The Inner Child Club

Shopping Is For Babies

I pick at my french toast with a pout.

"What's wrong, honey?" Jess walked over to me. "Don't you like french toast?"

"Yeah, I do, but..." I sighed. "Today's Mia and my fifth anniversary."

"You dated that bitch for five years?" Nathan asked. Danny elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow! I'm just saying."

"She was my first and only girlfriend." I sighed. I pushed my plate of french toast away. "I'm not hungry."

Jess cleared her throat and pushed it towards me again. "You'll need your strength for our adventure today."

"Our adventure?"

Jess nods and points to the food. "Eat, please. At least a little bit."

I took my fork and knife and cut a piece of one of the slices. I popped it in my mouth. Jess smiled at me when I did so, so when I was done with the first piece, I did it again. I did it again and again until I was done with the first piece of french toast. When I was, I felt full. "That's all I can eat," I told her.

"That's ok, baby. Thank you for eating." She booped my nose, making me giggle. "Ready to go now, guys?"

"Where are we going?" Zach asked.

"We're going thrifting."

"Thrifting?" Nathan wrinkled his nose. "But the junk at thrift stores is dirty and used."

"Thrifting is cheaper, environmentally friendly, and there's less guilt than buying from a big corporation," Danny explains, counting on his hands. When he's done, he throws them up. "Thrifting is punk rock! It's awesome."

"Do I look like I care what's 'punk rock'?" Nathan scoffed.

"Point is, if you go into it with an open mind," Jess shook her head, "you might have a good time."

"You never know until you try it," I added.

"Fine." Nathan sighed. "Let's go before I change my mind."

We drove to the thrift store. When we got there, I looked up at Jess. "What are we looking at first?"

She led us over to the mens' sweaters and looked through the options. She hummed to herself, flipping through each sweater. She stopped on a fuzzy pastel blue sweater with white clouds on it. She held it up to my chest. "What do you guys think?"

"Cute!" Zach smiled.

Danny gave it a thumbs up.

"Most importantly, what do you think?" Jess asked me.

I ran my hand across the material. It felt soft, and I really liked the color. I could also probably style it to make it look more or less little, depending on how I'm feeling and who's around. "I like it," I told her.

She looked through the options some more until she came across a dark bluish-gray sweatshirt with Winnie The Pooh on it. She almost missed it with how fast she was going, but she did a double take when she saw his smiling face. "This is a yes. What do y'all think?"

I nodded enthusiastically.

"Perfect! Now, look at this! Today is our lucky day!" She pulled out a matcha green sweater with an adorable little dinosaur on it. "How cute is this?"

"Super duper cute!" Zach agreed.

Jess put all three sweaters in the cart, then we headed to a different section.

Not just any section, though.

The kids' section!

Nathan picked up a cream coloured blankie with all kinds of horses on it. Brown ones, gray speckled ones, light brown, dark brown, black, and white. He looked down at it and smiled.