Chapter fourteen: The Breaking Point
He'd never thought it would be this hard to ask a girl out.
It's been three days since the incident on Six Flags, three days since he decided he would man up and ask the most beautiful girl in Point Place out, and he hadn't been able to catch her alone since.
He was starting to get seriously pissed. He thought Donna was on his side, and that now that she's dating Forman, Jackie would have more free time.
He couldn't have been more wrong. Donna's been asking Jackie for opinions on her outfits 24/7, and she asked Jackie to do her makeup every night before her dates with Forman. And like that wasn't enough, the basement was filled with people all the time.
Eric and Donna decided that the basement was their place to cuddle and hang out before their dates, and Fez and Kelso only left the basement late at night.
It's not like he hadn't seen Jackie, she hangs out with everyone, but he hadn't been able to catch her alone.
Besides, he couldn't shake the feeling that she's purposely avoiding him. Was she still upset about him punching the asshole?
And to make everything worse: it was currently one of the hottest days in Wisconsin. He barely slept at night, his thoughts about Jackie and the heat kept him awake, and to say he was grumpy would be an understatement.
He sighed before getting out of bed. He needs a cold shower now, otherwise he might go insane, he felt like he was being boiled alive in his windowless room on the back of the basement.
Oh yeah, Jackie is not the only reason he takes hot showers now.
He grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom, he needed to figure out a way to talk to Jackie alone today, no matter what.
Jackie opened her eyes and sighed. It was 9 in the morning and she was already frustrated, because she just had another dirty dream about Steven.
It's not enough that she spent half of the night awake, thinking about him, no no, she just had to have a dirty dream about him when she finally managed to go to sleep.
It was getting harder and harder to pretend like she doesn't have feelings for him every day.
She doesn't know how the hell she managed to control herself for so long. She wanted to throw herself at him, she wanted to kiss every inch of his stupid bearded face, she wanted to yell at him for being so sexy and making her so horny.
Steven is turning her into a female version of Fez, and she wanted to hate him for it. But she couldn't, because he's Steven and he's the nicest guy she's ever met.
She's been trying her best to avoid staying alone in the same room with him, because she doesn't know if she can control herself. She knows she's losing her subtlety, he probably realized she has feelings for him by now, but honestly, can he blame her?
How the hell is she supposed to pretend like he's not the sexiest guy alive when he keeps walking around with his stupid tight concert shirts? How the hell is she supposed to control herself and not throw herself at him every time he gives her one of his mischievous sexy grins?
Besides, she hasn't forgotten about the incident on Six Flags. She was angry at him for putting himself at risk like that, but the anger faded away and now she can't stop thinking about how that was probably the most romantic thing she's ever seen.
It was right out of a fairytale. The scruffy knight in the shining armor beats the crap out of the asshole who has a jerk to the princess.
Every time she looks at his slightly bruised cheekbone she remembers how he said he cared about her and all of her horniness was multiplied by a hundred.
She groaned out loud and threw her stuffed unicorn at the wall. This is so not fair.
"What?" Donna mumbled sleepily and Jackie cursed herself. She was so frustrated with herself that she forgot that her favorite lumberjack slept over because of her parents' fights.
"Nothing" Jackie answered "It's this stupid heat"
"Don't tell me about it, thank God for your ceiling fan" Donna said "I wouldn't have slept at all if it wasn't for it"
"At least you slept" Jackie muttered "I barely did, so I just want to let you know that I'll be cranky today"
"Great" Donna grimaced "Just focus your bitchiness on Fez and Kelso today, please"
"Fine" Jackie said "But I'm not promising anything, your stupid boyfriend annoys me"
"He's not my boyfriend" Donna replied
"Might as well be" Jackie said "If he doesn't make things official between you two soon I am going to kill him, just to let you know"
"Noted" Donna said, leaving the bed "I'm going to the guest bathroom to take a cold shower"
"Okay" Jackie answered "I'm going to take a cold shower too, it makes the hair shinier. Then we're grabbing something to eat and we'll head to Eric's. I need to unload my bitchiness on someone or I'll explode"
"Deal" Donna said, leaving the room to take her shower.
Jackie sighed and went to choose an outfit for the day, something that'll make the heat more tolerable.
And maybe something that can get Steven's attention.
"I'm going to die!" Eric groaned as he placed a frozen bag of peas on the back of his neck "It's Wisconsin! This is supposed to be a cold state!"
"It's not that hot" Fez said, and everyone glared at him "What? In my country, this is our winter"
"Is your country hell?" Hyde asked "I feel like I'm gonna melt, man"
"Yeah, even Jackie is sweating" Donna said and Jackie glared at her
"I don't sweat, I glisten!" She protested, making Donna, Hyde, Eric and Fez chuckle slightly. Donna, Eric and Fez were laughing at her stubbornness, but Hyde was laughing at her cuteness.
"If the devil itself is sweating, than that means that this might be the hottest day in the history of Point Place" Eric said, and Jackie shot daggers at him with her eyes
"It's hot and I'm cranky. Do you really want me to activate my bitchy mode?" She said, and Eric scooted closer to Donna
"It's not activated?" Hyde teased her, and she directed her glare at him
"You're on my list" She sent him a pointed look, and started to search for something in her purse.
"You're not looking for your gun, are you?" Fez asked apprehensively
"No, just a scrunchie" She said, smiling victoriously when she found what she was looking for. She made the bambi eyes at Donna, who sighed and helped her put her hair up "I don't know what I was thinking, it's too hot to wear my hair down today"
Hyde wasn't paying much attention, Jackie was wearing the shortest shorts he'd ever seen and a tank top. And now her neck was exposed and he wanted to glue his lips into it. He's dying to taste her, if only he could be alone with her for two freaking seconds…
"Ay, the heat melted my candy!" Fez lamented, taking a smooched candy bar from his back pocket and pouting.
"You carry candy in your pockets?" Hyde asked, disgusted "More specifically, you carry chocolate candy in your back pocket?"
"Of course I do, Hyde!" Fez explained dumbly "It's not socially acceptable for men to walk around with purses, so my pockets are all I have"
Jackie started to laugh "Fez, can you stand up?"
"Want to take a better look at pepe?" Fez asked, standing up and making his stallion face.
"Turn around, Fez" Hyde said with a big smirk on his face, and Fez did as he was told.
Eric, Donna, Hyde and Jackie all exploded with laughter when they saw the big brown stain on Fez's white pants.
"Only with you, man" Eric said, laughing hysterically.
"I do not understand!" Fez looked confused at them "What is so funny?"
"Fez, you have a huge chocolate stain on your butt" Jackie said, wiping her tears.
"That's not a good place to have chocolate stains, man" Hyde said
"Ay, no…" Fez mumbled
Everyone kept laughing, when Kelso barged into the basement, with an excited grin on his face and a camera on his hand.
"Guys, guess what?!" He said spastically "Laurie is sunbathing in the driveway!"
Hyde, Eric, Donna and Jackie grimaced, and Fez smiled.
"Why would you tell us that?" Eric asked, disgusted
"Because Laurie is wearing like, the smallest bikini ever!" Kelso replied "So I ran back to my house and grabbed my polaroid!"
"Let me get this straight, Laurie dumped you, yet, you're still going to creep on her?" Hyde asked with a frown
"She's a hot chick in a bikini, Hyde! What else was I supposed to do?"
"Be a normal human being" Jackie muttered in disgust
"Whatever, I'm going! Fez, wanna join me?" He asked, then he looked at Fez and laughed "Dude, did you just shit your pants?"
"It's chocolate, you fool!" Fez yelled looking annoyed and embarrassed.
Kelso just laughed, and used his camera to take a picture of Fez's stained butt, making everyone laugh again.
Jackie was also laughing, but she grimaced when she noticed a couple drops of actual sweat on her face. She quickly wiped it off and decided to grab a popsicle on the deep freeze, the heat was almost killing her.
She got up while everyone still laughed at Fez's misfortune, and Kelso held the picture in his hand.
"I'm going to show this to Laurie!" Kelso exclaimed and ran upstairs.
"You son of a bitch!" Fez yelled and ran behind Kelso, unknowingly shoving Jackie out of his way.
Jackie got the wind knocked out of her, great, the last thing she needed was to fall into the hard basement floor and make a fool of herself in front of Steven.
But instead of hitting the hard floor, she felt strong arms quickly wrapping around her tiny waist and her heart started to beat frantically inside of her chest. She knew these arms very well.
The second Hyde saw Fez shoving Jackie out of his way, he acted purely on instinct. He couldn't let her fall and hurt herself, so he quickly caught her and pulled her to his lap.
"You okay?" He asked her, and she nodded, adjusting herself.
The quick shift made Hyde groan, he's been attracted to this girl for months and having her on his lap was waking up "Hyde Junior", if she felt that...
He tried to force himself into thinking about the day he saw a shirtless Red Forman, and the day he caught Donna's dad wearing a speedo, but it wasn't working.
He used every single inch of self control he had not to kiss her senseless, having her on his lap was making him crazy.
If Forman and Donna weren't there… Man, why the hell wasn't he able to be alone with her so he could properly ask her out?
Later, when the blood goes back into his brain, he'll realize that he could've asked her out right there, no one would even hear it, she was so close… But he couldn't think straight.
Jackie's eyes widened when she noticed the position they were in, why did it feel so good? His lap was way more comfortable than any other seat in the basement, that's for sure. It was weird, good weird.
She didn't want to get up, but her hormones were acting up and she needed to get up, because she might end up doing something very stupid…
Then she felt it. Holy crap. Was Steven…? Oh my God!
She knew she was supposed to be embarrassed or something, but she wasn't. In fact, she was biting back a smile. If he was actually hard because of what happened, that means that he liked her, right?
Jackie Burkhart was many things, she's bitchy, bossy, gorgeous, but she's not naive. She felt Steven's erection, and she also noticed his small groan and the way his breath hitched when she adjusted herself on his lap.
If she's going to die of horniness, she might as well drag him straight to hell with her.
"Thanks for catching me" She whispered, the boy only nodded, and she took a deep breath before discreetly rubbing herself into him. His breath hitched again and she saw his eyes clouding with lust behind his stupid sunglasses. She rubbed her ass into him one more time and whispered in his ear before heading back to the couch "And thanks for the compliment"
Donna and Eric watched the scene with amusement and shock. Donna has never seen Jackie acting this way, and Eric has never seen Hyde like this. He felt bad for the poor guy, he must be having the worst case of blue balls ever.
Hyde noticed Jackie's small grin and sighed. That girl is going to be the death of him. He closed his eyes and tried his best to hide behind his zen, but it wasn't working.
Jackie almost gasped out loud when she started to think straight again, she acted like a whore!
She sent Donna a pleading look and Donna got the message right away. She grabbed Jackie's hand, and mumbled a lame excuse before dragging Jackie out of the basement.
The sexual tension between them reached its peak today, and he couldn't wait anymore. He wanted her, and he wanted her badly.
"Dude, what the hell was that?!" Eric asked after the girls left the basement
"What?" Hyde played dumb
"You know what!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, man" Hyde answered nonchalantly
"Cut the crap, Hyde! You can deny it all you want. But the world knows. Everybody around you knows. Even my mother thinks she's your girlfriend, so you stop acting like a dillhole and man up!" Eric yelled "Ask her out, man!"
"Didn't you say innumerable times that she's the devil?" Hyde asked
"Hey, if you like the devil and the devil likes you…"
"I thought you said Jackie and I shouldn't hook up, if I recall correctly, you mentioned something about the antichrist" Hyde said, his voice dripping with sarcasm
"Well, that was before! Donna opened my eyes to the wonderful world of love"
Hyde frowned at Eric's sentence, he can be such a girl sometimes "You and Donna have been dating for like, ten days"
"That's how powerful love is, my friend" Eric smiled "I feel like a Jedi"
"You're weird" Hyde scowled and Eric just shrugged
"Whatever man, you like her, you should ask her out" Eric said
Hyde sighed "I will, alright? I'm just waiting for the right moment"
"And when the hell will that be?" Eric asked
"I don't know man, when we're alone! I'm not asking her out in front of everyone" He said and Eric nodded
"Donna and I are going to a date at The Hub in a couple hours" Eric said, and Hyde raised his eyebrow "Jackie will be alone"
Hyde nodded, understanding what Eric implied.
"Got it" Hyde said, biting back a smile. He's asking Jackie out today "Now drop it"
"Whatever you say, man" Eric said and redirected his attention to the frozen bag of peas on his neck, moving it to his forehead.
He smiled when he noticed that Hyde was smirking to himself. He got his head out of his ass. Finally.
"Donna, I can't take it anymore" Jackie said while threw herself on her best friend's bed
"I could tell!" Donna said, sitting next to Jackie
"I need to get a hold of myself because I swear to God I will end up jumping into him and…"
Donna rolled her eyes. She thought Hyde would've made his move by mow.
"Jackie" She interrupted her friend "Why don't you jump into him already? I'm sure he's going to like it"
"Of course he's going to like it, I'm hot and he's a boy, with eyes!" Jackie pointed at herself "But I also refuse to be one of his whores, who he sleeps with and forgets about it the next day"
"Jackie, you two flirt with each other 24/7, it's starting to get annoying" Donna sent Jackie a pointed look "If he's just interested in sex he wouldn't be flirting with you so much, he would be doing it with the whores you mentioned before. Besides, he might have told me that he likes you back"
Jackie blushed furiously at the last statement "What?!"
"Look, don't be mad, but I blew up on him after Six Flags" Donna said "I got tired of seeing you two drooling all over each other and not doing anything about it!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever" Jackie said, sitting on the bed and looking at Donna "What did he say? He actually likes me back?!"
"He does" Donna said with a small smile, and Jackie stared at her in disbelief "I'm pretty sure he's going to ask you out"
"Oh my God!" Jackie said, covering her mouth with her hands in shock "Really?"
"He smiled, Jackie. Hyde actually smiled when I said you liked him"
"Oh my God..." Jackie muttered, still in shock
Jackie stayed in silence for almost two minutes straight, and she was starting to freak Donna out. Jackie's never quiet.
Donna clapped her hands in front of Jackie's face, and Jackie glared at her.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Jackie said "The wind created by your huge hands could've very well blow me away to China or something!"
"That's because you are abnormally small" Donna rolled her eyes "Now focus, Jackie! Hyde's going to ask you out! Are you not going to say anything?"
"But Donna, I acted like a whore!" Jackie started to ramble "What if he stopped liking me because of that? What if he liked me because I was a lady and now I'm just a whore and…"
"Jackie, shut up!" Donna interrupted, she knew Jackie very well to know that this could go on for hours, and she has a date with Eric "He still likes you, it was written all over his face!"
"But Donna…" She started again, and Donna glared at her.
"But nothing!" She said "Now you are going to be a good friend and help me get ready for my date with Eric!"
"What about Steven?"
"You need to talk to him alone, go look for him after we're done here" Donna said
Jackie sighed impatiently "Fine! But you better let me do your makeup this time!"
"Jackie, we're going out for lunch" Donna argued, and rolled her eyes when she saw Jackie's pointed look "Fine"
"Yay!" Jackie celebrated, and went to the bathroom to grab the supplies.
When she found herself alone, she almost squealed with joy. Steven likes her! He's going to ask her out! This had to be the best day ever.
"Okay, I'm out" Eric said, adjusting his shirt
"Thank God, I think I'll die if I have to smell your cologne for one more second" Hyde said
"Ha, ha" Eric said, rolling his eyes "I just hope I don't soak my new shirt with sweat"
"Forman, go" Hyde said, annoyed
"Fine" Eric said "I'm picking Donna up now. And Jackie will be alone. All alone"
"I got it man, go!" Hyde replied and Eric left the basement with a smug grin on his face.
When Hyde found himself alone he sighed. He doesn't get why the hell he's so nervous, he asked plenty of girls out in his life, and he scored with almost every single one of them.
But Jackie is… Jackie is different. He didn't want to be with her just to nail her, he wanted a relationship. He wanted to be called her boyfriend.
She makes him feel all kinds of things and he actually enjoys being near her on a daily basis. So much that he misses her when she's not around.
He paced around the basement for a few minutes, trying to gather the nerve to go find Jackie and just get this over with already. He removed his shades and placed them on the center table before leaving the basement.
When Donna left the house to go find Eric, Jackie stayed in front of the mirror for a few seconds, making sure she looked good. She reapplied her cherry chapstick and adjusted her ponytail before leaving the Pinciotti's house, it's time to find Steven.
Hyde saw Jackie walking through the Forman's driveway, heading into the basement. She hasn't noticed him yet.
He took a deep breath, this is it.
"Hey, Jackie!" He called her, and she looked at him and smiled.
Before he knew it, she was standing in front of him, and God, how can someone smell so good even on a heat wave?
"Hey Steven, what's up?" She said, trying to sound nonchalant, and she cursed herself. She doesn't say 'what's up', what is wrong with her? It's like her brain stops functioning properly whenever she's near him.
He grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes, he wanted her to see the honesty in his eyes.
"Be ready at 7" He said, and she stared at him with confusion.
"Wait, ready for what?" She asked
"I'm taking you on a freakin date" Hyde said, and she widened her eyes in surprise
"What?" She muttered, is this really happening?
"We're going on a date tonight" He said simply, ignoring the butterflies on his stomach. Thank God for his zen. She just stared at him in disbelief and he smiled at her "I'll pick you up at 7 doll, is that alright?"
"Yeah…" She mumbled, still confused at the whole situation
"Great, see you then" He said, and to end his statement, he quickly pressed his lips against hers — just long enough to leave her (and him) wanting more. Then he reluctantly pulled away and headed back to the basement, turning back to look at the confused girl in the driveway and smirking devilishly.
Oh yeah, that's her payback for grinding into him earlier, and payback is a bitch.
He felt his lips tingling and he couldn't repress a smile. That kiss lasted a second and it was already the best kiss he'd ever had. He couldn't wait for their date.
Jackie watched Hyde's retreating figure in shock, and placed her fingers into her lips. It was just a quick peck, but it woke up every single part of her body.
And then she smiled. She needed to find an outfit.
A/N: I know this chapter was small compared to the other ones, and I'm sorry about that, please don't kill me.
The next chapter will be 100% dedicated to their first date, and I can't wait to share it with you guys!
Thank you all so much for all the lovely reviews and all your support, it really inspires me to write more, so really, thank you.
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See you all soon!