Lucy sat on her bed, cramming for her senior exams in February, she needed to get at least a B+ on all of them to maintain her GPA. And she was extremely anxious considering acceptance letters were starting to come in that month. There was a quick knock on her door before it opened and Hyde walked in and sat beside her on the bed.

"How you feeling LSD?" he asked, looking at a paper that had all of her notes and unreadable scribbles on it.

"Exhausted," Lucy pouted putting her pencil down as she looked at the boy next to her. "I don't have time for anything anymore! I'm going to have to quit my job at The Hub, I'm running more errands for Mom now since she's been so upset about us graduating soon, and all my deadlines are coming up!"

"God Lucy, calm down, colleges only care if you completely fail your second semester," Hyde said reassuringly.

Lucy sighed, "Right but I need A's to at least be salutatorian."

"But I mean, being salutatorian doesn't matter in the grand scheme, ya know. Just take it easy Lucy! It's our last month!" he scoffed, before leaning in to kiss her.

His lips barely met her own before she pushed him back, "Steven, I don't have time, I have so much to study. I mean, you saw my schedule! And why aren't you this stressed?"

Hyde shrugged "I'm already on top of it." He looked back at the agenda of assignments and hummed, picking up a pencil Lucy dropped on the bed and scrawling something on the page before looking back to Lucy. "Now you have time," he smirked.

Lucy snatched the paper back from the boy and looked at what he scrawled at the bottom of the page To Do: Steven

"Well, the schedule is never wrong," Lucy smiled, wrapping her arms around the smirking boy's neck, playing with his curls.

Hyde chuckled, leaning in again to kiss the girl. Both teens eagerly pushing the papers away to the edge of the bed to make room to lay down. His hands trailed up under her shirt, causing chills to go down Lucy's spine. She lightly tugged at his curls before her hands went to the hem of shirt, Hyde quickly pulled away and pulled his shirt off before reconnecting his lips with her own. Lucy peppered kisses along his jaw and neck; in doing so, Hyde caught a glance at a envelope that fell to the floor.

"What's this?" Hyde asked as he sat up, confused, seeing a pile of letters with college emblems that weren't from Wisconsin.

"Hmm?" Lucy hummed, sitting up, not sure what her boyfriend was looking at when he reached to pick one of the opened envelope off the floor. "Oh, Steven, seriously don't worry about it, it's dumb college mail."

Hyde put his shirt back on while he furrowed his eyebrows, "Northwestern?" he turned to her.

The girl made a reach for the paper while laughing nervously, "Well, it's not a big deal—" but he turned away slightly to pull it out of the envelope.

"You got in?" he asked, a hint of betrayal lined in his voice. "All of these are acceptance letters?"

"I already told you it's not that big of a deal—the guidance counselor last year said I should and I uh—I applied before we all made the pack, and—well, and," Lucy began to ramble anxiously.

But she quickly fell silent when she realized he wasn't listening to her and just kept looking at the letter. Lucy played with the charm bracelet bearing her initial anxiously.

"Are you even planning to stay in state?" Hyde asked quietly.

Lucy nodded fervently, "Yes! Steven, you know I am," it was almost like pleading, "you know the situation with my family! Stay in state for undergrad and then I'll see where I'm at and—" she couldn't quite get herself to calm down.

The girl sat there, she opened her mouth once to say something, but couldn't think of what to say. But she thanked god for an interruption. "Hey guys, dinner is ready," Eric said, opening the door, expecting to find them making out or at least cuddling but instead finding them sitting on opposite ends of the bed silently.

"Be right down," the two mumbled. Lucy quickly pulled her hair up into a ponytail and picked up her notes, organizing them into piles; Hyde set down the letter he was holding and ran a hand over his face with a sigh before getting up to go downstairs.

❁

Needless to say, the rest of the night went on awkwardly. Eric, Kitty, and even Red were able to tell that something had shifted in the teens' dynamic. Lucy pushed the food around on her plate anxiously, not particularly hungry.

"Alright, what the hell did you do?" Red finally broke the silence.

Lucy perked up, "Huh, nothing. Just stressed with exams."

At that, Hyde pushed his chair back and stormed down to the basement without another word. Lucy's anxiety quickly bubbling into anger and frustration.

"What's his issue?" Eric asked tentatively.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "He just makes everything about him, even when it's clearly not!" she raised her voice more than necessary just so he would hear it from the basement stairs.

"If he hurts you, he's going to find my foot up his ass," Red said seriously.

The blonde shook her head, "There's no need Dad, I'm sure it will blow over."

"Alright dear, just make sure you talk about it once you cool down," Kitty advised.

"It's really not a big deal," Lucy mumbled, taking small bites of her meal.

❁

The next day in the basement wasn't much better. Lucy thought surely that Hyde would've realized how much he was overreacting after sleeping it off—and if not then, definitely after smoking. But the tension was so bad that the girls decided to head over to Donna's to leave the guys alone.

The blonde coughed, waving the smoke away from her face, "Is this a bad batch? It's just bumming me out."

"Um, no, but you're kinda killing the buzz," Jackie raised her eyebrows in question.

Donna nodded, "What the hell is up with you and Hyde?"

Lucy sighed, "Now you're really killing the buzz," she whined, "I don't know. He just won't listen to anything I have to say."

"Did he cheat on you?" The brunette furrowed her eyebrows, "Michael never listened to me once he started fooling around with your sister. It like reminds them that they're pigs."

"No, he wouldn't," Lucy said positively, "He's pissed off about something I did."

Meanwhile, in the Forman's basement, the boys were having a similar conversation.

"What the hell are you doing Hyde?" Eric asked, "Storming out at dinner. Not talking to my sister. Like what—what, are you dumb?" Eric scoffed, pointing to his own head.

Fez nodded, eating a handful of chips, "He must be, to have let her leave like that with the girls. I wonder if they're having a pillow fight."

"You guys don't get it," Hyde shook his head.

Kelso gasped, "You're cheating on her?"

Hyde furrowed his eyes, "What the hell? No man, I couldn't do that to Lucy. No, she went back on her word—and you know how I feel about words!"

The three other boys exchanged a look, "So, she's cheating on you?" Eric asked, trying to put it together.

Hyde shook his head, letting his head fall into his palm, "No! God you guys are dumb."

"Sounds like you're the dumb one mister," Fez nodded. "If you let Lucy go it's gonna be a bigger mistake than when they cancelled I Dream of Jeannie."

Kelso nodded, "You may be dumber than me." The three turned to watch the boy burn himself by touching the open flame of his lighter right at that moment.

❁

All rejoined in the driveway of the Forman's while the boys played basketball and the girls drank their sodas and joked around, the three of them finally more relaxed after hanging out at Donna's. Hyde and Lucy even somewhat acknowledged one another and exchanged a small smile when the ball got kicked underneath the Vista Cruiser and Hyde ran to fetch it.

But almost as if some force—or The Force, according to Eric—knew that things were going well, Kitty came running out of the kitchen door. Out of breath she exclaimed giddily, "Letters! The mailman—he just came, and there's some nice college letters right here!" She excitedly handed a letter to each of the twins from the University of Wisconsin. "And, uh, I grabbed yours Donna honey, since your mailbox was right there," before handing the redhead her letter. "And, uh, Michael, dear, here's yours. And Fez I couldn't find yours."

"Oh that's okay, I'm sure mine will be at home," Fez beamed.

"Mom, that's like a federal offense," Lucy raised an eyebrow with a small smile.

"Well, Lucetta of course not!" Kitty exclaimed offended, "I just accidentally grabbed it when all the mail fell—after I accidentally pulled the bin out of the van."

The teens all exchanged a look as Jackie giddily said, "Well, open them up!"

Everyone ripped into their letters and quickly scanned them, "In!" Eric, Lucy, and Donna exclaimed in relief. Jackie squealing and pulling Lucy in for a hug, the blonde quickly kissing her on the cheek.

Fez clapped excitedly, "I'm going to go wait by my mailbox at home," before darting away.

Donna frowned for a moment, "Hey Hyde, where's yours?"

Hyde shrugged, shifting on his feet and stuffing his hands in his pockets, "Guess rejection mail takes longer to come in?"

"Nah, I don't think so man," Kelso laughed goofily, holding up his letter, "I mean it's no big deal. Police academy is a way better fit for me—I'll meet a lot more hot chicks."

Lucy's heart slowly sunk as her smile faded, the boy standing in front of her quickly adverting her questioning stare. He shrugged, "Oh come on guys, we all know I'm not the college type. It's all part of the government's ploy to make us pawns in the system."

"Oh Steven," Kitty shook her head, "Oh," she couldn't even finish her sentence before storming into the house.

"But," Eric started, "That was part of our deal."

"Screw the deal man, we made it after The Circle, we wouldn't have remembered it if the girls hadn't written it down," Hyde scoffed, taking off his glasses.

Jackie shook her head, "Not cool Steven, it's still a deal."

"You wanna talk about deals?" Hyde asked angrily, "Talk to Lucy huh? See how much she cares about the deal."

The gang turned to Lucy who sighed and shook her head, but Eric quickly spoke up, remembering the summer, "She applied before the deal, it's not like she was going to withdraw consideration."

"Yeah," Kelso nodded, "It's like that law, any crime before a certain law is put in place isn't illegal because they didn't know." Everyone stared at the brunette boy dumbfounded before he shrugged, "Police academy man."

"So, what do you think LSD? You're awfully quiet," Hyde taunted. He didn't even really know why, but he wanted to her to at least say something, wanted to get some reaction out of her.

Sitting cross legged on the hood of the Cruiser, looking down to her lap where her letter sat, her hands resting in her temples, "God, stop calling me that," she said, no sarcasm or joking anywhere in her tone—just complete and utter defeat.

"Anyone else want to go organize their sock drawer?" Donna piped up suddenly. All their friends quickly taking off and running down the basement stairs, almost through the basement door when they decided to stay crouched on the steps.

Looking up the boy standing in front of her, Lucy shrugged before saying calmly, "Were you even going to tell me?"

"I don't know," Hyde shrugged, "Were you going to tell me you applied out of state?"

Her voice raising on its own, and in exasperation, Lucy said, "That's not what we're talking about right now!"

"Well I don't think that's fair since you broke the plan first!" His voice matched her's.

"That's not the same! I could apply and still go to UW. I just had to know if I could make it Steven!" She exclaimed desperately, "So yeah, I broke the plan a little. But I couldn't live not knowing if I could make it somewhere better. But it was never even in your plan to apply!" Lucy pointed out.

"God Lucy," Hyde scoffed, "Think about it, you know it was never even something I wanted!"

"And you know going out of state has been something I always wanted!" Lucy shouted.

"Well geez Luce! Don't let me hold you back," Hyde accused, "Since you have some grand plans of making it somewhere big and I'm just some bum who didn't even apply!"

"I never said bum!" Lucy said shrilly before she became defensive, "But yeah, excuse me for wanting you to reach your potential. I was just hoping we were on the same path!"

Shaking his head, Hyde nearly laughed, "God you're so pretentious."

Hesitating, Lucy spoke up, "So what was your plan, huh?" After receiving no response and only an angry stare from Hyde she continued, a little softer and quieter, "Did you even want to stay with me?" His eyes softened slightly and he wished he had his glasses but he still remained silent. The blonde's knuckles nearly turned white against the car hood, "Jesus, say something!"

"Maybe," he started softly and with a resigned tone, "Maybe you're wrong and we're just not on the same path."

"So," Lucy nodded slowly, looking back down to her lap, not able to look him in the eye; otherwise she wouldn't be able to register what was happening as her heart fell to her stomach and her mind became clouded, "That's it?" She looked up, blinking slowly as her eyes became

glassy.

Hyde opened his mouth for a moment, a part of him wishing he could take it back, but in his betrayal and anger at the girl before him he couldn't stop himself before he nodded curtly and said, "That's it," with finality.

Lucy blinked and pushed her hair back, "I think you should go," she said softly before the boy slowly went inside the kitchen door. Stopping suddenly and slumping down in the closest kitchen seat.

The blonde turned her head up towards the sky, looking at the clouds and willing herself to not cry as she heard feet shuffling on the pavement. She turned to the brunette and redhead, who sat on either side of her. Smacking her lips she said sadly, "I'm fine, really—" she said when each of the girls looked at her worriedly, "It's going to be fine," the blonde recited, trying to convince herself more than Donna or Jackie, "It's not like he even cares so why should I?" her voice cracked before she started shaking with sobs and both girls quickly enveloped her in a silent hug.

❁

Storming down to the basement, Eric didn't even say anything. Hyde turned around in his seat and looked up from his magazine, "Hey man," he said casually before Eric punched him in the shoulder. Instead of protesting, Hyde's face just fell.

"What the hell man?" Eric screeched. "I can't believe you, I mean you've done a lot of crappy stuff, and a lot of crappy stuff to Luce when we were younger, but—but—you better watch out because my foot is gonna be up your ass so fast if you ever talk to her again!"

"You're forbidding me from speaking to her?" Hyde asked, slightly shocked.

Hesitating, Eric nodded, "Yeah, yeah I am. Because I know exactly what you're going to say."

"Oh really, what is that?" Hyde asked, unamused but curious.

"In about 48 hours you're going to realize you made possibly the biggest mistake ever," Eric started, "And then you're going to go apologize and do anything you can to get her to talk to you. On the chance that her pro and con list comes out in your favor, you'll get back together—and that can't happen. She's gonna get out of the crummy town and I'm not going to let her look back for a second, especially not for you, and especially since you can't even decide what you want for your life."

"What the hell do you mean man? I know what I want for my life—" Hyde started.

"Really?" Eric questioned accusatorially, "What, work in the hotel kitchen forever? Get married? It's not like you ever even thought about it!"

"Hey!" Hyde shouted, "You don't know shit man, just 'cause I didn't propose while we were in high school doesn't mean I never thought about it while I was with her!"

Staying quiet for a moment and looking at his wrist, Eric spoke up, "See, only 2 hours, not even 48."

❁