SURRENDER TO NO ONE

By

XOXOJackieXOXO

Chapter 3: The Confused Ones

Hyde entered the kitchen and found Red sitting at the table with a perplexed look on his face. Hyde looked for someone else, a witness for what was about to happen to him, but he found no one to vouch for him. He strode over to Red in his casual way.

"Have a seat." Red ordered. "Take off your glasses, I want to see your eyes," he then added. Hyde did so. He had nothing to hide. He wasn't high, he wasn't anything. He just wanted to know what the fuss was all about. Red and him had a brief stare down before Red leaned back and folded his arms. "Why didn't you tell me you needed help?" Red asked. Hyde was confused.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"In math. Why didn't you ask for help? You're nearly failing it. Your counselor called and said that you may need a tutor. Said she wanted to congratulate you on perfect attendance in your math class, but that she didn't think you understood it." Hyde smiled to himself. Good ol' Ms. Nugent, lying for Hyde again. She must really have had hope for Hyde. Most Zeppelin fans took care of each other, Hyde concluded in his head.

"I'm sorry sir. I'm just so proud, it's hard for me to come out and ask for help." Hyde said in an injured tone. He knew that Red had a soft spot for him so he laid the tone on thick. Red nodded.

"I understand. You remind me of myself when I was your age." Red declared. That was a scary thought in Hyde's head and he tried to dismiss it quickly, but he had it in his head long enough to imagine himself balding. Hyde shuddered.

"But don't worry Mr. Forman. I never wanted to cause any trouble, so I really have been seeing a tutor in secret. But, if you could, I'd like to keep that between you and me." Hyde lied. Red nodded.

"Sure thing. If you have any problems, don't be afraid to ask for help. Even America needed help during the war." That was Hyde's que to leave. "You're dismissed." Hyde exhaled and made his way out of the kitchen. Eric and Kitty were in the living room watching TV. Hyde waved and made his way down to the basement.

"Steven-" Kitty began.

"G'night." Hyde called back. He was tired, and a little confused. Now that he had a second to reflect on what had just happened with him and Jackie, it was fuzzy. He and Jackie had just almost kissed. What was up with that? He didn't have any interest in Jackie…Or did he? Aha. Jackie was his ticket to prove he wasn't gay! Once everyone saw that he went through all the trouble to win Jackie over, they were bound to drop the embarrassing accusations.

The trouble? Jackie wasn't making it hard to like her. That scared Hyde because he didn't want to fall for anyone, let alone Jackie. He continued to convince himself he had no TRUE interest in Jackie, and for now, it seemed to be working.

Then he saw it. His papers, his math, his homework GONE. She had played him. She stole his work that he needed to catch up on to get back at him for how he treated her.

That bitch.

Now what was he supposed to do? What could he do? Hyde's best idea was to sit on the old couch and stare at the blank TV screen. What was he thinking, trusting Jackie? That girl was Satan in pumps with an 'okay' rack.

"Hey. Why'd you hurry off down here? You acted like you were late for a secret meeting." Eric said sitting on the couch next to Hyde. Hyde didn't even look at his friend. "Ohhh. Are you still mad about the gay thing? Look, sorry man, we were just trying to figure out why you were being so weird lately. It got out of hand. If you're gay, that's your own business. We'll be okay with that."

"Jesus, Forman! You actually think I'm gay?" Hyde said standing in a fury. "I'M NOT gay!" 'Gay' was spoken in a whisper. Eric stared at Hyde.

"Okay. Fine."

"Oh, you sound convinced." Hyde said, running an impatient hand through his hair.

"Then what's with you and Jackie?" Eric asked, switching the topic.

"NOTHING." Hyde breathed loudly.

"What happened to you? You used to tell me everything!"

"You used to not talk about me behind my back!" Hyde shot back quickly.

"Yeah? Well, maybe if you let your friends in the loop every now and then we wouldn't have to guess what was up with you."

SILENCE.

Crap. He's got a point. Don't let him see it. Just change the topic. Change the topic.

"About Jackie," Hyde said painfully. He couldn't believe he was actually going to talk to Eric about his nemesis. "I don't know. Things have kind of been happening between us." Hyde admitted, sitting back down on the couch next to Eric. Eric turned his body more towards him.

"Are you serious? Hyde, Jackie and Kelso, like, just broke up." Eric said nobly. Hyde groaned and put his head in his hands.

"I know! I don't want things to happen between Jackie and me! Let's face it: she's not really my favorite person! I don't want to…to…"

"To have feelings for her?" Eric said in baby talk. Hyde glared at his friend.

"What are you, a girl?" Hyde jabbed. "NO! I do NOT have 'feelings' for Jackie! Okay, maybe I do, but not emotional feelings, just a feeling in my pants that won't go away when she's wearing those damn low cut shirts." Hyde confessed, not making eye contact with Eric.

"Well, if you don't like Jackie as a person, and you don't like her emotionally, what are you worried about?"

"They won't go away." Hyde bit his thumb. "They're getting worse."

"How long have you been having them? Wait, what's 'them'?"

" 'Them' are these thoughts. I think about them a lot, they started off when I was jacking o-" he stopped when he saw Eric recoil, "uh, trying to sleep." He finished. Eric gradually began coming back to where he was sitting before Hyde's slip up. "Anyways, I would think about her because let's face it, she's hot." Eric nodded in agreement. "Then, they got worse. I would just be bored and she'd pop into my head. Then, I'd see her and Kelso together, and I would take Kelso out and put me in."

"Like, what would you think about?"

"I don't know! I just had all these scenarios."

"And, in these scenarios, Jackie was your? Girlfriend? Screw buddy? What?"

"I don't know. Both?" Hyde stared at Eric for a long moment. "Forman, hear me when I say this: I would rather the entire group think I was gay before they found out I had thoughts about Jackie." Hyde looked scared, and Eric saw it too. He nodded.

"I won't tell anyone. I won't come in the way of anything you want."

"OR don't want. And that's Jackie."

"That's right Hyde. Keep telling yourself that." Eric smirked. He got up and stretched. "Okay, so now that we're fine, I'm going to bed. I'm going to go have a few scenarios with Donna in them," he joked. Hyde stayed sitting on the couch, arms folded, still staring at that damn blank TV screen.

Hyde thought about what Eric had said, about how he needed to keep convincing himself that he didn't want Jackie. What did he need to convince himself for? He knew he didn't want Jackie. He knew. Hyde got up and went to bed. In Fez's words, all this talk about Jackie 'gave him needs.'

When Hyde awoke and stumbled out to the basement, half asleep, much to his surprise was all of his homework, 100 completed, stacked nicely with a little note on the top that read,

'Glad to help. What are friends for?

Love,

Jackie"

And that was the root of Hyde's problem. Every time he just about had himself convinced, Jackie did something that made him reconsider.

XOXOJackieXOXO

More to come!