Chapter 3:
"I'm telling you Jacky, there's this car…and it runs on water!" Hyde exclaimed as they drove to yet another dress shop, they've been doing so for the past four weekends. She just couldn't find the dress, but she was getting desperate because if Steven Hyde mentioned the stupid little car that ran on water one more time, she would have to kill herself.
"I know," she snapped, swerving the car a little hard as she rounded the corner, "And what have I said about getting high in my car?"
"Jacky, you need to…"
She held up her index finger scolding him, "If you say relax, I will kick you out of this car right now while I'm driving."
Dismissing what she just finished saying, Hyde continued, "You need to be more like me. Zen is the answer Jackie, believe me, I know. Not caring about people or what they think is way easier than stressing over those little things. I've already given you lessons, Jackie, you've just forgotten everything I taught you, but that's okay, we'll review it later. Right now, we've got a dress to find!" he said clapping his hands together in an imitating girly fashion. Jackie rolled her eyes as they drove into the parking lot.
"What? What's wrong with it?" Jackie asked, her voice rising so everyone could hear the shrillness of her voice.
"Remember Jackie; Zen… and it makes you look like you stepped out of the eighteenth century. In fact, I think I saw a picture of my great grandmother wearing that on her wedding day."
"Well I think it's beautiful and that's all that matters," Jackie informed him haughtily, but he just shook his head.
"You don't glow in that dress, a bride is supposed to glow, that dress just makes you look old and ugly," he could hear the intake of her breath, "Yes, I said it, you look ugly in that dress, now go take it off."
He watched her as she stormed away through his tinted glasses and scratched his beard in frustration. How can it take this long to find a dress? It's just some dumbass dress, he thought to himself. He was getting sick of being around Jackie; it only reminded him of how spoiled and rich she was.
"What about this one?"
He looked up from the carpet and this time he was the one who had to take in his breath. His gaze travelled over the radiant gown with the lace accents and satin short sleeves, and slight ruffles in the front and bottom… it reminded him of the first time he saw her in that wedding dress. When he had called her beautiful and she had said that that measly comment meant they would one day get married…evidently, she was wrong.
"Well," she snapped impatiently, "What about this one?"
He had the words beautiful, radiant, extravagant and downright gorgeous lodged in his throat, eventually he cleared his throat and shrugged, "It's not bad, hell, I'll say best one so far… but we both know that's not saying much."
Jackie looked at her reflection in the mirror. He was right, of course she would never tell that to him out loud, but the dress was her favourite out of the past selection. She had this nice gut feeling as if she was ready to get married in this dress, and she looked beautiful, but not her normal beautiful, beautiful-beautiful. It was the perfect wedding dress for her, but not for this wedding. She was marrying Fez, and this is almost just like the wedding dress she would have worn to marry Hyde. She loved it the instant she had tried it one and could see her and Hyde marrying in the spring with white doves and the whole shebang, but this wasn't that wedding, so she couldn't have this dress.
"I think we should keep looking," she said monotonously. Jackie could see him staring at her through her reflection.
His voice was gentle for the first time in forever it seemed like to her, "Alright. You want to stay here or go someplace else?"
"I want to try going with Donna, again," she informed him before she had actually decided this in her mind, but her voice was right. This would probably be best done not with her ex-boyfriend whom she wanted to marry herself once upon a time. She couldn't even look at his reflection in the mirror, but felt as though he needed an explanation, "I'm glad we're friends again –"
"Me too." She met his gaze in the mirror again and felt her heart skip a beat, immediately she shook the feeling.
"I just think finding dresses is a girl's thing, and even though Donna doesn't really count as one, she's still more of a girl than you are, and yeah…"
"Yeah," he repeated in a droned, looking down at the tiles, pretending there was something interesting on them.
"Nothing personal," she said trying to reassure not only him, but herself as well, "Anyways we have to get going if we don't want to be late tasting cake."
"Mm, I love red velvet…oh Jackie, you're here!" Fez said walking up to meet his fiancé and embrace her.
She smiled up at him, "So, what did we miss?"
"Red velvet cake. It looks red and bloody, but taste just like chocolate! Here try some," he said handing her a tiny portion. Just as the moist texture touched her taste buds she could feel them dancing. This was delectable!
"You know what I think?" Michael said excitedly shoving another forkful of the red velvet cake into his mouth, not noticing the mess he was making on his face.
"You don't," Hyde smirked.
"Will people stop saying that? Alright so I'm not the smartest guy around, but I always think, whether it's before or after I say or do something, I still do it, alright?" he exclaimed frustrated, indulging in another forkful of cake, letting the crumbs ooze out the corners of his mouth as he said it.
"Well?" Eric asked expectantly.
"What?"
"You were just about to say something, Kelso, what was it?"
Kelso's eyes grew wide in realization as he recollected his train of thought, "Oh, right," he murmured. "Well, it's not my fault, Hyde distracted me. Why do you always got to make me look stupid?" he demanded Steven.
Steven's eyes travelled over the ruby icing that was smeared on his forehead and pasted in his hair to the crumbs outlining Michael's mouth and just had to laugh. "No, man," he said clamping one hand on Michael's shoulder, "You do that all by yourself."
Kelso rolled his eyes, "Anyways, I was going to say, I think this cake is the cake you guys should go with. Jackie, Fez, it's the best thing I've ever tasted…and I've tasted a lot of things," he laughed. Everyone else agreed it was scrumptious and Fez seemed to really like it, but Jackie noticed Hyde hadn't said a word.
"What do you think about it, Hyde?" she asked him, her voice as small as a mouse.
He sighed, "I haven't tried it."
"Here," she said tearing off a piece of her own sample and holding it out to him. His mouth encircled around her fingers gently nipping them as he bit off the sample she offered him and licking away the remains before they both tensed. This was not what she meant, nor was it what he intended to do; he couldn't shake the feeling that at the moment he had still thought they were together. They locked eyes for a second, her green eyes warming his blue ice coloured eyes before she awkwardly slipped her finger out of his mouth. Jackie was thankful Fez was too busy cosseting his angel food cake to notice what happened. He then began calling her over to try some, and in that moment, when Fez's voice cut through the air, Hyde and Jackie were dragged back into the reality of things, only making the situation seem more awkward. Hyde immediately left her gaze and started towards the door of the bakery.
"Wait!" Jackie called, "You have to eat more cake; you're supposed to help us choose a flavour."
Steven glanced over his shoulder quickly towards her, and murmured the words she had said to him in the dress shop, "Nothing personal," before stalking out of the bakery.