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

CHAPTER EIGHT
FLIRTING WITH IMPRISONMENT

Hyde sentenced himself to spend the last day of summer break in his room. Some hours, the stone-brick walls pressed in on him. Others, they hurtled away, making his room stretch into the cosmos. Pot wasn't the culprit. He hadn't touched the stuff today. Misery, pervasive and absolute, was causing the illusions.

He remained on his cot, back against his dresser, and moved only to piss or flip over his record. The Rolling Stones' latest album, Some Girls, had played through at least seven times. When the last song, "Shattered," ended, he turned the record to side A, and "Miss You" started.

With the album on, he didn't have to think. Most of the lyrics put words to his conflicting emotions. He'd contracted a sickness, one he'd foolishly believed he was immune to: heartache. It had eradicated his appetite and most of his courage. He should've been man enough to face Jackie and his choices, but he was laying low instead.

His solitary confinement remained intact past four p.m. No one had tried to break him out. He always slept in on Sundays while the Formans went to church, so that explained the first few hours. His friends were probably outside, enjoying their last scraps of freedom before school. The Formans must've thought he was with them and had accidentally left on his radio.

He rubbed his eyes. The walls were contracting again, and knocks rattled his door. His instinct was to tell the person to scram, but a one-in-seven chance existed that the knocker was Jackie. Those odds couldn't be ignored.

He shut off his stereo and stretched his stiff back. His legs felt bloodless and tingly. He'd been sitting too long, and he stomped his boots on the floor. The door continued to rattle, but a ghost might as well have been outside his room. No voice accompanied the knocks.

"Hold on!" Hyde croaked out. His mouth had been shut for hours. It both sounded and smelled like it, too, and he swiped a pack of gum from the dresser. He shoved a piece into his mouth, but the door bounced against the hinges, like someone had kicked it.

He grasped the door knob and positioned himself strategically. If Jackie charged in like a stampeding bull, he'd have some chance of protecting his stones. His legs tensed, ready to jump out of the way, and he opened the door.

Forman's fist punched at open air. "Hyde, what the hell?" His face was flushed. Sweat beaded his forehead, and he dropped his arm. "Next time you want to hide, don't play your stereo so loud."

"Wasn't hiding."

"I almost kicked my way in here." Forman entered the room and pushed the door shut with his elbow. "Do you have any idea what I've been through the last three hours?"

"No, but I'm sure you're gonna tell me."

"I had to drive Kelso to the DMV. Yeah, he lost his driver's license in California and wouldn't drive himself. It might just be the first time he's intentionally obeyed the law."

Hyde paced from the dusty armchair to the Formans' old trunk and back again. "So?"

"Fez went with us to be 'part of the fun,'" Forman said and dropped onto Hyde's cot. "But while Fez went to a DMV rep to complain about the comatose line, Kelso unloaded his own grievances onto me."

Hyde chewed his gum harder to stimulate his saliva glands. His mouth and throat were dry, and talking was harder than it should've been. "And now you're gonna dump 'em onto me."

"Because they belong to you! Kelso's throwing a hissy fit over what happened last night."

"So?"

Forman gripped the sides of his hair. "Would you stop saying that?"

Hyde chuckled. Watching Forman get flustered was entertaining. "You keep doin' that, you'll go bald like Red."

Forman jerked his hands from his head and spoke more softly. "You need to stay out of Jackie's life, okay? Let her and Kelso work out their relationship for themselves."

"Their relationship's done, man. Nothing for them to work through."

Forman laughed as if Hyde were being naïve. "Kelso's never going to be done with Jackie. It doesn't matter how many girls he sleeps with. He'll always want the option of being with her."

"That's his damn problem. "

"You didn't see him today, how upset he is that Jackie might be dating other people. And he blames you for giving her the idea."

"Forman, do you even hear yourself?" Hyde's heartbeat pummeled his eardrums, and he sat on the armchair, hoping his adrenaline would fade. "You're talkin' like Jackie doesn't have a choice in this."

"Of course she does, and you've seen what she chooses: Kelso. She's determined to be with the guy, no matter how much she denies it. No matter badly he treats her. So you might as well back off."

Hyde shoved his gum into his cheek as his breaths staggered in his chest.

"I know you care about her," Forman said, "but you can't save her from what she doesn't want to be saved from."

He was echoing Hyde's own doubts, ones that had led to last night. Hyde should've argued harder against himself—today, yesterday, the whole freakin' summer. He shouldn't have tried to set Jackie up with a boyfriend she hadn't asked for, but his mistakes didn't wipe out his survival instincts. Better for him that they stay platonic. Better for Jackie, too.

"So Kelso throws a tantrum," he said, "and you don't give a shit he's a total hypocrite. He can screw whoever he wants, but Jackie's gotta go into some kind of suspended animation. Date no one, fuck no one, fall for no one until Kelso decides to be with her. If he does."

Forman tugged on his hair again. "Why aren't you getting this? Whatever happens between Jackie and Kelso is between Jackie and Kelso, not between Jackie, Kelso, and you. That's all I'm saying. Stay out of it, or we're all gonna lose."

"No can do."

"Hyde—"

"Kelso's gonna have to live with me and her being friends," Hyde said, not that he and Jackie were friends anymore. Not after last night, but his point was still valid. "If that means I set her up with a good guy, that's the way it goes—"

"From what I witnessed yesterday," Forman said, "she didn't want you to."

"Nope. Yesterday was a bad move, but it doesn't change facts: Kelso's gotta accept that her friends are gonna help her find someone who ain't him. Same as when she set Donna up with Casey, and you had to deal with it."

"That analogy doesn't work." Forman squinted like he had a headache and kneaded his right shoulder. "Jackie and I aren't friends, so her setting Donna up on a date breaks no codes. But you and Kelso have been friends since first grade. You can't tell me you're choosing Jackie over him … unless this 'just friends' riff of yours is a scam."

Hyde scooted forward on the armchair and dug his boots into the cement floor. "Not choosin' anyone over anyone," but that was a lie. He'd picked the Jackie he didn't trust over the one he'd fallen for. "You've been telling me this whole time to back off, but why don't you back the hell off?"

"Because even without your sunglasses on, you don't see the bigger picture."

"If something's goin' on between me and Jackie, it's between me and Jackie."

"So there is something," Forman said, and Hyde shrugged. "What's this," Forman copied the shrug, "supposed to mean?"

Hyde spat his gum into his hand and wadded it into its wrapper. Forman wasn't getting any more out of him.

"You and Jackie." Forman let out a shuddering breath, as if pairing the names would initiate a dark ritual. "You and Jackie … you and Jackie? I just don't get it. I don't want to."

"Not asking you to." Hyde scratched his cheek, and the roughness of his beard scraped his fingertips. His life was the same, abrasive and sprouting from his own skin but, ultimately, going nowhere.

"So that's it?" Forman said. "You're gonna let Jackie ruin our last year together before college? Donna's already going to another school—"

"Keep your panties on, Forman. Jackie can't ruin anything. She..." was a helluva girl, with a wider perspective about the world than his. Simply by being herself, she'd made him aware of the constraints he'd put on his life. Limitations he couldn't seem to get beyond.

"She's what?" Forman said, "Made of hellfire?"

"No—"

"The devil incarnate?"

"None of your damn business," Hyde said. Forman wouldn't help him with Jackie; his loyalty was to the friendships he'd grown up with, and any threat to them scared him shitless.

"So we're agreed," Forman said. "She's none of our business, and you'll stay away from her."

Hyde stuck his hand into his jeans pocket. The shooting star pendant was inside, and he ran his thumb over its smooth surface. "Forman, we'll be friends 'til death, but fuck off on this."

Forman opened his mouth but made no sound. He got off the cot and slouched from the room.

Hyde should've followed and found Jackie. Explained his choices so she could make her own based on the facts, but he sank onto the cot and back into his cowardice.

For the first day of school, Jackie went with the chambray dress. It flaunted her body without being tawdry, and its winter sky color complimented her summer-tanned skin. She strutted through the school halls with an air of pride, carrying her designer backpack over one shoulder. But she made sure not to flounce before the first bell. Appearing overly confident or too happy would reveal her bluff.

Her new locker assignment was on the second floor, but decorating the gray, bland metal would have to wait. Boys were looking her way. She focused on unlocking her locker and did it on the first try, but one of the boys broke from the pack. He was at tall, rangy—and approaching her.

"Keith?" she said. "Keith Byrne?"

"That's me," he said with a smirk. "Can't believe how much hotter you got over the summer."

She touched a fingers to her lips, and her stomach fluttered uncomfortably. He must've grown half a foot taller since June, and his voice had deepened considerably. She didn't comment on his changes, though. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for a follow-up.

"I'm not sure of it's this," he mimed an a hour-glass shape with hands, "or the fact you finally dropped that moron, Kelso."

Another boy joined him from the pack, Andrew Schmidt. "I'd say it's both," he said and rested his arm on Keith's shoulder. Andrew was the J.V. field hockey team's goalie. At least, he had been last year. This year, he'd probably make varsity. He was taller, too, and more muscular. "Jackie..." his eyes raked her body, "you really are looking foxy."

"I know." She offered him a smile, and it seemed to signal the rest of the pack to come over. Five boys, including Keith and Andrew, surrounded her by the lockers. Each had gone from baby-faced sophomores to man-voiced juniors who wouldn't be asked for I.D. at Charlie's Bar.

They were also all flirting with her.

This morning's conversation with the cheer squad had to be responsible. She'd met up with her teammates in the school parking lot, and they asked where she'd been hiding all summer. It was the question she'd been dreading, but she had a lie prepared.

"Oh, I shadowed my dad at his job," she said. "He took me all over the Midwest on his business trips. I barely had time to get my nails done, but..." She presented her newly French-manicured nails.

Everyone expressed their approval but Valerie, the cheer captain. Her too-tweezed left eyebrow arched up, and she said, "So are you and Michael Kelso are officially over? I saw him hitting on Nancy Gorski at The Hub on Saturday."

"Over doesn't begin to describe it," Jackie said. "But, yes, I broke up with him—two months ago? Something like that."

Julie, the assistant cheer captain, frowned. "Aw, why?" The sympathy was obviously fake, an attempt to coax Jackie into a damning confession. But a breeze swept through the parking lot and tousled Julie's hair. She shrieked, grasped her head, and raced into the school.

The rest of the cheer squad followed, but Jackie stayed by her car. She watched other cars pull in, and her heart pounded as a black El Camino drove into the lot. Rock music blasted from it, but it shut off before the driver—Steven—chose a parking space. Maybe he'd seen her and hoped to talk. Confronting him had been her plan, but she fled into the school.

Regaining her outer composure hadn't been hard, but inside she was a quivering wreck. He didn't want her. He didn't respect her, but her chest ached at the loss of him. Donna wasn't even here to give comfort. All she had were a horny boys fawning over her.

"Yeah," she said to one of them now. "Of course," she said to another. She giggled at a third, but it was an act to keep from crying. It was a perfect imitation of her mom at business dinners. Create an illusion of interest, and connections would be made.

Every second that went by, the boys stepped closer. They breached her personal space, fenced her in. Her back was pushed against her locker, and if the school bell didn't ring soon, she'd start kicking 'nads.

"Have you seen Animal House yet?" Keith said, and his finger hooked a lock of her hair. "Because I was wondering if you'd—"

"Hey! Get away from her!"

Jackie's breath hitched. She stood on her toes and glimpsed Michael charging toward the pack. He reached it, clamped his hand on Keith's shoulder, and forced him around.

"What the hell, man?" Keith said.

Michael pointed at Jackie. "That's my girl you're hitting on!"

"I am not your girl!" Jackie shouted.

"She's not your girl," Keith repeated. Andrew repeated it, too, and the rest of the boys made similar statements.

Michael's grip tightened on Keith's shoulder, and he yanked him from the pack. "Let's go!" Michael said. "I'll take all of you!" but the school bell rang.

"Goddamn cheerleader gossip," Keith muttered. He pried Michael's hand off himself and disappeared into a classroom with the other boys.

Jackie grabbed her backpack. She had a history class to get to, but Michael stuck to her side as she rushed down the hallway. "You look real pretty in that dress," he said.

"I'm pretty in any dress," she said.

"Jackie—" He got in front of her, and she stepped on his feet. "Ow—Jackie!" He began walking backward but stayed in her way. "What I'm saying is I love you … and we should try again. I won't cheat this time or run. I promise. Just please, please say you'll be my girlfriend."

She shoved him aside, even as a thrill arced through her. He was begging, but he'd groveled before. Made promises before. "Words come so easily to you," she said. "Too bad you can't buy trust with them."

Her classroom was close. Students poured into it from the left and right, and she joined them as Michael shouted, "Can I buy it with something else? I've got five bucks!"

She kept her gaze forward. She wouldn't take him back, no matter how many times he declared faithfulness. Or how badly she wished his words were more than a collection of sounds.