Chapter 10 – Disco Fever
A.N.I was actually going to skip over this episode and just mention it in a brief flashback because coffeevixen has been doing such a great job with That Disco Episode in her current story I didn't want to be a copycat. However, the more I thought about it I figured I could take the episode in a fresh direction. I hope you all enjoy it and thanks as always to all my reviewers, especially the faithful ones. Zenkindoflove and Ultrawoman, you are the best!
"Eric!" Jackie shrieked when her boyfriend came downstairs in his disco finery. "I thought you were going to wear the John Travolta suit! Why are you wearing this?" she wrinkled her nose in distaste at the blue shirt and colourless beige jacket covering his angular form.
Eric did some fast thinking. "Well, Jackie, I figured that outfit might attract a little too much attention to me… and not enough to you! I wouldn't want to overshadow your beauty in any way."
"Oh please! Eric Foreman, I know you're just complimenting me to distract me from being mad at you," she accused with narrowed eyes, holding the expression until he started to look nervous, when she smiled. "You know me so well."
Eric gave a low laugh as his girlfriend snaked her arms around him. He had barely begun to take advantage of her amorous mood when his friends filed into the basement, all dressed in their grooviest threads.
"Hey, I didn't sign up for watching you two paw at each other all night," Hyde said, breaking the moment. "Let's get on the road to Kenosha, land of crappy disco music."
"Oh, poor Steven, suffering a night of disco magic for the sake of true love," Jackie said with a knowing smile. "I hope you didn't wear open toed sandals, Donna. I would be amazed if Steven knows how to dance a step."
"Hey, don't write me off too soon," Hyde replied to her baiting with a complicit smirk. "I've got a feeling that dancing is just one more thing I am naturally better at than any of you guys."
"You've been spending time with Jackie, haven't you?" Donna said, sending Hyde's heartbeat into overdrive, until she finished "The whole swollen head syndrome is rubbing off on you."
"Oh, very funny, Donna," Jackie said. "I was going to say that you look almost as pretty as me this evening, but now you've blown it." Jackie's smile took the edge from her words. She nudged her boyfriend to prompt his agreement. "Don't you think Donna looks so much better like that instead of covered in plaid all the time?"
Eric's tongue tied itself in knots at the thought of expressing his opinion on Donna's appearance. Even though he knew it was wrong, she still had the ability to send his pulse racing just by flicking her long red hair over her shoulder. He didn't think it would go down very well if he spoke his mind and said "Donna looks so hot she'll be setting off smoke alarms" so instead he strangled out the words "Yeah… you look nice."
Donna's smile grew as she read the hidden message in Eric's blush. Ever since the blackout, she felt as though some connection with Eric which had been broken when Jackie entered the picture had somehow sparked back to life. She did not yet know what she should do with this knowledge, if anything. But it felt good to know she still had an effect on Eric. It felt very good.
"Come on, guys," Kelso yelled. "Let's go! Don't you know there's a disco full of chicks out there who haven't seen me in my David Bowie butthuggers? I'm telling ya, these babies are gonna start a riot on the dance-floor."
"I think the only riot you'll be starting, Michael, is when the girls get a look at your shoes and rush out to the shops immediately to go buy a pair for themselves," Jackie remarked.
"Ha! Nice burn, Jackie," Hyde praised, meeting her hand for a high five.
"Thanks," Jackie said. "And I actually meant it to be one," she added proudly in an undervoice for Hyde's ears.
"Can we please go now?" Fez whined impatiently. "I wish to explore this boogie wonderland you Americans speak of."
"Yeah, let's get out of here," Eric agreed.
"I call shotgun!" Hyde said.
"I call second shotgun," Kelso cried.
"Kelso, Donna's the second shotgun," Hyde said. "I'm not pressing thighs with you for a two hour drive."
"But I called it!"
"Kelso, the shotgun's girlfriend sits next to him. It's a given."
"Actually," Eric interposed, "the driver's girlfriend should get that seat." Eric did not like the idea of being one half of a Donna sandwich for two hours, especially not with his best friend/her boyfriend on the other side.
So this was how it came about that Hyde found himself stuck next to Jackie in a confined space for two hours, listening to the swishy sound the purple chiffon of her dress made against her silken thighs as her leg rubbed against his. He had told himself that the feelings he had felt the day of their first (and last) dance lesson had been the result of sexual deprivation and a tainted batch of pot. To be on the safe side, he had kept his distance and cut short her tutelage so the circumstances would never be repeated. Yet, in spite of best intentions, his eyes tended to follow her around the room and his ears were tuned to every word she spoke. This last thing really drove him crazy, because she usually talked about such stupid things, but he found himself powerless to stop it. What worried him was that it was not unlike the place he was at not so long ago when he had started noticing Donna. Donna, with her long red hair and independent ways that now reminded him of another woman who was technically supposed to love him but did not really need him – another reason to hate Jackie, for planting that thought in his head. He tried really hard to hate her, he did, but how can you hate someone who thinks you are their new best friend? She now called him Steven and the crazy thing was he was starting to like it, although he'd join the Young Republicans Club sooner than admit to it. Man, he had to snap out of this! He already felt enough guilt about stealing Donna from Foreman. If he made a move on Jackie not only would Foreman think him the lowest human fungus on the planet, but he'd have to agree with him.
"Finally!" Donna exclaimed as they entered Kenosha. "If I have to sit next to Kelso for another 5 minutes, he's going to be missing a hand when we get out of this car!"
"Damn, Donna! It's not like I meant to touch your boob! I told you it was an accident."
"All fifteen times?"
"So I'm clumsy. Isn't that punishment enough?"
"Want me to pound on him for you, Donna?" Hyde offered.
"Nah, I can handle it."
"Of course you can," Hyde said wryly.
"Ooh look! There's the disco!" Jackie was bouncing in her seat with excitement, adding the visual stimulation of her jiggling cleavage to Hyde's torment. The car was barely parked when he shot out of the Cruiser, welcoming the cooling effect of the cold night air.
"My, my Steven," came Jackie's arch voice. "It looks like someone's in a hurry to get on the dance floor."
"Yes, Hyde, you look as though you are suffering from a fever," Fez chimed in. "Could it be – disco fever?"
"No, man, just wanted to see if the high pitched whining noise in my ear would stop when I got out of the car. What do you know," he said, with a look at Jackie, "It did."
"C'mon guys, let's save the passion for the dancing," Eric said, putting his arm around Jackie and leading the way into the disco.
"Hmmm, you do look kind of warm," Donna said, eyeing Hyde speculatively. "Are you coming down with something?"
Hyde caught sight of Jackie's swaying hips as she walked ahead of him in her high heels. "Oh God, I hope not," he prayed aloud.
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Entering the club, Jackie looked around with wide eyes. "Oooh, Eric," she breathed. "It's so beautiful."
Eric surveyed the strobe lit room with the dance music pumping out and crowds of people making eggbeater motions with their arms in unison. "Well, I don't know if beautiful is how I'd describe it." Then he followed Jackie's gaze to the glittering disco ball suspended from the ceiling. Oh crap! I'd better break her eye contact before that thing turns her into another one of these disco zombies.
"Uh, let's go snag ourselves a table and some drinks," Eric said, dragging Jackie along by one hand.
"So pretty," she murmured, reaching a hand plaintively toward the magic orb.
As the night progressed, the group of friends began to relax. Fez crossed over to the disco-loving side with Jackie, and even Donna said the music wasn't all bad. As for Kelso, he was too busy clearing a 6 foot radius around himself with his spastic dance moves to get into music debates.
"Eric, it's time to put on your boogie shoes," Jackie announced with a determined look.
"Are you sure about that? I could have sworn it was time to not make a complete ass of myself."
"Foreman, that time will never come." Hyde washed his burn down with another beer.
"Come on, they're playing "Fernando". That's a great slow song. And you know what they say about the slow songs, right Steven?" Jackie shot a significant look at Hyde, throwing in a slight head movement towards Donna.
"Damn," Hyde breathed. "Let's go, Donna," he groaned, offering her a hand up.
As the two couples made their way to the dance floor, Fez looked at Kelso speculatively and then opened his mouth.
"Don't even think about it, Fez," Kelso warned, keeping his eyes looking straight ahead.
"But those two girls over there are dancing with each other," Fez argued.
"I said, NO!"
Fez crossed his arms and pouted. "You never want to do anything with me!"
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Donna's opening remark as he took her into his arms almost made Hyde crush her feet before they'd even begun.
"So am I crazy, or is there something going on between you and Jackie?"
"Wh-What? Where do you get that from?"
"What was all that 'you know what they say about the slow songs' stuff? Do you guys have some sort of secret language now?"
"Oh, that? That was nothing. Just some stupid thing she said to me once about winning hearts with slow songs." Hyde tried to control his heartbeat. He had no reason to be nervous – he hadn't done anything wrong.
"You've really eased up on her this past week," Donna mused. "You've gone from taunting her every chance you got to calling her burns, some of which I'm sure were anything but."
Hyde tried for a different approach. "Like it or not, Jackie is Foreman's girlfriend and so a part of the group, Donna. I just thought I should go a bit easier on her for his sake."
"Oh, so now Jackie is the new queen of the basement? What does that make me? The court jester? Ow! Hyde!" Donna winced as Hyde accidentally trod on her foot.
Hyde cursed to himself. Yeah, this dancing crap was really winning her heart. Although, come to think of it, did he really want her heart anymore?
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"There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright, Fernando," Jackie sang. Her boyfriend looked at her beaming face in bemusement.
"You really do love this stuff, don't you?" he said with a smile.
"Of course," Jackie replied. "Don't you?"
"To be honest, I don't like dance music."
"Oh," Jackie said, a little shocked. "Well, then… why did you want to come?"
Eric shrugged. "I guess because I like you."
The smile on Jackie's face could have lit up a football stadium. "So what, you're in like with me?" Eric did not answer, but pulled his James Bond face as he lowered her into a prolonged dip.
"You're not going to drop me, are you?"
Eric was about to assure her there was no chance of that, when he saw Donna dancing with Hyde. A guilty confusion filled his mind, and he abruptly pulled Jackie upright again and drew her against his shoulder so she could not see any traitorous thoughts flashing across his face. She snuggled blissfully against her boyfriend, content in the knowledge that he really liked her. Everything was going so well until –
"Idiot!" Jackie hissed, her body stiffening in Eric's arms.
"What did I do?!"
"Not you, Eric! Steven is fighting with Donna in the middle of the dance floor! After all the trouble I went through to bring them back together!"
"Huh? What did you do?"
"It doesn't matter. Look, Eric, I'm going to step in and dance with Steven and straighten his curly head out. You dance with Donna while I do that."
"Me? Dance with Donna? I can't, Jackie - " Eric objected in a panic. However, Jackie was on a mission of love and had dragged Eric in front of their quarrelling friends before he knew what had hit him.
"Hey guys," Jackie chirped. "Wouldn't it be fun to switch partners? Let's cut in on each other, like they do in the movies."
"Jackie, I don't think - " Hyde began, but Donna cut him short.
"You know, Jackie, that does sound like a lot of fun," Donna eyed Hyde coldly. "I'm sure Steven here would just love to dance with you." She then turned a bewitching smile on Eric. "C'mon, Eric. Show me what you've got. I'm warning you, though, if you step on my feet as well, I'll be feeding you dirt tomorrow."
As Hyde watched his girlfriend walk away with his best friend, Jackie's sharp voice was pecking its way into his ears. "What the hell were you doing, Steven? I go to all that trouble of teaching you how to dance and you use those skills to pick a fight with Donna. Unless you're in West Side Story, dancing and fighting don't go together!" Even as she was blasting Hyde with reproach, she had moved into his dance frame.
"You want to know what we were fighting about, Jackie," Hyde returned angrily, unconsciously matching his feet in perfect harmony with her own. "You! This little dancing secret we've been keeping has made Donna suspect something's between us."
"What! But there's nothing like that between you and me!" Jackie gasped as she twirled under Hyde's arm.
"Of course there isn't. Although in the future you might want to try not muscling in on us and insisting I dance with you. It seems Donna finds that sort of behaviour – how shall I put it – suspicious as hell!"
Jackie's eyes widened remorsefully. "Oops." she said in a small voice.
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Eric and Donna danced in silence together, both too afraid of what might come out of their mouths to open them. Holding each other in the slow dance embrace was the most intimate position either had ever experienced with the other. Certain fantasies dating from the pre-Jackie era were playing in both their minds, back when touching each other this way had been a possibility. To remind himself why it was no longer a possibility, Eric said "So, how are things going with you and Hyde?"
"Oh you know, the usual."
"You seem to be fighting a lot."
"Yeah, well, that's the usual." Eric raised his eyebrows at Donna so she elaborated. "Couples fight, Eric. You should see my parents go at each other, then you'd think our fighting was nothing."
Eric was disturbed by Donna's bleak words. It would be easier to put old feelings for Donna behind him if she was happy with the choice she had made.
"Jackie and I don't fight," Eric argued. "And we're a couple."
Yeah, like I need a reminder, Donna thought in irritation. "Well, maybe you and Jackie don't scratch far enough below the surface."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean the girl thinks you're the greatest things since sliced bread. It's hard to have a fight with someone who thinks you can do no wrong."
"Well, I don't see what's so bad about that."
"Of course you don't, you're a guy," Donna said, rolling her eyes. "Forget it, Eric. If you're happy with someone who's never going to challenge you, then that's fine. You've made your choice."
"Choice?" Eric said, puzzled. "Like I had options? Donna, you're the one that made the choice."
Donna's heart skipped a beat as she saw the honest bewilderment on Eric's face. "What do you mean?"
"Forget it," Eric said, stepping back from the dangerous topic. "I think we'd better swap back before our partners rip each other's heads off." Eric gestured towards Jackie and Hyde, who were obviously arguing about something as they danced. Donna would have liked to pursue their conversation and find out what Eric had meant, when she was distracted by how perfectly Hyde and Jackie danced together, much better than she and Hyde had.
"That's funny," she said.
"What is?"
"Hyde and Jackie. Even though they're fighting, they move so well together. They look so… natural."
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"Steven, there's no need to get so riled up," Jackie said impatiently. "I'll just explain to Donna about the dance lesson. Once she knows the trouble you went to so you could make her happy, I'm sure her heart will be melted."
As Hyde looked across to his girlfriend, held in Eric's arms, he realised that for the first time the sight did not cause any reaction from his jealous heart. Instead, that fickle organ was pumping double time as he drew Jackie closer, curving his arm around her slender waist, breathing in the subtle scent of her perfume.
"Jackie, don't bother," he said. "It doesn't matter anymore."
"But Steven – "
"Jackie, I said no!"
"Hey Hyde," Eric's voice was suddenly right behind him. "You ready to swap girls?"
Hell, yeah, was Hyde's involuntary thought.