A Jumping Death Trap Walks Into a Bar
Part 2
"So, uh," Burski said. "I guess you could say Baby Bird…broke his wing?"
Danny raised his head from between his knees and shot Burski one of his infamous Danny glares. "Dude. Seriously?"
"What?" Burski asked innocently, but he shrank back nonetheless. "I thought it was funny…"
Sighing, Danny resumed his position and leaned over, hanging his head between his knees and interlocking his hands. God, he had really messed up this time—like, really messed up. Not only had he wasted five perfectly good bucks on the sorry excuse for a pogo stick, but now Justin was getting both bits of his radius and ulna realigned in a bed down the hall. Danny's best friend was at the hospital—again—because Danny was an idiot.
If Justin was going to insist keeping up this friendship, maybe he should get a hospital punch card…
The worst part about the whole thing was that Justin had saved Danny. If Justin hadn't stepped in, Danny would be the one getting a cast fitted around his arm. And Danny had frickin' fought him on it! Danny had spit witty comment after witty comment before Justin had physically tried to yank Pauline away. Admittedly, that had pissed him off a bit—growing up with a sibling had made him possessive of anything he got the chance to call his—but he shouldn't have let Justin try it out first, nor should he have pushed Justin enough to actually try out the thing when it really hadn't looked too hot. Really, Danny realized miserably, the whole situation boiled down to three simple facts: Danny had done something dumb, Justin had tried to stop him, and Justin had paid the price anyway.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
"There he is!" Brett hissed.
Danny's eyes flashed up. Justin walked into the hospital waiting room, sporting a cast that took up most of his arm. His mouth was set in a scowl that he immediately sent Danny's way upon noticing him. Danny winced, rubbing the back of his neck. He was gonna have to do some major sucking up to make up for this one.
"Hey, dude, how's the arm?" Burski asked.
Justin shrugged, glaring down at his cast. "Very broken and slightly numb. The doctor said I'm going to have this for a bit." The glare shot in Danny's direction. "I guess I shouldn't jump into things too quickly for a while, huh?"
"Oh, don't try to passive aggressively pun me into feeling guilty," Danny groaned.
Justin, not thinking, pointed at him with the cast before reeling back in pain. "I most certainly will pun you into feeling guilty," he forced out through gritted teeth. "Do you even feel guilty? This cast weighs more than my head, Danny!"
"I don't doubt it. Ugh, look, dude…" Danny sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I—I'm sorry, Baby Bird. I should've listened to you, I know. I made a bad choice and you paid for it. You were just trying to keep me out of trouble."
"Us out of trouble," Shelly added, nodding solemnly. "We're all sorry."
"Mostly me," Danny interjected. "'Cause I'm, like, really sorry."
Justin's shoulders relaxed, the tension flushed away. He gave a weak smile at them all, even Danny, who instantly felt relieved. "It's cool, guys. I don't blame you, really. I blame the pogo stick, if anything. Let's just head back to the bar."
Pauline. Danny hadn't even thought about the thing since arriving at the hospital with a hysterical Justin. What was he gonna do with it? It had broken into bits when Justin had tried to ride it, and was probably still in the alley. He hadn't even bothered to pick up the pieces in all the craziness to rush Justin to the hospital. Maybe a homeless guy stole it, Danny thought hopefully.
Returning to Black Eyes, they all watched with pity as Justin tried to make himself a drink behind the bar, only to drop two glasses and a handful of limes. Brett rushed in to help, causing Justin to complain, "I own a sweet bar like this and I can't even make any drinks!"
"Relax, Justin," Leslie soothed at her seat at the bar. "You've got Candace and Brett, right?"
"Absolutely!" Candace jumped in, making a face at an order she'd just taken. "This guy is such a weirdo. He wants a cranberry in his glass of vodka! To each their own, I guess."
Justin buried his face into his good hand. "We're doomed."
"Besides," Leslie added on with a hopeful smile, "even with a broken arm, you can still walk around the bar and make that weird proud little face of yours."
"My what?" Justin demanded.
"Oh, dude, you've never noticed?" Danny slid in quickly, grinning. A part of him desperately wanted everything to return to normalcy, even though he couldn't ignore Justin's cast in the corner of his eye. "Sometimes, you just walk around the war and just nod and smirk to yourself, like a captain that's super proud of his own ship." Danny mimicked the gesture: a big, boastful grin spreading across his face and widening his eyes goofily, nodding and crossing his arms over his chest as he inspected a spot on the floor.
Justin laughed hard, holding his stomach with his good hand. "I do not do that!"
"I've got proof!" Shelly cried, fishing out his phone. Laughing, he presented the group with a video of Black Eyes being crowded, but Justin strolling in the background alone, hand on his chin, nodding, and smirking as he analyzed the railing to the front door's stairs.
"That was probably taken completely out of context!" Justin insisted.
"Sure, sure, dude," Burski said, hand over his mouth to muffle his giggles. "Then how do you explain this similar video I took last night?"
They all laughed together, and Danny couldn't help but feel pretty great. Justin had forgiven him, and the whole Pauline fiasco could be swept under the rug. Not entirely, considering Danny would have to face Justin's stupid cast every day, but enough to where their friendship would be intact. Seeing how pissed Justin had been coming into the waiting room had been a little scary, and Danny had feared the worst. But Justin had been cool about it, as the best of bros were, so Danny could start letting go of his guilt and moving onto making it up to Justin in tiny, subtle ways that would go unnoticed.
Or, at least, Danny could have, if the guy who had sold him the death trap pogo stick hadn't walked into the bar.
