Re: Tory & Jamie: the Apartment
Jamie had never paid a lot of attention in science class. The teacher liked smart kids, the ones who shoved up their hands and answered questions and Jamie wasn't that guy. Even if he hadn't been like, shitty at reading, he got knocked around enough. So biology was a distant, distant memory of being half-asleep from class going late the night before, and not a whole lot of attention paid when he was awake, and he had no idea what the difference between genus and family was, but he was comfortable enough that he wasn't going to ask. He smiled, like, affably in the face of sheepish, and he shook his head, like, nah, you're good and bit into the pizza slice he'd basically molested for the last five minutes.
He watched the heat climb the guy's cheekbones, because Jamie was a reactionary, and cause and effect was kind of his MO right now, but he laughed (after swallowing his pizza, because hey, he wasn't an animal) at the like, attempt to science the shit out of it. "That's a region? Man, I thought it was a country," because see, he could try to crack jokes on the guy's general line, but yeah, used to. He watched the pieces click together, the car stuff and the past-tense and OK, he didn't get the science, but Tory was smart enough to get it without being spelled out. Jamie had tensed, briefly, like, squaring up to answering that question, and he relaxed now, flexing his foot against the coffee table.
"Yeah, Kansas. They have theaters there. And running water. I mean, they pretty much exorcize you on the way in, but it was a bigger audience than I expected, you know? And I'm not from here. Florida," which was like, unexpected, right? But Tokyo and Paris, and Jamie leaned back and looked at the ceiling briefly, contemplative.
"Probably Russia? St Petersburg. It was the weirdest place to go, and I only got to go because they did like, a three month exchange program with the corps there and Miami City. But they like, venerate that shit there. And it looks like nothing you've ever seen. Tokyo was so many people, but Russia kinda felt like going back in time or something, and the audience was unbelievable. You felt all the pressure of expectation, kinda electric and stuff. When we actually got to go out, we went to like, the Winter Palace there? It looks like something off a stage-set, or a fairy-tale or something."