(sorry. set the timer wrong. I set it for tomorrow lol)
[Hyde POV]
'Now that I smelt it, I kinda want to smoke it.'
The weed smell on Linda was lingering on my mind. It has been quite a while since I smoked anything.
However, I didn't want to buy the cheap brick weed anymore.
Back in the '70s, weed was mostly brick stuff—dry, harsh, barely fragrant, and who knew what they'd mixed in. I never really knew if it was gonna hit right or make me cough my lungs out. Cheap, easy to get, but inconsistent as hell.
But in 2025, weed was legal in my country and many more.
"There's an online dispensary in Thailand, but there's a lot of restrictions." I mumbled.
For example, if I bought weed online, which was the legally processed one that has smoother smoke, no skunky or moldy smell, and maybe a bit more THC percentage, I would need to upload my ID.
"Can I test it out? Cause in 2025… I would've been 66…years old."
I tested out for multiple dispensaries. Some were really strict and didn't let me buy one without visual confirmation after the ID.
But there were some, which were a bit looser with the restriction. So I managed to get an ounce of it– 28 grams, which was the monthly limit for an individual buying legal recreational weed in Thailand.
"It's so freaking expensive." I was shocked. It cost me 225 dollars in 2025, which was around 45 bucks in 1977 terms.
By comparison, the brick weed I bought before cost 5-10 bucks per ounce.
I furrowed my eyebrows, thinking if I should do it or save some money.
"Ah, screw it."
I pressed click and paid for it. It was delivered to my system in two hours.
I also bought ibuprofen, paracetamol, antibiotics, condoms and lube, activated charcoal for food poisoning, energy drinks and a lot more stuff from an online pharmacy.
This was just for my medical bags, since stuff from 2025 works much better than 1977. Safer too. That cost me 30 bucks more.
"I have 1000 bucks initially. With the new carburetor, the seats padding, the upholstery, and cleaning products, I have used 350 bucks in total."
I have 650 bucks left in my bank account. That was without Victoria's 1500 dollars money being counted.
I was searching online to buy her a carpet, but carpet price in 2025 was much higher than in 1977.
1977 carpets would be better for her.
"Unless I change my location to America, and buy it from Lowes."
I kept searching for a wall to wall carpet option in Thailand, but there's none except for office wall to wall carpet.
In 2025, people had noticed how unclean wall to wall carpet were, but in 1977, carpet was the norm. Shag carpet was a symbol of class even though that thing smells.
"I'll clean the house first and stop any delivery for now. I can change the location after this, maybe to Australia or Istanbul. They have those types I want, right?"
The only restriction for me to change my location was the deliveries I have right now. I would lose all of the current orders being shipped if I changed it.
70
"Just some more stuff like mops, then I can change it."
I printed out some of the couch options for her to look at. Since she was going to be staying there after all.
I needed to be at home for the weed delivery so I went back during lunch. Then, I rolled a few of them and put them in a cigarette can, and then put it in my medicine pouch.
All of it was stored in one of my system slots for easy access.
I could also buy booze online since I was technically 66 years old there, so I bought some champagne– which was rare here in 70s Wisconsin and some Jack Daniels.
I also bought a case of beer. This was all from the supermarket delivery instead of buying it through Lazada.
"Bob, I'm going home now." I said as I clocked out of work. Today, I only worked till four in the evening instead of ten at night.
I asked Linda out on a date tonight, and we would be going to dinner and a movie.
Getting into my Chevy Nova, I drove to the Formans house to pick up my deliveries.
When I saw it, I smiled. It was the interior repair kit and seats foam padding, and most importantly, the new carburetor.
"Eric's home. It will be hard for me to do it now." I mumbled. "And I need the garage."
The Vista Cruiser was in the garage.
"Maybe. I should rent a workshop." I mumbled. "If I did that, then, I should use the build mode more creatively."
I planned to drive to a car junkyard and find some cars with potential. If I flipped some of them, I might get a lot of profit from it.
"Later... I'm too busy this week." I mumbled. With Victoria's apartment, the resume business and the sales campaign, I had to postpone my plans for now.
"It would be best if I can find a 350 V8 engine. I can get that for 200 bucks and mod my Nova with it."
Once I install the new carburetor in this one and tune it, it could add 20 more horsepower to the car, bringing it to 155-165 hp. (Untrue, but his AI told him so. GPT can be inaccurate sometimes)
A man's car was his first love, so I was going to pamper my baby.
I picked out some of the delivery items and took them out of their packaging. Then, I placed them in two boxes and brought them to the house.
My friends were there as I entered the basement. Not Victoria though, she was hanging out with Mrs Forman.
"Hyde, you're home! " Jackie stood up and greeted me happily.
I furrowed my eyebrows and asked with confusion, "Why were you waiting for me?"
Fez added, "Because. It feels like we haven't hung out with you in a while."
Jackie shot her an annoyed look and said, "No. I just want to know if he decided on the fainting couch yet. Cause I found the perfect one–"
I ignored her and walked a few steps towards my room when I realized my new chair was outside.
"Kelso. Why is my stuff outside the room?" I turned back and walked to the couch.
Micheal laughed madly and said, "You forgot to lock the door."
I widened my eyes in shock. "Oh no." I muttered flatly. I remembered something and said, "No. Wait. I did lock the door. Who broke into my room?"
"What?" Eric was confused. "It was unlocked when we got here. Didn't you install the wood panelling to your room?"
"Huh?" I was shocked and rushed to the room. Everyone was curious and followed me from behind.
I panicked slightly as I saw the new wooden panelling in my room. I mean, it looked better than the concrete wall, but it was so orange.
"You didn't do this?" Eric asked with surprise.
"What– No I didn't do this." I replied, slightly angered.
"If you didn't, who else would have your room key?" Donna asked.
"Mrs Forman–" As I answered, the realization hit me.
Eric burst into laughter, "You… You gave her a gift, so she gave you one too."
Everyone laughed at my misery. As I calmed down, I sighed and put the box on my table. I took off my shoes, put on some slippers I bought and entered the room.
Jackie suddenly asked as she entered the room too, "Steven. What's in the boxes?"
"A bunch of stuff." I replied easily. "I want to test them out, see if people would want to buy them. If there's demand, I'll pitch it to Bob so he can sell them at his store."
"Sweet! Let's take a look!" Micheal pawed the box roughly, which made Donna hit his arm.
"Oww! Donna!" He whined.
"Take off your shoes you idiot!" Donna scolded him. "Fine." He pursed his lips tauntingly yet he was obedient in following her orders.
"AND BRING ME BACK MY CHAIR!" I yelled.
I opened the box and everyone peeked in it excitedly.
"Hmm? Is that a hot roller?" Jackie had stars in her eyes and immediately grabbed the pink coloured ceramic hot roller.
"Yup." I said casually. "It's safer since it's made of ceramic, and it has ion diffusion so it gives more volume to the hair."
Jackie squealed, stomping her feet in excitement. She hugged the hot roller and said, "Thank you Hyde! For giving it to me–"
"Whoa there." I stopped her immediately, with a slight chuckle. "That's for everyone to try out. I want to know people's reaction to it before stocking it."
"No! I want it!" Jackie was adamant. "I can pay for it now!"
"Why don't you test it out first?" Donna scolded her. "If you give him proper feedback, he might let you buy it from him. Right Hyde?"
"Sure." I replied vaguely. "What's that oval thing?" Eric asked.
"That's a space heater." I replied casually. "More energy efficient, infrared based, and it's almost silent so people can use it in offices and bedrooms."
"Can I plug it on?" Eric asked. I nodded, and he went to plug it and put it on my table.
Warm air blew instantly, and everyone was feeling comfortable from the air.
It was a Toshiba brand space heater, so it worked really well.
"Next item please!" Fez said cheerfully.
I chuckled and took out another electric item. "Ionic hair dryer–"
"MINE!" Jackie grabbed it from my hand immediately. She looked around cautiously, fearing someone would pry it away from her.
The next one was a walkman style cassette player with headphone, and a sensitive part electric shaver.
"Mine!" Donna grabbed the electric shaver made for women. Everyone looked at her with scrutinizing eyes, which made her embarrassed.
Eric wore the headphones and was enjoying the song, 'Don't go breaking my heart' by Elton John. I didn't get a cassette tape, but Jackie has one.
"What's in the other box?" Donna asked quickly to change people's attention.
"Oh. this isn't appliances, but miscellaneous stuff I want to pitch to your dad." I replied and opened the next box.
Inside was stuff like non-stick pans, silicone bakeware and spatula, plastic water bottles, tumblers, cute stuffed animals, and many more small household items.
Jackie gasped, almost dropping all of the other items she claimed as she saw the 30 cm tall, very cute penguin plushie.
"Micheal! Grab that for me!" Jackie ordered. But I pulled it back before Micheal could reach it.
"No, you can't claim this one. Penguin is Victoria's favorite, so… I'm giving that to her." I said casually.
Everyone teased me again. "Ooo…"
"Shut up." I grimaced in annoyance. "I have a date to go to, so Donna, Eric, help me give these to the right people."
"Date? With Victoria?" Donna asked teasingly. Even Jackie was excited.
"No. With Linda."
Both of their faces fell. "What?! Who's Linda?!" Donna asked with an angry tone.
"You're going on a date with another woman!?" Jackie was in disbelief. She rolled her eyes and said, "I can't believe men. All of you are pigs!" She turned to Fez and shouted to his face, "PIGGGS!"
Both of the girls left with a huff.
"What did I do?" I asked with confusion.
Eric asked with confusion, "You didn't know?"
Micheal laughed and asked with curiosity, "Hyde. Who's Linda?"
"Charlie's daughter. I'm taking her out for a movie." I replied. "She seems pretty easy, so… ."
Everyone laughed except Fez. Eric said, "Oh, that's why you asked her out?"
"No. She's pretty cute too." I said.
Fez crossed his arms together and said, "I can't believe you're doing this to Victoria."
"Fez. You can't really blame him. We guys need to listen to our instinct to cheat, or else we will go crazy." Micheal said.
I grimaced, "I'm not cheating you idiot. Victoria and I are just friends."
"Wait. So, everything you did– finding her an apartment… buying her the penguin, which is her favourite animal, helping her with her house, and all of the other stuff… That's just a friend thing?" Eric asked with a sarcastic edge.
I nodded, "Yeah."
"You son of a bitch!" Fez cursed and stomped away.
"I'm going to go too, otherwise Jackie will get mad–" he tried to grab the penguin again, but I had predicted it and slapped him on the back of his head.
"Oww!" He huffed and stomped away.
Eric laughed and said, "Wow. Hyde, you really don't get it, do you?"
"I get it." I said with a slight annoyance. "They thought I should be with Victoria. But, if I did hook up with her, that meant everything I did had a hidden purpose. An ulterior motive. And not because I did it sincerely. So until she gets her life back together, and she's not still vulnerable, I'm not going to ask her out."
"Oh." Eric was taken aback by my words. "That… made sense. Why didn't you say that to them? Damn Hyde!"
…
I got ready for my date. Wearing a simple white Uniqlo shirt, a black leather jacket from OxHide, and a black jeans, I wore my boots and a silver chain to get to the date.
"Versace Eros cologne. This costs over 100 bucks for 100ml." I muttered with a sad expression. I used to wear much more expensive cologne than this, but I felt bad spritzing three times with this one. Although, I just paid 20 bucks for it.
"Well, at least I look good." I said as I stood in front of the mirror. I completed the look with Tony Stark style cheap sunglasses and left the room.
My friends were watching TV as I got out.
Kelso burst into laughter as he saw me with the leather jacket. "Ayyyyy!" He mimicked Fonzi, the character on tv.
"Wait. No, he's not the Fonz." Donna muttered seriously. "He's more like Brando."
"Yeah. Hyde. When did you become so hot?" Fez asked with a slight jealousy. His nose caught something, and he sniffed like a dog as he followed the scent back to me.
"You even wore cologne, you son of a bitch!" Fez cursed.
"What?!" Everyone was surprised, and jumped from their seats to approach me and began sniffing.
"You bastard!" Jackie said with gritted teeth. "You're just dying to get some tonight!"
"Well… of course." I agreed with her. Then, I smirked and left the basement.
"Dillhole!" Donna shouted as I shut the door behind me.
…
I knocked on the door to the apartment unit. The inside was pretty noisy as I heard girls shouting.
Linda was a junior college student, she lived in an apartment with her friends instead of Charlie.
A blond girl opened the door. She wore a striped baby blue and blue tank top with no bra, a flower choker on her neck and some short jeans.
"Hey, you must be the hot bully." She greeted me seductively, biting her lower lips and tilted her body slightly as she leaned on one leg.
"That's me. I'm Hyde." I shook her hand.
"I'm Nicole." She introduced herself. (Diora Baird Lookalike)
"Is Linda here?"
"No. She's not. She said to blow you off when you get here." She said playfully.
"Oh, what kind of blowing are we talking about here?" I flirted back. She was taken aback and inhaled deeply, lowering her eyes shyly.
"No! She didn't blow him off!" A shrill voice interjected from behind.
A petite, satin dress wearing brunette pushed the blonde away and said, "Linda's at the car shop. Her car couldn't start, so she might be late. Do you want to wait inside?"
"Sure." I replied easily and entered the apartment. I introduced myself to her too.
"Bonnie." She replied. She looked like the girl in Content Machine skits, the one with the mole in her upper lips.
Pink shaggy carpet, bong bottles, scent of weed, pink wallpapers, no couches, just cushions on the carpets, and many clothes thrown around messily.
"Sorry, you'll have to sit on the floor." Bonnie said apologetically.
"Oh, so you didn't throw away materialistic possession on purpose?" I asked jokingly.
Bonnie smiled bitterly and said, "We had to pawn our couch–"
"And our TV too!" Nicole added with frustration.
"Why?" I was curious.
"We had to bail Linda out of jail." Nicole said annoyedly, forcing me to sit next to her on the cushion. "She tagged a police car during a protest. So we have to pay them 300 bucks to get her out."
Bonnie sighed and said, "Come on Nicole. That's 3 months ago. Let it go."
Nicole added, pushing her body onto mine, "We thought she had no parents, so we helped her out. Turns out, she could've called her dad if she wanted too. She just didn't and let us suffer instead."
"That's a shitty thing to do." I agreed with her.
"Right?!" Nicole was elated. "Bonnie! See, he understands."
Bonnie was hesitant at first, then, she let out some of her frustrations too, "We have to work to make rent. Linda hasn't been paying for two months."
"We kept getting sexually harassed at work, and had to change jobs a lot of times." Nicole added.
"I want to just date a rich man and let him take care of our problems, but Linda said we're the women of a new era and we didn't need a man to do that." Bonnie was more and more comfortable speaking badly of her friend behind her back.
"I just– Want to get back at her." Nicole added with gritted teeth.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Bonnie stood up and said, "I'll get it."
Nicole continued to press her soft boobs on my arm, saying hintingly, "I'm a pretty woman, right? I could've had a very easy life. But whenever I brought a guy home, Linda would scare him away."
"That must've been so frustrating." I said comfortingly. "Why are you still friends with her when you're so mad at her?"
"Who says I'm still her friend? I'm just trying to save money to move out of this apartment." Nicole said begrudgingly. "Even Bonnie wants to move out too."
Bonnie suddenly came back with a sympathetic expression. "Hyde." She called out softly.
"What is it?"
"Um… Linda isn't coming." She said softly. "She's really blowing you off this time."
"Huh? Did she say why?" I asked.
"I don't know much. She said she met her ex. So she's going to go have a drink with him instead." Bonnie said and brushed my arm to comfort me.
I was fine to be honest, but the two girls were really touchy as they were pitying me, so I wasn't going to stop it.
"Well… I have made a reservation at a hotel restaurant. I guess that will go to waste now." I said, which made the girls exclaim sympathetically and hugged me from both sides.
"So, why don't we all go there to eat? Have you girls eaten dinner yet?" I asked casually.
Both of them were taken aback by the invitation. "Wait. Who? Nicole or me?" Bonnie asked, slightly frazzled.
"Both. I'm taking both of you."
Bonnie blushed, and Nicole said, "Wait. I thought you're a good guy."
"I am a good guy. I'm giving you both a chance to be pampered all night long, and also maybe, get back at your friend." I winked and touched both of their faces.
They leaned in on my palm, but their eyes were still hesitating.
"Ah, I also have champagne and a case of imported beer in the trunk of my car–"
"Let's go!" Bonnie and Nicole grabbed my hand.
…
Nicole changed into a dress and we went to a hotel restaurant. The place was quite expensive for a jobless college student and a highschooler like me, but I could pay for their food easily.
It cost me 100 only, which was quite cheap compared to my dates in New York.
Since I bought the champagne to go with the meal, both of the girls were quite flushed from the alcohol.
I did too since I drank a few.
"Why don't we grab a room and get some rest?" Bonnie said hintingly and grabbed my hand.
Nicole downed a cup of champagne and said, "Let's bring the beers to the room and have some fun there."
"Alright. Let's go."
We checked into a hotel room and the girls took a shower together.
Then, they came back to the bed wearing bathrobes.
Nicole stuck her tongue down my throat and once she kissed me slightly, Bonnie pried her away and pushed her tongue down next.
I grabbed the girl's asses and began to fondle them.
Nicole unbuttoned my pants. "Oh wow." She exclaimed with a blush.
And that night, I did something a group of teenage boys could only dream off while talking about girls in the basement.