Frex pushed open the door to his home with such force that it rebounded back against the wall, and almost hit him. He dodged it, and took a quick dash up the creaky staircase, swerving the corner at the top.
Outside of her room, he was stopped by an obese maid, who put her firm hand upon his shoulder and shook her head. "You can't go in right now, Sir."
Frexspar didn't argue; he sat down in a rickety old chair and took a deep breath. "She's fine now, then?"
"You misunderstood my answer," said the maid, reluctant and stiff. "She's . . . um, a little better but she's not quite ready for visitors. . . ."
Frexspar's heartbeat sped up, but he didn't leave his seat. Instead, he nodded. "Alright, then," he responded stiffly.
* * * * *
"How was your date with Avaric?" Galinda asked indifferently, but was in reality teeming with wild curiosity. If she was right (and she usually was) she had made the perfect match.
"Alright," allowed Elphaba, but said no more.
Galinda was instantly suspicious. "What else? There's more?"
Elphaba's face was pinched up; the telltale sign that she was thinking carefully. She dropped her pencil that she was holding, and was distracted from her work. She excused herself momentarily to pick it up, therefore providing herself with time to word her response carefully. When she was seated again, Galinda's eyes were narrowed upon Elphaba's hands as the green girl wrung them together. "Well?" the blonde snapped.
"I was rather distracted the whole time," Elphaba confessed, looking blankly ahead. "And when I was paying attention, Avaric seemed to act a bit more . . . pronounced. Annoying. Like he was purposely trying to annoy me, which I'm certain was the intention. So, overall, the 'date' was alright."
Galinda seemed interested; for what reason Elphaba couldn't fathom. "Elphie," she said, studiously ignoring Elphaba's cringe, "why were you distracted? Honestly, you'd think you would try at least a little bit?"
Elphaba's sigh sounded very forced. "Something just feels off about today," she said. "I'm exhausted from failing to fall asleep last night."
Galinda pursed her lips thoughtfully, kicking off her painful-looking shoes. "Oooh, you're on 'that time of month', Elphie?"
Elphaba rolled her eyes, said nothing, and Galinda couldn't tell whether to take that as a 'yes' or 'no', because it have could really been either. She chose to take it as a 'no'.
"So you're just feeling down?" Galinda tried again. "Yeah, everyone feels like that sometimes."
Elphaba didn't respond, but continued looking ahead. "I think I've forgotten something, maybe? I'll figure it out what it is later."
Galinda was quiet, too, and simply stared out of the window of their dorm room.
* * * * *
Life is short, life is fast,
Life will come, but will not last.
* * * * *
"How is she?" Frex demanded. He could feel a violent red fear surging from behind his eyes, mingled with anger.
"She didn't make it, sir. We tried, honestly."
