The trip home was interrupted by a flat tire. This was definitely shaping up to be one of the worst days of my life. By the time we'd fixed the tire and got home, Donna and I were snapping at each other out of sheer exhaustion, and I barely had enough time to make my 7 a.m. shift at the hotel.
"'Morning, Roy," I greeted my sad, creepy boss. I tugged my uniform straight, hoping its crispness would somehow hide my limpness. "Um, look, Hyde's not feeling well, so he's not going to be in today."
"Oh." Roy's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Gosh, that came on fast. He looked all right a minute ago."
I stared at Roy in numb disbelief. "He's here?"
Roy nodded toward the kitchen. "He's getting ready for breakfast."
I didn't even wait for Roy to finish talking, I ran straight for the kitchen. Hyde was there in his white uniform, pulling equipment out of the cupboards. He looked up when the door shut behind me. He was wearing his sunglasses, so I couldn't see the sleepless night in his eyes, but I did notice his beard stubble - he hadn't shaved this morning.
"Hi," he said.
"Where the hell did you go?" I hadn't meant to start out like that. I meant to apologize. I wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to touch him and take in the wonderful fact that he was here, and he was safe. But I was so tired I could feel my hands shaking, and my head was pounding, and I couldn't hug him in the kitchen when Roy might walk in any second.
"I went into the woods to find my spirit animal," he replied with calm irony. "I think there's a customer out in the dining room, you'd better go take the order."
There were two, actually - an elderly couple who must have been waiting at the door for Roy to open the restaurant for breakfast. I took their order and then, since there weren't any other customers, I went back into the kitchen to wait for the food.
I sat on a stool in the corner and watched Hyde get the breakfast order ready. If he was feeling as crappy as I was, he was hiding it well - even humming softly as he stirred the scrambled eggs.
I wondered how he was feeling - not just physically, but emotionally. He'd gone off and he'd come back. What happened in between? Was he still mad at me? Did he still believe I was using him to get back at Donna?
The kitchen filled with the smell of cooking eggs. The dull sense of nausea that had been with me for hours suddenly got a lot stronger. That last cup of coffee was not sitting well. In fact, it was about to come right back up.
I covered my mouth and ran for the staff washroom. I made it; I crouched in front of the toilet and puked. I heard the door behind me open, but I was in no position to turn around and see who it was. A couple seconds later it closed again.
When my stomach stopped heaving, I flushed the toilet and went to the sink to wash up. I noticed that my eyes were kind of bloodshot and my face was pastier than normal. I splashed some cold water over my face, and thought about how much today was going to suck.
The bathroom door opened again, and I looked up to see Hyde. He was wearing his coat, and holding mine. "Roy gave me time off to take you home," he said.
"What?" I said groggily. "No, I'm not really sick-"
"Oh, you're just pregnant?" He came over and pushed my coat into my hands. "Come on, I haven't got all day."
Too wasted to protest, I followed him outside to his car. It was parked right out front; I realized I must have walked past it without seeing it when I came in. God, was my mind ever shot.
I don't think I fell asleep for the short drive home, but I did blank out. Next thing I knew we were walking into the living room, where Red was watching TV.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" Red asked.
"Eric's not feeling well, Mr. Forman. I'll just take him up to his room and get back to work."
Red looked a little concerned. "Do you want me to call your mother, Eric?"
I shook my head - which wasn't such a good idea, because it threw me off balance. I felt Hyde put his arm over my shoulders, steadying me. "No, it's OK, Dad. I just need to get some rest." Oh, God, did I ever.
Hyde went up the stairs with me, keeping one hand lightly on my back. When we got to the top, another wave of nausea hit me and I had to run for the bathroom.
This time, Hyde stuck around while I puked. He didn't try to help me or anything - he just stood there, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed, waiting. After I rinsed out my mouth and splashed water over my face again, I followed him into my bedroom.
I collapsed onto the bed, and rolled my head to the side so I could see him, standing near the door.
"You going to be all right?" he asked. "I've got to get back to work."
"I'm sorry for what I said last night," I said. "I didn't mean it."
He shrugged. "Yeah, me too." And he walked out the door.
I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but I had no will to follow him. I closed my eyes and felt my pounding head and uneasy stomach. I wondered if I'd be able to sleep, after all.
And then I slept like the dead.
When I woke up, it was dark again, and Hyde was sitting on my bed. "It was an interesting day at the hotel," he said by way of greeting.
"Yeah?" I rubbed my eyes. I felt...OK.
"Yeah. Jackie came by at lunchtime. Told me you and Donna were back together."
"What?"
"Yeah, she said you climbed in the window at four in the morning, and Donna went off with you and didn't come back 'till breakfast time." He sounded calm. Amused, almost.
"We didn't-"
He interrupted me. "Then Donna came by about an hour later. She told me you spent all night driving around, looking for me." He paused. "You didn't have to do that," he added, kind of defensively.
"Yes I did." I sat up, glancing over to make sure my bedroom door was closed for privacy. "Steven," I said very softly and deliberately, "I love you. Last night I got angry and I said something that was meant to hurt you, and it did, and the moment you walked out I knew I'd fucked up big time." He started to say something, but I put my finger over his lips to shut him up so I could finish saying what I had to say. "And then, yeah, I had to look for you. Because I still remember the night I hurt you and you went out to the reservoir to get drunk...and if I hadn't followed you out and brought you home you probably would have died out there. You know that, right? You understand why I was scared when you walked out last night?"
I waited, and he didn't say anything. I hugged him, and rested my head on his shoulder, and kept waiting.
"I'm sorry I scared you," he said finally, quietly. "I didn't think about that."
"Yeah, well, you'd better start thinking about it. I care about you, Steven Hyde." I hugged him tighter.
He cleared his throat. "Hey, Eric, this is getting kind of sappy..."
"Shut up." I could tell he was uncomfortable, but there was still stuff we needed to deal with. "It still scares me, knowing you could go off like that at any time. It scares me knowing there are things that hurt you so much but you never talk about." I felt him tensing like he was maybe going to get up and walk away right now - so I kept my arms locked around him. He wasn't getting away this time. "I want you to talk to someone about Stu."
He shook his head. "No. I don't want to talk about him, Eric. I don't want to think about him."
"I know, but you do think about him." I started rubbing his back in slow circles. "Donna told me that Naomi volunteers on a crisis help line. She helps people deal with stuff like this. Do you think you could talk to her?"
I felt him shrug. "I dunno, man..."
"Please, Steven. For me?" Wow, who'd ever have thought I'd be playing the 'will you do it for me?' card so early in this relationship? But it worked.
"OK," he said. "I'll talk to her."
"Thanks," I said, and I kissed him. I was so relieved. That went a lot easier than I'd imagined. "Have you slept yet?"
"No. I just got home from work."
"You're insane. Let's go down to your room, I'll tuck you in."
He laughed, and stood up. "You're cute."
"I know." I grinned in the dark, and messed up his hair and kissed him again. "C'mon."
The rest of the house was bright - it was only about 5:30. Mom was still making dinner. She stopped me and fussed over me for a minute, until I convinced her I was feeling fine now. By the time I got downstairs, Hyde was already lying on his cot with his eyes closed. He'd left the light on for me.
"Asleep yet?" I whispered, brushing his cheek with a kiss. His two-day stubble was spiky against my lips.
"Nah," he whispered, smiling. "I was waiting for you."
I crawled onto the cot beside him, and snuggled against him with my head on his chest. I wanted to kiss him, but I knew how exhausted he must be. "I'm here," I said.
Within a minute, his breathing changed so I knew he was asleep. I stayed with him until Mom called downstairs that dinner was ready.
"I need someone to go to the store and get some eggs and whipping cream," Mom called out from the top of the basement stairs.
Present in the basement were Donna, Naomi, Fez, Hyde and me. We all looked at each other, silently passing the buck. Then Hyde shrugged and stood up. "I'll go, Mrs.. Forman."
Donna's eyes opened wide, like she just remembered something. "Naomi, we need chocolate chips for the cookies! Why don't you go with Hyde?"
Naomi pulled a wallet out of her pocket - a men's wallet, I noticed. "Why don't we just give him money for the chocolate chips?"
"No, he'd get the wrong kind. He's no good at shopping." Donna gave me a significant look, silently ordering me to help her out. We'd had the chance earlier to update each other on the get-Hyde-to-talk-to-Naomi plan, so Donna knew Hyde had agreed to it. Naomi, too, had agreed, though she didn't know which friend of Donna's was going to come talk to her.
"Right, uh, last time he got the mint ones," I said. "It was all wrong. A terrible fiasco."
Hyde gave me a weird look, but he didn't contradict me, so I guess he'd figured out what Donna and I were doing.
Naomi shrugged. "OK. I can pick up some tampons, too."
I cringed. "I didn't need to hear that."
"Grow up, Eric." Donna ruffled my hair, and smirked.
Hyde and Naomi left. There was nothing good on TV, so Fez, Donna and I decided to play Monopoly.
"I love this game," Fez gloated as Donna tried to decided which of her properties to mortgage. She owed him $200 because she'd just landed on Reading and he owned all four railroads. "It teaches me so much about your culture."
Just then, the door to the driveway flew open and Jackie burst in, looking windblown and agitated. "Donna!" she shouted, "Your slutty college friend is stealing my boyfriend!"
That got everybody's attention. "OK, first of all, you don't have a boyfriend," I said.
Jackie ripped her coat off and stalked over to the spool table where we were playing our game. "You are not one to talk, Mr. Climbs-In-His-Ex-Fiancee's-Window-At-Four-In-The-Morning," she snapped at me. "Steven is my boyfriend, he just doesn't realize it right now."
"Jackie," Donna said, "what are you talking about? Naomi's not interested in Hyde."
"Oh yeah?" Jackie's eyes flashed angrily. "You know the park over by the mall? I saw them sitting on a bench there, making out!"
"You what!?" I yelped.
Donna looked as shocked as I felt. "You actually saw them kissing?" she asked, with a definite edge to her voice.
"Well, no, not actually kissing," Jackie admitted, shuffling her feet a bit. "But Christ, they were sitting on the bench and their heads were right together and that bitch had her arms around him!"
I relaxed, and I could tell Donna did too. "Don't worry," Donna said to Jackie, "I'm sure they were just talking."
"Donna. Honey." Jackie went over and sat on the couch by Donna, putting a hand on Donna's arm. "Boys and girls don't 'just talk.' Did anyone ever explain to you about the birds and the bees?"
I wished I had a camera to take a picture of the expression on Donna's face as she tried to figure out how to tell Jackie how wrong she was without telling her anything.
Then I realized: we didn't have to convince Jackie she was wrong. It was better if we didn't. If she thought Naomi and Hyde were getting together, it was a perfect alibi for everyone involved. Plus, it might finally convince her to give up on Hyde.
"Jackie," Fez said suddenly, "I think you should get back at Hyde by going on a date with me. It is couples night at the skating rink...." He trailed off, looking at her with hopeful, puppy-dog eyes.
Jackie sat up a little straighter. "You know what Fez? That sounds like fun." There was a definite angry undertone to her words, but she was smiling. "Let's go skating. Donna, Eric, when you see Steven make sure to tell him I'm having a fun date with Fez."
Fez leapt to his feet, and offered Jackie a hand up. "Oh, you do not know how happy you are making me, Jackie Burkhart!" He ran and got her coat and held it out for her to stick her arms through, which she did with a grim smile.
As they went out the door, I heard him asking "Can I kiss you now?" and her snapping "No."
Donna raised her eyebrows at me. "Well, that was interesting," she drawled. "How the hell are we going to convince her there's nothing going on between Hyde and Naomi, without giving anything away?"
"Donna, we don't have to!" I explained what I'd just realized, about how convenient Jackie's confusion was.
"God, yeah! You're right!" Donna leaned back and laughed. "And she's totally convinced that the two of us are back together, too." She looked more serious after a moment. "Actually I feel kind of bad about this. We're really pulling a lot of bullshit on her..."
I got worried suddenly at Donna's tone. "Donna, don't even think about coming out to Jackie! First, she'd freak, and then she'd tell everyone, and we'd be fucked."
"I know," Donna sighed. "It's just all this lying doesn't feel right."
"I don't love it either, but there's no choice." I moved over from the lawn chair to sit beside her on the couch, so that we could talk more quietly. "I mean, at least you and Naomi can leave again in two and a half weeks. Hyde and I have to live with whatever happens."
Donna leaned forward and picked up her Monopoly piece to fiddle with - she'd been playing the top-hat. "How's it going for you now? Being together in this house?"
I rubbed my arms. "It can be nerve-wracking. Jackie nearly caught us making out a couple of days ago. We spent the night together a couple times, but it felt like playing Russian Roulette - if we keep doing it we're going to get caught some morning, and all hell's going to break loose. So we probably won't try that again. Before too long we're going to move out, anyway."
"Oh yeah? Together?"
"Dunno yet." I shrugged. "We haven't really made the plans."
"Naomi has her own place," Donna said with a grin. "It's great."
"I bet," I said, not even trying to hide my envy.
Just then, the door at the top of the stairs opened. "Eric, honey!" Mom called down, "get up here and help your father put up Christmas lights!"