Boiling Point

Ever seen that show “Boiling Points”? If not, the basic premise is this:
MTV sends people out with hidden cameras to do seriously annoying or aggravating things to unsuspecting victims, and then keep doing them to see how long it’ll take for them to snap and go apeshit. If the victim passes the predetermined time limit, they win cash.

Alright, synopsis aside; I just went through that. But without the hidden cameras and cash. And actually, without me going apeshit.

I was just hanging out talking to a few people from work when a girl asked if any of us had a cell phone she could borrow. The others said no; but I, being the noble/naive jackass that I am, said yes. I figured that she just needed to call a friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever and ask for a ride home.

When she got up and started walking around the room and in and out of the hallway; I figured out this wasn’t gonna be a short call. The coworkers just laughed as they looked at my facial expressions change as I slowly figured it out. I waited and waited for her to finish up, but she never stopped.

First I quipped about hoping the other person was Verizon too. After a couple of minutes, I asked them “Hey have you guys ever seen those T-Mobile commercials where the kids just keep talking on the cell phone and the parents start yelling at them to hang up? I’m about to do that.” Before I could turn around to give her the “wrap it up” sign, she ducked into the hall again. I followed up the T-Mobile reference with “Am I on Boiling Points? ‘Cause I’m about to cost myself some cash.”

I finally got up and went out to tell her to wrap it up. And about a minute later I got my phone.

7 minutes and 32 seconds. 7 and a half minutes! You don’t spend 7 and a half minutes on a stranger’s phone unless you were just in a multiple car pile-up or you're on either side of a hot pursuit and you get to use the line “He’ll have to call you back.” That shit’s unacceptable.

So thanks, chick. From now on, if I don’t know somebody and they need to use a phone to make a call; the answers “No, sorry. I don’t have one. But he/she does!”

D