"Are you ready Mia?"

"Just a second!" I call to Dad, finishing my mascara before putting all my makeup back in the cabinet. I glance at my appearance one more time before scurrying out of my room and into the living room. I find Dad sitting on the couch, watching a news channel that's talking about some pretty depressing stuff.

Dad smiles when I walk into his line of sight and he immediately turns the television off. "What a world we live in, huh? You look very beautiful by the way."

"Thanks, Dad," I accept, rolling my eyes a little. "We should probably get going."

Dad nods, grabbing his car keys off the thumb tack board on the wall. "Let's be off then."

A couple days ago Josh figured that our families should properly meet since we're officially dating now. Yes, just one day after our date Josh asked me to be his girlfriend and I obviously said yes. Anyway, so here we are going to have dinner with Josh's family and I'm only a little nervous.

"Does Joshua have any siblings?" Dad asks, turning down the volume on the radio as we start our drive.

I shake my head. "No. They can't have more than one child. It's kind of part of their creation thing."

Dad nods, seeming a little distracted. I decide to wait for him to bring it up so I stare out the window, humming along to the song playing quietly.

"Weren't there two boys that were, uh, made that day?" He asks, stumbling over the word 'made'. "Shouldn't there be two lines of this Meise and Weise stuff?"

"Well there would have been but one of the first two guys' Meise couldn't handle it and after an unfortunate sequence of events she uh, committed suicide which left her Weise without a Meise. He died alone, so there's only one line of this stuff," I explain, happy that I know something about Josh's ancestry.

It's weird, though, to think that I'm the only girl out there that's experiencing this - besides Josh's mother, obviously.

Before too long Dad parks the car in front of the Meyers' house and he kills the engine.

I place my hand on the door handle and open the door, but before I can get out, Dad grabs my arm softly, prompting me to look back at him, which I do, unsure what to expect. Surprisingly, tears are collecting in Dad's eyes, not quite to the point of falling out. We stare at each other in silence for a few minutes before Dad breaks eye contact to pull me into an awkward hug over the center console.

"I love you, pumpkin," he whispers before kissing the side of my head softly. "And I'm so proud of you."

I tighten my arms around his shoulders and whisper back, "I love you, too."

A silence fills the air around us as we remain in one another's arms for who knows how long until Dad squeezes me once and lets go. "Let's get you inside, huh?"

I only nod, swallowing the lump in my throat before exiting out through the still-open passenger door.

Once we are standing on the doorstep, Dad knocks twice on the door and I run a hand over my hair, checking for any crazy hairs that may have appeared. I hear footsteps approaching on the other side and I immediately drop my hand back to my side.

Josh opens the door and grins at me before extending his hand to my father. "It's good to see you again, sir."

Dad chuckles, meeting Josh's hand in a firm handshake. "It is indeed."

Josh turns sideways and gestures us to come inside, so we do, Dad in front of me. Josh closes the door before putting all his attention on me. I vaguely notice Dad walking into the kitchen.

"And it is definitely good to see you again, Mia."

I blush lightly as he drops his head and kisses me shortly. "It's good to see you as well, Joshua."

Josh raises an eyebrow at my proper language before grabbing my hand and taking me into the kitchen where our parents are standing around and talking.

Mrs. Meyers' eyes snap over to me and she, not even finishing her sentence to my dad, walks over and gives me a big hug. I let out a surprised laugh before embracing her as well.

"How are the visions going, Mia?" She asks, stepping away from me, closer to her husband, who I've never met before, which may sound a little weird but every time I've come over he hasn't been around.

"Not too bad. I still hesitate looking people in the eye but it's better than what it used to be," I comment, exchanging glances with Josh. I notice him crinkle his nose, probably recalling the period of time when I refused to look at anyone at all.

Mrs. Meyers grins. "Good. That's good." She lifts her hand and rests it on Mr. Meyers' arm. "I don't believe that you've ever met my husband, Russell."

On cue, Mr. Meyers steps towards me and we shake hands briefly. "It's nice to finally meet the esteemed Mia." He sends a slight glare to his son but I can tell it's of the teasing nature.

"It's nice to meet you as well," I respond, dropping my hand and stepping back to Josh's side.

The parents continue with their talking and I notice Mrs. Meyers still putting the salad together. I'm about to open my mouth and ask if I can help when Josh jabs my arm.

"What?"

"What's with the proper talk today? 'As well' really?"

I roll my eyes. "Oh please you're just jealous."

"Yeah. Yeah that's it."

Sending Josh a flat look, I turn back to Mrs. Meyers. "Do you need any help getting anything ready?"

She immediately shakes her head. "Oh no, dear. In fact, it's all ready. We just need to sit down and eat. Josh," she says, causing his head to snap away from me. "why don't you and Mia go sit down at the table and we'll bring the food out."

Not needing any more prompting, Josh grabs my hand and leads me into the dining room before pulling my chair out for me.

"Oh look at you being all polite," I tease as he sits down next to me.

"Maybe if my mother wasn't watching us I wouldn't have."

Confused, I look into the kitchen to see that Mrs. Meyers is watching us, and quite closely too.

"I think she knows something, don't you?" Josh asks, pouring water into both of our glasses.

"What do you mean?" I take a sip of my water, glancing at Mrs. Meyers again. Why would she be watching us? This isn't the first time we've met.

Before Josh can answer me, the adults walk in with all the food and after struggling to find a place for all the dishes, they set them down before taking their seats as well.

The first half of dinner consists of the adults talking about some political issue while Josh and I laugh silently with one another.

I'm just about to make a smart come back to Josh when Mrs. Meyers voice cuts in.

"How are things going, Mia?"

I look across the table at her, smiling softly. "Everything is going just great."

"I'm glad to hear that. Has Josh been treating you right?"

Laughing slightly, I nod. "Of course."

"He better be," Mr. Meyers says, taking a sip of his water. "If he doesn't just come to me and I can deal with Joshua."

I choke on my spit, sending Josh a slightly worried look to which he just grins.

"Oh don't worry, Mia. It won't come to that," Josh assures, patting my back.

"So you say now." I return my attention back to Mrs. Meyers as I take a bite of my salad. As soon as I swallow, I compliment, "This all tastes so good, Mrs. Meyers."

"Oh you sure do know how to please someone, Mia." She smiles at me before putting another piece of lasagna into her mouth.

I laugh, shaking my head. "I mean it. Where did you get this recipe?"

"It's an old family recipe. My mother used to make it the first Sunday of every month for as long as I can remember. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what question I first asked her when I first got engaged."

I shake my head again, taking a bite of the lasagna.

"The first thing I asked my mom when I was about to propose was what kind of flowers should I bring?" Dad cuts in from beside me. "The first date I went on with Mia's mother was the cheesy movie dinner date and I wanted to bring flowers to her when I picked her up. Being a typical teenage boy, I knew absolutely nothing about flowers and I certainly didn't want to go to anyone else to figure out what flowers would be the best, so I went into the park and picked a bunch of wild flowers."

Dad laughs, shaking his head. "When I gave them to her she just laughed before giving them to her mother to put in a vase. I was worried that she didn't like them but she assured me that that wasn't the reason she laughed. After the date I brought it back up and only then did she tell me what was wrong with the bouquet. Most of them were weeds."

We all burst into laughter, and for the rest of the meal our smiles remained.

"Shall we take this party into the living room?" Mrs. Meyers suggests once all of our plates are empty.

"Let's get all the dishes into the kitchen first," Mr. Meyers says, and I can tell it's more of a command than a request, so I immediately gather everyone's plates.

On my trip back into the dining room for a second trip of dishes, my eyes unexpectedly catch Josh's and I fight the vision, but it doesn't work and I black out.

***

"Won't you ever let me celebrate your birthday properly, Josh?"  I ask as we walk into the parking lot.

"What you want me to blow my spit all over a cake just for the fun of it? No thanks, I'll pass on that. You should be happy that I let you take me out to dinner. And you get to pay." Josh scoffs, opening the car door for me.

"Our accounts are linked, you do know that right?"

"Your point, Mia?"

"Technically we both pay for everything."

We start the short drive back to our house, chatting the whole way...

Until the pick-up truck comes swerving around the corner, hitting us straight on.

***

I jolt up, my breathing rapid. I've never seen Josh's death played out like that. But that's not what strikes me the most.

"Mia? Are you alright?" I hear Josh ask.

My eyes snap over to see him sitting next to me on the couch.

"Mia, you aren't usually this freaked out. What's wrong?"

I only shake my head, leaning forward as I slow my breathing.

"Will you boys excuse us for a moment?"

I hear Josh sigh followed by shuffling feet before another body sits next to me.

Mrs. Meyers strokes my hair, patiently waiting for me to calm back down again.

"That wasn't normal," I rasp, looking over at her.

Her eyebrows pull together as her eyes scan mine. "What wasn't normal?"

"Josh didn't die."

Widening her eyes, Mrs. Meyers leans away in obvious shock. "What?"

I shrug, biting my bottom lip. "I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Have you ever seen Mr. Meyers' death scene without any death?"

Mrs. Meyers stares at me, still shocked, shaking her head. "No. All the visions I've seen of Russell ends with him dying." She stands up and starts pacing around the living room. "This shouldn't be happening. Was anything else different in the vision besides Joshua not dying?"

"Actually, there was. The visions I've seen before haven't had conversation. B-but with this one, I heard all of our conversation, from the second we exited the diner to the car crash."

"Do you happen to know if the driver of the other car died?"

Shaking my head, I close my eyes, seeing the car skidding in front of us again.

Mrs. Meyers hums, furrowing her eyebrows in concentration. "I might have to bring Russell in on this. He knows more about the ancestry than I do. Is that alright with you, dear?"

I nod eagerly. "I want to figure this out. But, could you leave Josh out of it? I want to be the one to tell him later."

"Of course, Mia," she says, smiling softly at me. "I'll bring it up to Russell later tonight and I'll make sure that Josh doesn't hear a peep."

"Thank you, Mrs. Meyers."

"Oh you don't need to thank me. You are practically my daughter already."

My eyes tear up slightly and I duck my head so she won't see. "Thank you," I whisper again.

Wordlessly, Mrs. Meyers sits back down and wraps me in her arms. "You're the daughter I've always wanted."