As Julia explained just why the challenge he'd set for her wouldn't be as easy as he said it would, he grew very still, much like a tree sloth. Walking up to someone and asking for a kiss was a problem? Well, that made things difficult, seeing as it was his entire plan. Oops. He didn't want all of the confidence to drain from his visage in one flustered quirk of his features. Instead, her froze like an ice cube and let himself melt very slowly. He didn't let his shoulders sag all at once, and he kept the grin on his face, allowing it to slide back into his neutral expression without a trace of haste. He didn't want to let on that he wasn't as cool or suave as he tried to be. He thought he faked it pretty well most of the time, but he really wasn't sure who he was supposed to be comparing himself to. He wasn't jock-cool. He wasn't Lothario-cool. Sometimes he wasn't even sure he was musician-cool, though he sure as hell tried. He tried far harder than he'd ever let on, even to Julia, to be Jamie-cool, whatever that meant, and it was times like these when he realized that he wasn't even good at that.  

“If I had any good sense I'd be in love with you, wouldn't I?” Jamie asked. He didn't exactly sound deflated, but if he was a balloon then he certainly had a hole and a slow leak. “Maybe we messed up, becoming mates and all.” It was a weird kind of thought, and for a second after he said it he actually thought he believed it. He realized the implications of what he was saying pretty quickly, though, and rushed in to take it back. “Nah, no way. I never want you to be the one breaking my heart.” His features rewound themselves, a small smile slowly regenerating on his face like an afterthought. He really liked what he'd just said. Those were the kind of lyrics he was always in pursuit of, and here they were, spilling out of his mouth in a quick moment of repentance. He felt a new Ballad to Julia coming on. There were always more. 

There were no ballads to Mallory. 


a simple rule that every good man knows by heart: its smarter to be lucky than its lucky to be smart