m u s e

gaze | 9

'okay, what was it again ?'
Ju was over at her apartment again, they were both working on the psych assignment that was due next class.
'we're supposed to do a page on a social phenomenon.'
she mumbled as she chewed on a mouthful of brown M&M's.

Julian had watched as she had picked those ones out specifically, stating that the brown ones were her favorite because they had the least food coloring.
'chocolate is already brown'
she had said.
he thought it was crazy but it seemed like something she'd do.

'what's your topic,'
he asked as he leaned over to grab a handful of the little chocolate buttons,dropping them in his mouth.
'maybe reciprocal liking'
she mumbled as she typed away on her laptop.

he was across from her on the long sofa where they had opted to start the study session.
he watched as she paused briefly to brush the curls out of her eyes, which had escaped from her bun before
going back to typing up whatever it was on her laptop.

she nibbled on her lower lip,
something he had realized she did when she was focusing hard on the task at hand.
she was in flannel pajama pants paired with a tank top and mismatched socks.

he had realized a long time back that her style was hard to pin point.
sometimes she was an art mom, then she was a mix of vintage and baddie,
But more often than anything she was full blown grunge complete with too much flannel and doc martens.

somehow she managed to pull it off in that quirky way she did almost everything else...
effortlessly.

he hadn't realized how long he had been watching her until she had threw her hands up in the air and stretched like a kitten...complete with a purr and yawn.
'I'm done!'
she announced with a tired grin,
'how about you, how's your paper going'
he glanced down at the blank screen of his laptop.
'oh, i've been done from like five minutes ago.'
he lied while closing down his laptop.
he'll have to try and whip something up later tonight.

she was in the process of picking out more brown M&M's.
and he was doing that thing again...
where he found himself unable to look away from her,
it was like he didn't want to miss a moment of anything she did.
usually she was completely oblivious to the fact,
which was good because then he could watch her without any qualms.

one minute he was staring at her mass of curly hair that had been haphazardly pulled up into a bun which flopped with every move she made,
and admiring how impossibly long her lashes seemed,
then he was staring into her eyes.

she had caught him,
and her face immediately scrunched up into that look of innocent curiosity.
'hey, is everything okay?'
she had asked

he nodded, looking down at the pile of books he had
before hurriedly shoving them into his backpack.
not caring if the thousands of dollars worth of textbooks got mushed.
'I just... it's late and I should probably go.'
he mumbled

before she could make sense of anything,
he was out her apartment door with just a quick
'see ya'
as a good bye.

'he's been acting weird lately'
she mumbled as she closed the door.