Author's Note: I'm actually updating when I said I would :o It's a miracle! lol Shout out to evilregal07, Viviane Ravenheart, love2read20, and Wicked Fan for their amazing, and sometimes scary, reviews :p Only 5 more chapters left! :(

Disclaimer: I do not own Wicked or any of its characters.

Chapter 15:

He saw that Elphaba kept walking in a certain direction and decided to follow her. He followed her into the park, saw her stop at a small pond, and waited behind a little when he saw her breakdown. Ridal never had any feelings of guilt at what Elphaba must be going through, instead he was only excited at the possibility of being their to comfort the brunette.

When Elphaba's crying looked to be slowing and she looked straight ahead at the lake, he strode towards her trying not to make any noise.

"Elphaba?" Ridal said softly to not scare her.

When he didn't get a response he moved closer and tried again. "Elphaba?"

Upon hearing her name Elphaba turned to see Ridal smiling softly at her.

Elphaba knew deep inside that she should say something to Ridal, to tell him to get lost but she was in a somewhat catatonic state. So instead she just turned her head to look back out at the water.

Ridal saw Elphaba turn back around at so he stepped in front of her line of sight and asked again, "Are you alright?"

Elphaba looked up again and answered in a dull, calm voice. "Go away Ridal, I don't feel like talking right now."

"Well you look like someone just stole your dog." Ridal said sitting down. Elphaba didn't say anything, instead she just stared at Ridal's green eyes with her lifeless brown ones.

When about a minute passed and the two just kept staring at one another, did Ridal speak again. "Honestly Elphaba, you don't look so good."

'Tell him to leave! Don't you remember what he did to Glinda?!' The voice in Elphaba's head exclaimed. 'Glinda...' Elphaba thought as she felt her heart clench at the thought of the small blonde.

"Does this has something to due with your girlfriend?" Ridal asked trying to keep the venom out of his voice by the mere mention of the blonde girl.

"How did you know about Glinda and I?" Elphaba asked still in a monotone voice.

"I figured the way you two were always together and how protective you were of her that there was something more then just a friendship going on." Ridal explained smoothly.

"Well, we're not together anymore." Elphaba said softly, but her head was questioning her, 'Why are you telling him this?'

"What do you mean?" Ridal asked pretending to be innocent.

"Glinda said... wait, Ridal what are you even doing here?" Elphaba asked wondering why he was there.

"I followed you here, I saw you leave your dorm building not looking so good and I was concerned." Ridal said while Elphaba's head said, 'This doesn't sound right, say something.'

"Oh." Was all Elphaba said as she looked down in her lap and stare at her hands.

"So what happened?" Ridal pried, sounding interested.

"She said... she told me... she just made a mistake by tricking herself into liking me." Elphaba said trying to keep her voice steady.

"Elphaba." Ridal said as he lifted the brunette's chin with his fingers. "I tried to warn you."

"What?" Elphaba said slightly confused by him. The voice in her head was becoming more urgent, 'Don't let him touch you Elphaba.'

"That was why I told Glinda to stay away from you. I knew she would hurt you one way or another." Ridal said looking deeply into Elphaba's eyes as she pulled away from his touch. "I tried to protect you."

"You still hurt her though." Elphaba said with conflicting emotions.

"I know, and it was wrong of me to do that. But I just couldn't bare the thought of her hurting you. Yet she still managed to cause you harm." Ridal said trying to sound as comforting as possible. "Think about it though Elphaba, she never loved you... not the way I do."

Elphaba didn't know what to think or feel at that moment. She was still on an emotional rollercoaster from earlier that morning and what Ridal was telling her was making her feel uncomfortable. She wanted to tell Ridal off and run back to her dorm but at the same time she wanted to believe that he was looking out for her when he hurt Glinda.

Elphaba finally stood up and started pacing. Ridal followed her and stayed back a little to watch her.

"I can't think properly right now Ridal, leave me be." Elphaba said.

"Please Elphaba, believe me when I say that I truly care about you and that we belong together. Not you and Glinda." Ridal said feeling uneasy that the green girl might come to her senses.

"But... I..." Elphaba tried explaining her thought out loud but couldn't.

"Elphaba, please lets go somewhere more private to talk. It would make me feel better knowing that you were safe where I can see you while you work out everything in your head." Ridal said as her grabbed Elphaba's shoulders to stop her from pacing.

'No, Elphaba don't do it. You still don't trust him.' Her head tried to reason with her.

"Please?" Ridal said with a small smile.

Elphaba was confused by what her head was telling her and by her numb emotions still in place. 'Think of what he might do to you.'

After a few quiet moments Elphaba looked at Ridal still unsure about everything, but also still slightly catatonic and said, "Fine, I'll go with you."

Ridal smiled and reached for Elphaba's hand, but she moved away. Instead he just nodded and walked next to her as they left the park, happy that he finally was able to get the green girl alone to himself.

xxxxx

Glinda was still asleep, dreaming that Elphaba was studying while she got to stare at her. She then heard knocking on the door.

"Elphie, someone's at the door." Glinda said still in her dreamlike state as there was another knock and still no response from the taller girl.

"Come in." Glinda said as she figured Elphaba was probably in the restroom.

"Good morning!" Said Valina happily followed by a less then happy looking Fiyero.

"Morning." Glinda said as she opened her eyes and sat up, suddenly remembering everything that happened earlier that day and froze.

"So... guess which brainiac is a little more than hung over?" Valina said with a huge smile as she sat on Glinda's bed.

"Can you please keep your voice down?" Fiyero said from his spot on Elphaba's bed, while he held his head in his hands.

"Anyway, he wanted to say he was an ass and..." Valina trailed off when she saw that Glinda was on the floor with her eyes and nose red from obviously crying. "Glinda, what's wrong?"

Glinda who had been staring off into space turned to look at Valina when she felt the girl kneel next to her.

"Glinda, what's the matter?" Fiyero said forgetting all about his hangover and noticing the green girl wasn't in the room. "Where's Elphaba?"

"I... she..." Glinda said with tears filling her eyes and her bottom lip trembling.

"What, what is it?" Valina asked in a comforting tone.

Glinda didn't know whether or not she should tell the everything that Ridal had forced her to do to Elphaba. She didn't want harm done to the brunette but she also needed to get it off her chest.

Finally Glinda knew that she couldn't go through with losing Elphaba to Ridal and decided that she would tell Elphaba the truth once she saw her again and that if her friends knew, they could help protect each other. So she flung herself into Valina's arms where she cried for a good 10 minutes and proceeded to tell Fiyero and Valina everything.

"He's dead." Fiyero said through clenched teeth. He stood up to go find Ridal and beat the living shit out of him, but was stopped by Glinda holding on to his wrist.

"No, he said if we try to stop him, that he'll hurt Elphie." Glinda said with wide eyes.

"I'm not going to let him get away with this, so what if they kick me out of school. You girls mean more to me than Shiz." Fiyero said trying to reason with the scared blonde.

"Fiyero we can't just confront him." Valina said, trying to convince the prince to stay. "We have to be careful, who knows what he might do if he found out we know the truth."

"I can't stay here, while he is out preying on Elphaba!" Fiyero shouted punching a hole in the wall.

"Fiyero!" Glinda ran to the prince seeing his hand was bleeding. "Please, don't do anything. At least not yet."

"Yero, why don't you go cool off in your room. Plus you could see when Ridal comes and goes." Valina said trying to help out again.

"Fine. But if I see him anywhere near Elphaba, I'm not responsible for what I do to him." Fiyero said taking deep calming breaths.

"Thank you." Glinda said softly, to the point where it was hard to hear her.

"Glinda, I promise you Ridal isn't going to get anywhere close to hurting Elphaba." Fiyero said soothingly, before giving Glinda a hug.

"I'll stay here in case Elphaba comes back and Glinda needs help talking to her." Valinda said as Glinda and Fiyero stepped away from each other.

"Alright, I'll see you girls later." Fiyero said before leaving the room and walking back to his room.

"Are you alright?" Valina said rubbing the blonde's back reassuringly.

"No, but I will be once Elphie is back." Glinda said as she hugged Valina.

Then she thought about how she was going to tell Elphaba. She knew that it was going to be a big challenge, considering that she hurt Elphaba really bad. Glinda felt nervous all of a sudden and thought that maybe Elphaba wouldn't listen to her.

"What am I going to say to her?" Glinda asked as she bit her bottom lip looking at Valina.

"Well... Elphaba can be stubborn, but if she knows its important to you she'll listen." Valina tried to explain.

"That's just it. She thinks I don't love her." Glinda said as she walked to her bed and laid down.

"Well then we'll just have to make her believe you love her." Valina said as she sat on the edge of Glinda's bed. "Why don't you take a nap, that way you'll get to sleep on it."

"Ok, thank you for being here for me." Glinda said sincerely.

"No problem, you would've done the same for me." Valina said with a small smile that Glinda returned.

Glinda closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep as Valina moved to one of the chairs and grabbed one of Elphaba's books to read.

Glinda knew that it was going to be hard to convince Elphaba that she was forced to break up with her, but just the thought of possibly protecting Elphaba and being with her was worth the chance.

xxxxx

Ridal led Elphaba back to Shiz and towards the boy's dormitory. Nothing was said the entire time, just the occasional glance Ridal gave Elphaba, whereas the green girl stayed looking straight ahead.

Elphaba was still in a daze. She still felt numb and she wanted nothing more then to go back to her room and have Glinda hold and kiss her.

'But she doesn't love you anymore remember?' The voice in her head said.

'Maybe she does, maybe there is something else that you are not seeing?' The more rational side of her argued.

'No! She said everything was just an experiment. She never loved you, just like Ridal said.' The more hot headed, stubborn part of Elphaba said.

'Why are you even listening to Ridal? You hate him remember? You want to stay as far away from him.' Rational Elphaba said.

'I don't know what I want right now.' Irrational Elphaba said somewhat defeated.

Elphaba had not noticed the direction Ridal was leading her to and she didn't realize where she was until she heard a door close.

Turning around she saw Ridal standing in front of a door with a gentle smile on his face.

"Ok, process all you want, you're safe here." Ridal said with a smile as he had his hands behind his back secretly locking the door.