“Why do I need new clothes? Can't I just keep borrowing your clothes?" Skylar looked down at what they were wearing. "They fit me well enough."
"That's not the issue." John said. “We don't know how long people are going to investigate the park." He and Emily walked towards the clothes racks. “It would be weird to keep borrowing our clothes.” Skylar took another glance at the rest of the resale store, huffed their bangs out of their eyes, and followed.
"Here." John placed one of Emily's hands on a divider. "Everything to the left should be small shirts until the next divider." Emily gave him a thumbs up and started shifting through the rack.
"Emily's a size eight,” John mused, “petite, but since her leggings are a little short on you..." John pursed his lips and paused near the end of the bottoms rack. "We'll need to make sure they aren't petite."
"How?" Skylar rubbed a pair of jeans between their fingers.
"The tags if they have them." John looked on the inside of the waistband. "See?"
Skylar leaned in, staring at the tag a few moments, taking in everything from the size to the washing instructions. "I see."
The three flipped through many clothes. It wasn't long before Emily had several different t-shirts draped over her arm. John found two pairs of jeans and Skylar found a couple sweatpants.
John and Skylar met up with Emily before they brought Skylar to the fitting rooms.
"A test before purchasing?" Skylar held their bounty in their arms.
"Yeah." Emily said. "Try them on, walk around a little. Make sure everything fits." John pointed to an empty room. "You can even come out and show John each outfit. "But first,” Emily tapped her cane as she stepped towards Skylar. “Hand me all the pants.” She stuck her cane in the crook of her elbow and held out her hands. Skylar glanced at John, who shrugged. The pants were handed over.
Emily held up one pair of pants at a time, leaning her head forward a little, and taking a big whiff. On the third pair of pants she wrinkled her nose, and thrust it as far away from her as she could. “Ugh. Not these.”
“What?” John asked.
“Smell them.”
John took the pair of light blue jeans and brought them close to his face. He didn't have to take a deep breath in order to get the smell. It took a moment to identify the actual stench that had seeped into the denim, mildew.
“Yeah. We're going to pass on this one.” John also held the pants away from him. He waved Skylar towards the changing rooms. “Go try the other stuff on.”
Thankfully Skylar didn't need any help with the clothes this time. Within the hour they had their stuff and were leaving the resale store.
Word Count: 481
