Telephone

Why the hell is my phone ringing at this hour? Who the hell!?

I laid there motionlessly, stunned upon hearing the sudden burst of ringing noises coming from a few inches away from my slightly damp mattress on the floor. Sensing that the caller wouldn't give up anytime soon after a few rings, I slowly placed my phone on the bed and very carefully crawled towards my telephone that was awkwardly sitting there in the corner of the room. Amid the many plastic wrappers and fallen breadcrumbs all over the floor, I saw my black and slightly greasy telephone vibrating as the loud ringing of the phone strengthened. I very briskly moved all the trash around the phone, revealing a once-white floor that is now stained into a darkened state.

I cleared my throat once or twice and gulped a few of my saliva before ultimately answering the call once and for all.

With a silent puff, I placed the phone on my ear to hear what the other side had to say. I remained silent, sitting still without even giving the caller even a tiny bit to present my presence. I blinked twice nervously with my eyebrows knitted tightly as I overheard a few faint noises from the other side of the call. It sounded like a few people were talking in the background, but I could hardly hear what they were saying; it's all too quiet, although they all seem to be making a whole lot of noise out there. It felt like they were arguing, or maybe they were reprimanding someone. The call stayed that way for a while, leaving me hanging there along with my confusion. I could hear a faint murmur of a woman backed by two men, and judging from how muffled their voices are, I concluded that they must have been placed somewhere a few feet away from the phone, not that it was needless to say anyway.

I was about to drop the phone when finally, a voice rang on the phone, sending a wave of vibrations from my head down to the entirety of my body.

"H-hello..." A familiar-sounding voice rang into my ears, making me realize that I should probably end this call once and for all, but a wave of curiosity grabbed onto my body like a few puppet strings, making me do what I would otherwise think as something silly.

I responded, "Hey." I tried to act cool, but my heart is racing so fast that I could barely make out the rate in which it beats every second. I decided to have a deep breath, which relatively helped in retaining my calmness, but it did not really fix the uneasiness in my head.

"H-Hey there, man!" The person on the other side of the call stuttered as he mumbled a few words with a shaking voice. "It's me! Do you remember me?"

"Sorry?" I replied, trying to show an ounce of dominance by making my voice deeper than usual. "Who's this?"

"This is Mike. Remember? Mike Spencer. We're friends in high school; our house was so close when we were young, remember?" The man swiftly replied without stuttering for once while his voice now seemed a whole lot friendlier than what he sounded like earlier.

"Holy shit, yeah, Mike! How long has it been? Seven years?" I replied as a smile crept up on my face.

"Eight, actually." He responded with a chuckle. "Eight and two months. We haven't really had any conversation after graduation, so..."

"Yeah, yeah, but I do remember you, man. What's up?" I loosened myself a bit and let my guard down to him as I leaned my back on the wall while sitting on a whole lot of mess on the floor.

"Yeah, sorry if this is so sudden. Can we... I mean..." He then laughed as I heard a bit of that same nervousness in his voice once more. "You know... How are you? How's your life?"

I laughed awkwardly, shrugging after hearing this unusual small talk coming from this high school friend who suddenly called me in the dead of the night. "I'm good. Work, work, work. You know the drill." I chuckled. "How about you, man? I heard you went missing and shit, what's up with that?"

"That is not true!" Mike shouted after a gasp before puffing a few more heavy breathing. "Missing!? I'm not missing! Not missing!"

"I get it, I get it, man, chill! We're pals here, no stress, take a deep breath." I tried to ease him up by playing it cool, but I was seriously considering hanging up on him for a second time now. "Take a deep breath. I'm just kidding, jeez."

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm sorry, I..." He said with a sigh. "Look, man. I called because I've been... I've been very lonely lately, you know? I watched this cool video earlier, I dunno, I think on Facebook or something. Look, the point is that the video said that too much working fucks you up good, you know? Kills you real bad after a while too."

"I hear ya. I totally get your point, man. That's why I take a few breaks every now and then. Just walk around and escape from all these bullshit." I replied, thinking about what sort of gay shit this dude is trying to point out after this. I can already guess that he's just easing his way up, so he could modestly invite me for lunch or some shit like that. Not that I mind, as long as it's not for one of those pyramid scheme shit.

"So yeah, my point is that I've been drowning in my work, and then there are these social media things, and you know, I feel just... God... So exhausted. I feel so, so fucking tired, you know? It's all that time. I don't even know what's date already." I tried to reply by uttering a few grunts of agreement amid his rapid-fire rant until he finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Look, man! I'm available this Sunday, but this Sunday only. If you wanna meet, that's cool. If you wanna talk, even better! We can catch up all we want, that's all good. No need to beat around the bush, eh?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Sorry, sorry, old habits, you know?" He then chuckled the same way he did in my memory.

"You haven't changed, Mike." I chuckled while scratching the back of my head, thinking about whether I did the right thing or not. "So, what now? We can meet, but I'd refuse if you're in a different state right now!"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm in LA too." He replied nonchalantly like that of a lost child.

"Oh?" I replied with my eyebrow raised. "How'd you know I'm in LA?"

"I..." He said, stuttering once more with that hint of fear that I could audibly feel as his breathing shook. "I just..."

"Chill, man!" I chuckled again to ease the rising tension once more. "Don't have to be so nervous, I'm just messing with ya, you know me!"

"Oh!" He then laughed as I felt his fear gradually disappearing. I could even feel his nervousness leaving his mind by the way his laughter slowly softened. "Then, maybe we can meet at the 7-11 downtown near that abandoned mall."

"Say whaaat?" I uttered in a ridiculous, high-pitched tone. As I said those words, even I am unaware as to why exactly I did it, but I continued with that same voice anyway even after knowing how cringe it was. "Abandoned mall downtown? I didn't know there's something like that."

"Oh yeah, it's really big too; it's not really THAT abandoned, you know what I'm saying? There are still some open stores here and there. People just call it that because nobody goes there anymore."

"So where exactly is this spooky abandoned mall anyway?" I said, again, in a cringey sounding silly voice as if I am talking to a child.

Fortunately, Mike didn't really mind how condescending I sounded like. "Just book some Uber. I'll pay for your ride. The place is quite wonky, and it's really hard to go there. That's why not a lot of people visit the mall anymore, but that also means extra privacy, which works a lot for me."

I do like privacy. I remembered that that was how I met Mike. I saw him eating alone in an open bathroom stall, and we just kinda clicked right away cuz I found his weirdness as something hilarious. I see that he hasn't changed; that's good to hear, at least. Lots of shit is changing in society these days; it's good to see that there's still something that I can recognize.

"Aight, that's cool," I said while clasping the phone in between my head and my shoulder. I then took my phone on the mattress to set that date in my calendar; I don't want to forget such a rare appointment with a friend after all. "So, what's the name of this mall again?" I mumbled after pushing the power button at the side of my phone.

When I looked at my phone screen, what greeted me was a white screen that says: 'Congratulations! Your membership is complete!' It was written in a small, black Times New Roman font on the right side of the screen. I clicked my tongue and pressed the home button as I heard Mike's voice on the other side of the phone once more.

"Oh." He exclaimed. "It's called Plural Heights."