"But Yackie, c'mon, we haven't seen you in weeks!" Fez pleaded.
"No, Fez. Look, it's too hard for me to be around Steven and her, alright?" She turned back to her closet to pull out a knee-length black pencil skirt. Holding it to her body, she asked, "What about this one?"
"Uh okay, but it goes better with this top." Fez held up the turquoise silk blouse that she had tossed on the bed earlier. Jackie looked at the top and smiled.
"You're right," she agreed and hung them both up for work tomorrow before turning to clear up the mess of clothes littered on her bed.
"It's only to The Hub, just to hang out. We're your friends," he whined. He saw her open her mouth to protest and threw her a dirty look. He held up a hand. "No, don't say it, Fez doesn't want to hear it."
Jackie shrugged and picked up a skirt that had fallen on the floor.
"Donna and Randy will be there too. Come onnnnnn." He started ticking off his fingers. "You go to work. You come home. You either sit at your desk or sit by the phone. You don't shop. You have no friends." He looked at her and then burst out, enunciating each word, "You have no life!"
Jackie rolled her eyes, her patience stretched thin. "Fezzie, give it up already."
He put both hands on his hips and shook his head agitatedly. "No no no. First Eric. Then Kelso. Yackie, you have no excuse, you're still in Point Place. Now let's go." He tugged on her arm and literally frog-marched her out of their apartment.
And so it was that Jackie found herself sitting at their usual table at The Hub an hour later, with a ferocious scowl on her face and shooting Fez looks that promised a violent death every other second.
She had been avoiding Donna and Steven for weeks. And if she did get a chance to meet them, she kept their interaction to a minimum and was usually out of there before any more than a few words could be exchanged. It was a situation that worked for her, it helped her ignore the pain in her heart till it was no more than an ever-present dull ache, and if she couldn't see Sam, she could pretend that Sam didn't exist, which more than made her happy, because thinking about Sam and Steven together, was just too much for her to bear.
And she knew they were having sex, of course she knew. Fez wouldn't shut up about the "lucky bastard" who was always "having hot stripper sex", and when Kitty had told her about the fights Sam and Steven had been having to "spice things up in the bedroom", Jackie found herself backsliding in whatever little progress she had made in moving on with her life and cried for days in her bedroom after.
She was pulled back from her thoughts when she heard Eric's name.
"So this Eric guy was, like, your first boyfriend ever, huh?" Randy was asking Donna. He looked slightly apprehensive. "Big shoes to fill in then."
The table burst out laughing. Jackie frowned, annoyed. She shot a glare around the table and stabbed the fry she was eating halfway at Randy. "Yeah, he was her first love, and you know what they say about first loves," she trailed off, popping the fry in her mouth.
Donna raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, 'was' being the operative word here."
Sam, snuggled into Hyde's side, piped up, "Isn't he that scrawny guy with the mop of hair that Kitty has pictures of all around the house?"
"Yeah, that's Forman alright."
Sam snickered. "Oh Donna, you can do so much better."
"Oh Steven, you can do so much better." The words were out of her mouth before Jackie could hold them back. She saw the look on Steven's face and she shriveled a little, before stiffening her spine to meet him head on. To her surprise, he didn't say a word, instead it was Sam who retaliated.
Her eyes raked Jackie's petite form before she pressed her fake rack into Hyde's arm and sniffed, "He did do better; he found himself a real woman in bed."
Hyde smirked.
Anger flashed hot and white through Jackie. "At least I don't take my clothes off for money," she hissed at Sam.
Hyde blew out a disgusted sigh. "Jackie, come on. We all know that the only reason you have a job in the first place is because you're a talentless, manipulative broad who would screw over her own grandmother to get what she wants. Case in point: passin' off Mrs. Forman's brownies as yours on live TV." He wiped his hands on a napkin. "Or," —he took a long drink of his soda— "screwin' Kelso in Chicago to get him to propose to you."
He stood up and threw the soiled napkin on the table. "C'mon, Sam. Let's go. I need a beer." He nodded to Donna, Randy and Fez, ignoring Jackie. "Later, guys."
The door slammed shut behind them.
Jackie felt as if she had been punched in the gut. She felt Fez's hand squeeze hers under the table as she battled to control her emotions. She turned as Donna spoke to her.
"Jackie, look. You've got to learn to get along with Samantha. She's with Hyde now, and I think she's really good for him."
Jackie looked at her best friend of so many years, before Sam came in to the picture and stole her away.
"I see," she said. But she didn't really see at all.