The Night We Met *Remake*

10. 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔩𝔢𝔶 𝔬𝔫 𝔦𝔠𝔢 (𝔢𝔵𝔱𝔯𝔞)

This is an extra chapter, but I felt the need to make it before I started Season Two. I really want to try to get as much content out as possible before Friday though! I'm not sure how much chapters I'll be able to write, but I'll truly try my best as far as I can.

Stanley Patel marched into an athletics department in the town over from Hawkins. He rubbed his hands together, letting out a shiver from the previous cold air as he transcended into the heated store.

Christmas had been coming up and the store was bustling, he could only hope to find what he had came here for.

The man peered around, his lip pursing in thought until he spotted a mess of shopping carts all scattered about. It sat beside a neater aisle of carts that he could only imagine would get cluttered within the hour.

He moved to grab one, wrapping his fingers along the cold metal handle. He tugged it back and forth on it wheels, listening to the steady creak before deciding to take that one. He walked out of the entrance area, his eyes searching around at the tall signs and abundant shelves.

Stanley wasn't quite sure where he was going; he hadn't been here since Iris had snapped her softball bat in sixth grade. Nonetheless, he continued on, picking up different things as he went.

Helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, mouth guards, gloves... he internally checked items off the list as he shoved each object in the shopping cart.

Eventually, Stanley found what he had been looking for.

There was a sign pointing at a shelf to the left, saying something about ice skates and Stanley hurried over before he could even read the rest of the word.

Figure skates and hockey skates all sat, laid out before him in all it's sparkling glory and Stanley couldn't help but grin.

There were a profusion of black skates with different colored lining sat before him.

He ushered his cart over to the hockey skates, preparing himself to look for a size that may fit him, before stopping.

What was his favorite color? Stanley wondered as he peered over the expense of skates staring back at him.

There were so many different things he didn't know about Bradley, Stanley had painfully realized the day the two reunited. There was so much uncrossed territory between them. He had known this, however it never stopped causing his heart to ache inside his chest.

He hadn't even known his shoe size before a week ago, when he ushered him into the nearest clothes department simply to try on different shoe sizes. He had felt bad, there was so many different things he knew a father should know about their child, yet he didn't know.

He hadn't known any of Bradley's boundaries, his clothes sizes, what he liked to eat, any hobbies of his.

Him and Bradley were practically a blank canvas.

Their relationship was a dark, voided hole. It was one Stanley intended to bridge though. He wanted to know all about his son, he wanted to show him how much he cared too.

This was the thing he could remember Bradley being so adamant about. His love for hockey, or at least his want to play in it and his love for watching it on their television.