Disclaimer: That '70s Show copyright The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC.

Author's Note: This story was written for the 2022 Zenmasters Anthology on tumblr.

CHAPTER EIGHT
ADDED LANE

Hyde caught sight of Kelso carrying a suitcase to his V.W. Microbus. The van was parked, full of luggage, on the Kelsos' driveway.

"Last one, son?" Mr. Kelso said from the driver's seat.

"Last one," Kelso said.

Hyde dashed between him and the van. "Kelso—wait, man!"

"Hyde!" Kelso's face broke into a smile. "Hey, thanks for coming to say goodbye."

"That's not why I'm here."

"Oh." Kelso put the suitcase on the driveway. "Jackie told Fez, who told me, what you tried to do for us. I really appreciate you talking to her parents. Must've been awkward, huh?"

"You don't know the half of it." Hyde's conversation that night with the Burkharts had taken residence in his skull, but he was the one paying rent. It woke him early this morning, shoved him into his Camino, and had him driving to Kelso's house. He'd considered speeding through red lights, but a cop pulling him over would've meant missing Kelso before he left.

Kelso chuckled nervously and massaged his shoulder. "I'm sorry I asked you to date Jackie while I was gone. It's a crazy idea. I mean, you don't like Jackie that way, and you shouldn't get mixed up in our mess … the mess I made." He quit massaging his shoulder. "You should be cruising for chicks and having fun this summer."

"Yeah, I should, but—"

"Jackie tried to run away with me to Europe. How about that, right? But my parents called her parents, and Jackie's lucky she isn't getting shipped off to boarding school next year."

Hyde shivered in his denim jacket. The weather was chilly despite the cloudless sunny sky. He opened his mouth to speak, but Mr. Kelso honked the van's horn.

"Well, that's that, I guess," Kelso said. He picked up his suitcase. "I better getting going."

He moved passed Hyde to the van's sliding door, but Hyde said, "Hold up!"

Kelso glanced at Hyde, shrugged as if saying, "I can't," then put his suitcase into the van. He was seconds from disappearing after it, causing Hyde's pulse to tighten.

"I'm gonna be insane this summer, damn it!"

Kelso turned from the van and approached him. "What?"

Hyde raised his hands in defeat. "You should've heard the way Jackie's folks were talkin' to me, looking at me, at dinner. I think they want me to date her. I'm gonna do it."

Kelso grabbed Hyde by the shoulders and shook him. "No way!"

"Yup. And when you get back, her folks are gonna be primed and ready to accept you as part of the family."

Kelso pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Man, you're the best friend I've ever had." He patted Hyde on the back and let him go. "Wow."

"Have a good time in Europe," Hyde said, "just not too good!"

Kelso grinned. "Oh, I won't!"

He entered the van, and Mr. Kelso drove them onto the street. The van shrank, a green-and-white dot headed for the airport.

Hyde slid his thumb and forefinger beneath his shades, and he rubbed his closed eyes. Jackie would never love him the way he loved her. Witnessing her relationship with Kelso wrecked him—the kissing, their inside jokes, the subtle touches between them—but Jackie's lack of freedom hurt worse. She had the right to choose the life she wanted. If helping her meant a few knife wounds to his gut, so be it.

Jackie leapt off the sofa in Eric's basement. Fez and Rhonda had started making out beside her, and they were noisy and gross. She moved to Steven's chair, which she'd added a cushion to from home. Since Michael left for Europe this week, she required soft places to sit. A reminder the world could be more than a hard, cruel place to live.

Steven wasn't here to complain about the cushion, like he had when she first placed it on his chair. He also hadn't removed it, maybe for her sake. Maybe for his own, too. The chair used to be butt-numbing, but such thoughts gave no comfort.

She gazed at the TV but had no idea what was playing. She couldn't focus on the show. Acting camp began Monday, two days from now. She'd ace the audition if the play had a character full of sadness and fury. Her feelings were building without an outlet.

Donna had abandoned her, and the town, for California. It was an understandable decision, though. Casey dumped Donna on Thursday, stating in front of other people—including Eric—that their relationship had been a hassle. A hoax, honestly. His previous declaration of love was meaningless. So she'd run off to California to stay with her mom this summer.

The basement's wooden stairs creaked. Eric was climbing down, carrying a box with a picture of a weird spaceship on it. "All right, everybody out!" he shouted. "I've got work to do."

Fez and Rhonda kept kissing, as if he hadn't spoken. Jackie didn't react either. She remained on Steven's chair and returned her unseeing gaze to the TV.

"Didn't you guys hear me?" The sound of a finger tapping on cardboard followed Eric's voice. "I have serious business to get to."

"It can wait." That was from Steven. He'd come through the basement's back door, drawing Jackie's attention. He was wearing his outfit from Snow Prom, brown slacks and a slate-blue suit jacket over a dark violet dress shirt. "I got news."

A thin ray of joy brightened the murk inside her. She had a guess what he'd announce and clasped her hands over her knee.

"Killed my interview at Trinary Records. I'm startin' on Monday in the punk department."

"That's great, Steven." Jackie smiled genuinely. She was worried she'd forgotten how.

"Congratulations!" Fez said, having pulled his mouth off Rhonda's. "Can you get Rhonda and me tickets to a Trash Flingers show?"

"First I gotta score me some tickets to a Trash Flingers show. Anyway, most of my job's gonna be boring as hell—" Steven loosened his tie—"but it'll be worth the pain if it gets me where I actually want to go."

Jackie tensed in his chair. He was looking at her while he talked.

"Man, wish Donna were here. She'd dig this." He sat in the empty lawn chair, hadn't gestured for Jackie to vacate his own seat. Anyone else would've been kicked off it. "Hell, we might've worked events together since WFPP co-hosts some cool gigs."

Eric strode toward him. "You wish Donna were here? You wish?" He waved dismissively at Jackie, Fez, and Rhonda like they were bugs. "I'm trying to empty the basement so I can deal with her being gone." He shook the spaceship box near Steven's face. "The girl I've been in love with since I was four is halfway across the country because I was too much of a dumbass to take her back!"

"Yeah, that sucks." Steven pushed the box aside and glanced passed him. "Jackie, how's about I buy you a burger? You know, to thank you for gettin' me this internship?"

"You got it yourself—" she said, and she wasn't in the mood for The Hub and refused to go to Fatsoburger, where her dad would earn money off them—"but what about the Sizzler?"

"Can't afford it."

"I'll pay for mine."

"Not the point. …" He clutched the armrests of the lawn chair. "Whatever. I'll just buy half a stash this week. There's less of us around to smoke it."

Jackie met him by the back door once he'd retied his tie. Outside, at the foot of the stone stairs, she said, "You're dressed so formally. I'm not used to it."

"Red insisted. Said I'd be lucky to get an unpaid internship in the mail room if I dressed how I'd planned to: Zeppelin shirt and jeans."

She laughed softly and touched his arm. "Oh, Steven, you have a lot to learn about the corporate world. I can teach you."

"I'm sure you can."

They climbed the stairs together, and with each step, her misery faded. Not by half, but this summer might not be awful after all.