James laughed at Sasha's perception of 'overboard,' adding, "You should have seen my mates and I after finals every semester.  I swear that any places we hit on our pub crawl were funded for at least the rest of the year.  And that's just us, I know we weren't the only ones who did it.  Da always got a good laugh out of it when mum couldn't figure out why I'd spend my first day home in my room, with the lights off and the door locked."  He readjusted in his seat, taking another swig of his drink.  It was such a relief that this talk came as easily as it used to, he was so afraid that they weren't going to have anything to talk about.

The smack on his shoulder brought him back to reality.  He was pretty thankful for it too, most people would just sit there and get annoyed or wait for him to tire himself out with the talking.  Not Sasha, she'd cut him off and he respected her for that because in honesty he really didn't [i]mean[/i] to do it and he certainly had no desire to keep talking; James just didn't care for the silence.

"I gotta give GameFreak credit, they made a great choice finding somebody to develop a non-handheld MMO for the series.  I played for a while, but you only get so much time to do that kinda stuff anymore.  Not that I don't play some games, just don't get to spend my day at work or school thinking about when I get home to do it like I used to.  Losing focus is not a safe idea when you're doing such thought-intensive work.  It's a great way to unwind at the end of a day.  Beats the hell out of some of the things on TV nowadays," He agreed with a nod as she mentioned Doctor Who.  "Oh, yeah, every time they announce the next series I'm baffled.  It's not like there are new ideas, but there's always a new generation to watch who won't watch the old ones.  Instant gratification, updated characters and all that.  It's definitely still good, I'm completely happy watching the new ones, gives a bit of nostalgia for the ones from our generation's Doctors.  One of the only shows I'll watch anymore, to be honest."

Her next comment found him dumbstruck and he stared at her like she'd just lost her mind right in front of him.  "Are you crazy?  This is 5-star stuff, here!"  He grabbed a chip and popped it hurriedly into his mouth, sighing in relief as he pretended the near-flavorless spud-bit satisfied him before laughing and shaking his head.  "In fairness, though, you say that like you didn't go to college.  You mean to tell me you didn't live off of Hot Pockets and Ramen?  We all tried to find any way we could to [i]not[/i] cook...  Plus, most of the women in my school stayed far, far away from us.  Engineers don't typically attract them unless they're engineers too...  And then they just fight [i]all the time.[/i]  I had this one girl I dated in my...  second year?  Yeah, it was only a couple of months, but she was Aerospace too...  God, we couldn't agree on a [i]single thing[/i] if you could believe it.  I'd say improve lift, she'd say decrease drag...  Well, you know how I tend to get a little too involved, so tension got kinda high one day and I made the idiot mistake of correcting her English in a paper she showed me...  It wasn't even on purpose, honest! It was kind of a passive-aggressive, childish jab at her and she just absolutely lost it on me.  We had to sit on opposite ends of every class we shared after that...  Which was all of them.  I hear she's in Egypt now, got an internship out there or summin'."

He chuckled against and leaned back, sighing with a big grin on his face, "What a year that was...  I look back and wonder who the hell decided that the difference between a comma and a semi-colon was a big enough deal to lose a relationship over.  Then I realize it was me and I can't believe what a dolt I can be.  I think I have to blame you for that one, though," He said, pausing to allow her a moment to react to such a teasingly pointed statement, "After all, I'm pretty sure [i]you[/i] taught me the difference."

Changing gears and lifted up his glass and nodded, "I like your hair long like that though, it really suits you."