Telephone

He was supposed to be buying the groceries with the rather large sum of money he had obtained(illegally). Instead, Matt, the infamous goggle-wearing man, was in front of a Pacman arcade game outside of the grocery store.

"Yeah, die, you evil bitch!" He growled, slamming the joystick to the left. "Ha, take that you stupid-ass white ghost shit thing! White...damn it, I hate Near..." He mushed the buttons, yelling obscenities at the screen as his pixel-self was eaten by a ghost.

Passing bystanders cowered at the sight of the man shouting at a game machine and quickly called their friends, warning them not to go to Wal-Mart at this time of day.

"No!" Matt screamed as his last life was taken away from him by a ghost. 'Game Over' flashed at the screen several times before it blinked back to the main menu. Matt glowered at it, narrowing his eyes as if it were some evil thing. He considered dropping in 50 more cents, but he had been there for god-knows-how-long and Mello would be pissed if he weren't home by six. He had left at four-thirty, which gave him an hour and a half to get the food.

Speaking of time...

Matt glanced at the store's clock and saw that it was quarter past six. He inwardly laughed; Mello should have already blown a gasket. The redhead wouldn't be too surprised if his trigger-happy boyfriend came barreling through the automatic sliding doors with his favorite gun, threatening to shoot everyone unless Matt was recovered.

Yes, Mello was overprotective of Matt, and Matt appreciated it, though sometimes it was a bad thing.

"Gummy worms, gummy worms," Matt hummed to himself as he walked nonchalantly down the store with his shopping cart. It made him feel independent, as silly as that was. Mello tended to hog the shopping cart whenever they went grocery-ing together. "There you are!" Matt exclaimed to himself, pushing two plastic containers of gummy worms into the aluminum cart. He licked his lips, wanting to eat the candy immediately.

Next was the chocolate.

Matt rolled down further into the aisle where the chocolate section began. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, and all other various types of chocolates decorated the shelves. Remembering Mello especially liked Godiva, Matt set down two boxes of those into the cart.

After that, he pushed the cart to the dairy section.

He had to pass the meat section in order to get there. Matt made a face at the cooked pigs, roasted chicken, and dead ducks, feeling sorry for them. On his way through, he grabbed a pepperoni pizza from a freezer.

"Did Mello want regular milk this time or chocolate milk?" He asked himself, tapping his chin thoughtfully, standing in front of a row of refrigerated milk. He remembered a time when Mello had gotten the brilliant idea of sneaking inside the freezers...The duo had ended up stuck and had to be yanked out by some security officers, then was thrown out.

Finally figuring that the blond needed a break from the chocolate, Matt got the white skim milk, then pushed the cart over to the checkout center. He noticed in dismay that there were at least seven people in one line.

Sighing, he took his place in the shortest line possible and began the wait. I wish I owned Wal-Mart, the gamer thought. Then I'd earn millions of dollars without having to hack into a bank...and Mello would finally stop calling me useless.

Speaking of Mello, did he leave any messages...?

Matt moved up one place before taking out his phone. He saw he had eight missed calls in the past hour. Alarmed(only two people did know his number, after all: Near and Mello), he played the first message and pressed the phone to his ears.

"Matt! Where the fuck are you?" It was Mello, unmistakably. "You better call me back, dickhead."

Beep.

"Matt, it's important! Call me back, or else!"

Beep.

"Mail fuckin' Jeevas, call me back goddammit! It's an emergency."

Beep.

"...Are you mad at me? Please, Matt, I'm sorry for whatever I did, just call back!"

Beep.

"Damn, Matt, answer your phone!"

Beep.

"Matt, are you deaf? Or...dead? You better not be! Call back, idiot!"

Beep.

"M-matt, you b-better have not left me!"

Beep.

"Matty, call me back, but don't come home! It's an emergency!" The last one was a loud wail. Matt winced, snapping his phone shut.

"Can I get in front of you, miss?" He asked the woman in front of him. "My, uh, girlfriend is in a bad emergency right now and wants me to call back, but there's no signal here. I really need to hurry." My boyfriend is in a bad emergency which probably includes illegal things and he wants me to call back, but there's no fuckin' signal here. I really need to hurry or else he could die.

"I'm sorry, but my little sister and I are in the same predicament," the woman said apologetically. "She's been home alone for three hours now and she's only five."

Who the hell leaves their five-year-old little sister alone at home...to get batteries?! Matt thought when he saw what the woman was holding. "Oh, okay, miss. Um, tell your sister I said hi!" Matt said, and, feeling rather stupid, whisked himself away with his cart to another line. He repeated his excuse to the elderly man in front of him, sounding more frantic this time.

"You think I'm stupid?" the old man croaked, glaring with puny eyes. "I've heard that too many times, and I refuse to be fooled!" Then he started to beat Matt with his purse--yes, a purse-- as told him repeated "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Ah, fuck this!" Matt shouted, patience finally breaking. He shoved past people, elderly man and all, towards the exit. He was still pushing his cart full of unpaid items, so the security alarm went off as he sped out of Wal-Mart.

"Hey, stop that guy!" A security guy shouted, already starting to run after the hacker.

Matt pumped his legs faster, his shopping cart violently shaking. He halted beside a red truck and climbed up, stretching his arm upward towards the sky. In his hand was his cellphone.

"Yes!" he hissed when he saw he had two bars of signal. He quickly called Mello's number, seeing the manager and security guards spilling out into the parking lot. "Pick up, Mels, pick up..." he murmured, anxiously tapping his foot. Finally, there was the sound of the receiver being picked up. "Mello!" Matt breathed. "Are you okay? What's wrong? What's so important I couldn't come home?"

Mello's voice, however, was cheery. "Took you long enough! Anyway, you still better be at the store. I wanted you to call back because I needed to tell you we ran out of marshmallows! Buy some before you come home, okay? Love you!"

Beep.