Chapter Fifteen: Glinda's Views On Kissing
Glinda was surprised when, the next time she saw Fiyero and Elphaba together, Elphaba seemed to be allowing Fiyero to keep his arm around her shoulders. Her raised eyebrows got none of Elphaba's attention. All of Elphie's attention seemed to be on Fiyero.
"Elphie!"
"What?" Elphaba looked up from a long, loving glance between she and Fiyero and looked at Glinda with so much irritability Glinda was ready to back off.
"Uh…"
"What is it, your Ditziness?"
"That wasn't funny!"
"Whatever. Did you want something?"
"Yes." Glinda said bravely. "I wanted you to stop staring at your beloved boyfriend and pay attention to me!"
"I can't always pay attention to you, Glinda!"
They were sitting in the dorm room she and Glinda shared. Elphaba and Fiyero sat chastely on Elphaba's bed, cuddling. Glinda stood across from the bed with her hands on her hips and her curls in her face.
Fiyero stood up and looked apologetically at Elphaba. "Maybe I should go…"
"No you should not." Elphaba grabbed his arm, resentful, and pulled him back towards the bed. "Just because my silly roommate has a problem doesn't mean you have to leave."
"I don't have a problem with you two. I just don't understand, Elphie."
"Understand what?"
"What happened! I mean, one day you're barely ready to go on a date and now here the two of you are, cuddling in our dorm room. It just surprises me, that's all."
Elphaba pulled away from Fiyero, who had sat right back down and taken her into his arms the moment she had given him permission. "Look, Glinda, if this makes you uncomfortable, we can go somewhere else. Fiyero, don't you have your own dorm?"
Fiyero nodded.
"You don't have to go somewhere else, Elphie. This is your dorm, too and you're welcome here with whomever you want, even if it's a little tough on me. I don't understand the way you're acting, Elphie. Explain why you're acting like this and I can get over it."
"Okay. Fiyero and I like each other. Is it much harder than that?" Elphaba exchanged confused glances with Fiyero, who shrugged and sat back on the bed as Elphaba moved to comfort Glinda.
"But you've liked Fiyero for a while, and he's liked you, that doesn't mean you act like this. I'd never expect you to act like this."
Elphaba was now face to face, only inches apart, from her roommate and struggling terribly to understand her predicament. "I really, really like him, I guess." She was not angry, of course. Glinda seemed to be the angry one.
"But you don't normally act like this!" Elphaba realized now that Glinda was not angry, only desperate to understand and more than a little frustrated.
"Things change." Elphaba tried, exasperated.
"But people don't. People don't change as quickly as you did."
"I really like Fiyero, Glinda, if that's changing me, than so be it."
Glinda sighed. "As you were."
"What are you, an army commander?" Elphaba laughed heading back towards her bed and into Fiyero's arms.
"Not at all," Glinda said, getting up and leaving the room.
"Glinda don't…"
"Elphaba, let her. I think she needs some time away from us."
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe she's jealous," Fiyero murmured, kissing Elphaba's forehead.
She twitched. "Don't do that. You scared me."
"Sorry," he looked offended and hurt.
"Don't be. Please don't be." Elphaba looked at Fiyero sadly. "It's just… too much right now."
Fiyero rolled his eyes, but smiled gently at Elphaba. This was going to be one slow-moving relationship. But he'd wait forever for her, he decided.
"I wonder…" Elphaba said aloud, and covered her mouth, as if she hadn't meant to speak.
"What?"
She blushed. "Nothing. Just a conversation I'd like to have with Glinda." Elphaba stood. "Fiyero, I don't want to…"
"Kick me out?"
"Yeah."
He moved towards the door and looked away from her. "It's okay. I know when I'm not wanted."
"Fiyero!"
He turned back. "I'm kidding, Elphaba."
"Good. I don't mean to offend you."
"I'd never let you offend me."
"That's what you think," she walked towards the door and looked up into his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow at lunch, okay?"
"Sure." Perhaps only to spite her, he kissed her nose.
The door was closed before Elphaba could gather her wits enough to glare at the empty cardboard across from her. "Well… Be that way." She knocked on the bathroom door. "Glinda?"
"I won't bother you."
"He's gone, Glinda."
Glinda peeked out from the doorway, a blonde lock hanging stray from the ponytail she'd pulled into while in there. "He is? Why?"
"I kicked him out." Elphaba said proudly.
"Oh, Elphie, you didn't have to do that."
"I did," Elphaba admitted. "It was getting awkward."
"That happens sometimes."
"Glinda, I think he wants to kiss me." Elphaba looked at her friend helplessly. "And I don't know what to do."
"You let him kiss you, Elphaba!"
"You know these things?"
"Of course I do. I am Glinda of the Arduennas, after all!"
"I just… it's kind of nerve-racking." Elphaba conceded. "I've never kissed a boy."
"I knew that." Glinda waved her friend away. "Just let him kiss you."
"How do you know all this?"
"I'm not sure."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I've never kissed a boy, either."