NOVEMBER 1972

"Get your nasty pits out of my face!" Juniper giggled as Hyde teased her on the bus. His arm was extended so he could reach to the handlebar hanging from the ceiling, and he had lifted the arm closest to her, just to tease her. Being an eleven-year-old, he could barely grasp the yellow stick of metal, but Juniper was significantly shorter than him, and this gave her an unobstructed view of his underarms.

"So don't put your face in my pits!" he taunted. "It's not like you're pressed for space in this shithole!"

Hyde ignored the looks he got from adults on the bus as June sneered at him. "Fine, then!" she scoffed.

His face hardened as she whipped her head around and started walking toward the other end of the bus, her lengthy golden hair nearly smacking him in the face. Hyde grabbed her by the waist before she got any closer to the shady guys in the bus's corner. "Stay close, will ya?" he mumbled.

June grinned cheekily up at him. He was obviously trying to appear as if he wasn't concerned, but that clearly wasn't the case, and Juniper appreciated it. Her parents had begun to let her use public transportation, but only if Hyde was around. They had entrusted Hyde with protecting her should the need arise, and he was determined to do so.

"Wipe that grin off your face, Clark," he chided as he pulled her into his chest. "You look like the fucking Joker."

"Piss off, Stevie, you know you love me."

Hyde rolled her eyes at her. "Come on, this is our stop."

Juniper let him pull her by the hand out of the glass doors and onto the curb, where she quickly recovered from a stumble. Within ten minutes, she unlocked the door to her home and let Hyde in before shutting it behind them.

Hyde braced himself, ready for the question she would inevitably ask. June turned on her heel, biting her lip in a futile attempt to conceal her bubbliness.

She finally spit it out. "Can we?"

He let his head roll back and groaned. "Junie, we do this every week."

"C'mon, it's Friday! Mike's at tutoring and my parents don't come home until later."

Hyde smirked at the blue-eyed girl, his curls bounced as he tilted his head down. "It sounds like you're implying something dirty, Juniper."

June raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Hyde. I thought you were going for Donna, anyway."

They had started walking up the stairs to Juniper's poster-covered bedroom, and the tips of his ears reddened as he plopped down on the neatly-made bed and opened his arms for her. Sure, he had a thing for redheads. But as Juniper laid down next to him and snuggled into his chest, he was reminded once again that he also had a thing for June.

June quite liked the little cuddle sessions she had with Hyde every Friday after school. He was built extraordinarily well, especially for an eleven year old. He had grown quite quickly, and he was easily one of the cuter boys in her grade, even in her school. His arms were strong and she enjoyed being wrapped up in them. Not that there was anything romantic between them. No, she thought she made it clear that she wasn't interested in Hyde that way. They were best friends, after all. The only one who came close to their relationship was Michael, but best friends couldn't have romantic feelings for each other.

Steven and Juniper had warmed up to each other greatly since they first met, especially with all the time spent on the bus together. They were inseparable, partners in crime. Eric was always considered Hyde's best friend, too, but he was too scared to do any of the risky stuff that June dared to do.

Juniper, wanting to fit in with Michael's friends, had taken the first puff of the joint that cold winter's day that she met the gang, and getting high had already become something of a tradition for the whole group. The Circle, they called it. The only one who didn't frequently participate in it was Donna.

Hyde became suddenly aware of the way Juniper's breasts pushed against his side every time she took a deep breath. It wasn't like they were huge, but her body had started... developing a bit early, and the boys had definitely noticed.

Hyde had learned about the more mature topics in the beginning of the school year, which was inevitable when he awkwardly stood around with the older kids to make himself seem cooler. The new information allowed him to think about new things. Dirty things. Things that he shouldn't have been thinking about the girl lying beside him.

"You're weirdly quiet today," said Juniper, fiddling with a piece of lint on Hyde's navy-blue t-shirt.

Steven swatted her hand away from the lint, and when she swatted back, he grabbed it and held onto it. He swore he could feel his shirt heat up where her cheek was resting. No, he was sure it was just his imagination.

Juniper lifted her head and peered up at him. "Hyde?"

He hummed in response. "Mm?"

"You do like Donna, right?"

Hyde wasn't prepared for that question. It was even worse now that she was looking at him. She knew that little quirk of his where his ears reddened when he was flustered all too well. She knew almost everything there was to know about him, and there was no way he could weasel his way out of her question at that point.

June watched him expectantly, and when he didn't say anything, she frowned slightly. Why did he get so embarrassed whenever Eric or Mike mentioned girls, then?

Hyde watched as her eyebrows knitted together and the corners of her mouth turned down. He didn't want to upset her or stress her out, but what was he supposed to say? He wasn't going to lie to her, not when it could possibly make any chance he had with her vanish.

"Stevie?" Juniper mumbled, her eyes flitting across his face as she tried to decipher his thoughts. "Look, if you don't want to answer the question, you don't have- oh!"

Juniper jumped as Steven pulled her face up to his and crashed his lips against hers.

So that was what a kiss felt like.

Juniper decided that she enjoyed it.

She amateurly attempted to follow his movements, and managed to kiss him back without making it gross. He seemed practiced and confident, like he knew what he was doing, but she knew this probably wasn't the case.

Juniper snaked her arms up around his neck and sat herself up to kiss him at a more comfortable angle, the way she saw the actors do it in the rom-coms she went to watch with Donna.

Steven gently pulled away from her and watched as she panted in front of him. Juniper panicked. Did she do something wrong? Why did he pull away?

His lips twitched into an amused smile. "You can breathe, y'know."

June couldn't speak. She couldn't move. She didn't know what to do. She had just kissed her best friend. And she loved it.

Steven straightened himself out, brushing that piece of lint from his shirt.

"This, uh..." she swallowed. "This doesn't mean we have to be...?"

"No, it doesn't," he said softly. "Unless you want to be."

Juniper shook her head minimally. She did her best to ignore the speck of disappointment in his eyes. "Sorry, I just... that was really cool." He laughed. "But I don't..."

"Like me," he finished for her.

"No, of course I do!" June sputtered. "I just don't... like like you."

Hyde offered a kind smile. "Yeah, I get that. You like Kelso, don't you?"

Juniper grinned sheepishly. "I think you know the answer to that."

He ruffled her hair. "Yeah, I do. Now give me a hug, you little string bean."

≛

MARCH 1972

"I've got her!" Michael Kelso paraded around his house with Juniper clutched in his arms. "You'll be safe with me, milady!"

Casey leaned against the kitchen counter across from them. Bored, he scraped off the cream on his sandwich cookie with his front teeth before shoving the chocolate cookie into his mouth. "Michael, I'm over this already, and I think June is, too."

The brunette looked down at June, heartbroken. "Are you really?"

"You've been pretending to save me for an hour now, Mike," she chuckled, patting his cheek.

Michael nearly dropped his Buggy on the ground as he attempted to set her down on her feet, but he steadied her easily.

"So, are you two going out yet?" Casey asked nonchalantly.

The two in question looked at each other. Did everyone know about their crushes?

"No, c'mon, man," Michael laughed lazily, punching her lightly in the arm. "She's Buggy! I don't think of her like that."

Michael was a terrible liar, and boy, did Juniper know it, but his words still stung. She tried to brush the feeling off and instead focus on the butterflies in her stomach. Maybe if her instincts were right and he actually did like her back, they could have been something more than friends.

Casey looked to Juniper for approval of his younger brother's statement and she nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah, we're just friends."

Casey didn't buy their bullshit, of course, but he was eleven and twelve at a point in his life. He understood not wanting to tell his relatives about his crushes. It wasn't like he was going to go yapping to his father about his girlfriends any time soon.

"Alright, well, good luck with that," Casey snorted. He shoved one last cookie into his mouth before leaving the two to stare at each other in silence.

≛

(not) brought to you by the lint on hyde's shirt

(not) brought to you by casey's sandwich cookies

(not) brought to you by maybe i'm amazed - paul mccartney

brought to you by lissy <3