Journey Of Fate ~ mayakuro

•Sun Chips: Part 2•

By the time the two women finally left the motel it was 1 PM. Claudine insisted that Maya pack the groceries into the car while she returned the key. She absolutely did not want to risk the clerk making weird comments again, especially now that Maya wasn't basically comatose. When she got back to the car, she realized Maya was storing some of them on the passenger seat floor for easy access. Considering that Maya drove for almost all of yesterday, it was Claudine's turn behind the wheel. She had to adjust the mirrors due to her being slightly shorter than Maya. 

Honestly, was there anything that Maya didn't have the tiniest edge on her in?

The drive was much more relaxing than yesterday. There was no stressful New York City traffic, and there was no driving on the wrong side of the road with on-coming traffic heading towards them. Instead, it was just a leisurely cruise down I-80. For the most part, I-80 was relatively fast, but even so, the drive stretched on for hours because of the distance between New York and their first destination, Chicago. Claudine found herself enjoying the ride nonetheless. Talking to Maya was surprisingly natural and they found ways to entertain themselves, such as singing along to music. Well, it was less singing along and more a competition to see who could one-up the other when it came to belting out musical numbers. As the hours wore on, both women became exhausted and settled into a comfortable silence. The serenity of the drive broke, however, when Claudine encountered a traffic jam when they were getting close to the city caused by an accident that had blocked several lanes further up the road. All the cars were crawling at the snail's pace, and the blonde was at wits end. It was now 1 AM and she desperately wanted to check into the hotel room they had booked and pass out. It didn't help that she was on the verge of starvation too. The last meal she had eaten, a McDonalds 20-piece chicken nuggets meal that she had split with Maya, was consumed 7 hours ago!

She heard a crunch from the her right. Then several more crunches. Her eyebrow twitched. Maya was definitely eating something, while she was sitting here wasting away. She was about to ask for some of whatever Maya was eating, but then she realized what exactly it was. Sun Chips. Maya must've noticed her judgement as she stopped eating momentarily to comment.

"Are you hungry, Claudine?" The brunette teased. "We have a perfectly good bag of Sun Chips right here!" She shook the bag slightly, causing the chips to tumble around. Claudine groaned. The chips sounded so tantalizing, but she wasn't going to eat stupid Sun Chips. She wasn't going to back down on her earlier comment about how they sucked. If she did, that meant losing to Maya, and she already dealt with that enough.

"Yes, that is a perfectly lame bag of Sun Chips for a perfectly annoying person to eat," the blonde snapped back haughtily. "But, if I recall, you also bought other snacks. Pass me one of those please." Maya eyed her with a mischievous glint and reached down to hand Claudine the grocery bag that was lying near her feet. Luckily for Claudine, she could focus more on the food and her passenger than usual considering the cars weren't moving anyway. She snatched the bag greedily from Maya's hands, eager to eat something- anything. Well, except for Sun Chips. She reached her hand into the bag and pulled out the first snack available. Claudine was about to open it and dump all of its contents into her mouth, but then she saw a label out of the corner of her eye.

'Heart-Healthy.' Sun Chips! She growled in frustration and tossed the bag over to Maya, who caught it deftly. The brunette was still sporting a smug smile, her eyes somewhat lidded with a weird sense of satisfaction. Claudine narrowed her eyes at her. What was going on? She glanced into the grocery bag she had been handed. The only snacks inside of it were Sun Chips. They were all fucking Sun Chips! Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, French Onion Sun Chips, Garden Salsa Sun Chips, Original Sun Chips. Every flavor of Sun Chip was present, but not a single other snack. Not even the raisins were present!

"Maya! Ce ñ'est pas drôle!! This was your plan, wasn't it?!" Claudine roared, gripping the bag tightly.

"I merely think that you should try some Sun Chips," Maya chuckled. "You say they're lame, but I don't think you've actually had them before." Claudine tensed. Technically, Maya was somewhat right about that. She had only had Sun Chips once, and it had been years ago at a shitty reception after putting on a play that she was mostly disinterested in. So maybe her opinion of Sun Chips wasn't entirely fair, but she sure as hell wasn't going to admit that, especially not to Maya of all people.

"Maya, I'm not eating Sun Chips. Just pass me another snack. Any other snack," Claudine huffed. 

"I'm afraid I can't, ma Claudine," Maya replied amused. 

"All the other grocery bags are in the trunk, so unless you want to go get them in the middle of traffic..." Claudine grit her teeth.

Maya definitely planned this. She had taken advantage of the time that Claudine was returning the keys to set this up. She had done this specifically in an attempt to prove Claudine wrong. To get her to admit that Sun Chips actually weren't lame. The blonde eyed the bag she had tossed to Maya. Harvest Cheddar. She was so hungry. She needed to eat something. She snatched it back from the brunette and tore it open.

"Fine, ma Maya," Claudine sneered. 

"I will eat these stupid chips that you like so much. I will eat every single one of them! And then I will attest again to how horribly bland they are!" Maya simply smiled at her in response, much to the red-eyed woman's chagrin. Stupid Maya with her stupid Sun Chips. She stuck a hand into the offending bag and pulled out one of the chips. Already, it was horrible. It was orange, spiting her favorite color, and it was getting all sorts of dust onto her fingertips, which would have to touch Swan's steering wheel. Maya offered her a napkin. Claudine glared at the napkin. Maya was obviously trying to make up for the fact that Sun Chips were the spawn of Satan by giving her an appliance to wipe away the sin that the Sun Chip left behind. Still, Claudine begrudgingly took the napkin. She didn't want to mess up Swan's steering wheel. After trying to burn the chip with her eyes, the blonde decided the bite the bullet. 

She ate a Sun Chip. 

The moment it hit her tongue; she knew she was screwed. The cheddar actually tasted really good. Like, really really good. She couldn't help but hum slightly in relief at finally having eaten something. She then proceeded to shovel the rest of the chips into her mouth, all while Maya watched her with a lenny face.

"So, I take that you enjoyed them?" Maya mused, mirth clouding her eyes. Claudine glared back at her.

"No, they were merely serviceable," Claudine argued. "I was just very hungry. They're still lame and bland. Try it again when I haven't been starved for 7 hours."

"You know, you're not very honest, are you?"

"Tais-toi! What's that supposed to mean?!"