[Hyde POV]
It was warm inside the tent as I put the heater on. I slept on the air mattress lined with a fleece blanket and a soft pillow.
The night was very comfortable for me, but not for everyone else. The temperature dropped to minus 2 degrees outside the tent.
Eric and Donna zipped up their sleeping bag till the top, almost suffocating themselves as they slept.
People who slept inside the van were fine. But those who were sleeping outside had to huddle together. The air outside was enough to sting the lungs.
I was already asleep when I heard someone calling my name from outside the tent. I had the tent zipped and secured, so they couldn't just barge in.
"Hyde. We need to get in." Donna and Eric shivered, jumping slightly to fight the cold.
I grimaced, really annoyed that I was woken up. "Just get in." I told them angrily.
The tent was for 4 people, so I had enough space. They slept on top of the sleeping bag in front of the heater while I slept on the air mattress.
The tent was pretty warm, so Eric and Donna quickly resumed their sleep.
Suddenly, I heard another call. Eric sat up and opened the tent for me. Kelso was almost freezing, especially since his clothes were all wet from wrestling with the dogs.
Eric let him sleep in front of the entrance, far away from my spot.
Time passed by, and it was already 8 in the morning.
"Hyde. Wake up." Eric called me.
"Again? You're being the alarm clock here too?" I said angrily, opening my eyes halfway.
He was offended and said, "Hey. I didn't want to! But we're all going to leave so… just get up or we will leave you here!"
He turned and kicked Kelso, waking him up roughly. "You too! Get up!"
"Ohh– Don't do it Jackie. Don't stomp on it. I need it to make sweet love to you." He mumbled half asleep.
"Gross!" Donna yelped as she stood in front of the entrance and heard what Kelso was saying.
Kelso and I slept for another half an hour until Donna returned with a pan and a ladle. She hit it together, and caused a loud noise.
"GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!"
"Fine! I'm up! I'm up!" Kelso said with annoyance. I sat up on the air mattress, blanking out for a bit.
"Hey, Kelso, why are you in here?" I asked in confusion.
"I don't know." Kelso replied instinctively. That was his go to answer for everything. Just play dumb. Well, a lot of times, he wasn't playing.
"Help me with the tent." I ordered. "Since you have slept here."
"Alright." he agreed easily. We folded the tent and the tables, bringing them back to the van. I made sure to bring all the trash with me, unlike the other campers.
I kept the water container inside my tent, so the water wasn't freezing. I used it to wash my face and wiped my armpits with a wet wipe. I was also the only one who brushed my teeth this morning.
Well, me and Jackie. She also washed her face, and even did her hair.
We stopped by a diner in Madison and ate breakfast together.
Laurie was bobbing her head, and almost fell asleep on the booth.
"Look at her. Doing what she loved the most, even in her sleep." I muttered.
"Hyde. Gross." Donna scolded me.
Laurie woke up and said, "I'll stab you with a fork Hyde. Don't test me."
I waved my hands, pretending to be scared. "Oh no. A whore with a fork. What should I do?"
She looked at me, pushing her tongue on her lower lips as she got angrier.
"Stop it before she really does it." Eric warned me. "I mean, look at her hair. She's crazy."
"What's wrong with my hair?" Laurie was taken aback.
"It's like a cross breed between a lion's mane and you having the same hair stylist as the band, KISS." I said flatly.
Laurie was taken aback. I added, "You also have an eye booger."
She left hurriedly to go to the bathroom. "Fez, you also have a booger." Jackie told him.
"Oh, it's fine. That's normal."
"On your nose."
"Excuse me."
He left to clean himself up hurriedly.
I ordered the 25 cent coffee and a big breakfast plate that consists of eggs, toast, sausage and bacon.
Most of the guys ordered the same thing, except for Fez who wanted pancakes like the girls.
Donna ordered both the pancakes and the big plate.
"Should we stop somewhere?" Kelso asked excitedly.
"No, I want to go home and take a bath." Laurie replied. "I want to get rid of the hippie stank on me."
"For once, I agree with Laurie." Donna said with a mouthful of food.
"You girls are boring! We're young and free! We should do something stupid!"
"Well, I think Laurie is doing something stupid." Eric said and quickly pulled his hand away from the desk. Laurie's fork stabbed onto nothing.
"Phew. That's a close one." Eric mocked.
"I want to go back home too. And sleep on my own bed till evening." Jackie whined.
Kelso hinting at Laurie sleazily, "Great. I'll be alone then… if anyone wants to do something stupid."
Laurie was baffled by him. Fez gasped and said, "I know what we can do. We can get a lot of candy!"
"Fez." Donna called him out as she laughed. "That's not something stupid. That's just what you usually do."
Fez said with a deflated tone, "I miss candy."
He was slightly addicted to it so he couldn't go one day without it. Same for masturbation. I didn't even want to tell people how I knew that.
"I just realized that Steven's not really that famous." Jackie said suddenly. "I mean, no one even recognized him."
"Mostly because all of the people there are high." Eric said, defending me.
"I'll pay for breakfast." Eric offered. The bill came to be under 20 dollars. For a group of seven, that was pretty cheap.
The waitress, a beautiful girl with a small mole on her nose batted her eyes at me and said, "Hey, aren't you the guy on the REV IT UP show? The host?"
"That's me." I replied easily.
Her smile grew. She covered her mouth slightly and said, "I knew it. I thought you looked really similar to him, but you are him. Can you give me an autograph?"
"Sure. You have a pen?"
"Yes. Can you sign here?" She leaned forwards and unbuttoned her shirt, wanting me to sign it on her cleavage.
Fez was drinking water and he dribbled everything out of his mouth as he saw it.
Kelso was also staring at the boobs, and Eric was regretting that he chose to sit on the opposite side with Donna.
Jackie grimaced, full of jealousy. "Cover up your nasty breast you tramp. He has a girlfriend back home!"
The waitress shot back at her, "So what? I also have a boyfriend. But I'll let this guy do it with me in the backroom if he wants to."
"What?!" Jackie was shocked.
I just smiled and said, "I'll write it down on a napkin."
The waitress smiled in satisfaction nonetheless.
The drive back home felt longer than when we came here. Kelso sent Jackie and Fez back home first.
Then, he sent all of us home. In the basement, as Laurie left, Donna turned to Kelso.
"What?" Kelso asked with an oblivious smile.
Donna fumed and said, "You SLEPT WITH LAURIE!? YOU CHEAT ON MY BEST FRIEND!?"
"NO–"
Donna lunged at Kelso, taking him down to the ground and began beating on him.
"OW! DONNA!" Kelso whined, but Donna wasn't going to let him go that easily. She took self defense class every month and was using everything she learnt on Kelso.
Donna beating people up was pretty normal since we grew up together. Even I got beat up twice by her before, but that was mostly before puberty.
Mrs Forman rushed downstairs as she heard the commotion. "Donna, what are you doing to Micheal?!"
"Mrs Forman, help!" Kelso whined.
"He slept with–"
"Get him Donna!" Mrs Forman changed her tune and watched Donna beat up on Kelso more.
Kelso managed to push her away by pinching her butt and ran out of the basement door.
Eric and I laughed. Mrs Forman greeted us warmly, "Boys. Are you hungry? I'm making lunch right now."
"I'm having lunch outside." I told her casually. "Give my portion to Donna. She deserved it, and also she kinda scares me."
Donna raised her arms up, celebrating like she won a WWE match.
…
I called Brooke after taking a shower and changing my clothes. I used the telephone in the basement, just right next to my special seat there.
"Hello, Brooke. I'm back from Vanstock."
"Oh. Steven. I didn't expect you to be early."
"Let's go out to lunch." I said casually.
"I can't. I volunteered for the reading session today. The library closed in two hours, so I need to be here." Brooke said with a disappointed tone.
"What if I bring lunch to you?" I asked.
"Sure. That will be great. I only have a sandwich with me."
Forty minutes later, I arrived at her place of work bringing some takeout bags with me.
"Did you buy food from Fatso burger?" She asked, confused as she saw the white wrap.
"No, it's from another place called 'Carls'. 'Carls…Junior'."
"That California chain?" Brooke was curious. She unwrapped the Super Star burger– a popular charbroiled burger featuring two Angus beef patties, two slices of melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayonnaise, and Special Sauce on a sesame seed bun.
"This is too big." She complained sulkily. I laughed and said, "Just try it first."
When I bought this food from an asian food delivery app called Grab, the price was only two dollars, and it tasted a whole lot better than the fast food burgers around here.
The meat crumbled easily in my mouth, rich and soft, nothing like the dry patties people were used to.
Brooke was still after the first bite. She smiled, munching on the burger happily and took another bite before she completely swallowed the first one.
I just watched her eat with a smile.
After lunch, I helped her stamp dates on the check out card inside the books people were borrowing.
Her boss, the short middle aged man with a balding head, came to the counter and said, "We can close up now."
"There's still an hour left before closing time." Brooke told him.
"It's fine. It's a library on a Sunday," he said dismissively. "Who in their right mind would come to the library? Only disgusting freaks, that's all."
"Sir?" Brooke said, stunned.
The "freaks" standing in line all glared at him. He ignored them completely.
"Announce the library's closing," he added. "And—oh—lock up."
He tossed her the keys rudely and left. I smiled emotionlessly and asked her, "Do you want me to teach him a lesson?"
"What– No, there's no need for that. He's an ass. Always has, always will be." Brooke replied.
She said to the people there, "We're going to finish this up in five minutes."
I helped her to record the names of the books and write it down on a notepad while she stamped the return dates on it.
She announced the library was closing through the intercom and turned off the lights. We have to patrol everywhere in the four storey building to make sure no one was lagging behind.
There were a few stragglers, nerds basically who were absorbed in their books. I threw them all out of the door as they whined, trying to get some more reading in.
"Thank you Steven. That's usually the hardest part of the job." Brooke said to me.
I dusted my hand and said, "That's all of them, I guess. Should we check it again?"
"Sure."
After another patrol and making sure no one was around, I turned to her and said flirtingly, "You know what this means? We're alone in the library right now."
She burst out laughing, a blush on her face. She fixed her hair behind her ear and said, "No. I'm not going to do it here. This is my place of work."
"People did it in their place of work all the time." I said casually.
"Did you?" She asked, her eyes turned sharp.
"Actually. I've never done that. So, after we do it here, we can christen my place next."
She opened her mouth speechlessly, and blushed hard. I pulled her in close and gave her a kiss. "Of course, I won't force you into anything you don't want to do–"
"That's so hot! That respecting boundary thing– that turns me on even more!" She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me, with tongue.
She pulled her head back, smiled and locked eyes with mine. "You're not like the other guys. All the macho, controlling bullshit… I mean, you're dominant, but not controlling. I really love that about you."
Her eyes went dazed, and she blurted out, "I love you Steven."
"What?" I was shocked.
Brooke was also shocked. "What– What did I just say– We should leave, right now."
She rushed off with an embarrassed, even shameful face.
…
Brooke didn't want to hang out after that. I didn't even know what to say to her.
We dated for less than a month. I realized there weren't a lot of 'situationship' back here in the 70s, but it was a month. A whole freaking month!
Donna and Eric took nine months to say it to each other. Jackie and Kelso did it in three months.
Was this entire thing orchestrated by Brooke's mother? I have no idea what's going on.
I kept it all inside, and then, I heard the phone ring. Brooke was on the other side of the call, "Steven. Come to the library."
"I thought you had gone home." I asked.
"Just come." She said nervously and cut the call. I sighed and went back to the library. The front door was unlocked, so I entered the library and locked it behind me.
The book alleys were dark, and the only light source was on the librarian's desk. I moved towards the light like a moth going to a flame.
There, Brooke was sitting behind the counter, wearing a long trench coat.
"Hello there Miss. I need some help finding a book." I said playfully.
She stood up, and was in a role-play mode much to my surprise, "Are you sure you want to look for books? Or, what you actually want… is me?"
She stood up and untied her trench coat, revealing sexy lingerie underneath.
It was a black lingerie with feather edges, and she also wore a garter belt.
I widened my eyes in shock. "Brooke."
"Shh– Don't say anything." She placed her hand on my lips, her face slightly nervous. "Just pretend I didn't say anything before, alright? I know you weren't there yet. Sooo– So let's just don't do that."
I nodded slightly. Feeling relieved, Brooke dropped her trench coat on the floor and said, "Now, tell me boy. What do you want to do with me?"
I smirked and pulled her by the waist, then, I picked her up and put her on the counter.
"Dirty boy!" She gasped teasingly, using a sultry voice to turn me on. But before we could do it, we heard the sound of the front door being unlocked.
"Wait. Who's coming?" Brooke asked in shock. "Quick, let's go hide." She grabbed her trench coat and rushed to the dark book alley.
Brooke leaned forward to peek at the person. It was her boss, and he wasn't alone.
He was with two crack whores and they began undressing in the middle of the library.
"Oh god–" Brooke exclaimed with a hushed whisper. "My eyes are burning!"
"We should get out Brooke. I didn't want to see that. Nobody wants to see that." I grabbed her hand and pulled her away.
It was easy to sneak out there as they were all so busy with each other. I sneakily took a picture of the boss– for blackmail material in case he was causing trouble.
Brooke and I went back home, she was quite traumatized by what she saw.
"Are we going to–"
"No! We will not!" Brooke exclaimed with an unstable, high pitched voice.
We accidentally met our gazes, and both of us burst into laughter. We laughed for quite a while, until we almost reached her apartment.
"I'd ask you to come inside, but I'm not going to be able to, not until the image was completely wiped down from my brain." Brooke said playfully.
"Will it ever?" I teased.
"No, that's why I'm going to take a vow of celibacy from now on." She kissed me on the lips and got out of the car.
I was a little nervous, "That's a joke, right? Brooke– Brooke?"
She smiled playfully at me and didn't answer my question.
"Damn it." I cursed at myself and got out of the car too. I sent her safely back to her door, only then did I leave.