, I guess," he says, looking down my shirt again.

"So I've heard. And stop that!" I playfully swat him.

"What?"

"You know what," I say, and pull up the neckline of my shirt so he understands what I mean.

He just grins at me. Then his face gets serious, and I can tell that he's about to open up a bit. Which, as we all know, is rare for him. "You know, you haven't changed."

"If you're talking about my boobs, then you're wrong," I joke, implying that I know I had surgery on them.

He shakes his head, laughing. "No, I can tell the difference there." He glances down for the third time and then gets serious again. "But I mean... personality."

I raise my eyebrows. "Still a bitch?"

"No. Well, yeah, I guess, considering how you acted towards Amber and everything. But, I don't know." He stops.

"Keep going," I say, waving my hand around. "How have I not changed?"

He shrugs. "I don't know, I guess you're still... happy, playful, and... full of yourself." He smiles, but I know he's only half joking.

"That's cool," I say in a zen-like manner.

"You haven't forgotten /that/, huh?" Steven asks.

"Nope. Zen has stuck with me through it all." I laugh, then pause. "How was I... before I left?"

"I don't know. You became meaner. Don't really blame you, though. You didn't really have anybody at that point." He shrugs.

"How so?" I ask.

"Well, Donna kind of had her own thing going on. Plus, she kind of befriended Sam, I guess. Kelso left, too. So I guess you just left." He shrugs.

"Huh. Things got pretty screwed up for me after we broke up then," I say, feeling my face heat up as I say the words.

"I guess." He looks at the floor. "I'm gonna go see what Forman and Donna are doing."

"Thought you said you didn't wanna know?" I raise my eyebrows. "Anything to get away from me, huh?"

He blushes. "No, it's not that."

"Be honest. It is. It's awkward and weird being around me, especially since I've been gone so long. Admit it."

He sighs. "Fine. It is kind of weird. Really weird, actually."

I'm about to respond until I hear the phone ring. We both jump at it, but then stop as we see the other go to get it. Eventually, it stops ringing; somebody must have picked it up upstairs.

"Jackie!" Kitty calls from upstairs. "It's your friend!"

I grab the phone. "Genevieve?"

"Yes, it's me. First off, I wanted to say that his hotel isn't completely horrible. There haven't been any bugs or anything... yet." She pauses and waits for me to respond.

"Yeah, well, it's not that horrible. I went in /plenty/ of those rooms when..." I trail off when I realize that Steven's still in the room. I probably shouldn't bring up our old sex life. "Anyway, what else did you want to say?"

"I forgot my other purse at the house. I think it was on the couch?" she asks.

I check and see it wedged in between the curtains. "Yeah, it's right here."

"Could you be a darling and bring it over?" she asks me.

"Um, hold on." I look at Steven. "Can I use your car?"

"For what?"

"Genevieve left her purse here," I explain. "I have to bring it back."

He sighs. "I'll take you."

"You sure? I can just dri-"

He stops me. "I can take you. Tell her we'll be right there."

"We'll be right there, Gen," I say into the phone.

"We?" she asks, then must remember. "Oh, right. The guy that you're madly in love with."

"Am not," I hiss. "Anyway, gimme a few minutes and we'll be there."

"Okay. Bye." I hang up and Steven grabs his keys while I get the purse.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Yeah. Come on." We walk out the door, walking up the stairs and soon we're in the car.

We drive there and it's mostly silent. He doesn't even bother with the radio this time. Once we're there, he waits.

"Go run it in. I'll wait."

By now, it was raining like crazy, and an empty feeling had started to form and continued to linger in the air.

I grab the bag, running it in as fast as I can without getting soaked. I make it to their room, and after a quick knock, Genevieve answers.

"Thank you so much, doll!" she exclaims, then notices my strange expression. "What?"

I shake my head. "Nothing."

"Well, come in! Where's that guy of yours?"

"He's waiting in the car, so I can't come in. And he's not my guy! Stop saying that!" I put a hand to my head in exasperation.

"Sure, he isn't," she says, smiling menacingly.

I roll my eyes. "Well, I have to go anyway. So I'll see you tomorrow."

"Of course. Bye!" I walk away as she shuts the door.

Running as quickly as I can, I still manage to get drenched in rain, which really sucks because I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt. I make it to the El Camino, with my clothes and hair all wet.

"Well, you really caught the rain," Steven says.

I laugh bitterly. "Of course I did." I shiver and rub my arms, crossing them in front of my waist.

"Nice, no jacket either?" he asks.

"Nope. It's summer, why would I bring a jacket?"

He shrugs. "Well, I don't have anything in here, so, sorry."

"That's okay."

We drive in silence again, and after a few minutes, I start shaking again. Steven gives me a weird look.

"I'm fine," I insist.

"Whatever you say," he says as we continue driving.