Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
━━━━━━
October comes too quickly for Danny and goes as quickly as it came. It's October 29 and Marla is showing him her Halloween costume since the kids had planned to go trick-or-treating. She's going to go as Ellen Ripley from Alien since she loved the movie ever since she saw it a couple of years back, and was excited for the new movie to come out next year.
Danny was commenting on how good of a costume it was when the doorbell rang, saying so to Marla. Danny goes to open it when the girl stops him.
"I don't want anyone to see my costume until Halloween!" She signs quickly before darting back to her room, closing it with a slam.
Danny stands there for a second. As he processes what happened, the doorbell rings again, snapping him out of it. With Roxy on his tail, he opens the door. There, standing side by side, are Will and Joyce.
"Oh, hey. What's up?" Danny greets them, stepping aside to let them in. "Are you here for Marla?"
The question is said to Will, but the kid is already crouching and petting the dog, so he turns to Joyce instead.
"Oh, no." She laughs softly at her son's priorities. "Well, maybe if he wants to later, but we're here to ask if you had some square sunglasses. For Will's costume."
The mention of his Halloween costume brings Will back to the conversation at hand. He perks up and stands up as quickly as possible, and with a bashful smile, he says. "I'm going to be the Terminator."
Danny's eyebrows rise in genuine surprise, and he laughs. "What!? That's so cool!" He exclaims sincerely. He remembers seeing the movie when it came out last year and Scott and he really loved it-he may or may not have bought a leather jacket to match Arnold Schwarzenegger's.
"Thanks." Will laughs shyly.
"And... You're in luck, little Byers! I do have some Terminator sunglasses. Well, Terminator-like." Danny says gleefully. "Oh, come on in. Sorry." He adds lamely, gesturing the two inside.
The mother and son enter, Will immediately plops down on the floor to play with Roxy and Danny gestures for Joyce to follow him.
"You can come with me... They're in my bedroom." He says, then hastily adds: "If you don't mind."
Joyce smiles, which makes Danny's head spin. Joyce's smile is like honey: sweet and warm. It makes Danny want to make her smile more.
"I don't mind, Danny." She responds softly. "Is there something you wanted to talk about?"
"Yeah, actually. Just... hold on-" Danny says. The stairs are a tricky thing, they're inescapable but they hurt way too much for him to go up and down several times. He finds it's easier if he just powers through, the pain comes either way, after all.
