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THE BYRNE HOUSEHOLD | 1977
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—"IT'S FINE, SCOTTY! I'm only going over to the Forman's!" Margot exclaimed, settling in the front seat of her car as her brother stood on their porch with an irritable expression on his face.
He glanced at his watch to see the time, "Don't be back late tonight, please. Dad's left early for a work trip again this morning and the house is boring alone. Especially since you're back and you... you know... could be here. I've missed you." he whispered the last three words, and Margot appreciated them more than ever as she knew Scott usually struggled with honesty about his emotions.
Margot pouted, feeling awful as it sunk in that her brother was used to being home alone since their father was often away visiting clients as a self-employed business accountant.
No matter how much money he made, or how many band shirts he bought her, she'd never be able to settle the ache in her chest of yearning for his actual company. She'd hoped that being back after a year would incentivise him to stay home as much as possible to spend time with her.
But alas, that wasn't the case.
"You could come with, Scotty?" she suggested, leaning across to swing open her passengers seat door, "The gang loved you, and you know Kitty and Red always have too!"
Scott pondered over her proposal for a minute, shifting on his heels, before walking over to the car and leaning forward, "Or you could invite them over here tonight? I know I shouldn't let you guys drink but if its just you guys I'll buy a few beers and we can hang out in the games room? It does get neglected a little."
Margot nodded with a wide grin.
"They'd love that, I bet. Daddy gave me some cash yesterday — guess it was early damage control for being gone — so I'll get us all some snacks. You're the best, Scotty, you know that right?"
He laughed, kissing her forehead and ruffling her hair, "I do, I do."
—
"Wait, Scott's really okay with us all coming over?" Eric gasped, looking up from his magazine as Margot skipped towards the couch with a spring in her step.
She mentally cursed herself for almost going straight to Hyde's chair and sitting on the arm of it like she used to, swivelling quickly to hop onto Kelso's lap.
"Uh huh!" she beamed, "He said he'll get us a few beers as long as it's only us. So if you invite anyone else I'll go fucking mental. He'll probably hang out with us for a bit, and his girlfriend will probably join too."
The gang were excited, Kelso pulling his 'girlfriend' closer to him and kissing her cheek, "Awesome! Wait should I be scared to meet him again now we're dating?"
"Yep." Hyde laughed, "Big scary Scotty's gonna get ya for banging his precious baby sister, probably."
The sarcasm in his tone made Margot lean forward with a laugh and smack his arm, "Shut up Hydey," she coughed, realising she'd called him a nickname she'd not used in front of the group in forever, "Y-You dick, Scott's gonna be fine with it, Mikey."
Calling him Hydey seemed to roll off her tongue, however cringe and unnatural it was as a nickname. She'd always reserved the name for when she was taking the piss out of him, the pitch of her voice raising mockingly.
Of course Hyde noticed it, his grin broadening and his shoulders flexing as if victorious over Kelso for her use of her pet name for him when it was him she'd be perched on the lap of.
"He's scary?" Fez pouted, evidently not detecting Hyde's sarcasm, only to be reassured by a giggling Margot, "Hyde's taking the piss, Fez! Don't worry."
"He's what?"
"He's joking, it means he's not being serious. British slang," Hyde replied nonchalantly.
"Okay, cool!" Kelso exclaimed, no further questions because, well, he'd not really thought much about it anyway.
Eric lifted his thumb and forefinger to his chin, teasingly pretending to be deep in thought, "If I recall, Kelso, Scott didn't even like you when you weren't banging his sister."
Fez laughed, "Oh," he prolonged the oh for several seconds, smirking, "He's not gonna like you now!"
Kelso scowled, "He did too!"
"In Kelso's defence it was because he was trying — emphasis on the trying — to screw Scott's girlfriend at the time," Donna defended Kelso sarcastically, knowing that this fact only made things weirder, "But I'm not sure screwing his baby sister is much better."
Margot rolled her eyes at the gang's teasing, "Scott knows I'm with Kelso, you dumbasses," she couldn't help but laugh at the word dumbasses rolling off her tongue — she'd spent far too much time with the Formans, "And whilst he wasn't exactly thrilled he's fine with us. He's still with his girlfriend, by the way, so please don't be weird guys because she will probably be there."
"Pretending you're not still in love with Hyde is a bad bad idea, little sis," she internally recalled Scott's scalding tone, "And using Kelso to make him jealous is just moronic... Michael Kelso? Really? Hyde's gonna see straight through that shit." He'd been right, and this weighed particularly heavy on her knowing that she intended to break up with Kelso after their night at hers was over.
Kelso's stupidly large grin reappeared as though he'd not heard the words "he wasn't exactly thrilled" at all, "See, I'm like, totally likeable."
Margot kissed his cheek, her eyes sadly straying to Hyde's as she saw the disdain lingering in his gaze as his eyes were on them too.
Her emotions were far too conflicted to justify speaking to him in private again, fearing that she'd only hurt him and be unable to contain her feelings before she'd had the conversation with Kelso about their relationship. She so strongly wished she'd broken up with him already, but perhaps waiting was for the best.
She just willed more than anything that her relationship, whatever state it was in right now, with Hyde would not be ruined forever by her stupid attempt to pretend she wasn't head over heels in love with him.
They seemed okay, making jokes, laughing and making light conversation with each other. But it didn't take a genius to see that they were not as they used to be and things wouldn't be right until they were.
In the meantime, Hyde's brain whirred with thoughts of how to talk to Margot about what had happened. Immediately dismissing it had been stupid, he knew about as much, but he didn't know how to address this without potentially messing things up.
And so, that evening, as the group piled into both Eric and Kelso's cars to head for Margot's house, both Hyde and Margot's minds thought of nothing but eachother whilst their eyes looked at anything but.
——— ok guys i had so much trouble finishing this chapter and it's shorter than usual purely cos it's a little bit of a filler — omg i can't wait to publish chapter eight i'm so excited lmao but anyway i hope this was okay!
thanks so much for all the support it's insane you're all incredible ❤️ —lou
