November 1st 1999
Mark brings his car barreling into the Walmart parking lot, cringing at his own actions, but figuring it's probably not the worst thing anyone has ever seen at a Walmart parking lot. Tom jokingly scolds him for it, telling him they could've exploded and died, they could have exploded and killed someone else, what the hell was he thinking, and why didn't he just park like a normal person. He desperately, yet still lightheartedly defended himself against Tom's joking as they got out of his now perfectly warmed up car and back into the freezing cold air.
Tom dramatically falls against Mark's car as he stands up into the parking lot, placing his hand on the hood and wailing out "Holy shit, dude! We gotta get out of here. Hurry the fuck up." before rushing over to Mark and shoving him toward the entrance to the store.
He lightheartedly scolds Tom yet again, "Well, there's no need for shoving!" shoving him gently on his side and to the right, almost into the road, resulting in some random person honking at both of them.
Tom smiles awkwardly at the guy in the car and fidgets with his hands as he strays back towards Mark, shoulder to shoulder with him as he half-whispers "You're an asshole." clearly trying to hold back laughter.
Mark reminds him "Maybe you should be a little gentler." and offers Tom a light, but firm nudge to his broad shoulder as they walk toward the entrance, practically huddling together at this point as neither of them had a jacket or a hat or anything besides their shirts and shorts on. Yet still wondered why they were so freezing cold.
Amused, Tom breathily asks "When did you ever care?" as the cold starts to get to his throat, hunched over a little to try to get Mark to look at him.
Mark answers clearly and firmly, "Right now, because it's suddenly convenient for me." watching the bright fluorescent lighting start to wash over them as they approach the sidewalk. He walks quicker after answering, forcing Tom to have to catch up to him and lose his breath further to the cold.
The two step inside the automatic doors and as soon as Tom's eyes adjust they're absolutely locked on one of the claw machines by the door. Mark continues walking, having hardly noticed Tom stopped following him for a moment, well aware it would be a bad idea to lose track of him once he did notice.
Mark runs up to the claw machine Tom had his face pressed into, looking between Tom and the contents of the machine with a skeptical eyebrow raised. He furrows his eyebrows and tells him "Tom, no."
Tom counters immediately "No, come on! I know they're rigged, but, I mean...come on! Look! There's a pink one! Right on the top!" and starts to fumble through his pockets for his wallet. He holds his hands up, his wallet in the left one, as he explains to Mark "If I just do it one time I can get it!"
Mark shrugs and tells him "It's your quarters being spent, not mine. I don't have any on me." turning his head and leaning forward a bit to look into the machine and at the pink alien plush sitting perfectly on top of all the others, almost as if to tempt people to try, like it was placed there purposefully. He figures it probably was. Mark slips his hands into his pockets and adds "You know, I bet the claw doesn't even fit over it." but Tom doesn't seem to listen.
He watches Tom closely as he foolishly puts his quarter into the machine and makes his futile attempt to rescue the toy from the machine. He fails, of course, although not miserably. His aim was perfect, but the claw just didn't grab hard enough. He seemed legitimately disappointed, and Mark started to feel bad, offering "You know what, let me try." bringing his hands up and stretching his fingers out so Tom could hand him a quarter.
Tom does so hesitantly, Mark puts it in the machine, and makes his attempt to win the toy, now knocked over with all the other ones. He takes his time with aiming the claw, meticulously inching it back and forth once he had it above the toy, waiting for it to stop swinging violently before pressing the button.
