2019-10-17 - Wrecking Ball Aisle 8

Mae zooms down the ice cream isle, riding her cart. She has a few things in her cart already. Fruity pebbles, some green beans, some of the fake mashed potato flakes and a loaf of potato bread. She looks around for Sutton, comes to a stop near the freezer with salvation in it, yanking open the door to gaze inside. There are so many choices here, and she's going to take her time with it. Rocky road, cookie crumble, strawberries and cream, and oh my god.. rainbow sherbet. She closes the door when it starts to fog, not wanting the precious frozen food to melt before she can get it in her belly.

Sutton is standing with one of those mini carts, leaned against it, right at the far end of the ice cream aisle. Already in her cart: peanut M&Ms, a box of single oatmeal servings with protein powder in them, frosted animal cookies with sprinkles, and Red Vines. She faces off the ice cream, trying to decide between a half gallon of rocky road and some single serve mango mochis.

The blonde wears a pair of black cargo pants, a white camisole, and a slightly oversize GHPD hoodie.

Out front of the store, a black & white 1966 Triumph BONNEVILLE T120R is parked. Her helmet dangles from the handlebar of her cart.

Zoiya turns her head, does a double take, oh yeah.. Harry is a blonde now. She steps on the bar and zooms her cart toward Sutton's, bumping it enough to shift it a bit. She's wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and a large black hoodie. She has a wide grin on her lips. "Sherbet." She drones softly, giggling as she hops off the bar. "Or rocky road. I mean, I like turtle more, mostly because I'm a huge fan of peanuts." She rubs her tummy with a hand, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

She leans in, digging through Sutton's items, picking up the oatmeal with an eyebrow raised. "Staying regular, huh?" They get tossed back inside, the other things seem to pass inspection.

Sutton laughs as she turns to fine Mae pantomiming yumminess for her. "I think I'm going with the marshmallows and the nuts." She drops that into her cart, and puts the mango mochi back, leaving the door to swing shut with a little thump. "That was almost a road rage incident. but luckily I like tattooed girls enough to put up with a lot of their shit." She pulls a face at the staying regular. "That's the pink puffy coat's deal. I like the way it tastes. Plus I figure heart health is important, and that's as close as I get this year." That's a sad statement coming from a medical professional. "Are those instant potatoes? Did you give up? You should at least just get the ones under the hotdogs that are pre-mixed and real. Nobody has to know. Microwave that shit and scoop it into a bowl."

"Pass me a half gallon of that cinnamon crunch too? I have to go make an apology to somebody after I yell at them a bunch." She nods to the brand nearest Mae's shoulder.

Mae walks around Sutton's cart and bumps bodily into her, grinning up into her face. "Woman, you got some anger issues, and from your texts, getting laid isn't going to solve them. Chocolate might be key though." She picks up the cinnamon crunch and drops it into Sutton's cart. "I am damn lucky, because I'm not just an inked up girl with a pretty face." She glances at the potatoes in her cart and sighs. "So I made them from the real potatoes right? It turned into some sort of cement. I can't get his wooden spoon out of the pot, it started to crack. I hope it wasn't like a family heirloom or some shit." She slumps against the now closed door, sighing. "You mean the watery ones that you microwave?" She looks thoughtful, glancing toward the pre made food section. "You sure nobody can tell?"

"I'm not going there to have sex after I yell." Sutton's hand smacks Mae's butt lightly when the woman passes her. "Thanks." She grins at the passing of the ice cream. She tries pretty hard not to smirk at the cracking wooden spoon, but loses the battle by degrees. "If a wooden spoon is a family heirloom, it's time to get a new family." She nods. "Yeah those, you just stir them a bunch and if they're too thin, add some cheese." Sutton gives the world's best culinary advice. "Cheese makes everything better." This is not true, but it does work most of the time for potatoes. "I have to yell so I don't throw my phone again. And then we will have eggy toast."

"And then throw some more butter in." This is why no one lets her cook except if it's eggy toast. "What's the likelihood that a younger man's going to know the difference? He probably lives on ramen and cereal." There's a pause as she pushes her cart around the end cap, looking her her shoulder. "I mean, I'm sure somebody can tell, but they're fancy and I have no time for fancy."

"Never say never babe." Mae makes an oooh noise when Sutton touches her ass. "I don't know. I keep trying with this guy, and I'm not getting any better. He seems to appreciate it." She eyes Sutton and smirks, leaning in as her voice gets soft. "Please don't throw your phone again. You are hard enough to get a hold of as it is." She glances at her cart. Shit, she forgot butter. "He does live on ramen and cereal, I think." Mae follows the blonde, not able to ride the cart around the corner (unless she wants to crash into a bread display) so she pushes it like a normal human being, her eyes on the frozen dinners. "I am just getting tired of take out. Since he's not charging me rent or behaving like I'm a burden I'm attempting to be domestic."

She pulls out some chicken nugs, tossing them into her cart. "I should get one of those cutesy maid outfits."

"It's not my plan to yell and get laid, but stranger things have happened." Sutton doesn't reply to the thing about her phone for a couple of beats, pulling a mini tray of 2-bite brownies off the shelf as they pass it. It's that kind of night. "The $600 it just cost me to replace my old phone agrees with you. I liked that phone, too. I was about to rip someone's head off until I remembered I set it to auto backup, so everything about be there. But it had a bunch of photos of my brother, so..." She throws some poptarts in her cart.

"Sex is easier to contribute than food when you don't cook. Probably the maid outfit thing is a good idea." She glances back at that box of instant mashed potatoes. Definitely.

Sutton considers an end-cap of sundry breakfast cereals and chooses the Froot Loops. "I date men who cook."

"It wasn't my plan to move in with a college student, but here I am." Mae grabs some tater tots and adds them to the cart. "I've had my phone since Chicago, I used to love it because it had rainbow sparkles down the back, they've all rubbed off now." She puts her foot on the bar and propels herself down the isle.

"I have a maid outfit for work somewhere, complete with a feather duster and a lace choker." She turns the cart, flashing a smile toward Sutton. "Dylan might cook, who knows. I've never asked and I usually show up with food before he has a chance to take care of it." She considers the cereal in Sutton's basket and frowns. "No Fruity Pebbles? Woman, I am disappointed in you."

"They get soggy too fast in milk. You basically have to sit there splashing your milk in for those. Too high maintenance." Sutton picks up a box of Cap'n Crunch, too, original flavor. She hasn't even grabbed any milk yet, but she might do when there pass it here in a minute or so, unless she's one of those heathens who eats their cereal out of a box dry.

"How'd you end up living with a college boy?" She reaches into her cart, opens up the Red Vines, and pulls out a pair, offering one over to Mae. She is 100% one of those people who snacks and shops.

Mae takes the vine and starts to chew on it. "Met him in the woods, he invited me over to show me some sketches.." She shrugs, taking another bite. "I stayed the night and he brought me waffles. I've been there on and off since. Mostly on." She leans against the handle of the cart pushing slowly, nearly crashing into old ladies, upsetting stock boys. She seems not to notice. "Now we're in a.." She shudders, grimacing briefly. "..relationship." She sighs and turns down the dairy isle. "I can't get mad at him, ever. He's so sweet and kind of innocent, He came creeping up on me earlier with a golf club with a rubber ducky on the head of it. He was trying to protect his basement. I swear.. I'm going to corrupt him." She snags a half gallon of milk with one finger, dumping it into her cart.

"That sounds like the beginning of a slasher movie," Sutton says, popping a Red Vine into her mouth. "Oh man, the waffle gambit." The blonde nods in clear understanding. "I feel for that one time too." She glances over at the shudder, laughing at the look on Mae's face. "How about this. I'm dating a man who called me his girlfriend for god knows how long before he told me, and we're both seeing other people." She's silent for a minute, checking a grocery list app on her phone to see if she forgot anything she put on the list. "I'm glad you've found that." She flips the app closed and tucks her phone into the thigh pocket of her cargoes. "I'm glad you're not still trying to fly away."

She asks, cherry licorice hanging out of her mouth. "He protects his basement with a rubber duckie golf club?" She eyes Mae. "Is this kid a magician's assistant?"

"Shit. Does it?" Mae frowns, sticking the Red Vine into her mouth to suck on it. "Waffles are the way to my heart, and the cookie." She says, letting go of her cart so she can pirouette. The cart bumps into a display in the middle of the isle and comes to a stop. "Shit. Dylan is calling me his girlfriend and I'm always afraid I'm gonna break out into hives. I'm not used to that words." She bumps into Sutton and shrugs a shoulder. "I'd fly if I had wings that weren't broken, but I don't, so I'm a land waddler now." She shuffles down the isle and quacks at another old woman picking up some butter.

"Nope, just a quirky college student who has a fast set of hands." She grins at the thought, shrugging toward Sutton. "Apparently he's a minigolf savant too."

Sutton reaches over to snag one of those little bottles of milk rather than a half-gallon. She's going to be lucky if all this fits on her bike as it is. The blonde finishes one Red Vine and starts in on another one. "I don't think I've ever had a proper boyfriend, not since high school." She considers the eggs, then thinks better of it. She'd probably just break them on the ride. The blonde bumps into Mae back, "I'm not sure you sound like you want to just now." She does her best to hide her amusement when the old lady huffs down the aisle with some biscuits in her cart.

"Mini golf." Sutton glances over. "Are you serious?"

"I don't think I'm a boyfriend kind of person. I can go with lover. Partner." She chews thoughtfully. "Taquito." She smirks at that one. "Boyfriend, no."

"But mini golf?" Back to that again.

Mae grins as Harry bumps into her, rolling her eyes. "This is my first boyfriend. I'm twenty fucking five years old and this is my first boyfriend." She wrinkles her nose and turns to flip the bird to the old lady, it's unseen. They're safe from an old lady throw down. For now.

"It's what he said, he could be shitting me, I mean.. I'll only know once I raise the challenge and kick his ass at it when I play for the first time ever." She smirks and watches the blonde with thinly veiled amusement. "Taquito? Yummy." She bumps her cart into Sutton's cart and knocks her off course. "Why don't you be my little cinnamon dusted churro babe. We could raise some hell together."

"Is there a mini golf course here in town? I wanna see if that evil man was taking me for a ride." She looks like she thinks she was taken for a ride. Rubber ducky. Right.

Safe from the old lady retribution, maybe. That is unless the old lady has an arm on her and was just waiting for some range so they can't catch up when she lobs her biscuit can.

Sutton's only steering with one hand, so that bump almost sends her into a promotional display of cup o' noodles, which could have ended in disaster. She barely nudges it before she course corrects, though the entire stack is destabilized. The next person to whisper too close is gonna get a bunch of cups toppling. Meh heh heh.

"Cinnamon dusted churros." She snorts. "Hold up, I'm using that one." She goes so far as to make a note in her phone. "I dunno, but there has to be, right? Every town has a mini gold course and a soft serve stand, with some janky windmill obstacle in it, right?"

The can doesn't get lobbed in their direction, the old lady huffs off into the cleaning supplies isle, and she can be heard discussing the two tattooed hussies in the dairy isle. Mae picks up one of the cup o' noodles and hurls it over the isle toward the old ladies voices. It goes silent. Mae just gazes over at Sutton and snickers softly. "If there isn't, we're going to Hoquiam to settle this shit." She's determined now.

"Should I get more pork chops in case the ones I made are shit? They might be shit. Ugh. I should hire someone to help me learn how to cook." She leans down against the bar of the cart again, pushing it along like that, her eyes on the various meats before she snags one of the potato containers from the prepared food section. "Oh look, they have.. beef au jus? The fuck is that? Should I pretend i cooked that?"

"Tattooed hussy," Sutton says to Mae, after the lobbed noodle cup. She watches it sail up and over, and then presses her lips together in the silence, barking a laugh. "Streaming video or it didn't happen." She scoots around the end cap, and along to the next aisle, grabbing a pack of pistachio oreos because she hasn't tried them before. She pulls open the package with a crinkle of the plastic, and pops one into her mouth whole. "I mean if the first ones are shit, the second ones will probably be shit too." She crunches into the cookie, and on the second bite makes a face that suggests she's going to need somewhere to spit that out. "Uhhh." She closes the package and throws it behind some detergent they pass.

"Yuh." That's probably a yes, but her mouth is full of the foulest cookie she's ever tasted.

"I mean, it's fucking accurate." Mae replies, shrugging as they turn into another isle. She holds up her hands to keep Sutton from taking a bite of the cookie, but she's too late. Yikes. Then she makes the face and Mae just watches as the package gets abandoned. She grabs beef au jus, she grabs a few other of the prepared foods and dumps them all in her cart. "He'll figure it it, he always does, but maybe he won't?"

She looks sympathetic to the pistachio problem, grimacing slightly. "Just swallow the fucking thing woman." She holds a hand over her mouth. "If you yack, I'm gonna yack. Clean up on isle eight."

Sutton makes a sound like she might spit it out, and then she does what generations of brave women have done before her, taking one for the team, for the sisterhood, and she swallows something that had to have been invented by a man. "Oh god." She pauses by a mini cooler and pulls out a single serving chocolate milk, cracking it open to stand there drinking the whole fucking thing. "Ehhh."

"That is foul." Sutton finishes off the chocolate milk and tosses the bottle into her cart. She reaches in for another one, because that was actually pretty good. "If it's overcooked, put gravy on it. It's fine." Don't listen to her, god.

Mae watches with some admiration, because she'd have spit it out and then nudged it under a shelf somewhere. She shudders and shakes her head back and forth. "I can't believe you put that thing in your mouth. It is green. Green is only good sometimes, rarely in food. Take peas for example. Gross. As. Fuck." She watches the chocolate milk disappear, and another get cracked open before she pushes her cart again, right into a jello display. One falls from the top and she gently scoots it out of the way with her foot.

"Just put gravy on it? You sound like my second foster mom. She put gravy on everything, or made spaghetti every other day. I mean, it was nice getting fed, but I felt like I was turning into a spaghetti noodle." She grabs a bag of Lays and tosses them into her cart. "I think I'm done. Half of this was to assuage what has to be some PMS."

"I like pistachios. I thought it would be good. I thought it would taste like pistachios." It was not and it did not. Sutton "Peas are an abomination." Mostly because everyone overcooks them into disgusting sulfurous mush. The blonde doesn't even react to the jello, probably because it's nudged out of the way by the time she scoots by. She would have stopped it her cart wheel got stuck on it. "Right, I know? I'm eating this whole thing of brownies in about half an hour."

"Me too. Nothing else will fit in my pack." There's a medium-sized cross body backpack on the bottom of her cart that really might not fit what she has now. Unless she has saddlebags on the motorcycle (she does, but they're small). "Ok, let's get out of here before the biddies call the manager and I have to buy a bunch of wine."

"Those biddies call the manager and I swear by all that is holy we're having a fight in the parking lot." Mae isn't above knocking out an old woman. She bumps into the register and thuds again when she tries to straighten it out. She starts to unload her cart, tossing the things that aren't fragile out before she unloads with more care.

She even has coupons. She pulls them out, rifles through them and hands over three to the pimply check out boy. The check out boy who is staring at her tits. She makes like she doesn't notice, shoving the cart through the narrow isle so she can park it near the front. "I'll bag it." She tells him, double bagging everything so she can carry them home without a problem.

"You should come over for dinner sometime, meet Dyls, maybe you can go mini golfing with us." She glances over at Sutton and sighs. "I'm glad I found you here again, even if it ...wasn't a great first meeting back in Seattle? You kept me from ...well.. from falling apart really."

Sutton follows through behind Mae, using a little separator to line up all of her groceries on the same belt. She has no coupons. Too much planning ahead for coupons to work out. She digs her bag off the bottom of her cart, unzips it and prepares to tetris as much as she can fit in there when it's her turn. "I don't really mini golf on account if I get frustrated and tend to try to drive the balls through the obstacles." She really could stand to work on her anger issues.

"Yeah, I..." Sutton falls silent for a beat, thinking about what Mae said, maybe having some flashbacks to that night. All the blood and the injuries and all. "I'm glad to see you here too. I wondered what had happened to you. I was..." Well she was pretty much on personal leave through late November and December, then moved out of town after that. "It's good to know I could help. That it helped." She smiles, a little wobbly. "Okay, I'll go mini golfing, but... somebody has to buy me soft serve."

Mae shoots Sutton an understanding look, but she doesn't pick at those old wounds. She knows how sensitive they can be. "You helped." She murmurs, stuffing things into a bag, trying to keep from having to carry too many. "I'll buy you some soft serve, churro. I'll even get you one of those garish little stuffed toys that they sell." She gets her total, digs a bunch of singles out of her pocket, handing over a bundle of fifty. Stripper hazard. "Hope you can use those!" She says cheerfully to the cashier, ignoring the scowl that is sent back at her.

"You know, Harry. If you ever need to talk or some shit, I'm not always a sarcastic bundle of shit. I have booze in the house, popcorn and I can even be quiet when it calls for it." She offers, sliding a look to the blonde paramedic. "You give me twenty minutes of lead time, I might even have dry beef au jus."

"A little body glitter never hurt anyone."

Sutton moves forward to open her bag and bag the stuff right after the cashier rings each item. She stuffs them into her bag, one after the other after the other, basically taking them from the cashier's hand after he scans them. He seems mildly put off by this, but doesn't say anything about it. "Aw, food and presents. Always a combination that will work on me."

The checkout boy grins.

"Mind your business, youngling." She teases him. She might have grinned back, but for the scowl he gave Mae after having to count out her cash. "Just might take you up on that." She glances at the items remaining on the belt, stuffing all but a couple things into her bag. She takes the others in a single plastic bag. "I maybe do have some things I'd rather talk to you about. Most of my friends here are men." She uses the term friends like it has some emphasis on it. She glances over at the offer of beef au jus."

Beat. "... maybe we order Thai when I come over."

Mae sticks her tongue out at the check out boy, rolling her eyes as he grins like he knows something is going on. "Yeah well, I'm good with the girl talk, just don't mention crotch spawn and we're all good." She eyes Sutton for a few beats and then she hefts her bag off of the register. "Well now you have a female friend. I'm also the fun friend."

She wrinkles her nose and giggles softly. "I like Thai food. Sounds good."

Cassidy leans on her cart in the checkout lane. Inside are enough boxes of tampons to wait out a nuclear fallout, and an assortment of canned foods and frozen tv dinners. She must only go shopping once a year. She looks up from her phone (finally) and waves at Sutton and Zoiya. "Oh, hey girls." she smiles, then goes back to staring at her phone.

Sutton glances over after she jams some cash into the checkout boy's hand. Her gaze flicks from Cassidy to the cart before she says, "That's some vagina."

And for a while, that's all she says, taking her change and tucking it into her pocket. She glances over when Mae mentions crotch spawn, but the glance is brief and she does not touch that with a ten foot pole. "You're one of the fun friends. I have a friend who doesn't speak and just takes off his pants when I knock on his door." She still has the taste of pistachio oreo in her mouth, so she cracks open the second chocolate milk and hefts her bag up and across her chest. "You might have to share the fun friend title."

"It's Cassidy, right?"

"Okay, I like the sound of this guy. Annnd fuck, I'm not single right now." Mae considers her options for a moment and grins slightly. "Ah well. I can be the fun friend with tits." If this guy has tits she's gonna hunt him down and make him regret his boobage. She glances into Cassidy's cart and winces. "How many of those do you need, Christ." She shifts from foot to foot, her bags are heavy. "I'm walking my ass home, you two behave yourselves."

She points at Sutton. "Harry, text me. I want more stories about the pantsless man. They better be fucking raunchy, girl."

Cassidy looks up from her phone to her cart then to Mae. "Yeah. I hate running out because it always happens at the worst time." She shuts off her phone and tosses it in her purse. "I was in a mock trail in Cambridge and it was like negative a zillion degrees outside. I needed one and no one in my class had any and we were snowed in."

She rolls in her lips and looks at Sutton. "mmhmm. Yeah. Cassidy." 💁🏼‍♀️

Sutton's grin answers Mae's rejoinder. "I like tits as much as the next girl." She mhms. "Yeah, well. If you find that changes and you want his number, I'll just give you his address. He's a little..." She thinks for a couple of seconds, "challenging socially. He makes up for it in other ways." She finger-waves, picking her bag up off the end of the belt, ignoring any and all looks the cashier is giving them now. Along the way, those two biddies approach, and both of them are muttering darkly, shooting the younger women looks.

"The stories will inspire you."

The blonde turns her gaze back to the ADA and she says, "Hey, I'm all for open season on de la Vega, but the next time you feel like texting at 4am, please don't. His bitching keeps me awake and I need sleep or everybody dies."

"Just tell the genius detective his phone has a 'do not disturb' option." Cassidy suggests with a shrug as she flips her phone back around in her hand to look at the screen and get her daily dose of Twitter. "Or send him to the couch if he's going to be a little beeech-a." She titters with a smile and tilts her head to the opposite side as she continues to scroll through.

"You know he's like 45, right?" Sutton tightens the strap on her backpack. "He lives in a motel. The couch is right next to the bed." She looks at the cashier who's looking at the stack of tampons like it might bite him. She narrows her eyes a little, then turns away. "They're your tires, love." The blonde heads toward the door. Whatever that means. "The shop is closed in about... 12 minutes. No texting till 7. Get it in now." She glances over her shoulder. "Before I do."

One of the old ladies in line seems to pick up what she's putting down, because there's a scandalized gasp.

She has her phone out and is texting as she walks through the door. "The fuck do you mean you don't like rocky road..."

"Good night..." is Cassidy's only response, drawled out. The screen before her dominates her attention. She pushes the cart forward as the line moves and looks at the cashier. "Oh! I have a coupon for these."