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Of Love and Loathing, Part 6/? by elphies_galinda, PG

Title: Of Love and Loathing, Part 6/?

Author: elphies_galinda (and galindas_elphie <3)

Rating: PG (except for ONE word. ^_^)

Summary: What is this feeling, so sudden and new? My heart is pounding, my head is spinning, and all I can think of is you…. Galinda comes bouncing into Room 22 one day with exciting news…but Elphaba’s reaction is not what she hoped for.

Disclaimer: Owning Wicked would be like the South owning slaves again. Not gonna happen. :P

Here are the links for the chapters, just to help out (thank you, Elphie, for getting me the links!!!!):

And the silence did reign for the next week or so, things mainly going as normal. Elphaba studied, read, and studied some more, more or less ignoring her roommate. Her feelings toward the blonde had changed, on the other hand… only slightly, but enough to make a difference. She rarely found herself angry or annoyed with the girl in the weeks that followed. Instead, she more or less just stayed out of Galinda’s way. She figured that her popular roommate must have grown more tolerant of her, as well, because the result was a few short, blissfully uneventful weeks before Fate saw it necessary to spice up the lives of the two unsuspecting college students.

Elphaba sighed contentedly, curled in her bed. It was late, and she had already dressed for the night in a dark nightgown flowing down to her knees, which she absently held to her chest. In her other hand she held a book up to the lamp on her beside table, her chocolate eyes darting back in forth over the pages, devouring the text. She bit her lip distractedly, her slim, verdant fingers easily flipping the page, almost ridiculously eager to discover what was passing for Animal psychology these days. It seemed not even a hurricane could shake her from her trance… though the bubbly blonde one that currently bounced down the hallway toward their room would surely give Elphaba a run for her money.

Galinda Upland merrily pranced through the corridors of Crage Hall, ignoring the many hateful stares and glares that she just knew would appear sometime in her quest. The sting of little victory would wear off eventually--they were just jealous. And jealous was what they should be. After all, not many could be as clever and brilliant as Galinda the Glorious.

Galinda the Glorious. Look at Miss High-and-Mighty now.

The blonde brushed off that thought--which sounded surprisingly like her roommate’s voice. Couldn’t she feel at least a little proud of herself? Finally she had done something to wipe the evil, condescending smirks off of Pfannee and Shenshen’s faces…and she didn’t have to resort to violence. Instead, she did something a lot more damaging--something that would bruise their egos as well as their self-esteems….

She giggled at the thought of them writhing in emotional pain as she neared Room 22. She couldn’t wait to tell Elphaba! While she knew the green girl wasn’t one for “superficiality”--the blonde couldn’t see what was so wrong with it--she knew Elphaba would enjoy hearing about societal bitches being put in their place…. Bitter much?

You bet I am….

The blonde opened the door to the dorm she shared and quickly closed it behind her. Finally she released a squeal, bouncing slightly on her heels. “Elphaba, guess what!” she exclaimed. Without giving the green girl a chance to answer, she blurted, “I’ve got a date with Fiyero Tigelaar!”

Elphaba glanced up at her roommate through horn-rimmed reading glasses, allowing them to slide down her nose so she could look over them. Fiyero… she mused silently, staring at nothing in particular while she tried to place the name. Fiyero, Fiyero, Fiyero… oh. Right. The little Winkie prince that showed up last week in Life Sciences.

The green girl was suddenly disgusted with the blonde. The Prince? Really? Of course, she could have - should have - expected such a thing from the shallow, hollow shell of a college socialite that stood before her. But a week? Ha! It seemed Galinda really could get down to business. Why, Elphaba would have thought that it would be maybe, oh, Lurline knows, two weeks before she had the royal, walking moneybag wrapped around her attention-hungry little finger? My my my, certainly fourteen days should have been soon enough - but it hadn’t even been seven.

“Hm,” Elphaba snorted, her body flinching with the action. She returned her attention to her much more attention-worthy book, trying to ignore the boiling that was beginning in her chest.

The all-but sparkling girl bounced in her delight, oblivious to the static tension that practically pulsed through the dorm room. She continued. “You should have seen the looks on the other girls’ faces! It was like I had just bought out an entire boutique and left nothing for them! They were furious!”

Galinda skipped over to her roommate, bouncing on the balls of her feet. From this angle she could see the sudden irritation that glinted in her eyes. Maybe this was one of her “don’t-touch-me-don’t-talk-to-me” days…. The blonde gently reached out to touch her shoulder. Her smile faded slightly, though it remained as positively radiant as ever. “Aren’t you happy for me?”

Elphaba shrugged the blonde’s hand away, snapping her book shut while she glowered up at her roommate.

“I think you’re pleased enough with yourself for the both of us,” the green girl all but spat, rising from her bed and crossing the room to set her book on her desk.

Galinda recoiled as if Elphaba had bitten her hand. She cradled it gently, gazing at her roommate with sad, confused eyes…. But then her resolve stiffened, and she glared just as dangerously back at the green girl. “What, I wonder, is that supposed to mean?” the blonde snapped.

So much for progress.

“Like you don’t know??” Elphaba shot back, storming across the room toward the door. What was with her? Elphaba Thropp never lost her cool! And yet here she was, rage burning in her chest while her eyes stung…

EYES STUNG?!?! What in the name of OZMA was going on?!

“What in Oz are you talking about?? I’m not a God-forbidden mind-reader!!” the blonde shrieked. Through her rising anger and confusion, her eyes stung with a bout of hot tears. NO. She would not let Elphaba see her cry. Not now. So she bit them back painfully, and shot daggers at the other girl in an attempt to break her down. “We can’t all be the great and wonderful Elphaba Thropp! The girl the teachers never have problems with, the one that always gets her way!”

She had no idea where that even came from, nor did she really care. It didn’t matter anymore.

“What are you talking about??” Elphaba cackled, willing her voice not to waver as she pushed past the little blonde to get to the door. She had to make it out, had to be alone before whatever was breaking inside her shattered.

“You’re the one who always gets her way!” Elphaba nearly shouted, her voice louder than it had ever been during one of their fights. She didn’t want to think about what that meant, opening the door to their room before turning back to glare at the blonde.

“Look at me, Galinda!” she cried. “I’m green!! I can’t… I can’t have whatever I want!!”

The door slammed shut.

Galinda flinched at the sharp sound of the door colliding with the jamb. Her anger quickly spiraled within her, rising and rising, wanting some way to release itself, until finally--

“You know what? You’re right!! Elphaba Thropp is right again! I always get my way, and I’ll be happier than you will ever be!!”

The blonde waited for an answer, only to receive nothing but silence. She stood alone, glaring at the blank door, her frustration and anger swirling like a mad vortex inside of her. But then, with nothing to feed it, the exasperation died to a slow, miserable feeling. Whatever she had fought to create between her and Elphaba was yet again compromised. Good job, Galinda.

Galinda fired one last glare at the door before turning away and hopping onto her bed. Still, Elphaba had no right to explode on her like that. She deserved it.

Elphaba flew down the stairs and out the door, the tears that stung her eyes beginning to fall down her cheeks. She hissed slightly in pain, furiously wiping them away as soon as they appeared. The skin on her fingers and beneath her eyes began to glow red, however, and the green girl tried to force the tears away. It almost always worked.

Tonight, however, it didn’t.

It was dark outside, and Elphaba blended in perfectly with the grass and the night in her dark nightgown. No one was around, and Elphaba thanked the Unnamed God for it as she collapsed, sobbing, onto a nearby bench. Sobbing. What was happening to her…?

She groaned, lying on her side and wiping at her eyes with her sleeves. The words she had shouted at her roommate rang over and over again in her head, tormenting her with their unknown meaning.

“I’m green!! I can’t… I can’t have whatever I want!!”

What did she want…?

The green girl sighed, closing her eyes and lying her arm over her face. The tears began to cease and the hurt behind her former rage began to calm, and she was thankful. She hadn’t known what any of it meant, and it would have driven her crazy. If it faded, however, she could ignore it.

Everyone breaks down. Even me, apparently. It’s normal.

Elphaba took a deep breath, though her heart still ached. She felt absolutely miserable, with no logical reason why.

She didn’t know how long she lay there, but the sun would come up not long before she returned to the room.

Galinda sighed as she stepped out of her baby-blue dress, almost immediately removing her brassiere and casting it to the side as well. She was sort of happy to be able to have the room to herself for once, just as was previously arranged between her parents and the school. The blonde walked over to the wardrobe and opened its doors, pawing through it for the nightgown she wanted….

“You’re the one who always gets her way!”

The blonde froze, her hand barely brushing the fabric of her favorite pink silk gown. Even with the green girl not there, the words that echoed in Galinda’s head still bit at her conscience. Why did Elphaba have to be right all the time…? Even she could barely argue with the fact that she was too spoiled for her own good. From a young age, the blonde girl always got what she wanted, from a diamond necklace when she was five years old to the most beautiful of gowns even today.

But there was one thing Elphaba didn’t get right. No one ever took Galinda seriously, and that is what she strove for the most.

That, however, was something that she gave up on a long time ago. No one would ever look at her like a normal person instead of a princess. Not even Elphaba, who seemed so different from everyone else….

The blonde sighed again as she slipped the silk nightgown over her head and onto her body. She padded over to her bed and laid down, reaching out to put out the lamp…but she stopped herself before she could touch it. Elphaba might come home soon, Galinda couldn’t help but think. It surprised her how one moment she could hate the girl so fiercely, yet in another she could be so concerned about her…. The blonde cast a glance outside her window before curling up in her bed and closing her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep, her dreams consisting of nothing but her green roommate.

Elphaba’s eyes stared at the ground below her, her unseeing gaze almost lifeless in its dull stillness. Her hand was pressed between the seat of the bench and her green cheek, and while her eyes flickered from time to time, her brain didn’t register the pebbles, the gently waving grass, or the shadows of night birds as they flew over her.

Her mind could either be moving a mile a minute, or it could be as still as she was; even Elphaba didn’t know. Thoughts passed through her head, as abstract as the breeze, and she was conscious of them for no longer than the second required for them to move on their way. She supposed she thought of many things, though there were few she would remember. One of these, which stood out above the rest, was the undeniable fact that while Galinda had somehow been the initial cause of her rage, it wasn’t the blonde herself that Elphaba was upset with. That confused her…

Suddenly she sat up, as if awakening from sleep. She glanced to the moon, which was high among the stars, and rubbed her swollen eyes. The green girl looked up to their dorm room window, her heart dropping when she realized that the light was still on.

Galinda was still awake…

She sat for what felt like hours, watching the window and willing it to go black. The blonde couldn’t see her this way… But try as she might, Elphaba could barely keep her eyes open. She wasn’t sure if Galinda had been able to either, but before long the raven-haired girl was almost too tired to care. She picked herself up off the bench, yawning while she shuffled into the building and up the steps to her shared room. No matter what was going on between her and her roommate, she refused to let it irritate her sleeping patterns, and thus her performance in class tomorrow.

Elphaba pressed a green ear to the crack of the door, listening intently for any sound coming from inside. The hall was silent and lifeless, and, apparently, so was her room. Her verdant fingers rested on the doorknob for a moment or two before turning it slowly, careful to keep the door from creaking as she opened it.

Her eyes immediately fell on Galinda’s form, curled in her pink monster of a bed, her side rising and falling rhythmically. She looked asleep…

Elphaba slipped silently into the room, closing the door with a nearly inaudible click. She tiptoed over to Galinda’s bed, peering down to get a good look at her face. Her heart caught momentarily in her chest, and her eyes softened at the sight of the blonde. Her curls lay strewn over the pillow in every which way, her cheek gently smooshed by the weight of her head and her full pink lips gently parted as she breathed. Try as she might, Elphaba couldn’t deny that the sight before her was nothing short of adorable… beautiful, even.

With no one around to see, the green girl let a small smile creep onto her face. Slender fingers reached out to gently stroke the golden waves, trailing over Galinda’s flushed cheek when they pulled away. Taking one last glance at her sleeping roommate, Elphaba stood to put out the lamp and quietly slip into her own bed.