"What if I cleaned your room every week until the end of the year?"
"I'd say that was a deal you couldn't make good on, and still say no." Hyde ignored Jackie's look of deflation and tried to conceal his smile as he pushed the pram up Kenosha's busy main street.
Dodging the other shoppers, Jackie quickened her step to keep up with Hyde. "But it'd be a promise and I always keep my promises."
"Somehow I doubt you'd keep that promise," Hyde said, remembering Jackie's face each and every time she walked into his bedroom at the Formans'. The girl was a princess through and through and not in a Cinderella sort of way. She hadn't started from the bottom and worked her way up in life, she'd been born into her pampered position and Hyde was pretty sure she wasn't about to clamber back down a few rungs. Not even if it meant going to prom.
"But I would..." Jackie offered.
"Jackie, I'm not going to prom, okay? Not even if you scrubbed my room from top to bottom with your tongue."
"What if I wore those little shorts you like? And that crop top, the one that barely covers anything?"
Hyde thought over her offer. She did look damn good in those shorts and with all the sunbathing she'd been doing lately he just knew those legs would be as tanned from the knees up as they were down. And that crop top...that tiny white crop top was every man's dream, and every boyfriend's worst nightmare. God, she'd look like something straight out of a magazine in that ensemble, except she wouldn't be in a magazine, she'd be right in front of him cleaning his room!
"Well..." With all the blood flowing from his head to his nether regions, Hyde pondered her offer, until he remembered his part of the whole deal and was jolted back into reality. He gripped the plastic handle of the pram tightly. "No, Jackie, no deal-" he said sternly.
For a second Jackie's bottom lip dropped. But then, like the wheeler dealer she'd always been, a new idea entered her head and she flashed a bright smile. "Your car then? I'll wash the Camino every week 'til the end of the year. Just think of the time you'll save not having to wash and polish it all the time? You can spend that time with Tyler. It's win win!"
It could've been win win, Hyde thought, if winning didn't mean he would have to dress up in a fancy suit and play nice for a night with all the tools at Point Place High. He knew going to prom meant a lot to Jackie but no amount of pouting or deal making was gonna cut it this time. He'd done it for her before. Gone the whole nine yards, even down to the stupid corsage, and it'd gotten him nowhere. For his hard work all he'd been rewarded with was a quick roll in the back of a Lincoln with Pam Macy. Oh, that and a front row seat to watch Jackie cosy up with Kelso, again. And Hyde wasn't about to watch that happen, again.
Things between him and Jackie were good now. Sure, she'd lost some of that pregnancy-hormone-bedroom-freakiness he'd really liked about her, but even without the sex he still found himself enjoying her company. Surprising even himself, it was the mundaneness of their new lives that Hyde enjoyed the most. They watched TV, played with - or rather, stared at - Tyler, cooked dinners, played board games; all activities that a year ago Hyde would've put in a box labelled, "Things to do when you hit 30 and your life's over." But now he looked forward to doing that crap with Jackie and a prom just didn't fit into the mix. Prom held bad memories that needed to stay well in the past.
"C'mon, Jackie, we've been over n over this, man. I don't wanna go."
"Fine." Jackie's head flicked to the side and she pretended to be intrigued by a window display, but Hyde wasn't fooled. His insides twisted as his mind scrambled to find a way out of this. He hated feeling like this. Guilt had to be the worst feeling out.
"Look, how 'bout we go to the movies or somethin'?" he offered, nervously glancing her way to try and catch her eye. "We can do whatever you want-"
Jackie frowned, her eyes trained on the shop windows. "Whatever I want so long as it's not the prom?"
Hyde nodded. "You're catchin' on, grasshopper. Took you a while but you finally got it." He smiled. She didn't.
"But I don't get it, Steven." Jackie stopped walking and folded her arms, not caring that her failure to keep moving on the bustling sidewalk inconvenienced others. Hyde shifted the pram out of the way and pulled Jackie to a spot by a window and out of the way of the shoppers.
"What don't you get?"
She looked up at him. "I don't get why you can't just come with me. What's the big deal? It's just prom. It's just another dance at school."
"Exactly, it's just another dance at school, Jackie. So what's the big deal? Why do you need to go so bad?"
"I've already told you a hundred times why I want to go-"
Hyde rolled his eyes. Yes she had told him at least a hundred times why she wanted to go to the stupid dance. "To show everyone how good you look blah blah blah"
"That's right."
"And I've already told you why I don't wanna go." Hyde looped a thumb into the pocket of his jeans while his other hand gently rocked the pram back and forth. He couldn't believe he had to rattle off his reasons to Jackie again, especially now, standing on the main street of Kenosha at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. But he would. Maybe the change of setting would help her remember them this time. "I'm at that freakin' school everyday, Jackie, and when I'm not there I'm at work. I'm like a damn robot - but not a cool one that does awesome shit like spy on the government n stuff. I'm like a dork robot that has to do shit it doesn't wanna do all the time. Now, when I get free time to do cool stuff I want to actually do cool stuff, like hang with Tyler. So when you talk about going back to school, in my own time, dressed like a moron, it just doesn't appeal to me, coz I'd rather be hangin' with my kid. Capeesh?"
Jackie stared at him for a moment. Her face expressionless. "Oh fine!" she finally said, stomping a foot on the concrete path below her. "I guess I can't really argue with that."
"And yet you try." Hyde grinned. He'd won. He'd finally won!
"Well of course I tried," Jackie said as she nudged him out of the way and began pushing the pram. "I'm not a quitter, Steven, you should know that by now."
Of course he knew that. Seven hundred break-ups and make-ups with Kelso told him that.
Jackie continued, "Your reasons are valid I suppose, and I guess your free time should be spent doing stuff you want to do."
"Thank you." Hyde nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked beside Jackie.
"And the money we have saved should be spent on necessities and the prom isn't really one." The pain at saying the words came through loud and clear in Jackie's voice but Hyde had to admire her anyway. She was still a princess, but a princess who'd learned to prioritise what was important in life.
"And neither is Fez's birthday."
The back of Jackie's hand flew against Hyde's chest and she crinkled her forehead. "He's our friend, Steven, and we're getting him a gift whether you like it or not. He always buys for us remember so it's courtesy for us to buy for him."
"Buys for us?" Hyde questioned. "He tells us he bought us candy, Jackie, then tells us he's eaten it. The only courtesy we owe him is to buy a big fat joint, smoke it, then tell him how awesome it was." He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. "You into that plan?"
Jackie frowned again before pointing to a menswear store up ahead. "No, Steven, me, my baby, and my breastmilk are so not into that plan. Now come on, the shirt Fez liked was in that store. Let's hope it's still there."
...
Later that evening, Jackie sat curled up on the old couch in the basement struggling to stay awake. Tyler was in her arms, sleeping blissfully, not at all bothered by the chatter going on around her. And as crazy as it sounded, Jackie was rather jealous of her daughter, because for once in her life Jackie would rather be asleep than talking about the prom.
"I just can't believe you're not coming," Pauline said, holding her beautiful off-white dress up in front of her, the contrast of colour electrifying her blue eyes and black hair. Jackie just knew Pauline was going to look amazing next week.
Jackie shrugged. "No big deal," she lied; prom was a big deal to her, but unfortunately it wasn't to Hyde and instead of spending the next century arguing with him over it Jackie had let it go. That's right, Jackie had been the bigger person and caved. God, motherhood had softened her. "I can always go next year," she added.
"Yeah but we can't," Donna, who was sitting in the lawn chair, reminded her. "So it won't be the same."
Having shown Jackie her dress, Pauline returned it to the gown bag hanging on the back of the door and zipped the bag up. She turned to Jackie. "That's right it won't. And haven't we spent the last three months planning this night? Wasn't this what got you through those torturous last few weeks of your pregnancy? You have to come, Jackie. You just have too."
"For once midget, I agree with the cheerleader." Donna grinned over at Pauline who acknowledged the redhead's comment with a bemused frown. Over the last few months, pushed along by Jackie, the two girls had struck up a nice little friendship. Outwardly and inwardly they were polar opposites, but they had Jackie in common and as she constantly reminded them, that was more than enough to build a friendship on. Donna winked at Pauline and continued, "You should totally come. We're all gonna be there and the Formans would totally babysit Tyler. It'll be like our last big hurrah together before me and Eric go to Madison. Plus you get to wear a pretty dress and burn Kat. How can you say no to that?"
How could Jackie say no to that? With much difficulty, that's how.
Inviting the girls over that night had seemed like a good idea. A boy's night had been planned to celebrate Fez's birthday and while initially Hyde had been reluctant to leave Tyler and go, Jackie had managed to persuade him a night out would be good for him. Stupidly, she'd figured a night with the girls would be good for her too. But she hadn't planned on the girls bringing prom dresses. God, showing a prom dress to Jackie when she couldn't go to prom was like handing a bottle of whisky to an alcoholic right before his first AA meeting. The temptation was real. The pain was excrutiating. And she was regretting her decision to hang out with Donna and Pauline. A night alone with Tyler would've been much wiser because Tyler couldn't talk about the damn prom...or anything else.
"Look you two, I said I'm not going and I'm not changing my mind, okay?" Jackie said through gritted teeth. "The one person I wanted to go with doesn't wanna go and I don't wanna go without him. So just drop it already. Can't we just go back to talking about how good I look right now?"
"But we talk about that everyday." Donna grinned and twirled her red head around her index finger. "I wanna know who this mystery guy is that won't take Princess Jackie to the ball."
"Duh!" Pauline cried, shaking her head at Donna. "I swear you should be a blond, Donna! He's no mystery guy. It's obvious to everyone, except those of you who lurk down here in this dank basement, who he is." Pauline's eyes swept around the room and she scrunched her nose. Jackie smiled. Pauline was a sweetheart and had been a wonderful friend to Jackie but she did have an element of snobbery about her. But who was Jackie to judge? She'd been hanging in this dank basement for years and still washed her hands every time she left it.
Donna looked quizzically at Pauline then at Jackie. "Who? Hyde?" she asked. "Is Hyde the guy you wanna go to prom with?"
Jackie rolled her eyes. She was over pretending her and Hyde were just friends. "Of course I want Steven to take me, Donna. Why would I go with anybody else? He's Tyler's dad and he's my best friend, I want to spend my prom with him."
Pauline smiled and cupped her hands over her heart. "Awwwwwwww!"
But Donna's forehead crinkled. "Your best friend?" she questioned. "Are we talking about the same Hyde here? The one who yells at you every day for spending too much time in the bathroom, and shuts the record player off every time you dare play your music?"
Jackie's heart fluttered at the thought of Hyde and she pulled their daughter closer to her chest. Yes, Hyde was still an asshole a lot of the time but that's what she liked about him so much. He didn't roll over and take her crap like Kelso did. He challenged her. And god she loved a challenge.
She looked at Donna. "Yes, that Hyde," she said. "The one that does all that stuff but who also bathes his daughter, and changes her, and listens to me moan about my sore, leaky boobs and then goes and gets me boob pads, and then-"
"Okay, enough with the boobs," Donna cut in, holding up a silencing hand. "I get it, Hyde's a great dad."
"And great with boobs," Pauline added, winking at Jackie.
"But you guys said you were just friends?" Donna continued. "We've all asked you over n over again if anything was going on and you both said no, and now you're telling me you're together n you're sacrificing prom for him?"
Jackie shook her head. "I never said that we were together. I said he's my best friend and I want to go to prom with him but he doesn't wanna go."
"But you like him? As in like him like him?" Donna asked.
Pauline grinned like the cat that got the cream, clearly proud that she knew more about Hyde and Jackie than Donna did. "Well she kisses him n stuff," she let out, causing Donna's eyes to widen.
"Since when?!" the redhead demanded to know.
"God, Donna!" Jackie said, raising her voice as much as she could without waking her baby. "I've been kissing Steven for ages, you guys were just too stupid to notice. Or maybe you just didn't want to see what was in front of you." Jackie did believe her friends were stupid, but she also knew Donna, Eric, Fez, and Kelso didn't approve of her and Hyde and wouldn't want them together. It was weird for them, especially at the beginning when the whole summer tryst came out. And despite everyone loving Tyler, no one had even entertained the idea of a Jackie/Hyde relationship. Except Jackie and Hyde.
Donna furrowed her brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I don't think any of you ever wanted me and Steven together."
"Well, duh, Jackie," Donna said, rolling her eyes. "You can't deny that you two sneaking 'round last year caused a tonne of problems for everyone. And you guys were, like, major enemies for years. So no, I guess i didn't want you and Hyde to get togeth-"
Pauline gasped. "But they have a baby! How could you not want them to be a family?"
Jackie's eyes fell on Donna awaiting her response.
"You didn't let me finish." Donna sat back in the plastic lawn chair and continued talking to Jackie. "You and Hyde were a totally creepy and unnatural couple and two people that I absolutely never saw together, but now, I dunno...I guess it makes sense...in a weird kinda way."
"And what exactly do you mean by weird?" Jackie asked haughtily.
Donna raised a shoulder before dropping it. "It's like what i said before - you n Hyde argue. A lot. You're opposites."
"And you and Eric are the perfect couple I suppose?" Jackie sneered, thinking back to all the break ups and make ups the engaged couple had been through over the years. It was infuriating the way Donna made out she and Eric were so perfect, when in fact they were far from it. Donna was in no position to judge, but Jackie knew she would anyway.
Donna cocked an eyebrow. "Well I wasn't dating his best friend when we hooked up," she said defensively.
Jackie groaned. "Oh my god, Donna. Me and Michael were over before I got with Steven," she explained for what felt like the seven hundredth time. "He left me remember? When you got in a van with him and fled to California. Anyway, why are we still talking about this? It doesn't matter how Steven and I got together, what matters now is that we have a child and I want to be with him...properly be with him."
She'd said it. Out loud. Jackie had said the words that for the last few months had scared her to bits. She wanted a relationship with Hyde. To be his girlfriend. What had changed in her life to get her to this point? Not much, except Tyler of course. Her dad was still in jail. Her mom still flitting around South America. Jackie's chaotic life was still a mess but what had changed was that the chaos was now normal; thanks in large part to Hyde who'd been her anchor through all the storms. He was her safety, he was her constant, and she wanted him to be her boyfriend.
Whether Donna liked it or not.
To Jackie's surprise when she looked over at Donna she only saw a goofy grin on her friend's face. And on the other side of the spool table Pauline was sitting again with her hand over her heart. Crap! Jackie was too tired for mushy talk...even if it was slightly better than prom talk.
"You really, really like him, don't you, Jackie?" Donna asked, still sporting her stupid grin.
Jackie sighed. "Yes, Donna. I really, really like him. Now can you please stop looking at me like that? You're scaring the baby."
"Which baby?" Donna laughed. "The one that's asleep in your arms?" She did a little dance in her seat and smiled a big toothy smile. "Me thinks you're feeling a little embarrassed because you just admitted you love an orphan boy..."
"Oh, shut up, Donna!" Jackie turned her attention to the blank televison screen. She could feel her cheeks flush and she nervously licked her lips. Donna was right, Jackie did love an orphan boy. It wasn't the fairytale she'd imagined and she wasn't quite sure when it had happened, but she'd gone and fallen head over heels in love with a poor orphan boy. And she couldn't be happier.
"Oh, I think it's just so romantic," Pauline chirped, grinning at Jackie. "You're gorgeous, Hyde's hot, you made the cutest baby ever, and Kat is gonna be spitting more tacks than she already is about you two. I love it!"
Jackie couldn't argue with Pauline; the cheerleader spoke only truths. But there was still the small matter of Hyde not knowing she was in love with him.
Donna nodded. "I think a lot of people are gonna be spitting tacks when they find out Hyde n Jackie are together," she said.
"Gosh, you two!" Jackie growled. "Like I said before, we're not actually together yet! We haven't talked about any of that stuff for ages so I don't want you guys going around flapping your great big gobs before I talk to him, okay? Who knows, he might not even like me like that anymore. He's seen me give birth remember? God, he probably thinks I'm disgusting now."
Jackie's elation evaporated when she remembered all the gross stuff that had come out of her in the last month. Hyde had witnessed her waters breaking, a baby coming out of her, post-partum bleeding, leaking breasts...all of it. He'd seen it all. Did he still view her as the same Jackie she used to be? Or was she a ruined ex-cheerleader that was only good for feeding his baby? He hadn't made a move on her since she'd given birth; the once hot make-out sessions had become quick kisses before bed, and steamy embraces had turned into comforting hugs, soothing Jackie when cracked nipples reduced her to tears. Everything had changed. Had Hyde's feelings changed as well?
"Well I guess you won't know what he thinks until you talk to him." Donna's words echoed Jackie's thoughts and she bit down hard on her lip.
Finally, she said, "And we both know how much Steven Hyde loves talking about feelings..."