A Pocketful of Elavan

Look How They Shine For You

The casualness of it all is a shock to Avan. After years on end of pining for Liz, he finally got her to be his girlfriend. He had expected the whole world to stop turning for at least a few seconds but instead, it was casual. 

"Sure," she had shrugged. 

It happened in his car which was parked in her driveway after a night of take-out and aimless driving around Los Angeles in sweatpants. He had felt like seeing her that night and claimed he missed her too much even if they had only seen each other the day prior. Liz, however, wanted nothing but to laze off and spend the rest of the night in her sweatpants.

He had stared at her in perpetual shock, his eyes playing around the borders of pure joy and tomfoolery. 

"What? Did you think I'd go on this many dates with you and not want to be exclusive?" the 21-year-old had raised her eyebrow. 

Even so, her yes, or "sure" rather, had made him the happiest man within miles. It still made his eyes crinkle and his mouth turn up into the brightest smile Liz ever saw in her life. 

Now, almost a month into their new relationship, Avan lies flat on his stomach, chin rested on his hands as he watched his girlfriend busying herself on her study table by the window. He loves seeing her like this-- so engrossed in what she was doing that the whole world seemed to just fade away. He loved the slight hunch to her posture and the subtle scrunch of her eyebrows as she focused on whatever it was she was writing on her journal. 

Her eyes seemed to engrave the very words she was thinking into the pages of her journal. The blue in her eyes are not cold; they are warm and passionate but casual and subtle. She is more intuitive than she gives herself credit for and there is nothing in the world Avan wouldn't give to see the world through her eyes, perceive objects concrete and non-concrete with her intellect. 

"I love it when you write," he blurts out quietly, afraid to startle her out of her concentration. 

"Mhmm." 

"I'm serious," he pushes himself up and crawls towards the edge of the bed nearest to the study table. "I'm kind of really into you, babe." 

She lets out a soft snort, "Jogia, 'kind of really' is contradictory. It doesn't make sense." 

He smiles, gets off his girlfriend's bed and crouches down to kiss her exposed shoulder before pulling up the sleeve of her (his) loose sweatshirt. 

Avan lets her write a little more, simply fascinated by her being her, completely enamored by the fact that she is being a human. He grins a little wider when she uses the sleeve of her shirt to rub against one of her eyes. 

"I love it when you do that." 

She quirks up an eyebrow, bewildered by his words. 

"Do what?" 

He shrugs. 

"You're such a fucking weirdo, dude," she breathes amusedly. 

"You're beautiful, Elizabeth Gillies. Do you know that?" he ignores her prior words and kneels in front of her so he could look right at her face

She rolls her eyes, not even looking at him, because he couldn't be serious. "You're beautiful," is something you say on date nights when she's all dressed up and her hair is perfect. It isn't something you blurt out so casually on a Friday night when she is dressed in his sweatshirt and a pair of old pajamas. 

"Jogia, I'm your girlfriend now. You can tone down the cheesiness, come on now," she says nonchalantly. 

There was silence for a few seconds and she was afraid she had offended him. As Liz shifts her face so that she could look at him, she prepared herself for the sad gleam in Avan's eyes. But as she looked into her boyfriend's face, she was fairly surprised to see not a trace of hurt in his expression. He was gazing at her so intently, like he was trying to memorize her face or something.