Calm. Cool. Collected.

2

"Eric, sweetie, can you go get some chicken out of the freezer downstairs please? I need to defrost it for dinner tonight." Eric heads towards the basement stairs. "Sure thing mom." He jogs down, and upon reaching the bottom, notices the bunch of cans on the table, and the passed-out Hyde on the couch. He sighs, going over to wake him. "Hey, Hyde, dude, it's almost time to go to school." He lightly shakes his shoulder. "Mmm..." Hyde covers his face with his arm, and shifts so that he's laying more on his stomach. "Hyde, c'mon." He shakes him a bit more. Hyde swats at him, pushing him away. Eric sighs, frowning. "We have a math test today." "Hmm.. I can't go." He mumbles, his face pressed into the couch. Eric grabs the cans off of the table and brings them to a garbage bag they have by the shower. "You're gonna fail math, man." Hyde doesn't say or do anything, so Eric just walks over to the freezer. "Whatever. See you after school then." He grabs the chicken and heads upstairs. I need to figure out what's going on with him.

"Seriously? What the hell!" Donna says what everyone was thinking, and they all stare at Eric as he tells them what happened with Hyde. "So he just got drunk and crashed on your couch? And he's still there?" Jackie questions, and Eric sighs. "That's not the point. To be honest I don't really care about that. I'm worried about him, guys. He's been acting... weird." Fez nods. "I think I have noticed what you mean. He's been very grumpy lately." Donna frowns. "Yeah, more so than usual. He's been pretty insistent about the no-fighting thing. I don't think he was telling the full truth to you, Eric." "Me neither. He also asked me something weird when everyone left and we were just sitting there. It kinda caught me off guard." Kelso looks up from his lunch, with a mouthful of sandwich. "Whahs tha?" He keeps chewing as he looks questioningly at Eric who just stares at him and all his stupidity for a moment before giving him an answer. "He asked me if I ever wished I had a different life." Everyone is quiet for a few moments until Donna speaks up. "That's a concerning question." "Yeah! That's what I thought! Except I didn't know what to say so I just answered him." "What did you answer?" Fez looks at him, seeming to be genuinely curious. "Well I said sometimes, but not really. Sometimes I do but I don't hate my life, because really it's pretty good." "Then what did he say?" Jackie asks. "He said he'd kill for my life. Which is sad but I can't really blame him." He picks at the leftover mashed potatoes he had brought for lunch. "We should talk to him." Donna suggests, though it comes off as more of an order than a suggestion. They all agree to meet at Eric's after school and have a sort of intervention.

When Hyde wakes up, it must be some time in the afternoon because the house is completely quiet. He rubs his eyes and forehead. He's still tired and has a slight headache. He decides to venture upstairs for a glass of water, knowing that no one could be home. He's happy to be right when he comes into the kitchen, all of the lights off and the only sound filling the room being the soft hum of the refrigerator. He grabs a glass from the cupboard and fills it, then sits down at the kitchen table. He stares at the cup of water a while before actually taking a sip, his head full of thoughts once again. "I need to chill out." he mumbles aloud to himself. He drinks half of the glass before putting his head down on the cool wood of the table. It's almost refreshing. What the hell is my life? He thinks to himself about how he, instead of being at school, is sat in his friend's kitchen after just waking up at two o'clock in the afternoon. I can't wait to get the hell out of Point Place. Just take my car, drive until I can find somewhere bearable, start over. Get a job, apartment, maybe a cat. Leave all of this behind. For a moment everything he's hyping his future up to be sounds great, until he starts to get sad. But would I want to lose all of my friends? He isn't sure. On one hand, he would miss them more than he'd care to admit, but on the other, would they miss him? Do they even care that I'm there half the time? I feel like I just watch most of their conversations these days. Do they even notice- "Steven?" He's snapped away from his thoughts by a gentle, concerned voice coming from the glass door of the kitchen. "Mrs. Forman..." He looks up at her, immediately beginning to panic. "Why are you in my kitchen and not at school?" She asks as she sets down her purse, not angry or upset, just very concerned. His heart feels like it's beating out of his chest. What am I doing here? "I- uh..." He doesn't have a good lie. Any believable lie that he could tell would still partially be the truth. He ends up just sitting there and staring at her. She sighs, walking over and pulling the kettle out.