Driven Apart
CHAPTER 1: A New Experience
"Galinda, isn't this –"
"What?"
"Isn't –"
"Speak up, Elphie, I can't hear you!"
"Precisely my point," Elphaba muttered. "Isn't this music a bit too loud?!" she yelled at her best friend.
"The louder, the better!" was Galinda's shouted but no less bubbly reply.
Elphaba sighed and returned to her corner, thick book in hand. She didn't know why she ever bothered coming to Galinda's parties. To appease your best friend, a voice in her head told her. "I know," she grumbled to it quietly.
"You know what?"
Startled, Elphaba's head flew up, causing her hair to fly into her face and her glasses to slip down her nose. "Um, nothing," she managed to choke out through her shock as she stared into a pair of bright, blue eyes. She quickly brushed her hair out of her own dark eyes and pushed her glasses back up to where they belonged.
"No-one would believe that." Fiyero chuckled as he sat himself beside the green-skinned girl.
Elphaba's breath caught when he did so. If staring into those eyes wasn't breath-taking enough, sitting in such close proximity to him…
"Elphie?"
"Huh?" Elphaba blinked. Realizing Fiyero was staring at her as though she were mad, Elphaba suddenly felt very foolish. "Oh, sorry, you were saying?"
"I asked you what book you were reading. I figured you must have been reading a line from it."
"Oh." Elphaba felt somewhat relieved that was what he thought. It wouldn't do to seem odd to him. Well, even stranger, she corrected herself mentally. She held the book up for him to see.
Fiyero nodded upon reading the title. "Sounds…interesting."
Elphaba forced a smile. "It is."
There was a moment of silence until Fiyero broke it with, "Want to dance?"
"What?" Elphaba gaped at Fiyero.
"I said, do you want to dance?"
"Uh…" Come on, Elphaba, isn't this what you wanted? You're being asked to dance with Fiyero! Elphaba sighed. I know, but I don't dance. Besides, Galinda would hate me for dancing with Fiyero. Elphaba forced a tiny smile. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't dance." The green-skinned girl turned back to her book.
"You should."
"I know, but I don't."
"Come on, it will be fun."
"Reading is fun enough for me, thanks," Elphaba said firmly. There, she was starting to sound more like her old self.
"Right, that does it." Before Elphaba could react, Fiyero had torn the book from her grasp and hauled her up off the ground. "You're dancing with me."
Despite her efforts to remain seemingly-irritated, Elphaba couldn't help the quirky grin that lit up her face. "You're persistent, aren't you?"
"Yup," Fiyero replied with a matching smirk. As the music slowed somewhat, Fiyero put his hand in the small of Elphaba's back and pulled her quite close to his chest.
Elphaba barely managed to stifle a gasp at the close contact. She tried to suppress the reflex to pull away, and only just succeeded.
It did not, however, go unnoticed by Fiyero. "Are you okay?" he asked, searching her eyes in concern.
Elphaba thought she was going to melt into the floor. Thankfully, she didn't. "Um, yeah."
Fiyero raised his eyebrow.
"Sorry, it's just…it's all a new experience for me," the girl explained, blushing.
Fiyero nodded. "You'll have to do this more often, then, won't you?"
Not knowing how to reply, Elphaba merely left it as a rhetorical question. Soon she began to relax more, and gently rested her head on Fiyero's shoulder.
Unbeknownst to her, Fiyero smiled at this. Come on, tell her. You know you like her, a voice taunted him. You have to tell her. "Elphie?"
"Mmm?"
Fiyero waited for a few more minutes until the song had finished before speaking again. "I need to tell you something."
"What is it?" Elphaba had become self-conscious once more and her eyes darted around the room, hoping nobody had noticed her letting loose.
"Well, I can't tell you here. Uh…" He glanced around the room. Noticing a small storeroom nearby, he grabbed Elphaba's hand and proceeded to make his way over to it.
Elphaba gingerly removed her small hand from Fiyero's larger one, following him at a slower pace to ensure there was enough space between them so that no-one would get suspicious. She was almost there when she remembered her book. Quickly dashing off to retrieve it before something happened, she was back at the storeroom within half a minute. Hopefully, if anyone noticed her slipping into the storeroom, they would just think she wanted a quieter place to read.
As soon as she was inside, Fiyero turned her to face him.
Elphaba's heart began thudding rather quickly inside her chest. What was this, some crazy dream?
Fiyero gently prised her book out of her grasp. "What I have to talk about is serious," he began.
"Oh?"
Fiyero nodded and began pacing around the tiny, enclosed space. "You know very well that I'm dating Galinda."
"I should think everyone knows that." She was back to her rational self.
"I want to break it off."
"Oh?" Elphaba began to sweat. Wasn't this what she wanted? No, she told herself firmly. Galinda's happiness is important to me. "And why should this concern me?"
"I've realized that I've fallen in love with someone else."
"I still don't –"
"Elphaba."
She closed her mouth.
"You'll see in a minute." He paused. "I must have been in love with her for a very long time, but, as I said, I've only just realized. Tonight, in fact," he admitted.
"Fiyero, what are you getting at?" Elphaba frowned, puzzling over this new information.
"You're a smart girl, Elphie. If you haven't figured it out by now…"
The green-skinned girl threw him a quizzical glance. "Actually, I haven't."
Fiyero stopped his pacing and looked at her. "Really?"
Elphaba shook her head.
"Then maybe this will help." In one stride, he had her locked in his embrace and was kissing her. After a moment, he pulled back. "Maybe you see now."
Elphaba stared at him in shock. Surely it was some crazy dream. "Me?" she murmured dumbly, blushing furiously.
"Yes, you. I love you."
"But…but…"
"But what?"
"But why me? I mean, when you can have Galinda…well, in fact, when you do have Galinda…"
"You ask too many questions." Fiyero chuckled.
"Maybe I just want to make sure I'm hearing right," Elphaba defended herself.
"You are," Fiyero reassured her. "And if that isn't enough…" He trailed off and kissed her again.
Definitely a new experience.
