Chapter Text
Glinda sighed dramatically and clicked her screen off again.
After checking her phone for what felt like the tenth time in as many minutes, it was clear: if she waited any longer, she was going to be late.
She'd been expecting her new roommate to be here hours ago so that they could meet and get familiar with each other, but they were yet to show.
But still, despite how badly Glinda needed to get going, she was not so removed from politeness to leave an empty apartment to greet her new roommate, no matter how tardy they might be.
Besides, given that they were to spend at least the entire academic year living together, it was imperative that they start off on the right foot, and Glinda had spent hours gathering her thoughts into the perfect little pep talk for her roommate; one that would reassure her new roomie that she needn't worry about sharing a space with Glinda, that she was very adaptable, and that they were going to have the most perfect first year together.
But if she waited any longer, she was going to be late.
And this wasn't one of those occasions where she could afford to be fashionably late – just late enough that her absence would be felt but not late enough to be rude – this was the first time she was seeing them in person.
The first time since she'd found out about them just a little over a year ago after essentially relying on low quality livestreams and reuploads. She was finally going to see them in person.
...See her in person.
Surely her roommate would understand the severity of the situation, how absolutely important it was, how principal it was that she had to-
The unmistakable click of a lock turning sounded throughout the apartment, immediately stopping Glinda in her thoughts.
But before Glinda even had a chance to breathe out in relief or stand from her place on the couch, her roommate (or a burglar with a key, maybe? ) burst through the door in a flurry of duffels and bags and dark clothes.
The girl turned around to shut the door and set her things down, seemingly not even noticing Glinda in the room.
Glinda cleared her throat a little, startled, but tried to let a bit of warmth carry through her voice anyway, "Hi, I'm-"
"I don't know which room is mine," the girl muttered flatly, her attention still fixed on arranging her belongings on the floor.
So she did notice Glinda. Hmph.
Glinda took a step closer to her, about to try again with a response that showed absolutely no sign of dismay at the other girl's dismissiveness, until she noticed something about her roommate that she didn't notice before during her hasty entrance into the apartment.
"You're green," Glinda breathed, the words slipping out of her before she was even aware.
The girl stilled immediately for the first time since she entered the room.
She let out a soft sigh and turned around, finally allowing Glinda a full view of her face.
Her eyes settled on Glinda as she turned, softening for a brief moment as she gave her a once over that made the room suddenly feel hotter.
For some reason.
For a moment neither of them said anything, and Glinda's eyes were drawn to the other girl's eyes, green behind black frames, the soft light of the room making them look almost hazel. Her gaze drifted just below, noticing how the shadows of her lashes danced right over sharp cheekbones, and oh were those freckles? Oh my gosh she has freckles, before Glinda's eyes were drawn again to the girl's lips as she parted them. Which meant she was about to say something to Glinda, then-
"And you're short," the girl replied pointedly, no longer sparing Glinda any further glances as she promptly turned back around to continue digging through her belongings.
Glinda blinked, taken aback again by her roommate's curtness. "You're the one wearing platform boots," she replied matter-of-factly, glancing over at the girl's feet. This she noticed, of course, made easy by her roommate's very loud initial stomping into the room.
The girl scoffed softly, and Glinda could almost hear her eye roll as she replied, "And you're wearing heels. Inside. For some inexplicable reason."
Before Glinda could even defend herself and say that she was, in fact, on her way out, (and currently being delayed by her very rude roommate, by the way), the other girl spoke again with a sigh.
(Glinda got the feeling that the girl would be starting a lot of her sentences with sighs from here on out).
"Listen, I'm sorry if you're offended by the green," she said almost offhandedly, "But I've got somewhere I need to be right now." She made a small sound of satisfaction as she located a smaller duffel from her mountain of belongings, plucking it up off the floor and swinging it over her shoulder with just a short glance back, "We can talk about that later."
And without giving Glinda a clock tick to respond, to tell the girl that she'd gotten it wrong, her roommate was already out of the apartment again, leaving behind only the echo of the lock clicking back into place.
Glinda stood in the silence of the room for what felt like minutes before she remembered with a start that she, too, had somewhere to be.
She glanced wearily over at the pile of bags still haphazardly placed in what was practically the middle of the hallway, the only evidence that she did not just imagine that interaction and that she was not, in fact, going insane.
She let her feet carry her to the door, scoffing a little in disbelief as she had to step over one of the bags splayed on the floor to avoid crushing it.
So much for getting off on the right foot.
She stopped and took a deep breath as she put her hand on the door handle.
Cold as her roommate was, she was right about one thing. They'd have to deal with their issues later.
No moody roommate was about to get in the way of seeing her favourite band play for the first time in person.
She gently tossed her hair to make sure it was in place and stepped out of the apartment.
Right now, she had a bass player to see.
Elphaba was screwed.
Today was Wicked 's first gig in Gillikin since all of them moved for Shiz, which meant that set-up and practice took much longer than usual.
Normally, this would be a good thing since it kept her out of the house longer, but today it meant that if she didn't check in with admin and get her keys from the front desk before they closed for the evening, she'd probably be sleeping on the boys' couch for the night.
So now, thanks to her excellent time management skills, she only had enough time to collect her keys, drop her stuff off into her apartment, and tail it right back to the gig venue if she wanted to make it with enough time to get ready and let her pre-performance jitters out.
Luckily, when she got to the building's front desk, the Rabbit behind the counter seemed to take pity on her frazzled state and correctly engaged in no small talk, just quickly giving Elphaba her keys and some brief directions.
As soon as Elphaba made it up to her floor and outside her apartment, she unlocked the door and barged in, deciding to quickly go over their setlist for the night one last time in her head.
She let all of her stuff tumble out of her arms and onto the floor with an ungraceful plop , bending slightly to find her bag with her clothes for the gig, wondering why she didn't just leave it with the boys since she was going right back there anyways. She briefly realised that should her roommate show up while she was gone, they'd be greeted by the mess of bags in the hallway.
Not a great first impression she thought.
Should she put her stuff away first? No, she didn't have time.
Where would she even put them? Oh, her room, in her room. Right.
But wait– I don't know which room is mine, she thought to herself.
So no, no packing away anything for now. They'd have to stay there just until she got back because she had to- What was she doing again? Right, her clothes-
"You're green." A soft voice from behind her suddenly pierced through all the noise in Elphaba's head. She immediately stilled, from the surprise of someone else's presence or the slight chill that went through her body at the voice, she didn't know.
She sighed and turned around stiffly, for the first time registering the girl standing in the living room of her - their - apartment.
Elphaba's eyes quickly scanned her. The girl’s outfit was what Elphaba could only describe as preppy, her skirt perfectly pleated and resting just above her knees, not a single wrinkle to be found on her blouse. And pink. So much pink. Her hair was perfectly styled – gentle, golden curls falling just right onto the girl's shoulders in a way that made her look soft, soft.
In a way that made Elphaba herself feel soft, the girl’s put-togetherness grounding Elphaba in her chaos for just a second.
You're green, the girl had said.
Just a statement – an observation.
Words she'd heard before in various forms of questions over the years, but never so... plainly.
To the girl's credit, though, the look on her face told Elphaba that the words had slipped out without the girl's permission.
But either way, Elphaba had neither the time nor the patience right now to unpack whatever this conversation was about to become, so with one final glance at the girl, she decided to make an observation too. "And you're short," Elphaba replied, very matter-of-factly.
She turned around again and went back to looking for the bag she needed.
"You're the one wearing platform boots," she heard again from behind her.
That is so not the point, Elphaba thought as she rolled her eyes. "And you're wearing heels. Inside. For some inexplicable reason," she quipped back.
In reality Elphaba was sure that there was, in fact, an explicable reason for her roommate's attire, but before the both of them could spend the entire evening listing obvious facts about each other (which the other girl started with her comment, by the way), Elphaba sighed, deciding to get a head start on what was definitely an annoying conversation to come.
At this point, most people who were going to be weird about the green did so outright, and those who wanted to be polite just pointedly ignored it until they realised she was just as normal as anyone else.
But, for once, she had no idea where her roommate was about to take things, and no time to figure it out at the moment, anyway.
“Listen,” she said, still ruffling through her stuff, "I'm sorry if you're offended by the green, but I've got somewhere I need to be right now." At the same time, she finally found the bag she was looking for and stood up straight with it hanging from her shoulder. "We can talk about that later."
And with one final glance at the other girl that barely lasted a second, Elphaba was already out of the apartment and on her way to the pub.