Danny sighed in irritation. He was a nice guy. He liked helping out his friends when they needed it, often ignoring his own needs and wants. History had shown that he was the stand-up guy who would volunteer for designated driver duty, no matter how much he felt he needed a beer. He was often the voice of reason whenever his small band of buddies would follow yet another of Sully's little pranks, which usually had a tendency to spiral out of control. He wasn't considered a party-pooper, but he paid attention to where the line was drawn and would warn the others when they started flirting with it.
But, nothing had prepared him for this. He groaned as he leaned forward and buried his face into the palms of his hands. Oh, if he ever ran across Matt again, he was pretty certain he'd be thrown back in jail after he got done beating the daylights out of him. Letting a growl of rage escape his mouth, he flung himself backwards to lay on the cot and stare blankly at the smooth white ceiling. He tried the age-old trick of counting to hundred to repress the fury he felt within as he clenched and unclenched his fists.
It didn't take long for him to start berating himself for his own stupidity. He had felt that something was wrong, but still he had continued on. What an expensive, stupid lesson this was going to turn out to be!
It had started like any other day for him. He had woken up and gone to his job as the manager of a coffee house. It had been a day that progressed much the same as the ones before...until four o'clock in the afternoon. One of his employees had had to track him down to take the phone call. As he reached the phone, for some inexplicable reason, a shiver ran down his spine. The conversation would forever plague his memory.
Matt had called to say that he had found himself in a hard place. He needed a little bit of help and he felt that he could trust Danny. Would Danny meet up with him at 9 that night? Another shiver had crept down his spine. Danny reluctantly agreed.
Nine o'clock came and Danny had gone to the rendezvous spot to meet his friend. Matt had appeared out of the shadows, so silently that he took Danny completely by surprise. The shiver that had trailed down his spine made its presence known once again. Danny had a strong feeling that he should cut and run, but only a sense of loyalty to Matt kept him rooted to the spot. Matt immediately started apologizing as he grabbed Danny into a bear of a hug. Danny was confused by the action, until a score of police officers materialized out of thin air and threw him on the ground while leading Matt away, who gave Danny an apologetic look. Danny had been too stunned to react, so the officers hovering over him had quickly handcuffed him and thrown him into the back of a cop car. Danny had been even more stunned to find an officer pulling a plastic baggie filled with a white powder out of his coat pocket, a baggie that he hadn't even known existed until the cop pulled it out.
It wasn't until he had been sitting isolated in a police interrogation room that the whole story came out. Danny couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Matt had set him up for a drug bust. Danny had never touched drugs in his life (Well, except for that time in tenth grade behind the stadium bleachers, he thought morosely). What it came down to was Matt had been buying and dealing for months and when the cops finally caught up to him, he had pleaded a deal, saying he would give up his suppliers in exchange for leniency. But, he didn't want to give up his suppliers as they were a powerful bunch who could "fix" his mistake, in a way that bore no positive outlook for him. So, he struggled to find someone who could take the fall and his thoughts had turned to Danny, a guy who would help a brother out, no questions asked. And so, he made the call. The only thing that worked in Danny's favor was the video surveillance taken of the bust that, after much scrutiny, showed Matt slipping the bag into Danny's coat while he pulled him into the quick hug.
Danny assumed this had meant he was free to go, but the police had other ideas. They still felt he had something to do with the drug ring and so they booked him on charges relating to being an accessory and aiding and other stuff. Danny was too angry at himself, Matt, the cops, the world at large, etc., to really care at the moment. No amount of shouting and threatening would do him any good here, so he figured he would call a lawyer or something in the morning.
"Dude," said a voice from outside his cell. "You so owe me!"