Disclaimer: Wicked (the novel) belongs to Gregory Macguire.
"I've come to say good-bye. I'm not going back with you to Crage Hall. I'll find a place to study on my own. I'll not be part of--Madame Morrible's--school--again--"
"No, no," cried Glinda, "I can't let you! Nanny will eat me alive! Nessarose will die! Madame Morrible will---Elphie, no. No!"
"Tell them I kidnapped you and made you come here, they'll believe that of me," said Elphaba. She stood on the mounting tread. A fat Glikkun female dwarf, having caught the gist of the drama, shifted to the more comfortable seat next to Glinda. "They needn't look for me, Glinda, for I'm not going to be findable. I'm going down."
"Down where? Back to Quadling Country?"
"That would be telling," Elphaba said. "But I won't lie to you, my dear. No need to lie. I don't know yet where I'm going. I haven't decided so I wouldn't have to lie."
"Elphie, get in this cab, don't be a fool," Glinda cried. The driver was adjusting the reins and yelling at Elphaba to sod off.
"You'll be all right," Elphaba said, "now you're a seasoned traveler. This is just the return leg of a voyage you already know." She put her face against Glinda's and kissed her. "Hold out, if you can," she murmured, and kissed her again. "Hold out, my sweet."
The driver clucked the reins, and pitched a cry to leave. Glinda craned her head to see Elphaba drift back into the crowds. For all her singularity of complexion, it was astounding how quickly she became camouflaged in the ragamuffin variety of street life in the Emerald City. Or maybe it was foolish tears blurring Glinda's vision. Elphaba hadn't cried, of course. Her head had turned away quickly as she stepped down, not to hide her tears but to soften the fact of their absence. But the sting, to Glinda, was real.
Glinda felt ill. She hadn't eaten a thing on the three day trek back to Shiz, and hadn't noticed when the dwarf woman snatched to food that Elphaba had given to her as she was leaving the carriage. She didn't care. She couldn't eat. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't make her hands stop shaking.
"Next stop, Shiz University! Shiz U up next!"
Glinda swallowed hard. She didn't want to face the school. She peered out the window as the buildings rose up around her and she squeezed her eyes shut tight. Seeing the place only cemented in her mind the fact that Elphaba wasn't beside her--that she didn't know where Elphaba was.
Seeing Shiz University only cemented that she didn't know what she was going to say to everyone.
She opened her eyes.
What was she saying? She had never in her life not known what to say, or at least she'd never admit to it. When she didn't know what she should say, she made something up. She always said something.
Glinda took a handkerchief and a hand mirror from the satchel at her feet and made her face presentable. She replaced her items and picked up the bag as the cab pulled up in the courtyard of the school. She lifted her chin as the door was opened and she held out a delicate, gloved hand to be helped down.
Her feet touched the cobblestones, and she looked up at the building. She paused for a long moment, uncertain, then set off determinedly towards the entrance as the carriage pulled away and moved off down the street.
"Glinda, dear, you look like death," stated Nanny simply when Glinda had stepped into her and Elphaba's--her room, she corrected herself. It seem that over the course of their voyage to the Emerald City, Nanny and Nessa both had expanded their residency into their room as well. How rude, thought Glinda, they don't even know she's gone yet.
"I'm sorry?" responded Glinda with purposeful blankness.
"You're pale as a ghost, child. What's happened to you? Didn't Elphaba make sure you ate on that trip? I swear, girls these days, always worried about gaining an inch or two on their waistline… when I was a girl, a few extra inches was considered elegant-"
"Nanny?"
"What? Oh, yes, right. Where is Elphaba, anyway?"
Glinda's spine went rigid. She'd been sure she could manage this. She could simply tell them the truth, couldn't she? Elphaba had surely always been an impulsive tart, why should now be any different.
Glinda wasn't sure why, but her tongue suddenly seemed far too large for her mouth.
"I don't know," she explained simply, and then she stepped around the woman and headed towards her vanity table, where she began to rifle through her satchel.
"You don't know? Did she take off as soon as you returned? Honestly, as if the girl couldn't at least stop in to say hello before jaunting off on another of her ridiculous conspiracy theory adventures," Nanny said with a roll of her eyes. Glinda trained her gaze on her own reflection and swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Elphaba didn't return home with me," she said as she smeared flesh-colored powder on her face, trying to give herself more color. "She left me alone at the carriage station in the Emerald City."
"Oh? Where'd she go, then?"
"I don't know. But she's gone. Someplace unfindable."
For the first time since Glinda had met the old woman, Nanny seemed absolutely speechless.
Boq sat silently on the bench in the garden. The air was cold against his bare cheeks, but he felt numb to it's sting. He felt numb regardless. He'd felt simply numb for over a week.
He'd heard her when Glinda informed him that Elphaba had disappeared. He'd accepted it, or he'd thought he had. It wasn't until he heard a professor call her name for roll in a class and didn't hear her tart reply that his mind actually focused on what was going on. Elphaba… Elphie… she was gone. His friend-- possibly his only real one… Possibly… his best one.
He left that class early… he claimed he felt ill, which wasn't altogether untrue. He did feel ill, but not in the common way. He felt ill at ease, and dizzy, and lost. What would he do without her? What would any of them do without Elphaba?
And so, there he sat. Lost and dizzy and frozen to the bench. He shoved his gloved hands deeper into his pockets and peered up towards the moon. It seemed unfittingly bright. He sighed.
He stopped his moon gazing at the sound of a snapping twig and looked down reluctantly. He found Glinda, a starch white coat draped around her petite frame, staring at him. Silently, he moved over on the bench slightly, and, understanding the meaning behind his simple action, she took a seat next to him, pulling her coat more tightly around herself as he looked back up at the sky.
"It's cold tonight," she said lightly. He nodded, then looked down at her. She herself had taken to staring at the moon, and he took the opportunity to really look at her. There were dark circles beneath her eyes, he noticed, and her hair lay somewhat flat about her head. He looked away when she noticed him eyeing her and they both looked down at their laps. They sat in uncomfortable silence.
"What did she say?" Boq asked, after a moment, and Glinda turned her head to him slowly.
"Oh…" she began, waving a tiny gloved hand dismissively. "This and that."
"Glinda…" he began again, he voice barely audible. He eyes grew glassy behind his spectacles, and she looked away, swallowing. "Please."
"She… she said she was going down," Glinda said after another long pause. Boq noted that her voice was a little higher than normal. "She said she didn't know where she was going, but that she would be unsinkable. And… and she said to hold out. Whatever that means."
At this, she gave a little awkward laugh, then inhaled sharply, wringing her hands in her lap. "She was always so very impulsive," Glinda added, and then she blinked. Boq watched her face as a single tear seemed to escape her, and he watched it slide slowly down her cheek.
He'd never seen Glinda cry before. He'd only seen her as perfect, put-together, and precise. But now, as he watched the shell that she built up around herself begin to crack, he found that he thought her to be even lovelier than he ever had. He believed that it was the first time he'd ever really seen her.
He timidly lifted his hand to her face and wiped her tear away with his thumb. She watched as he did this, and they gazed at one another for a moment before he withdrew his hand.
Before he could look away, she closed her eyes and leaned towards him, pressing her lips to his softly. She pulled back from him before he could react and she looked up at the sky once more. He sat motionless for a long moment, then did the same.
They didn't look at one another when he reached to take her hand, but rather continued to watch the sky. Their fingers laced together, and Glinda couldn't help but notice that they seemed to fit.