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I folded the black dress and left it with the rest of my discarded pile before heading for the music section. Brooke could get whatever she wanted, but buying stuff for myself felt stupid. I didn’t need it.

We were still the only people in the thrift store apart from the single clerk behind the counter, who seemed mildly bemused by us. She was older than me, and waycooler, wearing vintage or second-hand clothes in a way that looked intensely fashionable. She looked down at her book when I glanced her way.

The back corner of the store was filled with CDs and DVDs and battered paperbacks that had clearly been well read. I ran my fingertips over the deeply creased spines, past the dozens of Dan Brown novels and crime titles, and plucked a copy ofJurassic Parkfrom the shelf. I’d never read the book, and it was only fifty cents.

The Harlequin Romances were a quarter, so I picked up three, choosing the ones with the most outrageous titles or swooning heroines on the front. My mom would intensely disapprove of my choices, which only made me more determined to buy them. Then I picked a few cassettes at random, going off album artwork and band names I recognized.

Brooke was already at the cash register when I finally made my way over to her, and I was relieved that the pink leggings hadn’t made it into her final pile.

‘I’m being good,’ she said, gesturing at the small stack of clothes that the clerk was folding. ‘Look.’

‘I believe you. I found some music.’

She looked the cassettes over and grinned. ‘Nice. And books?’

I spread them out on the counter, and she laughed brightly. ‘That’s quite a swing in genres you have there.’

‘That’s thirteen seventy-five,’ the clerk said, interrupting us.

‘What a bargain,’ Brooke said pointedly, handing over a twenty.

‘I didn’t say a word,’ I murmured. She elbowed me in the ribs. I held back the temptation to start laughing again and wondered when I’d become comfortable with her touching me. A week ago I would have combusted into a million pieces if she’d done that.

‘If you’re nice to me, I might let you borrow my new wolf-howling-at-the-moon T-shirt.’

‘What?’ I exclaimed, playing along with the joke. ‘How did I miss that?’

The clerk’s lips twitched, just the tiniest amount, and I thought she might be trying to smile. ‘We have a whole section of wolves-howling-at-moons T-shirts, if you’re interested.’

‘It’s okay, she said she’d share.’

I pushed my haul over the counter so the clerk could ring me up.

‘Five dollars.’

‘Even more of a bargain,’ I said to Brooke. ‘And I managed to pick up some classic literature too.’

By the time we left the store, I was absolutely certain the clerk was laughing at us. And I really didn’t care at all.

We dumped everything in the trunk of the car, and I stretched my arms over my head for just a moment, wanting to ease out all the aches before I got back into the passenger seat. It had stopped raining now so Brooke put the Mustang’s roof down.

‘Shit,’ she mumbled. ‘I left my sunglasses on the counter. I’ll be right back.’

‘Sure,’ I said.

‘Enjoy your sun salutations,’ she replied, and I grinned.

‘They’re not –’ I started, but she’d already disappeared.

I went back into the trunk to extract the cassette tapes from the bag so I could put them in the glove box with the others.

‘I can’t believe you fell for that,’ Brooke said, hopping into her seat over the top of the closed driver’s side door.

She dumped a package on my lap. It was the dress.

‘Brooke.’

‘Shut up,’ she said, pushing her sunglasses back down on her nose as she turned on the engine. ‘We have three and a half thousand dollars and it cost ten bucks. Totally worth it.’