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Galinda wasn’t sure why she felt the need to torment her roommate tonight. They had been coexisting rather peacefully–or at least without spending every waking minute finding ways to annoy one another–for about a week now.
Galinda’s decision to tell off her friends from their teasing of Elphaba, and the green girl's subsequent help with Galinda's fumble with the acid in their shared chemistry lab seemed to have put an end to their stupid feuding. She even found the girl’s company comforting at times, though she would never mention that to Pfannee and the others.
Something about the way Elphaba looked at her, as if she could see right through the facade Galinda put on everyday with makeup and expensive dresses, was refreshing to the blonde. She was the one person Galinda could be around and not have to worry about her hair or her outfit, simply because she truly didn’t care what Elphaba thought.
At least, that’s what she told herself. Secretly, a part of her, a very small part, lit up at the small glances of approval her roommate would give her when she finally did her homework on time or chose not to spend an hour in the bathroom each morning curling her hair.
Galinda missed those looks, even the harsh ones, now that Elphaba seemed to spend all her time ignoring Galinda’s existence. Sure they weren’t enemies anymore, but Galinda wanted desperately to truly befriend Elphaba, and she was almost certain that Elphaba desired something of the same. They were stuck in a sort of limbo, neither side daring to make a move that may result in the breaking of the tentative relationship they had struck up. Eventually someone had to take the first step toward making causal interactions a more common occurrence, and clearly that burden had fallen on herself.
Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Galinda feigned uncertainty as she looked between the two dresses hanging on the closet door. Elphaba didn’t even glance up from where she sat curled up reading in the corner of her bed against the wall. Galinda rolled her eyes, she had to do everything herself. She sighed again, louder this time. Elphaba turned the page of her book lazily.
Pouting, Galinda marched up to her roommate's bed, snatching the book from her hands. Elphaba looked up, unamused. “Can I help you?”
Galinda let out a breath, “Finally! You know it's not polite to ignore someone.”
“I wasn’t aware you were in need of my attention. I thought you were just having another existential crisis about a wrinkle on your dress.” Elphaba grabbed for the book, but Galinda pulled it out of reach. She narrowed her eyes, “Give me my book back.”
“What’s the magic word?”
“Just give it to me!” Elphaba jumped off the bed, trying again to snatch the book from the blonde’s grasp, but Galinda only danced further out of reach.
“Now, now Elphie, that’s not a very polite way of asking,” she chided.
Elphaba paused for a moment, eyebrows scrunched up adorably in confusion. “Elphie?”
Galinda blushed, “is that alright?”
“It's a little perky.” She made another grab for the book, but this time Galinda turned and ran across the room, vaulting over her bed.
Elphaba glared at her, forcing herself to walk calmly across the room. “Galinda, please give the book back.”
Galinda pretended to consider the request, tapping her chin as if deep in thought. “Hmm, no.”
“What?”
“No,” she smiled, waggling the book in front of her. “I want to see what's so interesting that it's taking up all of your time.”
“Can’t handle not being the center of attention, even for a minute. Pathetic.” There was Elphaba. “I’ll give you one more chance to give me the book.”
Galinda opened the book to a random page and began to read aloud. “Then you have to consider the drought from the munchkins perspective-”
Elphaba lunged at her, and Galinda laughed, dashing out of her reach again. “I thought you wanted me to start studying more!”
“Not with my book, you goof!”
They ran a lap around the room before Elphaba managed to corner the blonde by her desk. “Not so brave now, are we princess?” Elphaba took a step forward, smirking at the pout on Galinda’s face.
But this was her desk… Galinda reached behind her back, wrapping her hands around the spray bottle she used to do her hair and holding it out at arms length like she was brandishing a sword. “Stay back!”
Elphaba’s face paled as she took a stumbling step backwards. Galinda thought she saw a flash of fear in her dark brown eyes, but her expression fell back into annoyance so fast she almost thought she had imagined it. Almost.
“Forget it.” Elphaba headed back to her bed, pulling her blanket up around herself and facing away from the blonde. “I was almost done for the night anyways.”
Galinda frowned, walking over to set the book on Elphaba’s dresser. She didn’t understand the girl’s problem. One minute they were teasing each other, the next Elphaba was shutting her out. Something wasn’t right. She had only seen Elphaba scared once before, when Galinda had gotten a hold of the green bottle Elphaba kept under her pillow.
She shook her head, grabbing her own nightgown from the closet and heading in the bathroom to wash up. After changing and undoing her hair relatively quickly, Galinda turned on the tap, splashing her face with water to cool off and get rid of the frustrated blush that still colored her cheeks. She turned off the facet, letting the water drip down her skin, before drying her face on her towel that hung alone by the door. Suddenly, it struck her that Elphaba never had a towel. In fact, she had never heard the girl shower. Slowly she began to piece together an idea of why her roommate looked so scared.
When she emerged from the bathroom, Elphaba was still lying facing the wall, though from the tension in her form it was clear she wasn’t asleep. Galinda sat down on her own bed, trying to work up the courage to ask her roommate the question that was nagging her. She fiddled with the hem of her nightgown, scrunching and un-scrunching the fabric the way she always did when she got nervous.
“I can feel you staring at me.”
She didn’t respond. The bundle on Elphaba’s bed shifted.
“Galinda, I swear to God-”
“You can’t touch water, can you.”
Elphaba stiffened.
“That’s what it is, isn’t it. You’re allergic to water.”
Elphaba sat up, glaring at Galinda dangerously. “What makes you say that?” It came out as barely more than a whisper.
She swallowed. “I never hear you turn on the tap, I’ve never seen you drink straight water, you never leave the room when it's raining no matter how much I wish you will, and just now you acted like I was holding you at gunpoint.”
Elphaba squeezed her eyes shut as Galinda rambled, and she could have sworn the green girl was trembling. So she was afraid then. Galinda hadn’t even thought Elphaba knew fear. Suddenly Elphaba seemed so very human.
“Why do you care all of a sudden?” Elphaba’s voice had hardened again, her foot tapping on the ground.
Galinda huffed in frustration. “I don’t, I was just curious.”
Neither girl spoke for a moment. Galinda felt like she had uncovered some great secret, though she couldn’t understand why Elphaba was so afraid. If she had told her about the allergy sooner, she never would have joked around with water like she had been, right? Though she wondered if she had known at the beginning of the year… No. No one could be that cruel. But now Elphaba’s fear seemed a lot more reasonable. She glanced down at her hands.
“I won’t tell anyone.”
Elphaba let out a huff of laughter, though it sounded a little forced. “I find that hard to believe.”
“What happens if you do, you know… touch it?”
“Remember how you burned your arm with the acid in chemistry the other week?”
Galinda winced at the memory, and Elphaba let out a weary breath.
“It feels like that” Her voice had gone uncharacteristically quiet.
“I’m sorry,” Galinda muttered, though she wasn’t exactly sure why she was apologizing.
Elphaba seemed to shake herself out of the trance she had been in, looking back up at Galinda with a scowl. “Look, if you breathe one word of this conversation to your pretty little friends I will make it my personal life's goal to make every last one of your days here miserable.”
The green girl didn’t scare Galinda, at least not like she used to, but something held her back from making a snarky retort. The truth was, she was scared of what her friends would do if they found out. She didn’t trust them as much as she told herself she did. She wouldn’t wish physical pain on anybody, not even someone as vile and vulgar and a pain in the arse as lovely Miss Elphaba. Besides, she owed her for helping her out the other day, even if she was just repaying a favor.
“I won’t. I promise.”
They didn’t breathe another word to one another as they lay back down to sleep. Even with her eyes closed tight, Galinda could still feel the tension radiating across the room. It didn’t help matters that a few minutes later she heard a small, shuddering gasp of air, as if her roommate was choking on a sob. Galinda curled tighter into herself, vowing that she would never let anyone use this against Elphaba.