Here's Chapter Three! I'm loving the reviews, guys! Keep them up. :D

And a special shout-out to my dear bestie, Liasis, for beta-ing even though this isn't her fandom. :)

Disclaimer: Wicked has never, does not, and will never belong to me. :(

Elphaba reached the dorm room only seconds after Galinda had slammed the door. She opened it cautiously, aware of the fact that she could easily be pelted with bottles of fingernail polish. However, this fear was ungrounded. Galinda was merely sitting on her bed, looking extremely confused and hurt.

"Galinda?" Elphaba asked tentatively.

"What do you want?" Galinda asked, in an attempt at being cold.

"Whatever you want," Elphaba said simply. "Would you like to talk about what Avaric said?"

"Of course not," Galinda replied, "there's nothing to say for baseless gossip!" She opened her mouth as if to say something more, but snapped it shut again and crawled under the blankets. "Now, if you don't mind, I am going to take a little nap. I truly do not feel well." She rolled away from Elphaba's concerned eyes and pretended to be asleep.

Elphaba knew she wasn't sleeping, but she also knew that Galinda needed some time alone. Gently, she approached the pink coverlet and tucked the girl in. She wished she could do more, but she knew the uncharacteristic tenderness would probably only disconcert her. She gathered her bag and left for the library.

When the door had clicked shut behind the green girl, Galinda rolled back onto her back, accidentally undoing the constriction of Elphaba's tucking-in. She immediately regretted it, and then she immediately regretted regretting it. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was about Avaric's words that had so unsettled her. Her first inclination was that she feared the damage of her reputation. But no, it wasn't that. She felt strangely detached from how others viewed her on this matter. Her second inclination, although she fought it, was that she had been so affected because she feared that his words might contain some granule of truth.

It was true that she had never consciously thought of Elphaba in such a manner. Not with any fully-formed thoughts. She guiltily remembered a couple less-than-proper dreams she had had on the subject of her roommate, but that was beyond her control. Besides, she told herself, dreams like that were bound to occur when you spent a lot of time with someone. She pointedly ignored the fact that she had never had such a dream about Pfannee or ShenShen. If she had enjoyed recalling them after waking, it was simply because her mind was still, on some plane, occupying the dreamscape. With a sheepish start, she assured herself that her mind must still be occupying the dreamscape of the long-past dreams.

Avaric had mentioned touching. But surely that was unfounded. She rarely touched Elphaba, and if she did, it was only in the platonic way between ordinary friends. For example, today at the picnic, she had hardly come into contact with the green girl at all. Galinda suddenly realized how she must have looked to her friends, her head in her roommate's lap, contentment written all over her face.

Oh.

But that, she quickly justified to herself, was just because she knew Elphaba would play with her hair. It wasn't because she wanted contact with the girl, she just wanted to have her hair played with. A sneaking voice in the back of her head supplied her with a question. How did you know she would play with your hair? Well, of course she had known, because Elphaba had done it before! And how did you convince her to do so in the past? Galinda realized that she had never specifically asked for the treatment, it was just always given when her head was near Elphaba's lap. And how did you discover this the first time? Suddenly, Galinda remembered, in vivid detail, a moment back when she and Elphaba had first become friends. Elphaba was sitting in front of the fireplace, puzzling over her math homework, and Galinda had come to join her and read her magazine beside her. As Galinda had flipped through the articles about impressing the men of Oz, she kept glancing over at her roommate. She remembered feeling a feverish need to touch her, maybe to encourage her with her homework, or maybe just because she wanted the contact. Unsure of how to initiate the contact, Galinda had fidgeted uncomfortably for a few moments before stretching out on her back and placing her head into Elphaba's lap. Elphaba had seemed rather shocked, but once she had relaxed again, her fingers had begun weaving through the golden curls.

Galinda shut her eyes tight, wishing the unbidden memory had not surfaced even though it bizarrely gave her a tiny smile. But why did it matter? It was innocent. It wasn't like she spent every moment touching her. Sure, as the semester had gone on, they had taken to sitting together on one bed to do homework, but that was only because Galinda so often needed help with her assignments. Galinda fervently tried to ignore the thought that wormed its way into her brain, scornfully reminding her of the fact that she had often faked needing help in an attempt to get Elphaba to sit beside her.

And it was true that since becoming friends, they were often quite close to one another. In the mornings, when Galinda found herself primping in the bathroom at the same time as Elphaba was braiding her hair, their shoulders always seemed to end up brushing for the duration of their time getting ready. She told herself that the bathroom was tiny. It just wasn't equipped to handle two people at once.

No. That one wasn't true. They had plenty of space to avoid the contact if they wanted to.

Galinda felt like crying. What if everyone, including Elphaba, had noticed this? What if Elphaba thought she was weird or creepy for always being so close to her? Her friends probably all discussed it when she wasn't there. They had probably called her a freaky lesbian.

No. No no no no no. She couldn't be. She had dated the elite men of Shiz, and every other male at Shiz wanted her. She and Fiyero had been the most popular couple in school. She had kissed him, for Lurline's sake! Sure, she had thought of other things while he was kissing her. And when he tried to sneak a hand up her bodice, she had held her breath and wished to be elsewhere. But that was because she just wasn't ready for that yet.

You could be ready if it was Elphaba, the cruel voice in her head sneered.

No! She had never contemplated the green hands on her body, the contrast in the skin tones. She had never imagined the green girl's lips moving gently on hers as the long, cascading black hair tickled her skin...

"That is quite enough of that," she said aloud and sternly to herself. "You are being ridiculous."

But was she? She buried her face in her pillow and weeped until she slipped into sleep.