[Hyde POV]
I checked the system notification after the episode ended.
[Episode 1 season 3: Reefer Madness
Original Rating: 8.5
New Rating: 8.3
-0.2 Rating points owed. The internet would be shut down for 2 days.}
"Damn it." I cursed slightly.
The system however, seemingly had evolved. It gave me a timeline now.
[1 day and 23 hours before the next episode.]
"Oh this is great. I can plan my time easier with this."
I checked the episode, and there was some Bob moment I missed out on.
It mainly focused on the other four kids and Bob. I watched it and chuckled a little bit. It centered around Jackie and Kelso having an argument, and Bob tried to give them advice, talking about his relationship with Midge.
While I was sitting in the basement, Kelso and Laurie walked downstairs together.
"Hyde. We're going to make out here." Laurie said mischievously. "Get out."
I groaned and said, "Why don't you go to her room?"
"Red's upstairs, installing smoke detectors in Laurie's room." Kelso replied. "He said if she smokes, he's going to be able to tell."
"I can just shut it off when he's gone." Laurie rolled her eyes.
I shrugged, not really caring about their problems and left the basement.
"Make sure to disinfect the couch once you're done. I don't want to catch anything just by sitting on it." I said seriously.
Laurie stuck her tongue mockingly at me as I got out the door. I drove my car to handle several businesses today.
First, I went to the autoshop. There was a new shipment of cars that came today, and I wanted to test out my master engineering knowledge on them.
It was already 5 in the afternoon, and I have to be quick about it. Instead of using appraisal, I tried to check the car problem using the diagnostic tools.
"Hmm. Nothing comes to mind. I thought I had the master level knowledge–"
Before I could finish my sentence, the information pocket inside my brain was cracked open.
Suddenly, my mind was filled with knowledge about cars. From 1920s cars to 2020s cars, I knew how to fix all of them.
"Still, using appraisal will be much easier." I shrugged and ignored the information.
I just needed to fix up the car. I didn't need to build an entirely new engine.
There were 50 cars, so I used 50 system appraisals to figure out why these cars were sold off cheaply.
Then, I listed out what to do with it on a piece of form, which I handed it to my mechanic. It works as guides for them to fix up the cars.
They just needed to follow it to make the car start up again.
"Hey. My sister told me something weird today." Megan said as she took the guides.
"What did she say?" I asked curiously. "Also which sister?"
"Talia. She said you told her to be your girlfriend?" Megan was confused. "Are you two dating now?"
"Oh. I told her to pretend to be my girlfriend yesterday. I need to make Jackie back away from pursuing me. We're going to watch a movie together tonight, so if something happens, I'll definitely tell you." I smirked.
Megan wasn't amused and said, "Well… You're going to be disappointed. Talia is never interested in dating. She loves art, and movies. That's it."
I nodded and said, "That makes sense."
"She's a bit… quirky. She might say something weird, so do me a favor and just… ignore it. Like, don't encourage her when that happens."
"Huh?" I was confused. "It's like you don't want your own sister to be happy." I teased.
Megan was embarrassed and snapped at me, "Of course I want her to be happy."
She rolled her eyes and said, "You know what? Do whatever you want. But just know, I'm not going to get in the middle of it. I'm not going to be your messenger, your complaint center, or anything else!"
She stormed off angrily.
I looked at her with disbelief and said, "Is she on her time of the month? She's very weird today."
My next stop was the printing office. I edited some flyers for a few Chicago businesses and more flyers from K-Mart from different states.
"That came to a profit of 300 thousand dollars." Max reported the earning while inhaling sharply.
I sat on the boxes and boxes of flyers. "That's great. Randy, what about the Chicago branch?"
"We can open in two days. Are you going to be there for the grand opening?" He asked excitedly.
I shook my head and said, "No. I'll be busy with my film editing. But I will support you from here."
Randy grumbled slightly. "You're the most offhanded boss I've ever worked with."
"It just means I know how to delegate to the right people." I laughed. "You're bringing everyone there, right? What about the Madison branch? Especially near the college campus."
"It can be open next Monday. After the music festival." Randy replied.
It's already Monday, so there's less than 5 days before the auto festival.
I had already sold 15 thousand tickets for the festival using some newspaper ads in Sheboygan, Kenosha, Green Bay, and Point Place.
I sold tickets for 7 dollars each, but it included the auto show and the concert, not just the music.
"Boss, should I buy a new car? What do you recommend?" Randy asked. "I need to commute a lot."
"A Toyota." I smirked.
His face contorted in disdain.
"If you have a lot of money, buy a house." I chuckled.
Max giggled and interjected, "Or marriage."
Randy scoffed and said, "I'm single. Why should I care about getting married?"
"Same brother." I high fived with him. Max stared at us with a disdainful look in her eyes.
…
That night, I went to see Goodbye Girls with Talia.
She wore a Rolling Stone t-shirt with jeans, styling her hair into a bun. I was wearing my Led Zeppelin T-shirt, so both of us were wearing black right now.
I waited for her at the lobby of the cinema.
"Hey. We're late." She said as she checked her watch. We were one minute late because of her.
"We're missing out on the trailer." I replied with a smirk.
I was teasing, but she took it seriously. "Sorry. I'll make it up to you."
"It's fine. I set up the trailer, so I already know."
She nodded and we walked to the ticket counter.
"Do you still have the tickets for the Goodbye Girls?" Talia asked the employee.
The blonde employee– Chloe, glanced at me secretly, gulping her saliva before she replied with a creaking voice, like a boy who's undergoing puberty.
"We– We still have tickets for that– Uhum–"
Talia touched her throat and told Chloe, "Just do it like this," she cleared her throat to give Chloe an example.
Chloe cleared her throat a few times and spoke professionally now, "We still have a lot of seats for that film."
"Give us two tickets then." Talia said calmly and took out six dollars.
The tickets were 3 dollars each– 25 cents more than normal ticket prices, but people thought it was worth it since the movie experience here was amazing.
"Do you want to stamp your card?" Chloe asked.
Talia nodded and gave her the membership card. It has 10 spots on it, and if she could get it all stamped out, she could get a free movie ticket.
Talia was already on her 10th. She could watch her next movie for free.
"It's only been a week since this place opened. You're already on your tenth movie?" I was surprised.
Talia nodded with a soft smile. "They have amazing audio."
She didn't explain further. But I get what she meant. My speakers were much, much better than any cinema halls in the world right now.
At the concession stand, the employee there tried to give us popcorn for free.
"Why?" Talia asked, confused.
The male employee glanced at me and said, "It's just for our loyal customers."
"Just charge us." I sighed at him.
He was taken aback and stammered, "Um… That will be 3 dollars."
We got inside the hall and sat at the back. The hall was three-quarter full which surprised me since Goodbye Girls has been in the cinema for 2 months now.
The movie started straight away as we got inside, missing out all of the trailers.
We had 3 movie trailers at the beginning of the show. A trailer for 'Close Encounter of the Third Kind', 'Julia', and Shannon Tate's film– 'Encounter'.
Talia watched the movie without even turning to me until the story ended. It was the same when we watched movies at her house.
She was 100% focused on the film. That's fine with me since I needed to watch the movie too and learn what made this movie win some awards at the Oscars.
However the movie annoyed me instead. I really didn't like the two main characters in the movie.
They were adults, that acted whiny and cumbersome, and had no principle. Sometimes they acted like teenagers. There were two thunderstorms in the for the cringy/romantic scenes.
Once the film ended, Talia finally spoke. She asked, "What do you think?"
"Eh. It's nothing special." I shrugged.
Talia nodded and said, "They talked so much."
"They really do." I agreed with her instantly. "It's filled with one liners."
"The kid talked like an adult. It's giving me the creeps." Talia added.
We had quite the same opinion about the movie. "Do you want to watch another movie with me?" She asked.
"There's only Star Wars and Death Race left tonight." I replied.
She thought for a bit and asked, "Want to go back to my place?"
"What movie do you have?" I asked teasingly.
"I want to watch Enter the Dragon. Do you have the tape?" She asked me back.
"I do. The subbed version, not the dubbed one." I replied.
"That's fine by me. I don't like dubs anyway. Their lips don't match." She nodded.
We went back to my place to grab the VHS tape, accidentally bumping to my friends who were hanging out in the basement.
"Hey Hyde." Eric greeted me first. "Is that your girlfriend?"
"Yeah. Meet Talia." I replied. "That's Forman." I pointed at Eric who was sitting at my spot. He waved his hand at her.
"Kelso, and Fez." I pointed at the other two. Both raised their hands and waved at Talia nonchalantly.
"Wait. Are you watching Enter the Dragon?" I was surprised when I saw the movie being played on the TV.
"Yeah, we're borrowing your tape." Eric laughed.
Kelso frowned and whined. "This isn't fun. I can't follow their dialogues."
"You mean you can't read." Fez interjected.
Kelso turned to Fez, face full of anger. "Shut up Fez!"
I turned to Talia and asked, "Want to pick another movie?"
"Sure. Let me take a look at your collection."
Kelso laughed and interjected, "He only has a collection of dirty movies."
Fez snickered too. Forman widened his eyes and tried to back me up, "It's not dirty movies. It's just movies that are… um, artistic."
I frowned and said, "I have a lot of movies. Not just the X-rated ones."
Talia snickered for the first time and said, "It's fine. I like to watch the X-rated ones too."
Kelso and Fez finally turned to her. "You do?" Fez asked, his hormones were bubbling up.
"Want to watch it together?" Kelso asked.
Eric smacked the back of Kelso's head instantly.
"Ow! What did you do that for?!" Kelso whined.
Talia replied, "I'll have to decline. I like to watch X-rated movies, back at my place… alone… and naked."
"OOO–" Kelso and Fez exclaimed, fully turned on.
Talia turned to me and said, "Should we go now?"
"We should." I smirked and led her to my room.
"Wait! We want to watch the movie too!" Fez begged.
"Aww! Wait. I know. We can ask Laurie." Kelso realized it. "I'm sure she'll be fine with watching the movie naked with me."
"Can I watch too?" Fez asked.
Kelso snickered and said, "It's a movie, Fez. Of course you can watch it. There's no law preventing a foreigner from watching X-rated American movies."
"Dumbass." Eric scowled at Kelso.
…
Inside my room, Talia began picking the movie from my VHS collection.
"You have a lot of them." She commented, her eyes glittering slightly.
"120 movies." I smirked and sat down on the bed. She was rummaging through the black container next to my closet, squatting next to it as she compared the movies in her hands.
"Which is better? Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or Dog Days Afternoon?"
Both of the movies she picked were 1975 movies.
"Monty Python is really good. I've never seen Dog Days Afternoon. It has Pacino in it, right?" I asked.
Talia turned to me and nodded. "Should we watch Dog Days Afternoon? I can borrow the Monty Python movie and watch it tomorrow."
"It's cool. We can watch Monty Python together." I shrugged.
Her gaze furrowed slightly. "But then I can't borrow Dog Days Afternoon. Since you haven't watched it."
"Half of the movies in that box, I haven't watched yet. I'm not going to be greedy about it. You're bringing them back, right?" I asked with a soft smile.
She said seriously, "Maybe."
I furrowed my eyebrows slightly.
She stood up and said, "Let's watch the movie now."
We watched them without speaking to each other again. The story was quite long, and it was past midnight when it's over.
Talia slid off the bed. She yawned and said, "I'll go back now."
"I'll give you a ride." I slid off the bed and approached her.
"No, I can walk back." She shook her head slightly, not wanting to be a bother.
"I insist. I always bring the girl back to her house after a date."
I smiled.
She froze for a bit. "This is a date?"
"Is it not?" I teased.
Talia wasn't amused and got mad at me.
She snapped, spitting out words like a machine gun, "If we're going on a date, tell me it's a date. Don't just say 'we're going to the movies', and then get mad when I'm watching the movie!"
I snorted slightly. "That had happened to you?"
"A lot!" She replied, exasperated. "Then, they bitch about it to their friends."
I saw her balling her fist up slightly as she was recalling the memories.
"You have been keeping it bottled up for a long time, huh?" I teased slightly.
She continued her rambling. "For date, bring us girls to dinner. Not the movie. Then, the boys will try to touch me at the cinema. Who in their right mind would do that! That's a public space! So dirty. So… open!"
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow slightly. "On the first date?"
"I don't know. We went to the movies a couple of times." She shook the question off.
I laughed and opened the car door for her. I closed it first before going to the other side.
She kept expressing herself as we drove to her house.
"Then, I got a reputation for being the weird kid in school because I don't want to become a public exhibition. No one asked me out for the entire year." She sulked.
I laughed and said, "They are crazy. You're not weird."
"Thank you." She huffed and calmed down slightly. "Sometimes they look at their crotch and like, trying to tell me something."
"Like how?" I asked.
"They ball up their fists and move them like this." She moved her hand up and down a few times. "So I hit their crotch like that. They screamed and pushed me away."
She had no clue even when she was telling the story. I could see it in her eyes. It made me burst into laughter while I was driving, almost swerving my car.
"You know what that means?" She asked.
"Yes." I calmed down slightly.
"What is it?" She asked.
"They were asking you to jerk them off."
"Huh? Why would they want to be shaken? And it doesn't make any sense to do this gesture." She repeated the same gesture.
I laughed again.
"Am I a weirdo for not getting it?" She asked seriously.
I calmed down."I mean, you're cute. Not weird." I flirted.
She was taken aback and shot daggers at me. "Is this a line? Are you trying to get me to bed? I'm not an easy girl to get."
"Are you waiting for marriage?" I asked casually.
She thought about it and said, "No. But the first time should be special. Definitely not in a car, in the movies, or in a dingy motel room."
I laughed and said, "So that eliminates everything a teenage boy can afford."
She looked at me with a scrutinizing gaze.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Trying to see if you're doing something to my body. Megan said I can know if I'm being 'turned on' by a guy." She lowered her gaze to my crotch.
"Like, what? What are the signals Megan tells you your body will make?" I asked curiously.
"Breathing heavily. But my lungs are still clear."
"That's not–"
"She said, I can get clammy hands. Or butterflies in my stomach. But my hands are all clear. It's a little cold. But it's not clammy." She touched my cheek with her cold hand.
"That's because I have an aircon in my room." I replied. "What about the butterflies?" I asked curiously.
"I have no idea what that's about." She replied with frustration. "Can't she be any clearer here? Do I feel the flap of the insect wings? Or like, I ate a butterfly?"
I snorted slightly. "It just means your stomach feels weird. But not in a diarrhea type of weird."
"Oh." She exclaimed curtly. "I still don't get it."
"I mean, the easiest way to do it, to see if you like someone, you can just picture them naked."
I was trying to tease her, but her reply made me shy instead.
"I've done that a couple of times. While I was masturbating mostly."
I stopped the car in front of her apartment. "Really, who did you picture?" I turned to her in anticipation.
She nodded and asked, "Is that weird too? I feel like I'm not supposed to tell you it's you."
I froze for a few seconds.
"No. Not really." I shook my head and laughed. "That's not weird at all."
She furrowed her eyebrows and mumbled, "Did I do something wrong here?"
"No. You didn't." I leaned in close to her and asked, "How was I in the picture? What am I doing?"
"You're shaving wood, while topless. Sweat dripping down on your body." She painted me a picture. "Then, you hammer…"
"Hammer?" I was at the edge of my seat.
"Hammering a nail… into the wood. Like over… and over… and over…" She breathed heavily and fanned her face slightly.
"That's the thing Megan is telling you about. That's the heavy breathing." I told her.
She widened her eyes and said, "Really?"
I laughed and glanced at her slightly. "Do you want to go on an actual date tomorrow?"
Taken aback, she blushed and said, "Like. A date-date? That ends up with us in bed together?"
"Let's see how the day goes. What type of date are you looking for? I can use that as a guide for tomorrow." I said.
"Hmm." She thought about it and said, "Dinner. Amusement park. Walking in the rain."
"Okay. We can go to Funland tomorrow. Then go to dinner."
"Great. Don't wear shorts." She said curtly.
"I'm not wearing shorts. Ever."
"Good. Because I can't see men in shorts. It makes my hands curl." She touched the door handle before turning to me again.
"If that's a date, I should kiss you first. Maybe a french kiss?"
"Okay." I agreed easily.
She leaned in close and pressed her lips onto mine. But only her lips.
"That's it?" I asked.
"What? Did I do something wrong?" She asked, confused.
"You said you're french kissing me?" I was confused.
"I think people in France kiss the same way people in America do." She snorted and left the car, waving at me.
But I got out and walked her to the door. After making sure she got inside safely, finally I went back to my bedroom.
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