The Interview

Part Three

 "Elphie, I need to talk to you," announced Boq as he marched into her office, flipping through the file in his hands.

Irritated, the green girl at the desk hit the backspace key on her laptop several times and pushed herself back in her chair.

"I really need you to quit using this ridiculous pet name."

She fixed him with a withering glare, but far from shrinking back, the Munchkin merely cocked his head and pursed his lips.

"I've been calling you this our entire lives, ever since we met at playgroup. I'm not inclined to stop today."

"And I have finally outgrown it," growled Elphaba, jumping to her feet. "What is this anyway?" she demanded, snatching the folder away from him.

"It's the résumés you asked for. I was just going to say that I recognise one of the applicants from school, and he's an alright guy. He seems to have gone through a bit of a rough patch, but I'm happy to vouch for him."

Reaching up, he found the relevant page for her and pointed out his former classmate's name. Elphaba looked at his fairly nondescript photo and shrugged.

"Fine. I'll interview him," she said, prompting Boq to do a small fist pump. "Under one condition."

He rolled his eyes, still grinning.

"Yes, boss?"

"Drop. The. Name."

His shoulders slumped, even though he nodded. Elphaba huffed slightly and shook her head as she returned to her seat. Watching him leave through the glass door, visibly subdued, a smidgen of guilt once again crept up on her. But why? It wasn't like she was renouncing their friendship. It was nothing but a silly childhood moniker that didn't even suit her. She couldn't understand what was so difficult about retiring it.

Heaving a heavy sigh, she ran her hand through her loose hair. She hadn't bothered pulling it back today. There were a lot of things she couldn't be bothered doing lately, and she low-key hated herself for being so pathetic. After all, it had already been a little over two months since she'd last seen Glinda. A little over two months since Glinda had turned her back on her, for whatever unclear reason. It was pointless at this stage to still pine after the girl, yet here she was.

At least she'd been able to keep her undue distress under wraps in front of the others. To a certain degree that was. Boq, Brrr, Sarima, and even Kitty—they all had taken note of her increasingly morose mood, yet no-one had thus far been able to pin down the exact cause. She intended to leave it that way until the eventual end of this tragic phase.

And that was all the pondering she was willing to do on the matter for this morning. Distraction was starting to become more effective again—an encouraging sign of gradual recovery. A small pop up at the bottom of her laptop screen alerted her to a new email, and with a firm nod to herself she clicked on it, ready to commit to her work.

It was a message from Avaric, her least favourite person through whom to source any kind of diversion at the best of times. Dutifully, she skimmed through the text, but when another notification flashed up, she was quick to go for it.

"Glinda"

The subject line hit her like fucking freight train.

She stared at it for a couple of clock-ticks before taking off her glasses and bringing up her hands to rub her strained eyes. Most like, she'd gone entirely mad, seeing things that weren't there. She allowed herself a moment of recollection and took a sip from her bitter herbal tea. Glasses back in place, she tried again.