𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐈𝐒𝐇// 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐗𝐎𝐂

─── act iiミ★ 𝐱𝐯𝐢. ✭ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑

HALLOWEEN, 1975; EDDIE

Background Music
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-Space Cowboy by Steve Miller Band-
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"I'll shoot you." Scowled Chance, aiming her plastic gun at me. Her pink cowgirl hat tilted from the top of her head, dipping in front to fall smack against her little face.

Her hair was redder then. A strawberry blonde in her youth. Mine was straight and short. A black hue. We were so different then. Back when things were so simple. So easy. A time when we were friends. When we loved each other unconditionally. The best of pals.

"Don't do it!" I cried, holding my hands up to shield myself. Despite my protests, Chance squeezed the trigger, shooting out a spurt of water onto my tinfoil costume.

I had gone as space for our first Halloween together. Shooting stars, constellations, and planets were painted all across my skin. Chance had gone as a cowgirl. Her pastel pink outfit had been sent by her grandma, a woman who insisted on sowing the costume herself.

Together our costumes were Space Cowboy. Chance had thought of it one day in late September. I still remember how excited she got over the idea, her face scrunching up with the childish thrill she felt.

Uncle Wayne and Thomas trusted us enough to make a round of trick or treating at the trailer parks by ourselves. The two men muttered goodbyes to us as they sipped on beer cans, far too entangled with some sports game playing on the television.

Holding each other's hands, Chance and I made our way out of my trailer, swinging our arms together as we strolled along.

Of course, when neighbors opened their doors to see two small children clinging to each other they found it adorable, dumping a little extra candy into our plastic orange buckets.

However, once we had cleaned out all of the trailer park's houses, Chance's gaze wandered to the main road. Her chocolate eyes glimmered from the lights of the suburbs.

"Let's go." She pulled forward to start on her own little journey when I tugged her back.

"No." I shook my head, a frightened boy who wanted desperately to huddle back into my trailer with her. "No- I don't- I don't wanna go." The trailer park was all we needed. Anything beyond that was unfamiliar at night and we had only ever explored it with our parents. "Please...I'll give you a ring pop."

Slightly disappointed, Chance shrugged. "Okay, Eddie." Then to my relief, she let me lead her back to my trailer where I made sure she was safe for the night. That was one of my worst fears as a kid. That something awful would happen to Chance.

Maybe it was because of her wanderlust spirit or her inability to sit still but I remained dead set on protecting that girl my entire childhood. Because if I lost Chance, who else would I have?

Dad was in the clink. Mom was dead. I couldn't take losing someone else. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I made sure I wouldn't.

My heart finally slowed when we made it back inside my room, dumping our Halloween candy on the floor to swap.

"Here you go." Tearing open a blue ring pop package, I slipped the plastic on her tiny finger. It almost fell off as I did. "Promise is a promise."