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It’s a Sunday night, and Casey and Izzie are on a jog after sneaking out during a study session. The slight breeze of mid-Spring adds a slight chill to the air. Casey is wearing her gray sweatshirt, but Izzie has nothing over her plain T-Shirt.
Eventually, the girls slow to a walking pace after making it to the end of the trail. Since they’ve been running uninterrupted for so long, they were unable to focus on anything else during their jog. Exhaustion hits them both as they decide to settle at an open spot not far from where the path cuts off. Casey sits first, grabbing for Izzie’s hand to help her sit down. Izzie smiles, thanking her.
The night sky offers a breathtaking view from where the girls are seated. It almost looked like a fantasy with the amount of stars glowing in the night, which Izzie seems to have paid great attention to. She’s lost in thought admiring the way some of them twinkle, in the way that they seem to begin fading away into the infinite darkness of space before appearing to get closer to Earth, almost like they’re breathing, like they’re alive.
While Izzie has her head in the stars, Casey has instead been silently observing her girlfriend, when she notices goosebumps going down her arm which is twitching from the gentle breeze. Without a word, Casey takes her own sweatshirt off and places it over Izzie’s shoulders so it falls down her back. This rather quickly brings Izzie out of her trance.
Disoriented, she turns to Casey, in pause as if non-verbally inquiring her for an explanation.
“I can’t have my girl shivering like that,” she says with sympathy and a little mischief. She’s a little nervous, but her smirk does a decent job at concealing it. “That will not do.”
Izzie smiles genuinely, the way only Casey can get her to smile. “Oh my god! Have you been staring at me this entire time?”
“I wouldn’t.. say I was staring at you.” Casey’s nervousness starts to show, as her smirk fades slightly. She seems almost ashamed. “You’re a person, and it’s rude to stare at people.”
“Wait, Casey, I didn’t mean anything–”
“But it is incredibly hard to look away from someone as beautiful as you.” She taps Izzie’s nose with her finger and grins. “Forgive me?”
Izzie smiles again. She leans in to give her a small peck on the lips. “It’s a good thing I love you, Casey Gardner.”
“I know.” This time, she smiles too. “I love you too, Izzie.”
Izzie leans in closer to Casey, her head against her shoulder. Casey wraps her arm around her partner as they watch the sky.
“Have you ever.. looked at the stars before?” Izzie asks softly.
“Can’t say I have, no.” Casey responds sincerely and with a touch of playful indifference, but they both know she loves nothing more than hearing her girlfriend speak.
“I mean, have you really looked at them? Have you actually studied the way they flicker in and out? It’s one of my favorite wonders.”
“Is that right?” Casey’s tone doesn’t change, but she seems a lot more genuine this time.
“I used to spend many nights outside just staring at the night sky when I needed to be alone from the constant mess that was going on inside the house. It filled me with such peace, being alone and talking to the balls of light millions of miles away from my problems.” She turns her head to Casey. “It’s refreshing to remind myself how small I really am sometimes.”
A brief but noticeable pause fills the cold air. Casey investigates the sea of midnight above them and finds a red star. She points to it.
“I like that one,” she observes, “it reminds me of you.”
“Really?”
“It’s fierce. Mighty. People may overlook them because of their low temperatures, but they beautifully contrast the darkness that overcasts them. I think they’re some of the easiest to spot against the endless blue. I always get excited when I see them.”
Izzie blushes, biting her lip. Casey takes a quick glance at her and spots the warm hue in her cheeks, taking the opportunity to continue her search.
“And I like that one, too,” she cites another. “It’s yellow, like our Sun. It reminds me of home in that way, like you do.”
“You’re very sweet.”
“And how about the one over there?” Casey gestures to a third location in the sky. It isn’t too big but otherwise doesn’t seem all that different from the other points of light that surround it.
“That one I’m definitely gonna need an explanation for,” Izzie laughs.
“You said it yourself, you ‘like to remind yourself how small you really are.’”
“So?”
Casey looks at Izzie, a more serious look on her face. “You view yourself as minimal compared to others, someone trivial and unimportant.” There is passion in her voice. “Am I right?”
Izzie nods.
Casey takes a deep breath. “White dwarfs are dense. Like, really dense. One of the densest things in the universe, in fact. They contain the same amount of mass as the Sun, yet they aren’t much bigger than the size of Earth.”
“You’re such a nerd,” Izzie interjects teasingly.
“Nobody thinks about how much matter they contain because of how insignificant they appear to be in size. Nobody realizes how much depth there is to them because they don’t show it on the surface.” Casey turns to her again. “White dwarfs hardly get talked about because everyone else is focusing on the neutron stars and infamous black holes. We should be appreciating the ones that aren’t as easily noticed, too.”
“That’s why I do it, that’s why I hide,” Izzie blurts out sheepishly, yet she finds herself feeling validated by Casey’s observations.
Casey takes Izzie’s hand and moves a strand of hair away from her face and truly considers her. “But out of all those stars – the brightest, most inspiring, most beautiful of them are the ones I see in your eyes.” She starts to cry softly, tears caressing her cheeks as they fall down her face. “The ones that sparkle and dance with that smile of yours I love so much. Those are the only ones I want to look at. Izzie, you are the ball of light in my night sky. You are my favorite star.”
Hearing this from her girlfriend, Izzie begins crying as well. She’s stunned that someone this important in her life could feel so passionately about her.
Casey gently wipes a tear from Izzie’s face, cupping it in her hands. “You don’t have to feel small anymore. You can shine above all of it.”
All Izzie can think to do in response is give Casey a kiss, a long and passionate kiss, the kind of kiss that feels like it could go on forever.
“And, you know, your eyes remind me of you too. They’re very, very beautiful.”
“Casey!” Izzie laughs.
Both girls are smiling. The many blips in the sky illuminate them as they share the joy of being together in this moment.
“From now on, you’re gonna have to watch the stars with me.”
“Forehead promise?”
Casey giggles. “Forehead promise.”