Inklings 2022

“Do you like thrifting?” She asked me. Not necessarily a small talk question. Interesting. I nodded, not expecting the in- depth explanation she gave me about her feelings of thrifting. She said she loved it, and went with her friends all the time, but lately they’ve been busy, and her mom hates taking her. “My mom thinks it smells like old people in vintage shops,” Varenna said. I laughed. My first laugh in two days! “Do you want to go? I can drive us,” I offered. I had just gotten my license, so I was willing to kill time. Her eyes lit up, and she ran to get her bag. I was honestly nervous. Nervous that her boldness would die out as soon as we began our excursion, and I’d be stuck, alone, with a tween, with nothing to talk about. But I couldn’t back out. I asked my aunt to take her car and we drove to her favorite vintage shop. We picked out a couple things, hopping from store to store. She found red cowboy boots, and I found pinstripe pants. I was having a good time. There wasn’t small talk. We talked about boys she liked, her friends, what she did for fun, what I did for fun, my boyfriend, and our thoughts on Coronavirus. After three hours of shopping, genuinely laughing, and poorly following the GPS, Varenna mentioned an ice cream place near her house. “It’s like Dairy Queen, but so much better,” she said. I was sold immediately. We pulled in a couple minutes later and I ordered us dessert through the drive through. I got a cookie-dough milkshake and she got a red velvet ice cream scoop. We sat in the parking lot, and Taylor Swift came on. We found out we both love her. We sang along to the chorus together, very badly. “Thanks for taking me today, I had fun,” Varenna said quietly. She was usually so bold and outgoing, her inside voice was a surprise. “Thank you for coming to talk to me earlier. I was going crazy in that room,” I responded. She smiled and we sat in silence, devouring our dessert while Taylor sang through the speakers. The silence was nice. It didn’t feel awkward, like the kind of silence where you ran out of things to say. It was silence for the sake of enjoying the moment. So much better than small talk. 32