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It started with “i miss you” texts. Glinda hadn’t stopped blowing up Elphaba’s phone with calls and messages ever since she heard the news that Elphaba Thropp, her Elphie, was declared dead in an accident. She had recovered from months of depression and started to go outside again, but that might have just worsened her grief because she was reminded of her time with Elphaba everywhere she went. Once again, Glina picked up her phone when she was back in her room, alone, and sent a message to Elphaba’s number.
“please tell me this is all just a prank, elphie…”
With her messages appearing as green, she figured she could keep sending texts to Elphaba’s number as long as they hadn’t sold it off to someone else. It was an act to keep Elphaba alive in her heart—to keep talking to her Elphie as if she was still here beside her, even though all she felt was dread every time she saw her messages being green. It didn’t stop her, though.
Just green messages and her teary eyes. Alone in her room in the middle of the night. Unrequited and unreachable. But she sent them anyway. Once a day. Twice a day. Thrice a day. She kept sending texts to Elphaba’s number, hoping it would appear blue again, but it was just wishful thinking. She knew it wouldn’t.
It became a ritual for her to send a text to Elphaba’s number whenever there was a good occasion worth celebrating or a beautiful scenery. She would send messages to share a little moment of happiness that had happened to her. Sometimes, it would be about gossip she knew Elphaba would like to hear. Some other time, it would be how her day was, how exhausted she got, whining through texts like how she would when Elphaba was here, because there was no way Galinda Arduenna Upland would EVERRR stop bothering her Elphie! Not even in death! Naturally, the rate of her messages to Elphaba increased from sporadic to occasional, occasional to casual, and casual became frequent.
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Glinda had been sending texts to Elphaba's phone number for over a year now. The stray cat she fed on her morning walk, how she didn’t like the new acai place near her home, an old lady baker from her usual pastry place she befriended last week. It was all updates of her everyday life now, and it felt just like the old times when her Elphie was here, just not-so-in-person and not responding. But Glinda didn’t mind it. She still liked to tell Elphaba about her day, even if she wasn’t here anymore.
Some people looked at her with pity. Some people just regarded that she was still coping with the loss of her “best friend”. Glinda cared none about that, which was so unlikely of her to not care about how she was perceived. It was a lesson she learned from being with Elphaba so much: to be herself and do whatever the hell she wanted! Glinda decided some time ago that this was how she would lead her life from now on. She couldn’t care less if others thought she had lost it. Maybe she had, but she didn’t care either. You could say that she has changed for good…
Glinda didn’t hug Elphaba's hat and cry herself to sleep anymore. But sometimes, just sometimes, she would hug Elphaba's cloak to remind herself of her dearest’s scent, to keep Elphaba in her memories alive.
So once again, it was Tuesday morning. Glinda snapped a picture of the strawberry cream croissant and strawberry matcha latte with oat milk that she got on her way to work and sent it to Elphaba’s number. It has become her daily routine by now. Glinda smiled at her delivered messages and went on with her day. She had wondered if someone else would be using Elphaba's phone number soon. What would she do then? She hasn't run into a problem so far, and it's been over a year now. So, as long as this number existed, she would continue to send messages to it.
˚ ✦ . . ˚ . . ✦ ˚ . ★⋆. . ˚ ✭ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ ✭ . . ˚ . ✦
Elphaba felt her eyes warming up with tears every time she looked at Glinda’s messages. She didn’t mean to keep indulging herself in Glinda’s lovely words that appeared on her screen at least four times a day, approximately seven messages each time, no. It was not her intention. This wasn’t why she decided to keep this phone number. She kept telling herself that.
Other people would think it might be odd of her to still use this phone number when she was so determined to cease to exist in public. She even faked her own death for the sake of it, but she couldn’t change her phone number for it? It didn’t make sense. Elphaba thought so, too, but her excuse to herself was that she had been using this number as long as she could remember having a cell phone. It WOULD be a hassle to go over every little thing she signed up with this phone number and request a change to a new one. Plus, she was busy preparing the operation to fake her death anyways. Now, she got busy settling into her new life. Why bother, right?
Right.
At first, she got a cheap flip phone to put her number in. Its only function was to see who was calling her because she needed to lie low before she could assume her new identity. She also knew Glinda all too well that she would be spamming Elphaba’s phone with texts and calls, so she needed to be cautious not to pick up, too. She should ignore it. She really should…
Elphaba replaced her flip phone with a cheap android smartphone because Glinda’s name in the notification got too tempting, especially when it popped up every day! She made sure the smartphone had an option to turn off read receipts. It was to check up on Glinda silently, to know how Glinda was holding up with the grief, because it was killing her inside when she was carrying out this whole scheme. Elphaba knew how much her “death” would affect Glinda, yet it was better this way. This was the only way she could protect Glinda—to erase her existence from Glinda’s life.
The more and more frequent Glinda sent her messages, the more relieved and quicker to break Elphaba got. Relieved that Glinda was doing better each day while thinking of her, but on the verge of breaking out of guilt and the missing presence of a certain blonde.
Elphaba herself got used to Glinda’s daily texting schedule as well. She woke up to Glinda’s good morning messages. She stumbled to get lunch when Glinda sent her a picture of her meal. She started cooking dinner as Glinda described what she was eating to end her day. She dropped a knee on her bed while staring at Glinda’s goodnight wishes on her screen.
This was Elphaba’s way to stay connected to Glinda. It was nice for a while, but it still felt empty. Elphaba felt empty. She wanted so badly to reply to her beloved blonde’s messages, telling her how beautiful she was, how perfect her outfit looked, and how much she also missed Glinda’s warm hands on her face.
It wasn’t helping at all when Glinda’s smile in each selfie was getting brighter and brighter each time. Elphaba had just learned that humans could feel emotional heartache physically, and she thought she had studied everything there was about the human body. Glinda was living without her. Glinda was doing fine without her. Glinda was DOING just FINE without her. Elphaba secretly prayed that Glinda would never move on, that Glinda would always mourn for her, long for her like she did for Glinda. It was selfish and ironic. Despicable, even. Yes, she thought that Glinda should suffer in grief for the rest of her life for her. Yes, she thought that Glinda should never stop calling out for her until her last breath drew. Elphaba felt pathetic for ever having these thoughts, but, oh god, she couldn’t stand the reality where Glinda finally moved on and felt happiness that wasn’t created by Elphaba herself.
Nevertheless, all she could do was to pray to the gods she never believed in.
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As Elphaba spiraled down in her own misery, she realized she needed something of Glinda to ground herself, but she literally had nothing of Glinda in her possession but a single dry flower. She cursed herself for it.
It wasn’t until one day when Glinda was heading to the beach and sent a message to update Elphaba. She was already doing her daily routine at the same time as Glinda did, so why not take it to another step? If Glinda was going to the beach, then Elphaba was to! Although she had to put on a disguise and drove a 2 hours to get to the nearest lake near her place, since the area she settled down was in the middle of nowhere. Oh, Glinda was at a winery? So was Elphaba! Glinda was volunteering at a cat shelter for the weekend, so was Elphaba! Glinda went to see a musical, and so did Elphaba! Glinda had fun at the local Christmas event, so Elphaba did too! Just… across the world.
Every little activity Glinda participated in, Elphaba made sure she did as well, on the other side of the globe. Her room was decorated with souvenirs she bought from each place she visited with Glinda. If anyone ever visited Elphaba’s place, they would assume there was another person living there with the amount of pink stuff Elphaba had, contrasting her own aesthetics.
It was the only way she could think of to feel as if she was still next to her beloved blonde. She went as far as to search for every perfume, lotion, and body wash she could get her hands on and found the scents Glinda usually wore. Of course, she remembered. She remembered exactly how Glinda Arduenna Upland smelled. A mixture of floral fragrances with sweet smells of red apple and nectarine, yet there’s a hint of sugary sweets in there. Whimsy and bubbly. Just like her golden-haired angel. Her Glinda.
Elphaba never stopped spraying Glinda’s perfume on the pillow next to hers.