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Jackie’s last two years had been terrible, not say worse. Between the end of she and Steven, her attempt to date Fez and all the jobs she swaps from since Chicago, her life is far from how she dreamed it would be. But she is determinate to change that. About to make another lap around the sun, she’d be a new woman with this new cycle. Funnier, freer, lighter. She’s done worrying about everything, who she’ll end up with, if she’s gonna get married, if she’ll ever work on tv again.
To compensate these tragic times and to celebrate her new persona, Jackie wanted her twenty-one years birthday party to be a blast. And it would be. As she thinks her life through, all the golden balloons are being sat at the living room of her old mansion, the perfect scenario to the party she’s aiming for.
She remembers the first party she ever tried to host in this place, when her friends crashed in and Michael put the house on fire. Literally. It’s funny now but at the time she got so upset; she wanted a classic, fancy party but they ruined. She wanted everything to be perfect. And now, if the house gets on fire, even better.
Once again, she checks up on her looks at the mirror down the hall. It’s an atypical hot night for an ending summer, so she wears a short, shimmering, rose dress, with high heels wrapped around her ankles. Her hair is loose in carefully made curls, which is perfect for all the wild dance she’s planning on have.
There’s a lot of booze and food, and it’s all set for the music – she wanted a DJ, but couldn’t afford to – from The Runaways to ABBA. Besides the basement gang, she invited her coworkers at the Fine Design Jewelry Store, Francine, Betty and Tania; two former cheerleaders from her old squad and their boyfriends and her crazy cousin Trisha, who was always fun to be around. They were all allowed to bring someone with. Fez is bringing some friends from the saloon, as well is Donna and Eric bringing a couple friend from UW. Michael, Brooke and Randy will attempt too, and of course, Steven.
They’re cool now. By this time, mid to end of 1982, her relationship with Steven was a long-gone memory. A lot came down that bridge; from his stupid – not even legal – marriage to a blonde stripper to her failure four months relation with Fez, they were able to find a place of friendship again. A distant friendship, but still.
It’s nice not to have lost him for good.
It starts out shy and nothing like she imagined. People are not blending well, they’re drinking, but not exactly engaging. She had already changed the music and disposed more sangria, but it wasn’t doing the magic.
“What’s with you?”
She doesn’t even see Steven approaching her, such is her concern with the courses of the party.
“What do you think? My party sucks!”
He frowns at her. “You kidding? That’s exactly the kind of party you used to like back th- uh, before.”
Back then. Back when we were together. Yeah, she knows.
“Well, not anymore. I’m a new person, Steven. And this supposed to be a welcome celebration to the new me!”
“Right,” he scoffs.
“I’m serious! I want my twenty-one birthday to be wild, you know? I want everyone to get dunk and stupid, but see, they’re not even talking.”
They stand side by side at the further wall, watching the people chatting shyly.
“Yeah, okay,” he agrees. “I don’t know about wild, but if you want stupid, I might have a solution.”
He leaves her standing and rushes out the front door. Like she knew exactly what to do, she walks to the kitchen silently. It’s just when she’s there, waiting by the back door, and she spots his figure coming that way, she realizes what just happened.
Mind betrayed by body memory. Too many snickering in and out of that house to count. All of that was long before, but their bodies just knew.
Getting closer, Steven lifts his arm to show her his ginormous sized bong. Jackie gasps.
“You brought that thing ?”
“Sure did.” He smirks, stopping in front of her on the doorstep. “I was planning for later, when everyone else would be gone. But if you want to, we should do it now.”
“You have that for special occasions,” she states.
It’s the truth. She remembers when he wanted to buy that thing. She was against it, of course, and to argue with her, he had said, “it would be just for special moments, you’ll see.”
“Well.” He shrugs, and she listen to the rest of the sentence without he even speaks it out.
She offers a faint thank you smile, resting her body at the door frame. “Okay, I guess. Those who's not okay with it can leave if they want to. The brand-new Jackie doesn’t care.”
That yanks a smile out of him, and he mumbles an, “attagirl,” while occupying the remaining space of the doorway to get in.
And she gets goosebumps behind her neck. Stupid body memory.
Pot does the tricky, just like he predicted. Now everyone’s friends to everyone and the conversation flows even. The alcohol and the music do their part too, and once the weed laziness fades away, the drunkenness creeps in.
Hyde doesn’t dance. Obviously, he knows how, but he chooses not to, if he can. And now he gets to choose, because there’s no girlfriend poking at his arm to make him seem pathetic on a dance floor. Sweet.
Being honest, though, he does miss her, but not in the same way now. At the beginning, it ached like a cut open in the flesh, even with Sam all over his face. Got worse when they had a relapse and then she tried to date Fez right after. And Sam had left, so he was all alone having to watch her kiss someone else and smile at someone else and making the most to prove she was the happiest she had ever been. Man, he just wanted to punch everything all the freaking time. He’s very aware of how petty and selfish it sounds, but once her relationship with Fez faded away and she embraced to be as miserable as he was, well it got easier.
She’s just a shadow now, a blurred memory of a less shitty time. But in moments like this little one, he sorts of miss her particularly harder. She dances and jumps around; she sings strongly to the songs she enjoys most; she doesn’t really care if she’s exaggerating. She’s drunk. Everyone here’s drunk, hell, himself included. And him and her used to have quite some fun when they were like this. Damn, she looks so nice on that little dress.
“Okay, Hyde,” Donna calls his attention, her voice coming from the disco player. “Jackie said you would and I bet you wouldn’t. So please, enlighten us.”
“Uh, what?”
They don’t answer, instead Jackie gives him an eager smile before setting the up the music. The first accords make him smile in realization, but he doesn’t get up from the center table where is at.
Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
“See! Told you he wouldn’t dance!” Donna brags. He tries to maintain Zen, but his foot taps.
Forman and Kelso go full crazy, rocking their heads and playing imaginary guitars, everyone just laughs, and he takes a big, head filling, sip of his beer.
I keep lookin' at the sky
'Cause it's gettin' me high
Hers and his eyes met. And he tries to summon the right word to describe them, but his brain feels fuzzy.
I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Tempting... maybe. Alluring...
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm ba-hey hey hey
His body shoots up, it is more of a self-moving then a decision. He hears Jackie’s amused squeals as his head shakes up and down, and his feet get off the floor too. Seems like everybody’s dancing now ‘cause he glances at a few others jumping bodies. This song’s too good to resist.
The party is dying down; Hyde checks the fancy clock on the corner, it’s 2:45 am. They all had fun, he didn’t know about wild, but it was pretty good party. Forman and Donna are long gone, disappeared into a room to be gross in private. Kelso, of course, drank too much, and is now black out on the rug by the side of Brooke’s feet, like a goddamn useless dog. He approves with a proud smile when he sees Fez making out with a chick down the hall.
Although his head feels funny and his gaze fuzzy, he’s not quite sleepy and he’s feeling like having a cigarette, so he steps outside the back of the mansion. That’s when he spots her. Hyde frowns his face, puzzled. Jackie’s walking bare foot through the grass; her step is loose and she even staggers once or twice, but she seems to have a goal that leads her straight to the neighbors.
He calls for her, but his voice sounds muffled into the night and she didn’t seem to hear, so he follows her with quicker steps. “Hey, Jackie,” Hyde calls again.
“Shh! Don’t be loud!”
“Why are you shushing me?”
They stop right before a ridiculous small fence grass dividing the two fancy houses; Jackie’s drunk sparkled eyes stare back at him. “So you won’t blow my cover.”
He grimaces, wrinkling his nose, but before his slowed brain could form a question, Jackie throws herself over the fence, falling flap on the other side grass, giggling bubbly. And if he wasn’t as wasted as she, he’d be worry, but at his state, he just chortles strongly.
“C’mon!” She calls him while getting up. “God, I’m drunk,” and giggles again.
He jumps through the fence, way more skillfully than her. “Jackie, what are you doing?”
“My feet are hot,” she poorly explains. It takes him a little, but Hyde pulls up the memory of this quirk of hers. Whenever she’s drunk, she complains about her feet being hot. Such a werido.
“Okay... but why are we trespassing? Not that I’m complaining.”
In the dark, he only registers her eyes crinkling at the corners. “The Sayers have a pool, duh.”
He doesn't answer and they just sneak quietly, coasting the side of the house. The back yard is illuminated by a dim blue light coming from inside the pool, making the water glow in a pretty way. Jackie rushes to it, siting clumsily at the edge and plunging her feet into the blueish water; she lets a satisfaction groan escape her lips and it triggers something in his gut. A little hasty, he kicks out his sneakers and socks and sits by her side, soaking up the legs of his jeans; his heart racing in a very unnecessary and stupid way. Must be the booze.
“Oh, that’s better.” The cold water refreshes the skin of her feet and shins, making the heat go away. All her body feels suddenly relaxed and she lays back down, feet still inside.
Steven doesn’t lay down, but he turns a little to glare down at her and the smirk he wears sends a whole new heat down her stomach. Her head spins, and she’s not sure if it’s the alcohol or his eyes rocking her world, so she sits up again.
“Head spinning?” He guesses. Jackie just nods, still a little dazed. “So, are you the new Jackie or still the old one?”
She thinks about it, moving her feet back and forth in the water, creating little waves with her movement. When she stops, the waves die down quietly. “The new one,” she decides as she voices it out.
Her ex boyfriend smiles at her and he seems proud. Of course he is, she’s drunken and trespassing, all he ever wished in a girl. If only she had been this Jackie before. Her feet begin to move again, restarting the waves.
“You think if one thing is different, would everything be different too?”
With a frown, he tilts his head to the side. “You mean like in a different reality?”
Well, she was actually thinking about them, but... “Yeah, sorta. Okay, like, if you could change just a little one thing about the past, it would cause a great change in the future… or it would just be meaningless?”
Steven hums an agreement and stops to think about it; he does that a lot, whenever he’s thinking too much into something. With no rush, he reaches a halfway burned joint and lights up the remaining piece. Jackie patiently waits.
“You know, I read about this,” he continues after passing her the joint, his voice choke up by the smoke in his throat. “It’s called the Butterfly Effect.”
“Oh, now that sounds lovely,” she adds dreamily, puffing up right after.
“Not really. It has something to do with the Caos Theory. Basically, if one butterfly flaps its wings, or dies… I don’t know, it can create like a tornado on the other side of the world, weeks or months later.”
The joint gets back to him.
“Oh, okay. So, if just keep create waves in this pool I might actually be causing a storm?”
He laughs, completely relaxed. “I guess, But it’s just a theory.”
Goes to Jackie again.
“That’s terrible.” She freezes her feet again, sucking in the smoke. “But I bet it can happen in a good way too.”
“Sure. I mean, why not?”
She feels the joint burning her fingers, it’s ending. Handing over for him, his fingers brushes hers as he carefully takes the joint. Steven smokes it until is completely consumed and then tosses the roach at the pool.
Jackie snorts. “And now you just made yourself a hurricane.” He chuckles. “Or a rainbow.”
“Nah, hurricane seems fine.”
“As you wish – oh shit!” She prompts up, alarmed. “I didn’t get to do my birthday wishes. Shit shit! I had so many to do!”
He doesn’t seem worried. “Just do it now. What’s the matter?”
“Do I look like I have a birthday candle on my pocket?” She scolds at his flat face. “Wait, do you?”
“No, man,” he laughs at her misery.
“Oh, what about a penny? Steven, do you have a penny? ‘Cause if I toss a penny in the pool, I’ll get the same results. It’s all in the same magical category.”
His hands touches his pockets, but nothing comes out, instead, she just wins an apologetic look. Aw, that’s just great. How is she supposed to be the new Jackie without any magical support?
Fortunately, she’s got an idea. Unfortunately, she’s just so drunk.
“Well, you know what they say.” She gets up from the pool edge, not caring very much about being quiet. “When in lack of pennies, use your panties.”
He frowns, turning his torso to get a better look at her. “They don’t say that.”
“Well, I do.”
Her hands slips under her drees and pull down the thin fabric of her panties; she holds dear against her chest and with her eyes closed, she wishes a beautiful butterfly can flaps its wings to make her life change its course.
And without a second thought, she throws her underwear into the neighbor’s pool. Jackie opens her eyes and panic creeps in as quickly as the idea had, just seconds before.
“Oh, my God! STEVEN!”
He hears her voice, but he’s in such awe is hard to think of words. Jaw dropped, he even took off his shades to see it better.
Jackie just stripped off her panties in front of him and there’s no amount of zen to deal with that view.
“Go get my underwear! It can’t just float around until the morning!”
That seems to drag him out of the spell he had fallen into. His gaze wanders over to the tiny black lace floating around, like a representation of his worst intentions. He smirks. “Why not?”
“Because!” Her voice gets too loud, so he shush her. “Please go get it for me,” she whispers in despear.
Sighing, he gets up to analyze the situation. “Jackie, man, is out of reach. I guess it will stay there throughout times.”
“Stop jerking around, Steven. Get in the pool!” She hisses, jabbing him slightly in the arm.
“In the pool?”
“Yeah, in the pool!”
“Why don’t you take it yourself?” He gets miffed. “You’re the one who threw it.”
“Well, I’m hosting a party, I can’t get all wet. And plus, my dress is too new to risk ruin it.”
He doesn’t care for any of that shit, so he just stares at her. And while he’s doing, he knows exactly what he's doing, and he doesn’t care, he waits for it anyway. Hyde even sees the shift in her eyes, when she decides to change tactics and his heart jumps in antecipation.
“Well, please?”
There it is: pouting lips, pleading eyes and honeyed voice. Good lord, he had missed this.
“Fine,” he grumbles, much to disguise his amusement.
The water is cold and he tries to hide his discomfort. As he walks towards her underwear floating by the middle of pool, he curses her in his thoughts. This new Jackie’s already causing suffering. Hyde takes the fabric in his hand and walks to the edge, and he blames the alcohol for his next actions.
“Here.” He offers, holding out his hand for her.
Jackie leans down to take her pantie and that’s when he grabs her wrist, yanking her with a strong pull. She screams before colliding with the water, making a big splash. When she raises, hair soaked wet and melted mascara, he smiles proudly at himself.
“You jerk!” She tosses water at him, for which he flinches, splashing back at her.
A water war begins and by the end of it, he’s as wet as her. She flustered and gasping, but she wears a broad smile that is hard not to mirror. The moment shift and her eyes turn into something deeper, and by the effect of that blue light, he’s taken by the drive to kiss her.
Maybe he takes one or two steps to her, but he freezes. Even behind the drunkenness and the euphoria of the moment, he knows at his core this is not alright. They’ve tried. They’ve tried and the screw up was bad, really bad. She didn’t worth the misery.
But there’s a gap in what mind says and what body does. And this night, all his body has done was haul him to her. And since no man is truly free from their cravings, Hyde kills the space between them, bringing her to him by the neck. She’s not even surprised and their lips know exactly what they doing when they finally meet again.
It’s been two whole years and ten months since they last kiss, that night, after Samantha left and before Fez and her. They fall into each other by chance, in a bar just outside Milwaukee, and had sex like it was the end of the world. If had felt like that back then. Like dying, like one last blow of air before it would all be gone. They never spoke of it, once back in Point Place; it was already buried, after all.
Only maybe it wasn’t quite dead because this kiss, it feels alive. It feels like shots of adrenaline in his veins, if feels like grasping for air after almost drowning.
And it tastes like cherry wine. And desire.
He swipes her around and leads her until the edge, to presses her against it. Jackie lets out little moans in his mouth, and her hands hold tight to his hair. The bulge in his jeans throb painfully against her body and Jackie lifts one leg to enlace his waist.
Hyde’s hand slides down her thigh towards her hips and he grunts when he relearns, she’s naked under her dress. She bites his lips, his chin and neck. His hand goes up her waist and her skin feel amazing.
“Jackie,” he calls her name with the voice full of hesitation. She opens her eyes to him, and they care none.
“Let’s do it,” she whispers, “let’s do it here.”
He kisses her again, mouth falling at her jaw and neck. “I don’t have a condom,” he tells her with disappointment. Jackie grunts in frustration and when he’s coming up with the best way to get a condom quickly, a bright yellow lamp gets light up, startling them apart.
“Oh my god, the Sayers!”
“C’mon.” Hyde grabs her hand and they move quick to the exit.
“Wait! My panties!”
“Shit!” He heads back, the panties are on the other side of the pool.
“Hurry up!” She calls as she gets out by the little stairs.
In a second, he’s out too, just in time to hear her neighbor’s angry call. “Hey! I see you Miss Burkhart!!" The man yells, but they run without looking back.
They’re breathless and giggle-ish when they hit the street, stumbling into each other. It’s strange, because he, himself, also feels like someone else.
“My god!” Jackie places a hand over her chest. “He saw me!”
“Yeah,” he nods with joy. “I think he may have seen the new Miss Burkhart though. Have you heard of her?”
Her smile grows, “Oh yeah, they say she just caused an earthquake by falling into the pool.”
“She sure did,” he smirks. And for a moment he fears this won’t last past this night.
Well, he might as well enjoy it while it last.