Hey, guys! I know I've been hella lame and haven't updated in *looks at watch* Okay. A really, really long time. That's kind of why I'm putting this chapter out as a sort of dip into the pool again. It's hella short but I'm hoping that ya'll are still around.

Chapter Sixteen: Skanks on Mopeds

There was something happening inside of Tina that she didn't quite understand. Something that was eating her up, hollowing out her insides until everything seemed to press down on her. The world was suddenly so heavy, even the air felt like it was resting upon her. For the first time, Tina felt completely and utterly… frail.

"I-um-" Tina blinked rapidly, swallowing a couple times as she stared down the empty alleyway. She didn't know how long she had been standing there. Long enough for Fez to come and linger in the open Hub door, his brows furrowed, gnawing nervously at the corndog in his hand. Her eyes burned, her throat knotting into a painful twist. Was she crying? Tina reached up, pulling back in horror as her fingers caught the first drops of tears. "Oh shit."

Hands shaking, Tina turned away from Fez, rubbing roughly at her eyes. But they wouldn't stop. Oh great. And now snot was pouring down her face.

"Tina?"

"I-I'm - I'm f-fine, Fez - Fez." Tina let out a sob, curling in on herself as she pressed her heels hard against her eyelids. Hyde had always made fun of her when she had started to hiccup - cry. But fuck him. He was an awful horrible boy. Such a stupid awful horrible boy. Tina let out a wail.

Her mind screamed that she hated him. Hyde had been everything that she had wanted and now he was on the back of some skanks moped. She hoped he kept getting hit in the face with her greasy, unwashed hair, Tina thought vehemently. But somewhere inside of her she knew that, a deep part screamed that it was her fault. She had caused this.

And that was more painful than anything that Tina could have ever faced.

"C-corndog?" Fez offered lamely, looking more nervous and uncomfortable than he had ever been before. And that included the moment that Stacy Vanny barfed all over his crotch at the Snow Queen Dance.

Tina needed to get out of here. Blindly, she fumbled for the keys in her pocket, stumbling to the door.

"You-you need to drive - to drive m-me home," Tina hiccuped, ignoring the fact that snot and tears were mixing into a mess at her her chin and dripping onto her button up.

"I don't really -" Fez stopped, gulping as Tina pushed the keys into his hand and slamming into a table as she switched off the lights and locked up the doors to the Hub. And then unlocked them when she realized that she was trapped inside. "I'll figure it out."

"Didn't you have a purse?" Fez asked, clearly unnerved at the way that Tina had submitted to a wave of quietly staring at her hands as she slid into the passenger seat of her dad's car. He had let her borrow it for the night - a decision that he would have immediately regretted if he could see Fez looking on the top of the steering wheel and dash for a place to plug the keys in.

"Please just-" Tina blinked, swallowing back a mixture of tears and snot. She let her eyes flutter shut, ignoring the sting. "Just please take me home, Fez. I - I just want to go home."

Fez shifted, taking a deep breath as he finally found the key slot. He had never seen her like this. Tina Forman had always been the strong one - the unwavering one who stayed firmly planted on the ground. And Hyde - Fez winced, pulling out of the parking lot, running over the curb as he turned. Hyde had stayed planted firmly beside her. Fez couldn't imagine a world where Hyde and Tina...were separate.

Tina Forman was thinking about Hyde. She was thinking about the night she had pulled off his glasses and kissed him in the driveway of her house. She was thinking about a moped pulling into another driveway - a boy with curly hair getting off first, his hands trailing a girls waist that wasn't Tinas. And then he was leaning down and it wasn't Tina that he was kissing.

"Should I park-?" Fez stopped, wincing as he looked over to see that Tina was staring blindly out the window, silently crying as streetlights caught her face, illuminating the stark planes of her face. "I'll figure it out."

Tina wasn't sure when the car pulled into the driveway or when the engine clicked to silence. All she really knew was that Fez was suddenly pulling her from the passenger seat, shutting the door softly and leading her with a hand to her back to her porch door. She blinked, staring into the darkened depths of her kitchen. Everyone would be asleep by now on a Sunday night when work and school would be dawning in a few hours. Tina blinked again, the realization that there was going to be a tomorrow and that she was going to have to face suddenly forcing a fist of anxiety to push its way into her throat.

"Do you need help inside?" Fez whispered, softly touching Tina's arm to draw her attention to him. It felt wrong touching her. Some old, rusty part of him wanted to look around and make sure that Hyde wasn't around. If Hyde were around… Fez stared down into the red rimmed depths of Tina's eyes, her lashes stuck in clumps as fresh tears dripped slowly down her cheeks. She was staring up at him but there was a blankness there that sent a tingle of awareness through him. He suddenly hated Hyde, in some weird, twisted way that was tinged with all the affection that had grown in him for the gang in the past year. If Hyde was around and not being so stupid than everything would be fine.

"Thank you, Fez," Tina rasped out, turning toward the screen door to tiredly slide it open. "I'm sorry - Can you walk home?"

"I'll be fine." But Tina was already stepping inside, giving him a pained smile even through the mess of tears and snot. Conflicted, Fez stepped back, staring after the girl until her silhouette vanished into the darkness of her house.

A deep part of the boy thought that maybe he should stay - maybe his presence would help. But an even more reasonable part knew that him being here wasn't going to help anything. Only one person was going to make Tina feel better. And he was on the back of a moped with some slutty blonde goddess.

Hyde was miserable.

The slutty blonde that had walked into the Hub was currently trying to talk to him about the miserable state of the government and how much she wanted to protest on the White House lawn. All Hyde could seem to think about was the fact that she smelled like B.O. and should probably spend her next couple hours washing her hair and maybe doing a load of laundry.

Tina always smelled nice.

Hyde grimaced, trying to pull farther back on the little seat that was frankly making his ass fall asleep. No thinking about Tina. That was a new rule. There was a sexy blonde sitting a few inches from him talking about bringing down the government and obviously wanting to get in his pants by the way that she was touching his thighs and… Hyde was miserable.

"I want to like protest, man - destroy the government and hang all those corrupt politicians! I'm going to stick it to the Man when I get to Washington!" Greasy hair that smelled vaguely of dog hit him in the face as she nodded and turned to flash him a toothy grin. Was not washing also a form of protest? "Hey wanna -" She gave him a sly, kind of jerky look. For a minute, Hyde thought she might be having a seizure. "Pop into my room?"

They had stopped. Hyde looked around, brows furrowing. When had they parked? The moped leaned heavily to the side, throwing Hyde off balance for a moment as he quickly scrambled off. They were in front of some cruddy, roadside motel on the other side of town. It was about a ten minute walk to his trailer and - Hyde scanned the trees and distent of glow of the towns lights - another 20 to get to Tina. Hyde groaned, grimacing as he remembered the rule of the night.

A rule that totally wasn't worth it.

"Whatcha say - Big Boy?" Slutty blonde chick winked, running a hand along his chest and Hyde's skin scrambled under the contact. The curly haired boy discreetly stepped back, thinking of Tina's light touching, her hands clutching at his shirt every time they kissed.

The cold anger from before had vanished, leaving behind something empty and - Jesus, was that regret? Steven Hyde never regretted anything. But deep in his chest, something tightened, making it hard to breath for a moment.

"Um." Hyde's brows furrowed as he took another step back. His eyes focused briefly on the slutty blonde. Did she have a name? He couldn't remember. "Listen this has been… great. But I'm gonna...go…"

He turned, ignoring the outraged huff that followed him and the way that he could practically feel the steam rolling off of blondie.

"Is this about that preppy chick at that rundown shack?" The words were laced with such malice that Hyde stopped, looking over his shoulder. It was the crazy chicks that usually went after him. This time wasn't really any different. Except… Well, he had something to lose this time.

He smirked. "Yeah. It is."

Please, please, please review and tell me how ya'll are doing. The more reviews, the more I write. Kind of ironic since I've been gone for so long and you guys did amazing reviewing but - I'm not going to lie to you and say that I'm kind of a comment whore - so, yeah! REVIEW!