He figured this would be a nice surprise. When he walked in through the sliding back door, he expected to find his mother in the kitchen. He didn't. In fact, the first person he saw in the house was his dad. Red was coming down the stairs muttering something about the old macramé project that he'd kept in his room as one of the many clandestine places that Hyde used to store his stash around the house. His dad has barely noticed it was him. Eric's "Hey, dad" was answered with a simple "Eric" as though he'd never left.

By the time he'd hit the top floor of the house, he ran into Hyde coming out of his room.

"Hyde!" Eric cheered, seeing his best friend for the first time in months.

"Forman." Hyde deadpanned, similarly to Red but it hit Hyde almost immediately as Eric walked passed him. "Forman!" Hyde doubled back, trying to put himself between Eric and the open door to his bedroom. "When did you get back, man?" Hyde seemed to be shouting just a little bit.

"This morning." Eric answered. "When the country that you're teaching in experiences a tribal uprising, the US Embassy gets you out of there fast."

"You don't say." Hyde nodded slowly. "So, did you fill that bag I gave you or what?"

"Yeah, the Marines weren't too keen on me smuggling that on to the helicopter." Eric laughed a little. "I'll make it up to you."

"Beer?" Hyde nodded upward, his voice still louder than usual.

"Meet you down in the basement?" Eric tried to move around Hyde who slid into his path.

"How about we head down there now, man?" Hyde put a hand on his shoulder to try and turn him around.

"I've been wearing the same clothes for the last 28 hours, I kind of want to change." Eric shook his head. "I'll just meet you down in the basement." When he realized he couldn't stop him anymore, Hyde had to let Eric pass, even as he heard the pounding of Red's boots quickly coming back up the stairs. Hyde didn't need to turn around to know what happened next.

Eric stepped into the doorway of his room to see Donna's back, wrapped in the arms of some guy with girly hair who vaguely resembled a poor man's Andy Gibb. "Donna?" The sight of her making out with another guy in his room elicited something that resembled a whimper from Eric.

"Eric!" Donna jumped out of the guy's arms.

"Eric!" Red ran into the hallway right behind him.

"Eric?" The guy Donna had been kissing seemed to ask.

All at once, Eric felt a torrent of emotion roiling in his chest. Anger came first, touched lightly with hurt and some jealousy. That little voice in the back of his head told him that this was really his fault. He broke up with Donna, who was he to be upset? Still, the anger came first. He bounded into the room and raised his arm like he was going to hit the guy who had been kissing Donna.

Red was faster than his exhausted son. He grabbed Eric from behind and restrained him. Red turned him around and handed him off to Steven. "Get him out of here." Red instructed and Hyde clapped a hard hand on to Eric's shoulder to get him toward the stairs.

The elder Forman turned back into his son's bedroom. Donna hung her head to avoid his gaze. Randy looked nervous, like the kid who's caught trying to unwrap the presents before Christmas Day. "Randy, I think you should go home now." Red's voice was level. His arms were crossed in front of his chest. The younger man slowly dragged his feet across the carpet until he was out of the bedroom. "Of all the dumbass places to make out with your new boyfriend…"

"Mr. Forman, how was I supposed to know Eric was home?" Donna protested, feeling at once guilty and angry in her own right. Eric had hurt her. Eric had broken up with her but she was the one who was going to endure a Red Forman lecture now?

"You knew Kitty was home." Red fired back. "Do you really think she would have taken it better? It's the early afternoon, she hasn't had nearly enough Kahlua yet!"

"He broke up with me." A hard pressure was building up in Donna's chest. She didn't really want to cry but it felt like the only response that fit the moment. "I mean, what was I supposed to do?"

Red just stood there with his arms crossed. Donna had a point. But those two were never going to be able to manage distance. They'd grown up next door to each other. Eric hadn't landed on Okinawa. He'd loved exactly one girl in his life and he had from the time he was very young. Going to Africa was going to change things, it was going to change him. These two had spent as much time running away from each other the last few years as they had spent holding on to each other.

Hyde and Eric only got about halfway down the stairs together before Eric just couldn't take it anymore. He sped up and sprinted down the remaining stairs, through the living room and into the kitchen. Kitty was standing at the counter preparing dinner for that night, accompanied by the presence of an open bottle of Pinot Grigio. She didn't even look up from the oven when Eric breezed past her until he angrily threw the door open.

When Steven came into the kitchen shortly after, Kitty turned to face him. "I could have sworn I just saw Eric. I guess I just have him on my mind."

"Mrs. Forman that was Eric." Hyde pointed over her shoulder to the lanky frame of Eric Forman climbing in behind the wheel of the Vista Cruiser. Kitty hopped up and down a few times clapping her hands together trying to get a handle on her excitement.

"What's he doing home this early?" Kitty squealed

"He said something about a tribal uprising and the US Embassy getting everyone out of the country." Hyde was conscious of the brown paper bag in his back pocket since Red could come down the stairs at any moment.

"Well, why did he go rushing out of here so quickly without even saying hello to his mother?" Kitty sounded incredibly disappointed. It had been months since anyone had seen Eric. Weeks since she'd talked to him.

"He just walked in on Donna kissing Randy upstairs." Hyde's finger went from pointing at the driveway to pointing at the rooftop over their heads. His other hand slapped his thigh before drawing back and pushing the brown paper bag down deep into his pocket.

Kitty's mouth hung open. She knew that Donna had been making eyes at the new boy but she didn't know that it was so serious. Somewhere, deep in her mind, she always felt that Donna would end up with Eric. Even though it seemed like the two of them had some obstacle between them the last little while. "Tramp!" Kitty exclaimed before hating herself just a little bit. "Girls these days. I tell you in my day…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Red came into the kitchen. "Where'd Eric go?"

"He jumped in the Cruiser." Hyde answered.

"You knew he was home?!" Kitty turned on Red.

"I ran into him on the stairs." Red turned his hips back toward the door to the kitchen. "Lucky I did, I had to keep him from throwing a punch at Randy."

"Oh, Eric." Kitty's expression melted into motherly concern. "His heart's in the right place but Randy could have hurt him." Red headed for the door to the driveway to try and head Eric off before he could do something stupid behind the wheel of the Cruiser.

Just as Red got the door open, the Cruiser pulled out of the driveway leaving him standing there.

Behind the wheel, Eric was just lost in his own head. He flipped the radio on to WFPP. With Donna upstairs, there was no worry about hearing her voice coming through the stereo. "Good evening, guys and gals, this is Vanessa with the Vixen Hour here on WFPP. We're going to dedicate this hour to some of the Vixen's favourite heartbreak songs. First up, a little Grand Funk."

Sure enough, that Major C chord and Mark Farner's voice were the first two things to come blaring through the radio and Eric Forman could almost feel the universe mocking him.

I'm in love with a girl that I'm talkin' about

I'm in love with a girl that I can't live without

I'm in love but I must have picked a bad time

To be in love…

The same part of Eric that made him a Styx fan gave him a soft spot for some Grand Funk, but why couldn't they play "American Band" or "I'm Your Captain"? His fingers subconsciously drummed on the steering wheel as he tried to think about where in town he was going to go. He wasn't sure that he wanted to see anybody right now, but he also wasn't sure that he wanted to be alone with his thoughts either.

The last piece of mail that he'd gotten before being rushed out of the country was the letter from Jackie and Fez trying to warn him that they thought Donna was cheating on him with some guy named Randy. Well, he guessed, he'd just met Randy. In a way, he wished Red had just let him take a swing at the guy. In some ways, that had been Red at his most Yoda-like. Hate, after all, was not the path of a true Jedi.

He debated going to the Water Town. Hyde would know to find him there. But so would Donna. There probably wasn't a single spot in all of Point Place where Donna wouldn't know where to find him. Trying to avoid her might be pointless. But seeing her wouldn't make things any better right now.

All the stories coming back to me

About my friends and the people I don't want to see

The things they say I know just couldn't be true

At least not until I hear it from you

Then he thought about The Hub. Anyone could find him there but they might not go looking for him there. He might just run into Fez or someone who just wanted to hang out, maybe even someone who was interested in going for a drive for a while. He kind of wished Hyde had come with him, but everyone seemed to have a different place around here now.

Eric just felt lost.

Having his time in Africa cut short by the State Department meant that he would get full credit for going even though he'd been pulled out of the country early. He felt a little desperate right now, still a little raw. Yeah, he'd broken up with Donna but he hadn't expected her to move on so quickly. That letter he'd been sent had been dated just days after he'd broken up with Donna. Had she been seeing Randy even before they'd broken up?

He wondered now if they ever could have made things work. If she'd gone to Madison for school or even to Marquette. Could they have done it? Or would they always be the scrawny little neighbour boy and the hot girl next door? First loves but not lasting.

He pulled into the parking lot outside The Hub and put the car in park. Just as the refrain started pouring in over the radio at the end of the song.

You know that I love with the girl that I'm talkin' about

Yeah, I'm in love with a girl that I can't live without

I'm in love but it feels like I'm wearin' it out

I'm in love but it I must have picked a bad time to be in love

He slammed his palm on the steering wheel, turned the car off and headed into The Hub.