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"Okay, all I'm saying is that this dress definitely compliments your eyes Rey," Finn said holding a long, turquoise gown out for her appraisal.
"And all I'm saying," Rey said putting the dress back on the rack, "-is that I should have thought twice before bringing you thrifting with me."
"Aw c'mon Rey," Poe said sticking his head out from where he was hidden behind the rack of dresses, "We're having so much fun!"
“Yeah, yeah,” Rey said dragging the small red Savers basket behind her, “I know you’re bored out of your minds, let me just look through the men’s t-shirt’s and we can leave.”
Rey was more than just a fan of thrift shopping, she was an expert at it. She could walk into a Savers or Goodwill with twenty dollars and leave with an entire summer wardrobe and five dollars to spare for lunch. She had long since learned the value of a dollar and failed to see why anyone would pay full price when they could pay two dollars for the same things.
”More crop tops Peanut?” Finn asked from where he was walking behind her, pulling his own nearly empty basket. The only thing he had picked up was a crystal bowl with a Rose on it for their friend of the same name.
”It is Arizona,” She said reaching the men’s shirts and heading for the small section, "Besides, there's always a market for crop tops."
Rey ran an online store called Threadbare Apparels where she re-purposed old clothes from thrift stores and sold them. The hipster market paid her very well, often times she could flip a two dollar t-shirt for fifteen dollars. Overtime, she learned that men's t-shirts were the easiest to flip and the most sought after items in her store. Men often wore their shirts down until they were in the homestretch, allowing them a light soft fit. On top of that, they often had kitschy graphics that buyers ate out of her hand. Two dollars for the shirt and thirty seconds of effort for cropping and Rey could make herself a nice little living.
"How about this one?" Poe said from the medium rack, holding out a black shirt with a floral print leopard on it.
"That's great Poe!" Rey said, flicking through the rack of smalls, "How much?"
"A buck fifty!" He exclaimed, pleased with his find.
"Toss it in the basket," She said gesturing to the overflowing basket at her feet.
"What do you guys think of this?" Finn asked pulling out a pale blue v-neck with a torn pocket, "It's a dollar but with the purple tag sale it would only be fifty cents."
"Hmm," Rey replied, walking over to poke a hand through the broken pocket, "Yeah, that could work. I could replace the pocket with that orange paisley print Poe bought for BB-8's bandanna."
"That would have been a beautiful bandanna!" Poe called from the end of the aisle.
"Yeah, if you had a dog not a twenty-five pound cat!" Rey answered taking the blue shirt from Finn and tossing it in the basket.
"He has a complex!" Poe argued holding up a yellow shirt for her appraisal and replacing it when she wrinkled her nose in distaste, "Finn c'mon back me up."
"Poe, I love you and I love BB-8," Finn said reaching for a green shirt with a tree graphic, "but even I think he has a problem."
"Throw that in the basket Finn," Rey said pulling out a faded blue shirt from the rack, "Guys what about this?" She said holding it out to her friends.
It was a soft, cotton t-shirt that felt as though it had been through the washer a thousand times. Embossed on the front was the NASA logo and someone had etched a small spaceship in the upper left hand corner with a sharpie. The price tag read three dollars, which was pretty steep for a shirt Rey was just going to cut up, but something about it drew her in to the point she was willing to pay outside her budget for it.
"II don't know Rey.." Finn began, peering at the shirt through his glasses, "It seems kind of.."
"Specific?" Poe finished thumbing the cotton of the right sleeve, "Like the market wouldn't be too large for this one."
"And what's up with that thing?" Finn said pointing to the spaceship drawing, "Kinda tacky if we're being honest."
At that comment Rey drew in a gasp, only half joking as she pulled the shirt closer to her. "Well, I'm going to buy it for myself then! Like I said, this is Arizona and you can never have to many crop tops." She finished her sentence by reverently placing the shirt on top of the growing pile of clothes in her basket. "If you guys haven't found anything else we can head out and get-"
"Food!" The boys whooped in unison rushing towards the cash registers. Shaking her head, Rey scooped up the handle of her basket and began to follow them out.
In the end, Rey left the Savers with five shirts, two skirts, and a romper. The NASA shirt had put her a dollar over her twenty-five dollar budget, a development she decided she could live with once she cropped the shirt and tried it on.
A few days after the thrift hunt, Rey had sold out of nearly everything she had bought during the haul, including the blue patched v-neck. Pulling the NASA crop top on over her head, she left her apartment and began the walk to the library to print shipping labels for her customer's packages.
Walking in, she greeted the librarian at the desk with a soft "hey". Ben was pretty cool, despite being incredibly quiet. When Rey had first moved to Arizona for college she had been overwhelmed by the prospect of running a business from her apartment. She had no idea how she was going to print her labels without access to a printer or a laptop that wasn't several years passed it's expiration date. Ben had been the one who had found her hunched over a computer, tears filling her eyes when she realized she had to pay for printing even at the public library. He had dished out the two dollars for her shipping labels to be printed and had been kind to her every time she had returned.
He nodded once in reply to her greeting before his eyes went comically wide from where he peered over the computer screen. Ben craned his neck to follow Rey's path as she began to walk towards the computers to print her labels. Walking briskly towards her without thinking, he pulled up the chair next to Rey.
"That shirt-" He began peering carefully at her left shoulder, "Where'd you get it?"
"Huh?" She asked looking up from the computer screen where she'd been printing labels, "Oh! Hi Ben! I didn't see you there."
"Hi," He said curtly, "Where'd you get your shirt?"
Glancing down, as if noticing for the first time what she was wearing, she smiled brightly, "I found it at Savers! It was like three dollars. Finn and Poe hated it, but I fell in love with it immediately, especially this little thing," she said pointing to the small spaceship.
"I was fourteen when I drew that," Ben said reaching out with one finger to touch the spaceship, "I haven't seen this shirt in years."
"Pardon?" Rey asked, cheeks pinking from when his finger had touched her.
"That shirt used to belong to me, back in the day." He said chuckling lightly, "I'd recognize that spaceship anywhere. It's the Millennium Falcon, the bucket of bolts my original character flew in all my Star Trek fanfiction."
"Wow!" Rey said turning in her chair to face him, hands reaching for his in excitement, "That's so amazing, what a small world!"
"Ah," He said noticing the strip of tan skin that had become exposed when she turned, "I see, you've had your way with it."
"Oh!" Rey said, pulling her hands from his to straighten their shirt, "I'm sorry?"
"No, no it's fine! It looks better on you than it ever did on me." He answered, the tips of his ears turning red from where she could see them through his hair.
"Thanks," She replied tucking her hair behind her ear and turning slightly back to the computer, "Um..I have to finish printing these labels so I can ship today..."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Ben said quickly standing up, "I'll just be over-"
"You're welcome to stay if you want!" She said reaching out to grab his hand, "I could use the company."
"Okay," He said smiling down at her, "Alright, I'll stay but only if you promise not to cut my shirt in half."
Laughing, Rey turned back to print her labels, using one hand to work the computer while keeping the other clasped in Ben's. As she worked her told her stories from his childhood, about his obsession with Star Trek and about his mother's griping whenever he would leave their shirt lying on the floor of his bedroom. By the time all the labels were printed Rey was red in the face from muffling her laughter and Ben was being chastised halfheartedly by his supervisor for abandoning his post. On her way out of the library, Rey stopped at Ben's circulation desk to say goodbye.
"Hey, I'm heading out for the night," She said tapping her copies on the desk so they were straight and even.
"Okay, I'll see you next week then?" He asked, referencing her scheduled visits to print.
"Or, you could see me Friday night?" She asked, scribbling down her number on a sticky note by his keyboard, "Maybe bring by some more old clothes for me to destroy?" She finished holding out her number for him to take.
"Ah, so you're asking me out for my expansive collection of graphic tees?" He joked, plucking the sticky note from her hands.
"Maybe," She said gathering her copies as she began to leave. Leaning in so her lips brushed his ear she whispered, "Or maybe I just think your shirts would look better on my floor than on yours."
With a wink Rey left the library, smiling when she immediately felt the tell-tale vibration of a new text message hitting her cellphone.