Evangeline's skin underneath her fuzzy blue coat as she shoves open the front door of the Hub with her shoulder. The whoosh of the short-lived breeze across the threshold drags the attention of everyone in the room in her direction. Most quickly lose interest, but a handful linger until only one steadily remains.

Quickly averting her eyes, she scrambles to the counter, pulling her cross-body closer to her side. The dead-eyed worker asks her what she would like as she stands on her toes to peer at the tiny menu blocked by his triangular red and white hat. "An order of fries, and a cheeseburger," she says, sinking back down onto her heels. As the worker turns around to put in her order, she adds, "And a coke."

She grabs the coke the worker places on the counter, taking a slow sip from the straw as she scans the diner and its clientele. It's fairly occupied for a summer afternoon, a few groups of teens populate the few booths and tables the joint has to offer. A Zeppelin ballad plays over the jukebox where a couple stands staring deeply into each other's eyes. Evangeline's gaze wanders from the loved-up couple and lands on the curly-haired boy whose stare has remained fixed on her since she walked through the door. The raven-haired girl next to him shakes his arm to get his attention, but he brushes her off and says something Evangeline can't hear.

A ding from the bell on the counter alerts her to her finished meal and she thanks the worker before bringing her food to one of the few open tables near the now-making-out couple. At the table she pulls out a magazine to read while she digs in, and the food, she realizes, is still as mediocre as ever.

"What the shit, Jackie?" A loud outburst from the curly-haired boy, now sans glasses, quiets the room for a moment as everyone watches him pick up his eye-wear off the floor. One by one, groups resume discussions, but Evangeline decides it's her turn to watch him.

The friend looks down, a small smile on her face as the boy slips his glasses back up the bridge of his nose; she leans in close to the boy and whispers to him, but not quiet enough to keep her words from traveling to Evangeline's ears in the tiny restaurant.

"Do you know who that is?" Her coal-dark hair bounces as her head bobbles eagerly back and forth between Evangeline and the boy, perfectly manicured fingers subtly gesturing to the blonde who pretends to read her 'zine behind her own rose-tinted shades. "That's the girl whose brother killed himself. Yeah, yeah, remember? The great Point Place tragedy of nineteen-seventy? I remember it 'cause it rhymed." She giggles as if it's the funniest things she's ever heard; the boy clenches his fist slightly and looks away towards the door.

Evangeline knew people were going to talk the moment she returned to Point Place; it was probably the most exciting thing to happen in their small town since the Presidential visit she'd heard about two years ago. She knew they were going to talk, she just didn't think it would be this soon, or that they would broach such a sore topic with her sitting not six feet from them.

Evangeline closes her eyes as a memory engulfs her. The day she'll never forget. When she found him in his bathroom, the bottle of her mother's pills emptied beside him. With a shaky breath, she picks up her magazine and tries to read the article on seven ways to make the most of the summer to block it out. Her chest constricts tightly in on itself; she inhales deeply, holding it for a few seconds, before letting the air trickle slowly through her nose—just like her therapist had recommended her. Evangeline creates her happy place in her mind—the beach in South Carolina, the white sand between her toes, the sound of seagulls overhead, the boardwalk laid out for miles with hoards of teens and families having a good time.

Ripped from her happy place by the boy hissing at his companion to lower her voice, her mood dampens even further. He sinks deeper into the booth and hides his face with his hand.

The girl next to him rolls her eyes and pokes his side over and over. "Steven," she whines, laying her head back against the grimy red vinyl. Evangeline cringes at the thought of doing so herself. The girl must have had the same thought because she immediately lifts her head with a disgusted look and fluffs her hair with her hands. "Steven, remember? She lived down the street from Eric? Yeah, the yellow house with the white fence? And—didn't she used to be fat?"

The boy, Steven, blows an annoyed breath out from between clenched lips and shoves the girl's shoulder gently. Out of surprise, she topples over into the side of the booth, giving Steven an open-mouthed glare that could rival that of the sun on a cloudless day. "Jackie, shut up."

"What? It's true!" Jackie has completely abandoned all semblance of courtesy and given up her terrible whispering. She brushes off the invisible dirt from her sweater as almost everyone is now not-so-subtly listening in on their conversation. "I can't remember her name though. I think it was something with a V? No—a G! No—"

"Jackie," Steven says, glancing around at all the curious eyes that turn away as soon as he looks at them. "Will you please shut up?"

Jackie's eyes grow wide and she grabs Steven's arm with both her hands, squeezing tightly and bouncing in her chair. "Oh, Steven, I remember! Evangeline!"

Hyde's eyes flicker over to the blonde in question to find her staring straight back at him. Despite his denial that he doesn't embarrass, he feels the heat rising to his face. Evangeline takes a bite of her cheeseburger, the first she's taken since she sat down, and turns a page in her magazine. He knows she's heard every word of their one-sided conversation about her. A nauseous feeling rises up in the pit of his stomach and he can't figure out why. The food maybe?

"Jackie, just—go shop or something. Leave me alone." Hyde runs a hand through his hair and rubs a tired hand under his eye. Jackie purses her lips and stares at Hyde for a moment before harrumphing and storming out of the Hub noisily.

Hyde groans and closes his eyes. He and Jackie had been getting along fine for the last month since Donna and Kelso ran off to California, until that moment, that is. Since Eric has holed himself up in his room moping about Donna being gone and being angry that he didn't take her back and Fez has been mysteriously absent for most of the first few weeks of summer, that left Jackie and Hyde as the remaining members of their little group.

The first weeks had been going great—if great is having nothing in common with each other and only getting together out of habit.

Today, however, is not their day for growing closer at friends. As shitty a person as Hyde sometimes believes himself to be, he would never openly talk about a stranger's personal life within earshot of them. He, like a normal person, would wait until they left to talk about them. Unfortunately for him, Jackie was not a normal person and lacked the discretion required of one.

As Hyde watches her eat, in a completely non-creepy, simply observatory way, he feels the urge to talk to her and explain himself. Before he has the chance to change his mind, he dumps the untouched basket of now soggy and cold fries into the trash and takes a seat across from the blonde. She peers at him over the rim of her glasses, unimpressed. He clears his throat awkwardly and says, "Uh, hi."

"Hi," she says softly, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear and closing her 'zine so her fingers still mark the page she's on. "Can I help you?"

He clears his throat again, pushing up his glasses and shifting his position in his chair from sitting straight up to leaning on his elbows. "I just wanted to let you know that I wasn't talking about you."

"Okay," Evangeline says, shrugging and reopening her magazine.

Hyde furrows his brow as she ignores him and resumes reading. "I mean, my, uh, friend was, but she just has to stick her nose into everyone's business."

Evangeline hums and flips the page. Hyde frowns at her outward disinterest she stakes in his confession. Hyde's eyes flicker between the blonde in front of him and the couple still going at it against the jukebox.

"So," he starts, tilting his head and trying to catch her eye, "I'm just saying sorry." When there's no answer, he quickly adds, "For her. 'Cause she's kind of a bitch." When Evangeline continues to read in silence, Hyde sighs and scoots the chair back, ready to leave. Then he laughs, thinking back to his childhood and remembering Evangeline as the chubby kid running after him and Eric after they stole her scooter. "You know, you probably don't remember me, but my name's Hyde. You lived down the street from my friend Eric, like ten years ago."

Evangeline lifts her head, tilting it to the side as a slow smile gathers on her lips. "Of course, I remember you, Steven. How could I forget the first boy that ever kissed me?"

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