Sleepover

Truth or Dare

September 26, 1968. The day of Eric Forman's "most fun, spectacular sleepover in the whole wide world". 6:32pm and Donna had to head home for the day, she wasn't allowed to spend the night at boy sleepovers yet. That just left Eric, Kelso, and Hyde sitting in the Forman living room in front of the turned off TV. Red and Kitty were just leaving the den and passing through the living room as they caught the tail end of the boys game of truth or dare. 

"Hyde, truth or dare?" Eric asked. 

"Truth." Hyde replied. Eric was initially surprised in the beginning of the game when Hyde chose truth the first time after 4 dares. To any 8 year old boys mind choosing 'truth' in a game of truth or dare was the wussiest thing you could do. Even Eric has only chosen 'truth' once through-out the whole game. Eric tried to burn Hyde about his initial 'truth' and Hyde replied "people who only choose 'dare' are just afraid of the truth." Eric chose 'truth' his next turn after that. 

"Have you ever peed your pants?" Eric snickered, knowing the great thing about Hyde was that he never backed down on neither truths nor dares. Surely Hyde will admit an embarrassing secret to us, Eric thought.

"Yeah, my mom sometimes locks me in the closet when she brings a boy home and makes me stay in there until he leaves, and I can't hold it." 

He said it so nonchalantly Red almost plummeted into Kitty when she froze from opening the door leading into the kitchen. Eric and Kelso almost didn't seem fazed. Almost. 

"Why is your mom having boys around? Where's your dad? My dad would be so mad if my mom had boys around, unless they were her dad, or my uncles." Kelso shared.

"My mom says they're my uncles. My dad's on vacation." Hyde replied not quite looking Kelso in the eyes, instead finding fascination with a piece of loose thread on his sweater. 

Red and Kitty heard about enough of this conversation, forcing their bodies to unfreeze, "Steven, sweetie, can we see you in the kitchen real quick?" Kitty asked with a gentle voice. "Eric, honey, why don't you put on the TV for you and Michael." 

"Why?" Hyde asked while Eric reached for the remote. 

"Yeah, we were in the middle of truth or dare, it was my turn." Kelso backed him up. 

"Why don't you just take your turn with Eric in the meantime, Michael. Steven will be right back." Kitty replied, not letting the sense of urgency she felt come through in her voice. 

"Okay." Kelso huffed and sank back into the couch as Steven started getting up off the couch and making his way into the kitchen. He took a seat at the kitchen table and Red and Kitty followed in the chairs at each of his sides, not wanting to stand before him like they normally would and give the illusion he was in trouble. They wanted to level down to the small boy. 

"Steven, baby, so how often does your mom usually put you in the closet?" Kitty cautiously inquired. 

"Usually on school days. On weekends she and her boyfriends go out somewhere." 

"And leave you alone?" Red cut in. 

"Uh-huh." 

"Steven, does your mom do anything else to you?" Kitty probed on. 

"Like what?" 

"Like hurt you." 

"Sometimes she hits me, like when I run when she tries to put me in the closet. Last week I accidentally burned eggs on the stove when I tried making breakfast so she burnt me with her cigarette. That hurt." 

Kitty was about to cry and Red could tell, so he ushered the small boy back into the living room with his friends. "Thank you, Steven. Why don't you go back and play with Eric and Kelso now." he gently recommended and watched as the young boy scampered away. 

"Red," Kitty started opening up now that he was gone, "we can't let him live like this. We have to call CPS, get that wicked witch Edna arrested." She said with so much conviction her hair bobbed side to side as she knocked her head about, hands in the air with anger. 

"And then what, Kitty? Have him taken away to foster care? That is if they even take the case seriously and follow through, you know how them dumbasses are." Red scowled at the reality of it. 

"Oh, I know, Red. That little boy Billy who lives down the street with his uncle, I was talking with his uncle in the grocery store one day and he said that he tried endlessly to get CPS on that boys parents when they still lived together. Endless, endless phone calls and not one thing done even though the poor kid had multiple slashes on him from being hit by a belt everyday and looked thin as a rail. His mother would tell them he works in the yard with his father all day for fun causing him to lose weight from the excessive exercise, and the slashes are from falling in bushes. Told them that she'd just remind him to eat more to make up for it and they just let her go, dropped it. Finally the uncle just decided to take the boy away from his mother and father himself. Oh, Red, why can't we just take Steven to live here with us?" 

"We tried that when his father left last year and Edna seemed too drunk to take care of him, remember? She threatened that if we ever tried that she'd call the police and have us put away for attempted kidnap." Red rolled his eyes at the memory. 

"Oh, Red we just have to try again. I can't sleep at night with visions of poor Steven being beaten up and us doing nothing. And even if CPS does take the case those foster families aren't much better than the real families. Remember the story on the news last month where 5 boys and girls were found chained at the ankle in the basement of a foster home? Oh Red, I don't want Steven to be locked away in a cold basement. Or a closet!" Kitty cried into Red's chest. 

"Then he won't," Red reassured her. "we'll call tomorrow and set up a time to meet with Edna again. Until then he's safe here with Eric and Kelso. We also need to figure out something to do in case Edna denies again. I know what we can do." He assured and went to call Steven back in. 

"Steven, the next time your mother goes to bring a boy around I want you to call our house and we'll come pick you up, okay? One of us is always here to answer the phone while the other one is working, and on the odd chance both of us are out Laurie or Eric will be here to pick up the phone and they can just call our work. Understand?" 

"Okay." The boy responded in a voice that was smaller than either of them were use to hearing. 

"Oh, oh, oh, and Steven!" Kitty cut in with a solution of her own. "I want you to come to our house and join me in the kitchen every Monday after school so I can teach you how to cook a few things on the stove. How does that sound?" Kitty said smiling for the first time through-out this whole fiasco, excited to teach Steven how to cook. She tried teaching Laurie and Eric more than a dozen times and they just could not sit through it, they had no interest in it whatsoever. For Steven, it seemed cooking was less than a matter of interest than it was a matter of survival, Kitty thought. 

"Okay." Steven grinned, Kitty's smile contagious. 

"Okay I want you boys to start getting ready for bed now, it's getting late." Red finished and started walking Steven back into the living room to let the others know. Kitty helped everybody start getting snuggled up in their pj's and washed up, brushing their teeth with blueberry toothpaste while Red set up 2 military cots in Eric's room. Hyde borrowed an unopened toothbrush from the Forman's, Edna stopped buying him one long ago.