Gate 24

Chapter Eight

Counting as I stacked the croissants up onto my plate, I notice Lisa beside me doing the same. Both of us had ditched the tongs and decided to scoop up the pastries with our hands. Three chocolate, two plain – that’s what we settled on for neither of us wanted to eat five plain croissants. Dry food is nice, but there’s only so much dry food you can consume before it becomes hard to function.

Speaking of which, I desperately need a drink of some sorts. Lisa takes my plate off of me and goes to find a table for two as I go and help myself to one glass of orange juice and one glass of apple juice for each of us. Man, this is going to be extremely tough for me to finish, let alone win.

Sitting opposite my opponent, I eye her and she eyes me back, as if we’re about to eat each other the way a lion eats a gazelle. This contest will be brutal; I’ll definitely struggle. “May the best man win,” I smile slyly, watching her roll her eyes at my comment.

“Nah, the woman has this in the bag,” she taunts, keeping her voice down as to not disturb the very few other people in here. “Three, two one, let’s get this started!” The two of us pick up a croissant of our choosing and begin shovelling the messy pastries into our mouths. I choose to eat one of the plain ones first, whereas Lisa opts for a chocolate treat first.

Flaky crumbs are scattered everywhere as I bite down into the warm treat. Honestly, I could live off of carbohydrates forever if my body could handle it; my taste buds could handle it with ease. Lisa already glugs at one of her glasses; she opts for orange juice first. Biting into the croissant again, I feel the warmth on my teeth and my tongue; I sigh as the bliss relaxes me.

My mouth feels on fire as I continue to chomp on the food in front of me. The saliva that I once had has now evaporated; my mouth could cook a whole roast chicken on it if it was big enough. Lisa looks as pained as me, however, she doesn’t pull faces as she struggles to finish the last morsel of croissant one. Oh god, we have four more to go? Part of me is tempted to give up and let her win.

But another part of me holds on and stays chomping. It may be because I haven’t had a drink myself; I pick up my apple juice and take a hard earned swig of the stuff before picking up a chocolate delight and shovelling the pastry into my mouth.

The chocolate melts on my tongue faster than it usually does, thanks to the heat generated inside of my mouth; it leaves a sense of relaxation as the sugary taste overtakes my taste buds. Biting into the food inside of my mouth, I feel the chocolate squirt out of both ends of the pastry and hold back a giggle as the insides of my cheeks are sprayed with dark sugary chocolate.

Chomping further into the pastry, I notice that the plain croissant that Lisa holds isn’t serving well for her in this competition. I think it has currently become a personal achievement more than a competition right now; for we’re eating fast, but we aren’t eating as if we’re on the brink of starving to death.

Sipping some orange juice, I try not to belch in my competitor’s face and continue to eat. We both remain neck and neck; we tuck into croissant number three. This time, we both have a chocolate one. This one will be munched on a lot quicker than the last one, for this one carries some sort of flavour; the other one is literally fancy bread.

Lisa holds down her own burp, I can tell as her chest rises and her cheeks puff out. The two of us aren’t exercising for a little while so we’re okay in term of work, however, I don’t think that agreeing to this competition was exactly the best idea I’ve had in my time. In fact, this is one of the craziest things I’ve done in forever!

It seems like I’m only halfway towards my goal realistically, but it feels like I have to continue forever and that I have little time to finish this task I’ve set myself. Wanting to stretch my jaw and every limb, I begin to fidget and click random joints in my body, my wrists being the most common clicking victim. It’s a horrible problem to have, but I have to live with it.