To say that I was nervous about Emily coming is a HUGE understatement. I was completely fucking terrified. I’m not sure I would have even invited her if I hadn’t dived into a dream she had about missing her family. I know having dinner with your girlfriend’s family isn’t the same, but I wanted to give her something to make her feel better. It’s not like I could just say, “hey, I went into your brain the other day while we were napping and saw you making food with your sisters—yams and tamales and some kind of wild rice that I would definitely ask the recipe for if I could tell you about this stuff—and I could feel the longing that sits in your chest because along with diving into dreams and witnessing them, I also sometimes feel them very very deeply, hope that doesn’t freak you out, anyway, how can I help?”

I know Dr. Bright has said that I should tell Emily whenever I want—that there’s no rule book to follow—but I’m not ready. I’m just starting to get used to dreamdiving myself, without having to deal with yet another person’s opinion on it. And I know that if I tell Emily about the dreamdiving, I’ll tell her about my dad too and I’m … I’m definitely not ready for that conversation.

Neither is anyone in my family.

“All right, so does everyone understand the plan?” my mom asked this morning as she, my dad, and Aaron stood around the kitchen island drinking coffee while I scrambled to stuff and get the turkey in the oven.

“Mom, we’re having someone over for dinner, not pulling a heist,” Aaron said, and I could hear the eye roll even though my head was halfway inside a dead bird.

“It’s been a long time since we had anyone over,” my mom pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s not like we forgot how to be—Dad!”

My head snapped up at Aaron’s shout to see my Dad reaching out to grab Aaron’s coffee cup out of the air and taking a sip.

“What?” My dad shrugged, a smile on his face. “I thought you were done.”

“You could just make more coffee,” Aaron said.

“Yeah, but this is more fun.” My dad winked and Aaron shook his head, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“See, this is exactly what I mean,” my mom said, sounding exasperated. “You can’t go levitating coffee mugs when Emily is here.”

“Yeah, and you can’t steal my stuff,” Aaron said, snatching the mug out of our dad’s hands.

“No, you can still do that, just don’t use your powers to do it.” My mom smiled at my dad, who burst out laughing, before turning on her heel to go upstairs.