The waitress, who is one of those good people that brings food when you ask, brought two more bottles before the main course was even served. There’s only one left now and it’s halfway empty.

You watch Daphne while you fork twirls around and around in a plate full of long stringy noodles (they’re like teeny tiny tentacles!) sometimes the twirling noodles grab onto a lump of tomato-covered meat and you like to imagine that the meatballs are tiny planets and that the noodles are some of your many tentacles. Then you plop the whole thing in your mouth and get to slurp in the noodles that stick out.

It’s fun food!

Daphne is making it even better.

“I,” she begins while pointing a finger at Abigail. “I think that you, you Abigail, are very cute.”

Her words are coming out a little slurred and you’re beginning to suspect that there’s a reason Abigail didn’t want you to drink the juice they’re drinking.

“Thanks,” Abigail says. She’s a little wobbly too, with flushed red cheeks and a big smile on. “But you’re beautiful. It’s not fair being so pretty.”

Daphne waves her hands as if in denial and you think that maybe she forgot that she’s holding a cup. “No no, see, beauty isn’t everything Abi. There’re like, a lot of girls that are just so, so pretty. Look at Charlotte. Actually, no, don’t look at her. She’s too pretty, it's not fair. But you Abi, you’re cute, and that’s good enough because you’ve got such nice, nice.” Daphne made more gestures. “Traits.”

Abigail’s cheeks are both very red now, and so are Daphne’s. You’re not sure what’s going on, so you go back to eating your noodles.

Abigail reaches for the bottle in the middle of the table and instead of grabbing it tips it over. It almost crashes into your plate, but thanks to your quick tentacular action you catch it and set it straight.

“Oh, thank you Dreamer,” Abigail says. “I’m a little... a little into my cups, I think.”

“You’re not the only one that thinks so,” Charlotte says. She’s already done eating and is sitting back, a half full cup in one hand that she’s slowly swirling around, the juice twisting in circles within. Unlike the others she seems perfectly normal.

“Maybe a little,” Abigail says. She leans to the side and hugs you close. You can’t eat like this, so you let go of your fork and nestle into her arms. Also, you wipe your face on her sleeve. “I have the best, best familiar,” Abigail says. “I wasn’t sure at first, and I was scared, but you’re the best Dreamer. So, so nice.”

Abigail keeps hugging you, and you shift to the side to make the hug even better.

Then she starts snoring and you feel some wetness slipping into your hair as she drools all over you.

This is wonderful!

You carefully help Abigail sit back up, then lean her down with a few tentacles so that she’s resting on your fluffiest tentacles with her head down on the table.

“Shh,” Daphne says. “Abi’s sleeping.”

“Yes,” you say.

Now that she’s sleeping... you reach over and grab the bottle of juice the girls have been drinking from and give it a sniff. It smells fruity and kind of tangy.

“Oh, I can’t imagine this ending well,” Charlotte says. She raises her cup to you. “Enjoy.”

You shake your head. “I can’t drink this. Abigail told me not to,” you say before replacing the bottle in the centre of the table. A teeny tiny tentacle slips in and pokes at it, then it touches your cup full of water and turns it into the same stuff.

“I think that might be cheating,” Charlotte says.

You roll your eyes. There’s no such thing as cheating. Not when it comes to hugs, eating or tentacles.

“Oh, let her have a bit,” Daphne says. “It’ll loosen her up.”

“I’m plenty loose,” you say. Tentacles need to be wiggly to work. You ignore Daphne’s sudden bout of giggling laughter as you pick up the cup and take a big gulp. It’s okay, you guess. Not as good as some other things you’ve tried. The acids at home tasted better, more of a tingle to them than this has.

Still, you finish your cup, refill it with water, and turn that into more juice. You want to be like your friends.

“I can’t wait to tell Abigail in the morning,” Charlotte says as she takes the bottle and refills her cup. “To Dreamer! For being herself and not eating us,” she raises her cup in the air.

You’ve seen them do this before and get to you feet so that you can clink you cup against theirs. “And to Abigail,” you say. “For inviting me to your planet so that I could taste all the stuff on it and make a bunch of friends.”

“To Abigail!” Daphne cheers.

Abigail raises her head and looks around. “Wha?” she asked.

“It’s okay,” you tell her before gulping down your second cup. “You can go back to napping now.” You pat-pat her head. It’s not nearly as nice as being the way getting the headpats, but there’s a certain satisfaction to being the patter.

“We should get her home,” Charlotte says.

“She... she can sleep at my place,” Daphne says.

Charlotte eyes her, then shakes her head. “I think Abigail should go to her own home tonight. You too Daphne. Do try to remember to drink some water, we have classes tomorrow morning.”

“But I don’t wanna,” Daphne says.

“Abigail will be there...”

Daphne pouts. “Fine.”

Grinning, you begin to move things around so that picking up Abigail will be easier. It’s time to go home and to bed.

***