Even though she initially had her doubts, Dakota was slowly coming around to the idea of an antique shop having some cool aspects. And Zack's assessment of "Pawn Shop" seemed to be slightly more in line with the store than "Priceless Antique Store"- Dakota spotted a pretty nice looking Laserdisc player, and she was pretty sure that the 80's weren't considered Antique-era... At least not yet, anyways. But for the most part, she had to admit that there was a lot of cool stuff laying around- A nice wooden tube radio sat on top of a very slick looking dresser that would've been in place at her Grandmothers, at least if her G-ma was a bit more "hip".
As she ran her hand over the radio, Zack snuck up behind her and let out a dramatic sigh, causing Dakota to startle and breathe in a mouthful of dust in the process. Coughing, she glared at him. "This place blows, literally." Eyes watering, Dakota stared him down. He shrugged at her angry face.
"How, pray tell, does it literally blow, Zack? I think it's cool and Piper is obviously excited about it, so-"
Zack blew on the radio, causing a fresh plume of dust, then pointed to the visible cloud.
"That just means YOU blow, Zack. Or blew. Whatever." Dakota shot back with a grin. Zack didn't seem too impressed though.
"Whatever, Dakota. You and Piper can stare at dusty stuff all day if you want, I'm gonna go grab a corn dog, feel free to join me."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll catch up, I still wanna look around!" Dakota said as she made her way deeper into the shop. A second later, she heard the door chime. Making her way further towards the back of the store, she caught sight of Piper, who was looking eagerly at a large glass display.
"Dakota, check this out!" She said, pointing at whatever was within. Walking up and peering inside the (admittedly very dusty) glass case, she saw an ornate set of jewlery laid out upon a velvet pillow. There were heavy looking necklaces, jaunty looking hair pieces, polished silver bangles, and ornate brooches. "Aren't these sick?"
While they were very flashy, Dakota was just not quite as excited as Piper about the items displayed before her. Sure, back in Texas, there tended to be some very, very flashy ensembles, often bordering on ludicrous displays that wouldn't be out of place at Cirque du Soleil- those were usually reserved for oil benefactors, though.
"Seriously, can you imagine? I'd look awesome in some of this stuff!" Piper practically had her face pressed against the glass at this point, which Dakota found very odd. She stared at her friend- they hadn't known each other forever by any stretch of means, but this seemed oddly out of place for her- Piper was a big fan of the bare minimal effort when it came to her looks, so why was she going gaga over some excessively fancy jewelry.
"Looking at the prize of Daven's Port, eh?" Dakota jumped for the second time in so many minutes, surprised at the large shop owner's sudden presence. Piper turned her gaze away from the glass and nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, they're absolutely gorgeous!" Gorgeous? Dakota didn't think Piper had ever uttered a positive term that wasn't layered in irony or sarcasm- but this statement had been 110% sincere, she was sure of it.
"Well, they would have to be- they were commissioned by the family that many would argue were the backbone of this town, many years ago..." Dakota idly wondered how legit this woman's accent was- it certainly sounded like fake Gypsy drawl. And did any one actually dress like that who weren't in a stage play? "... Unfortunately, his son moved far away after their fight, and the family was never the same... Shortly afterwards, the wife passed away, and the husband moved back to his home country. Very sad story, very sad in-deed." Very sad and very cliché, Dakota thought. However, Piper was completely enthralled- and the owner could tell she was about to get a sale.
"Here, I have a photo of the family somewhere, I will show you!" The woman sang, and sauntered off- it was a wonder her wide frame didn't knock over everything in the store every time she sashayed through.
Piper turned excitedly to Dakota. "I gotta get something, Dakota- these are AMAZING!" Dakota couldn't believe what she was hearing!
"You never struck me as a jewelry type, Piper- and I feel like this lady could've imported these from China like, last month, and now she's just spinning some crazy tale for you to buy them!" Piper looked very confused for a moment.
"I mean... I don't have a lot of jewelry, but that's just because, I... Um..." Piper seemed very dazed all of a sudden, and Dakota almost panicked. Was her friend having a heat stroke or something? They hadn't had any water in a while- or maybe an asthma attack? Was that how those worked?
The slight rustling of someone draped in way too many scarves signaled the owners return. "Look, I think my friend is feeling a little ill, so we're-"
"No!" Piper said forcefully, and Dakota stepped back slightly. What was going on? "Lemme see that picture!" The owner's mouth twisted into a grin.
"Of course- let me show you... This is the wife, of course, look how gorgeous she looked..." Dakota rolled her eyes as Piper grasped the frame. Dakota got a brief glimpse of a family that certainly looked like the textbook definition of Old Money- they were all fat. But Dakota didn't care- If Piper wanted to be a jerk about this, she could go right ahead. She'd just kill some time until Piper realized that there's no way in hell she could afford anything in that case.
Dakota wandered around, idly playing with small nick-knacks or trinkets. The more she explored, the more she was sure that this place was a joke. She found an "authentic" framed Breakfast at Tiffany's poster, but when she peeled back the frame slightly, she spotted a sticker from a national chain of big box retailers. Sure, some of the stuff was probably real- the stuff that was marked up at 500% of whatever this lady bought it for. Sighing as she stared at a case of wooden nickels (Who the hell collects wooden nickels?) she heard footsteps behind her, and whipped around to see a very happy looking Piper.
"You finally ready to leave? I think I'm getting asbestos poisoning from this place." Dakota sounded a lot like Zack by now, but she was sick of smelling musty old air.
"Hell yeah I am- check out this sick ring!" She flashed her hand in Dakota's face, which was now adorned with a small silver ring, inset with a small bluish gem.
"Seriously, you bought something? How much did she charge you, Piper?" Piper looked hurt, but recovered quickly.
"Pffffft. You're just jealous. And she cut me a pretty slick deal, if you must know... She only charged me ten bucks!" Dakota couldn't lie, that was a pretty good deal if it was authentic silver- even though there was a good chance it was a ring from a bargain bin somewhere.
"Alright, you got me- I'm just jealous... Let's just go find Zack, I'm hungry."
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