"My Chick"

2 || The Circle

"I don't want to be Mr. Negativity," Eric broke the tense silence that followed Jackie's introduction, "As nice as it is to meet you, Matthew, this is kind of an 'invite only' ordeal-"

"He was just dropping me off," Jackie interjected. "I just wanted to introduce you," her smile that spread across her features mirrored that of someone who was showing off a shiny new car... Hyde turned the page of his newspaper, continuing his little show of disinterest as Matthew stepped back towards the door, "Nice to meet you guys." He addressed the group before snaking an arm around Jackie's waist and pulling her against him, "Pick you up around 10?" He asked, the devilish smirk that played on his features gave Hyde a good idea of what the douche hoped would happen on their ride home.

He glanced at Jackie, glad that his shades hid his eyes from everyone else in the room who wasn't brave enough to watch the exchange. The brunette seemed obviously uncomfortable by the sudden closeness of her new boyfriend, but she adjusted quickly and placed a peck on his cheek, "See you then," She replied before Matthew detached himself from her and slipped out the door.

Jackie turned and sat on the arm of the couch closest to Hyde's chair, but angled her body away from him. She always did this when she was making a point to piss him off, and it always worked. Hyde folded his newspaper and tossed it on the table as Eric pulled out a blunt and lit it, "Now that Jackie is finally here we can get to work on -catching up" He joked before he took a hit and began passing it around the circle.

Once the circle started it was just like old times, and the nostalgia was felt by everyone in the group. Just like always, no matter what drama was going on between them, they were able to put it aside and just enjoy each other's company.

"I'm just saying, I really think hot dogs might be made out of real dog..." Kelso finished, his usual paranoia fueled by idiocy taking over once the pot hit him. Hyde hadn't said much since they finished the blunt, but he was in a surprisingly good mood, so he piped in his opinion, "Kelso, man... why would they name them 'hot dogs' if they were made out of real dogs?... it's too obvious, man."

Donna piped in after that, overly excited as usual once the high hit her, "What if it's made out of cats?!"

Fez, who wasn't paying attention to the current topic at all, looked at Jackie with a confused expression, "So I am not good enough for you?! You think that money-bags could give you things that The Fez could not?!"

"Fez," Eric replied, "There are many, many things that Money-Bags could get her that you can't. For starters, a meal that isn't on a kids menu,"

If he weren't high, the fact that Fez had brought up Jackie's new guy would probably piss Hyde off, but instead he just laughed at Eric's response.

Donna and Kelso both dropped the hot-dog topic and tuned into the new focus of the conversation. "Where'd you find him anyway?" Donna asked, "He's like... a god."

Jackie smirked and swayed slightly, more high than usual, which made Hyde nervous. She had this thing where she over-shared when she was high, and he really didn't want to hear about her new relationship because he was 100% certain that she was going to rub her happiness in his face. Mostly because when he was with Sam he kind of rubbed it in her face anytime she started to annoy him... so he probably deserved it, but still.

" I bumped into him at the Hub. His dad owns a Realestate company... and he has THREE CARS!" She exclaimed, bubbling with excitement.

Hyde winced visibly, glad that everyone was too busy paying attention to Jackie to notice... When the two of them were dating Jackie never cared about money- well, kind of. But ever since their breakup she seemed to get more shallow and naive as the days went by, and it made Hyde worried about her. Of course, he never verbalized these thoughts since he lost all right to have any opinions about her since he... you know... married someone else.

Hyde tuned out of the conversation as Jackie continued to ramble on about how rich Matthew was, not liking where his thoughts were taking him, but knowing that he didn't have the control over them at the moment to steer them anywhere other than where they wanted to go. Truth be told, his relationship with Sam had started off as nothing more than re-bound sex. He and Jackie had split, and for the first time in Hyde's life, he felt a strong sense of regret. Every time he saw Jackie all he wanted was to talk to her, to work things out, to get her back... but then Vegas happened and he more or less used Sam as a distraction. Hyde never really had feelings for Sam the way he had for Jackie and this annoyed him beyond belief. Especially now that she was sitting across from him, her eyes rimmed with red, her lips plump, and her voice trailing off as she talked about how "amazing" Matthew was. She's better off... he thought.