Calm. Cool. Collected.

3

Hyde wakes up ready to go. He needs to talk to Eric, he decides, and gets out of bed almost as soon as he's awake. He needs to apologize, he needs to make sure that they remain at least friends, since he knows they can't be more than that. He pulls his jeans back on, writing Dave a quick 'thank you' on the pad of paper next to the telephone before heading out the door into the sunny Saturday morning. The air is still cold and damp from yesterday's rain but the warmth of the sun on Hyde's face is all he needs. He walks straight to Eric's, not caring about the fact he's wearing yesterday's clothes. It's only just after nine, and as Hyde is nearing Eric's house, he's worried that he might still be at the breakfast table. His worries fade however when he sees Mr. Forman in the garage, putting some sort of fluid into the Toyota. He heads straight downstairs to find Eric alone watching Saturday morning cartoons, and it's not until Eric turns to face him, their eyes meeting, that he realises just how unprepared he was going into this.

Eric's gaze is more of a glare, but neither of them say anything as Hyde awkwardly stands in the doorway, slowly closing it behind him. "Hey Forman." he manages after a suffocating 10 seconds of silence. "What are you doing here?" Eric questions angrily, looking him up and down, then resuming their eye contact. Hyde feels like running again, but forces himself to close the distance between them, taking a seat next to Eric on the couch as he speaks. "I wanted to apologize..." Once he's seated, he fiddles with his hands, looking back and forth between them, Eric, and the television. Eric leans forward and shuts it off, but he still looks annoyed. "Okay. Go ahead." His tone is snappy, and Hyde can feel just how much he fucked up. "I've been a dick to you these past few days and you don't deserve it. You just wanted to help and I..." Hyde sighs and focuses on his hands in his lap. "I'm sorry." He doesn't look back up, and Eric doesn't speak.

He hates this damn silence, and he feels Eric deserves to hear more anyways, so he decides to keep talking. "Home isn't great for me right now. I mean, when is it ever, but... now it's especially not. I don't know what it is but every single guy that she brings home is a piece of shit, they drink and fight almost all of the time. Just last week the neighbours called the cops on them, I don't know how no one at school was talking about it. I had to pick her up from a holding cell last tuesday morning, that's why I was late to history. I almost liked it better when she kept disappearing, but she needed money for rent so she took the lunch lady job at school and now she's home all of the time after school and on weekends because she can't just run off for weeks at a time. Oh, and yesterday when I had stopped by before work to get some shit I got in the middle of one of their fights, and I almost got hit by a flying-" "Hyde." Eric sets a hand on top of his as an interruption to his rambling. "I'm sorry too." Hyde looks up for the first time in minutes. "I kept pushing you to talk when you clearly didn't want to. I should have taken the hint."

Hyde nods, then looks back down at Eric's hand, which is still on top of his. There he goes with the touchy-feely stuff again. Eric goes to pull his hand away but Hyde grabs it before he can. He doesn't know if he did it on purpose or if it was a subconscious decision that his brain made for him, but he sticks by it as a point that he didn't mind. "I don't really like talking about serious shit with you guys, because when I come to hang out I really just want to forget about it all. That and talking about it makes me feel like a chick." Eric nods, looking slowly between Hyde's eyes and their connected hands. "Yeah, I get that." He visibly swallows, confused about why Hyde is holding his hand hostage. "Are we good?" Hyde asks, his worry that they're still not evident in his tone. "Yeah, man. We're good." When Eric says the word, it's like a key, and Hyde gives Eric his hand back. Eric puts together that Hyde had just wanted to make sure he wasn't going anywhere before he knew whether or not they we're okay, and smiles to prove that he was sincere.

"Hey," Eric starts, "I didn't get the chance to mention, but Buddy sat with us at lunch yesterday and apparently his mom is gone with his dad on a business trip this weekend so he's having a party at his place, and he invited us all to go, if we wanted." Hyde shakes his head with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, Forman. He invited all of you. I don't think he'd be the most impressed if I showed up too." He scoffs, and Eric frowns. "Actually..." Eric pauses and Hyde shakes his head once more. "He mentioned for us to invite you too." Hyde raises an eyebrow and slightly cocks his head to the side. "Seriously?" Eric nods. "Yeah. It's probably just going to be us Donna and Kelso, though. It's homework night for Jackie and Fez's host parents are taking him on a sight-seeing trip this weekend. If you wanted to come, that is." Hyde imagines it. He'll be spending the whole night with Kelso complaining about Jackie, how he should break up with her and how he could pick up a bunch of different chicks at the party if it wasn't for her.