I settled down in my temporary room once we got back, taking stock of it. The room would be quite spacious, but there was a large bed took up the majority of the available space. There was also a closet, but it was already filled with clothes, and I figured moving them would be overstepping a bit. The clothes did remind me of one of my remaining problems. I found Jake chilling in the chill room with Wiggles. When he noticed me I asked him my question.
“Hey Jake, could I borrow your car, all my clothes were in my room when it collapsed, and I think I should probably get some new ones now that I have somewhere clean to put them.”
“Oh yeah, no problem, one sec.” Jake went through his pockets real fast, tossing me a set of keys when he found them.
“Alright, thanks. Bye.” I thanked him awkwardly, and then hurried away to the car. Where did you go for clothes? I tried google maps first, but all I managed to figure out was that most major stores I could think of were closed. After a bit more digging I did find a thrift store relatively close by. That would probably work, and be cheaper too, I think. Ten minutes later I was pulling into a small parking lot of a somewhat odd two story building. Its first floor was older looking, with a brick facade and a sturdy looking wooden door. The second story was jarringly different, made like the maple lane buildings but a bit sloppier, with a large wood frame and planks nailed in to form walls. The second floor had a coat of reddish orange paint intended to help it blend slightly with the bricks, but that just made it an even worse eyesore. I was slightly regretting my decision to go to this janky place but it was too late to turn back now. Besides, I hadn’t found anywhere else that would sell clothes, though maybe there was something at maple lane… No, you got this. You’ve just gotta go in and find some clothes and then buy them, easy peasy.
I took a breath and the pushed open the door; Inside the building was the same janky mix of the two stories. The original store was still there with a tile ceiling and drywall and fluorescent lights, but it had several not so subtle alterations to the original layout. There were several wooden pillars pushed through holes cut in the ceiling to support the second level on top. I also spied a janky wooden stairwell along the far left wall that led to the second floor, which I decided to ignore for now. Other than the random pillars and staircase the interior was how I expected a thrift store to look. One side was shelves and shelves of random books, movies, and knick knacks, while the other half was dominated by hangers with all sorts of clothing items from jeans to trench coats and much more.
After a bit of wandering through the rows of clothes I found a section of reasonably sized shirts, and I found a few nice single color t-shirts like I liked. It helped that with shirts they can be a bit too big and not look odd. Pants were a whole different ball game, they needed to fit in several places with much less wiggle room than shirts. I had no idea how to find well fitting pants without trying them on, the best I could figure out was just to hold them over me and see if they looked like they would fit well enough. After several long and frustrating minutes I found a few that would probably work. New socks and underwear were last, and after a shockingly stressful hour I finally approached the counter with a solid stack of clothes that fit and didn’t look too terrible or worn out. The cashier was a friendly man in his mid twenties with short black hair, and he greeted me nicely.
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“Lots of clothes, Let me guess, you returned this week and found something had destroyed all your clothes?” I was surprised how quickly he guessed.
“How did you know?”
“Oh, it happens quite a bit, most business in the first week is people whose closets got infested by rats or moths. Before you buy all this I should let you know that there is actually a changing room under the stairs if you want to try the clothes out.” I stopped placing clothes on the conveyor.
“Oh, that's great, I didn’t actually know if-” he interrupted
“They would fit you? Yeah, again, this happens all week, I imagine you're going to want to go make sure everything fits?”
“Yeah, sorry about wasting your time.”
“No problem, I’ll take a customer who isn’t sure what they are doing over someone who is convinced they know everything any day.” his eyes got unfocused as he recalled some horrible customer of days past, and I collected my clothes and made my way toward the stairs. Sure enough past the knick knacks and stairs there were three empty wooden changing stalls. I entered the nearest one, finding that two of the pairs of pants did not fit well at all. I took a few minutes to find where I had found them and found two better fitting pairs of pants with the measurements of the good fitting pants. When I was about wrapped up and ready to check out again I stole a look toward the stairs. What did they sell up there? A few minutes of mental debate and pacing later my curiosity got the better of me, it couldn’t hurt to check it out.
When I reached the second floor I found myself in a bizarre mirror of the bottom floor, with racks of armor along the right side, and weapons lining the left. I had found the delver section of the thrift store. Just ahead of the stairs was a glass display with several different colors of origin shards and orbs resting on little pillows like jewelry. Leaning against the case was a partially armed employee. Also on the floor were a few people browsing weapons. After looking around a moment I decided nothing here was really something I needed, and poked back down, but the visual was embedded in my head. The world really was way different than I remembered, and I kept forgetting just how much. I collected my clothes and fifty dollars later I was leaving with six complete outfits worth of clothing. They probably needed a wash before I could put them on, and so did I, so when I got to Jakes after getting permission I started a load of laundry and crossing my fingers I had done that right took a shower. An hour later I was completely clean and ready to face the world for the first time all week. The nagging feeling that I was stupid and didn’t know what I was doing silenced by my successful outing and subsequent hot shower. I even played a round of smash bros against Jake (I got curb stomped, but still) and it was just like old times.