It's us {Dani and Jamie}

A Boring Old Drink

8
- Dani's Perspective -

"You totally were!" Jamie cried, a smile stretching to every corner of her face.
   
Dani wiped her upper lip before setting down her drink aggressively on the bar, "I was not!"
   
"Come on, you can not tell me that you weren't popular in highschool."
   
Dani's mouth dropped, "What even makes you think that?"
   
"Poppins." Jamie scolded, "Look at yourself."
   
The au pair's blush was accompanied by a loud nervous laugh that made a few heads from the people in the dimly lit pub turn around on their stools, "What about me?"
   
"The hair, the eyes, the whole thing," Jamie cried, "I can just see you, walking down that hallway with your little posse all around you, staring everybody down like you're the queen or something."
   
Dani's face hurt from smiling, "And what about you, huh?"
   
"What about me?"
   
"Were you popular?"
   
She scoffed, popping the collar of her shirt, "No, no, no, I ran with the bad crowd."
   
Dani let out a laugh that even made the bartender stop midway through wiping a glass,

"Oh, that's the best thing I've heard all day."
   
"What?" She said, offended.
   
"The bad crowd? You? Ha!"
   
"You don't think I can be bad?"
   
"Oh Jamie," She said, sympathetically tucking a strand of hair behind the gardener's ear, "You always pretend to be so tough, but I've never bought it for a second."
   
"Ouch!"
   
"You're just a softie, really," Dani smiled, patting her cheek like she was four years old, "A philosopher - a poet, remember? You aren't bad."
   
"I can if I want..."
   
"Sorry," Dani shrugged innocently. She looked down to grab her glass of beer, but frowned, "Aww man, I'm empty."
   
She looked around, but the bartender had disappeared into the storage room. Jamie smiled mischievously.
   
"I live above this pub, remember?" She said.
   
"...Yeah, so?"
   
"So, I know the guy well. We're practically best mates."
   
"Why does that matter?"
   
"Because it means that I can do this," She stood up from her barstool and walked around confidently to the other side, raising a dangerous eyebrow.
   
"Jamie!" Dani hissed with a smile, glancing around, "You can't do that!"
   
"Who says?" She took the empty glass and tossed it between both hands mockingly, "I can do whatever I want!"
   
"Jamie!" Dani said between laughs, "Stop that."
   
"Just pouring my girl a drink, nothin' to see here," She said to no one imparticular, filling the glass up with the tap, "Have you changed your mind yet, Poppins?"
   
"About what?"
   
"I think this proves I can be bad," She said, plopping down the freshly full glass on the bar and leaning her forearms on it too, "Look at me now! I'm a proper daredevil."
   
Dani practically melted on the spot, "Say that again."
   
"What, that I'm a proper daredevil?"
   
"God, your accent is so cute." The words just fell out of her mouth.
   
Jamie didn't miss a beat, "Cute? Who you calling cute? I run with the bad crowd, remember? Call me cool or nothin' at all. I could shove you into a locker, Poppins."
   
"You could not."
   
"I could to!"
   
"Well," She said, leaning forward on the bar so their faces almost touched, "Why don't you prove it then?"
   
This wiped the smug smirk right off the gardener's face, "W-what?"
   
Dani didn't know what it was. Perhaps it was the confident stare in the blue green eyes. Perhaps it was the use of the nickname. Perhaps it was the beer that made her say it, who knows? All she knew was the woman in front of her and the deafening pounding in her own chest.
   
The au pair cocked an eyebrow ever so slightly,

"Prove it."