finding bargains

So coffee was not enough, evidently, thought Ellie as she'd ended up at ShopKo with Elliot.

"God, is it just me or is everything more expensive here than usual," he said to her as they saw the rainbow of handbags first.

"New brand names," she nodded. Still it was a shock that he even wanted to go here. She just imagined him going to upscale places at the mall. Evidently, things weren't that grand after all, and he was just a regular guy. She bet he bought a lot more stuff at Wal-mart than he'd ever admit.

Ellie knew she wasn't buying any new hand bag that was over fifty buck which she knew was average or cheap for some, but not for her.

"Do you ever go thrifting?" She walked toward the DVD sales then.

"Thrifting?" he said that as if were a foreign word to him.

"You know, like Salvation Army, Good Will, there's even a shop next to the community theater house where all the funds go to retired actors in the community who are ill. Great stuff in that shop." She told him finding some work-out DVD's.

Elliot just nodded taking a look at old western DVD.

"Crap," Ellie picked up a belly dance workout routine she'd picked up for her mother for Christmas. It was way less than half the price she'd paid.

"What?" He noticed the DVD she had in her hand.

"I can't believe this. I should start doing Christmas shopping in January." She put it back when she found the pregnancy workouts. One for each trimester.

"What are you doing with those?" Elliot winced.

"For a friend. She's practically through the first trimester, but might as well get the whole set." Ellie was happy to have found them.

"So who's is it?" He looked at her as if it were someone he knew.

"No one at work, " Ellie couldn't help but grin. "Actually, its my step-brother's girlfriend."

"Oh."

"I'm pretty sure she's gonna keep it." Ellie sighed.

"That's so crazy," Elliot just shook his head as if he couldn't quite believe it.

"Well, it happens." Ellie looked at him. "I remember last year, this one girl in my homeroom. We're all introducing ourselves and what we did over the summer and she says, 'oh yeah, I got pregnant..', haven't seen her in a while. I don't think she quit school." Ellie didn't want to tell him about her sister.

He was rather quiet after that as they looked at books and electronics. Finally as they were leaving he said. "I'm up to thrifting sometime, if you are."

"Sure." Ellie nodded, but she felt sad though because that was something she always did with Eric.