A/N: Thanks for the positive feedback guys and I hope this chapter tides you over for awhile because I owe it to my other fanfic that's been in the works for some time to finish it. Although, you can't fight inspiration and this story is going way better than any I have ever tried before. Don't worry, I have the whole thing plotted out so I will finish this! P.S. I wrote this while listening to 'Dazed and Confused' and I recommend playing it while reading this chapter. It will put you in the mood.
Disclaimer: I don't own That 70's Show.
Sitting downstairs in the basement in the famous circle, rings of smoke curled through the air creating a heavy and oppressive atmosphere, delightfully clouding Hyde's senses and fogging coherent thought in his brain. The heavy guitar riffs of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" were pounding in the background on the record player, helping to send him into that other plane of existence that he and his friends so reveled in. He was high, he was zen, he was…..well he was a little disappointed. Lately he had become used to a certain someone giggling and laughing insanely next to him, or looking deep into his eyes with the glazed look that only marijuana could inspire, a goofy grin on her face as she distractedly played with his hair. He wouldn't admit it, even within the sacred confidence of the circle, but Jackie had somehow become an important fixture to his weed-smoking ritual and without her his high just didn't seem as intense. Even after tokin' up, he still felt his frustration and concern with her strange behavior over the past week. She had been coming over every day like usual, but leaving sooner with weak alibis as her excuse. She hadn't been seen in the circle either for over two weeks and it was starting to grate on Hyde's nerves. She belonged beside him or in his lap down in that dingy smoke-filled basement and he was pissed that if she didn't confess what she was up to soon, he would be forced to voice his frustration to her, something that would be very not zen and might indicate that he actually had feelings for her. Damn that cheerleader!
Sitting in the circle were the usual suspects of Fez and Kelso, but Donna was making up the fourth member in Forman's usual seat. This was another source of annoyance for Hyde. He was a man who enjoyed rituals and routines and last weekend's commitment to studying on Forman's part had turned into a week long project, keeping him locked up in his room with his textbooks instead of in the basement where he could usually be found. Donna wasn't a stranger to the mind-blowing magic of the circle, but she usually only joined in when she was feeling stressed or agitated about something, and in this case it was Forman's quest for higher SAT scores.
"Ugh stupid Eric! You know he made Red ground him so he wouldn't be able to see me at all this week? I mean, it's great that he's studying and all but why doesn't he want to see me?" She whined, the weed she had smoked causing her to drop all her inhibitions and composure so that she expressed her concerns in a more petulant tone than she would normally adopt. Usually she was all maturity and understanding, hiding any selfish or rude thoughts behind tact and her self-control. But the circle did strange things to people, making them confess things without reservation, which was why there was such a strict code of honor when it came to confidentiality. What was said in the circle, stayed in the circle.
"Well you know I'm pretty sure this self-imposed hermit lifestyle of his has something to do with your naughty school girl outfit. There's no way he can concentrate when you're flouncing around in those knee-socks" Hyde quipped.
"You're telling me," groaned Fez, "You are the sexy goddess of knee socks! Can I see you in just the socks?"
After Donna had smacked Fez for his perverted leer and comment, Kelso chimed in "Hey don't worry about it little buddy. Now that we are college men, we'll have more ladies than we can handle at one time! Well, maybe more than you can handle 'cause I know I haven't reached my limit yet."
"College men? Are you telling me you guys haven't given up on that yet? It figures you guys would sell out all for the love of 'tang. I hope you guys are satisfied with selling your souls for drunken college boobs " Hyde lazily said. "Wait…well I guess that is a fair trade considering how many sluts really do go to college." He grinned in that perverted satisfied way of his.
"Oh man Hyde, do you think I can really sell my soul for girls 'cause I hardly use that as it is!" Kelso rambled.
"Kelso! Don't you have any integrity! I'm going for more than just chicks. College is about getting an education and figuring out what you want to do with your life and…hey corn chips!" Donna's speech ended when Hyde brought out a bag of munchies for the stoned group to pig out on.
"Donna, you're going for chicks? Kelso man you've gotta take pictures of that. Then I could mark off one of my dream fantasies from my list of things to see before I die," laughed Hyde.
"Unfortunately for me, I will have to study some and not whore around all the time like Kelso. UW gave me a scholarship for being foreign but it means I have to keep up my grades. But do you think they will give me women as well for being foreign! I love this country!" Fez enthused while popping some candy in his mouth from his seemingly endless supply.
"OOO Fez, I got a scholarship too! And can you believe they are going to pay for almost all of it! And the journalism department sent me a letter after I sent in samples of my writing! I mean Marquette I think has a better department but what can beat a University paying for me to go and a personal letter from the department chair of journalism!" Donna rambled excitedly.
"Umm sure that's great Donna if you were telling people that cared…" Hyde said.
Donna quickly looked around the circle for some support but Kelso had found an old kaleidoscope stashed amongst all the junk in the basement and was rambling on and on about pretty colors and shapes. Fez was no better who was too absorbed in his candy to take notice.
"Well dammit I want Eric back! He would care about these kinds of things!" Donna huffed, getting right back to the topic that had driven her to the circle in the first place.
Hyde silently sympathized with her plight in a weird twisted way, his mind turning once again to his MIA girlfriend. What the hell was she up to!
The circle broke up soon after that since it was getting close to dinner time and Mrs. Forman would be calling soon for Hyde to come up and join the table. They needed to air out the basement before then. Hyde sat down and turned on the TV, enjoying the last few minutes of his high while Donna wandered home to eat with Bob and Kelso and Fez also left to God knows where.
He hadn't been sitting there long when the basement door opened and the very subject of his thoughts bounced in the door, her face brightening immediately at finding her boyfriend alone in the deserted basement.
"Hey baby!" she squealed happily, walking straight over to Hyde who was relaxing in his favorite chair, watching reruns. She dropped onto his lap straddling him, wrapping her arms around his waist, and giving him a soft seductive kiss on his lips. Hyde reacted instantly, grabbing her hips with his wide rough hands to steady her and his gaze dropping automatically to her trim legs that were showing as her normally knee length skirt was pushed up higher from her awkward position over top him. Damn she was hot. But he was still his own man and far from whipped so he kept his cool, refusing to show her how much he really had been missing her recently.
"Look Jackie," he started after he had satisfied himself with greeting her hello in a much more enjoyable method. Oh man she was wearing strawberry lip gloss today… "are you gonna tell me what you've been up to lately? I'm getting tired of waiting for whatever other shoe to drop." He cursed himself for immediately bringing up the topic, but was satisfied he concealed it with his typical paranoia and suspicion of everything and everyone.
Jackie looked a little blindsided by Hyde's all out no beating around the bush assault and for a moment sat trying to come up with another excuse, but when he raised one eyebrow giving her his coolest, most penetrating stare from behind his shades, she closed her mouth again, stopping whatever lie she had been preparing to offer as another excuse.
"Well you see Steven, I've been at the library and…"
"The library!" Hyde interrupted. He wasn't sure whether to believe her or not, the idea not sounding even remotely plausible.
"Don't look at me like that ok! I mean yeah I think the stale air from those moldy books has been making my hair flat lately because I just couldn't get it to fluff up this morning and…" but at that point Hyde had coughed loudly, cutting off her off before her story turned into one of her typical monologues on the finer points of hair care.
"Anyway," she began again, "I've been going there to study for the SATs."
Hyde looked confused at this point, "But you're only a junior, why do you want to take them early?" he questioned.
"Well see, I found out that I already have almost all of my core classes done for high school and my school counselor told me when I asked her that if I meet a few certain requirements I can graduate early. One of those is a high enough score on my SATs that will exempt me from some stuff." She said all this without meeting her boyfriend's eyes, looking down instead at the Pink Floyd logo on his worn black concert tee, her hands nervously playing with the hem.
Hyde was slowly taking this new information in, including her guilty body language, but to his credit he remained zen, choosing instead to finish the interrogation and try to process it at a later time. "So why would you want to graduate high school early Jacks? You love the crappy dances and the cheerleading and the mindless popularity."
She sighed at that comment and slowly started speaking, everything about her confession so un-Jackie like, "You're right Steven, I do like those things but what I don't like is living off of the Pinciottis because the big house I grew up in is now empty. I don't like it that even though I'm popular at school, all my real friends are leaving next year. And I especially don't like living here in Point Place anymore now that my dad is in jail and my mom is too drunk to care enough about me to even call.
Hyde was completely shocked by this. Not even zen could prepare him for the pain he felt rolling off her in waves as she said these words. How had he missed it? As long as he had known her, Jackie had never hidden any emotion from anyone, going through life with her heart bared freely for all to see.
"Steven," she continued, "I want to go to college with everyone else next year so that I can actually start something. There's nothing really left here for me to get excited about. If I go to college I can figure stuff out and still enjoy being a cheerleader and going to parties and being popular. And Steven, I want you to go with me. I want it more than anything else, because you are the one thing that I would stay here for."
Hyde's mouth dropped open at that. She was staring at him now, looking deeply into his eyes with her odd blue/green ones, ripping at all his inner defenses. Her pain caused by her parents' failures cut too close to home and the fact that she felt awkward living off another family's charity also resonated deep within him. He understood everything she had told him as natural and justifiable because he at one point or another had felt it too, but had never confessed it to anyone. He had felt hot white pain at first, hearing that she wanted to leave everything in Point Place behind thinking that included him, until she had mentioned how much he meant to her at the end of her speech. So this was the reason for her carefully veiled references to their future and strategically placed public service announcements in favor of institutions for higher learning. In so many ways it was still the old Jackie Burkhart, trying to manipulate people into doing what she wanted them to do, but at the same time he hardly recognized this girl perched on his lap who had been affected more profoundly than he could have guessed by the past year's difficulties. She was changing and becoming more mature in a sense, keeping the same personality, but growing under the pressure that only life's hard knocks could hand out. Needless to say, Hyde was speechless. He was experiencing so many conflicting emotions. He was proud of her resolve to move on with her life, but pissed that she was threatening to walk out of his if he didn't go along with her plans. Then again she had said how she might stay behind for him. But could he really ask her to do something so selfish? And why did it matter anyway because it wasn't like they were Forman and Donna, joined at the hip and destined for true and sappy happiness with each other for the rest of their lives. But could he really let her go? He had been having such trouble the past week seeing her less frequently; he couldn't honestly believe that he could let her attend school nearly on the other side of the state. God, he was so confused. But she was so beautiful and amazing at that moment, all he did know was that he would settle for showing her what he couldn't say.
Hyde's grip tightened around her hips and he leaned in quickly for a passion-filled kiss, expressing his frustration and longing for her with his mouth hungrily tasting hers. She responded as well, recognizing his silence as reflecting the turmoil of his thoughts. It was amazing to Hyde how two people so different in personalities could begin to read each other as well as they had. They were as different as night and day in so many ways, but the companionship that had developed between them over time was slowly changing them both, making them care about each other in ways that frightened Hyde when he sat back and analyzed it. Sometimes it was just little things like Jackie voluntarily putting on a Led Zeppelin song once in a blue moon or him actually remembering something she had said about fall fashions. Then there were times like these where their emotional barriers came down and true intimacy took place. These were the real scary moments of Hyde's life, where he seemed to end up in heated personal confessions without ever looking for them in the first place.
Before the kiss could blossom into a full-fledged passionate make out, Jackie reluctantly pulled back, giving Hyde an amused glance before beginning, "Oh and there's something else I'd like to confess too."
The opportunity was too good and Hyde, though still reeling with emotional turmoil on the inside, gave her a lusty grin and quipped, "Confess eh? Do tell, I'll be happy to listen to any dirty, nasty, SEXUAL idea that you feel is too shameful to keep to bottled up inside any longer."
"Pig!" she laughed while smacking him lightly on the arm. "No, this is funny, but certainly not sexual. Because I'm planning on taking the SATs within the next week, I've been studying a few times with Eric when no one else has been around. He's taken the test before and I haven't so I wanted to quiz him on the kind of questions they ask and what I should focus on in my studying."
"There is no way you got Forman to agree to a little 'study buddy' hour with you." Hyde laughed incredulously. He could just imagine the look of horror and annoyance on Forman's face when the bossy cheerleader probably invaded his room, blocking all routes of escape, and began drilling him on SAT analogies. "You do know he told me only last week he thought you were the unholy result of an experiment conducted by El Diablo and the cosmetic industry."
Jackie looked a little annoyed at this but continued with her story, "Ugh, stupid Eric. Well he didn't want to study with me at first until he found out it actually helps sometimes to go over math problems or vocabulary with another person. Plus I promised to help divert his mom away from his room. You know, Mrs. Forman has been so proud of him and gloating in front of Red how he's been working towards his future that she keeps interrupting him with snacks and stuff."
"Oh yeah, I've noticed all right. It's all she's been talking about recently." Hyde sighed, contemplating his frustration with the two main women in his life who were both involved in this little conspiracy to get him to go to college. What was he going to do? He couldn't think at the moment. With Jackie on his lap, laughing at Forman's expense while looking so attractive in that damn skirt and matching top, he was all too tempted to cave and agree to go with her to Madison, but this problem needed some serious thought. One thing he was sure about however was that after dinner he was swiping at least three of Red's beers from the upstairs refrigerator.