It's been a week and I haven't had another nightmare. It's probably because Nathan has been sleeping over almost every day since then.

When I mean sleeping over, I do mean just sleeping over. We have done nothing other than sneak into my room and either talk till sunrise or just make out for an hour or two before we stop and cuddle for the rest of the night and fall asleep.

We are trying to take things slow, but it's not really working out now is it? We've already kissed, met each others parents, sneaked into my room, made dinner for each other, had breakfast together, slept together (again not in that way I mean sleeping), and pretty much met each other's friends.

Well he's met Lily so that's like pretty much all the friends I have besides Brooke and all the workers from Barnes and Nobles but they were also his friends. Not to mention his other stupid friends, Mark and his stupid posse of his, and we all know how well it was when Nathan brought me over to Mark's place.

But tonight was the night that Nathan's family was coming over my house for the first time for family game night. It's also the night his family gets to meet my dad. Yay.

I'm just glad my dad has actually been sober ever since Nathan first came over the house. Not only has he looked happier, but he's been looking like his old self. So maybe this night might go as planned and be fun!

I has just finished making dinner, it was lasagna and I even made bread and peach iced tea, when the doorbell rang. I walked to the front door, my dad behind me. I took deep breaths.

"Dad..."

"I know, I know, be on my very best behavior." He waves me off.

"No just be yourself." I open the door and am immediately greeted by Rebecca. Her hugs always seem to squeeze the life out of me. She squeals.

"Oh my god tonight is going to be so fun! Ready to kick the boys asses again?" She winks. I've gone to the last family game night they had since the first time I went, and us girls won again. Not that it's really a surprise there, girls are just better... At everything really. Just saying.

"Oh definitely, maybe this time they brought their game that's been mysteriously missing." I smirk as I see Nathan.

"Oh ha-ha very funny." He glares playfully at us, before walking over and giving me a quick kiss.

"Oh ew! No kissing on game night!" Rebecca scrunched up her nose.

"I second that motion. Some people actually want to eat before they gag." Christian chimes, "Hey Annabeth, looking as beautiful as ever I see." He pushes his brother out of the way and hugs me.

"Oh Annabeth looking as taken as ever I see." Nathan says, pushing his brother off me. I laugh as he wraps his arms protectively around me.

"Okay little brother, I see that. But Annabeth knows I'm only just kidding." He smiles. I smile back. I've noticed he likes to mess with Nathan... a lot. Nathan just finds it annoying.

"Oh kids please settle down." Alexander says, entering the house with Julie. I smile at them, hugging them each, greeting them. They all have grown on me. Hell I actually smile and have fun with them! And that's saying a lot.

I go back to my dad's side, where he's been patiently waiting. "Guys this is my dad, Jack. Dad this is Nathan's older brother and sister, Christian and Rebecca. And this is his parents, Julie and Alexander." They all shake hands and greet each other.

In the living room, the tv is loud enough to hear 'touchdown' and that seemed to catch the attention of all the guys in the room.

"Who's playing?" Christian asks.

"That would be the..." And all the guys, including Nathan has wandered off to the living room talking about football. Rebecca, Julie, and I sigh.

"Boys will be boys." Julie mummers.

"Dinner will be ready in a bit!" I yell out to the guys. They mutter 'yea, sure, and okays'

Us girls walked to the kitchen. It took a while to get the girls to actually sit down, while I served tonight's dinner.

While I did that, they caught me up on the latest gossip on some country club they go to. I've never really been interested on what they had to say since it wasn't my scene but it was kind of entertaining whenever I would actually listen. Tonight wasn't one of those nights.

I quickly served dinner in a flash and called the boys to the table. They were finishing up talking about professional football and were now changing the conversation to Nathan and his football career. "So quarterback is actually the position you want Nathan?" My dad asks.

"Oh yeah. I've actually been training for when the season starts already. I've been running every morning and working out as much as I can to keep in shape. I actually used to play football with the guys but I kind of stopped hanging around them for a while." He glances to me.

"I bet it's because you've been spending so much time with you're new girlfriend." Rebecca chimes in, laughing when she notices Nathans ears turn red.

"Maybe." He glares at her. I smile, reaching under the table for his hand. He glances at me, smiling when our fingers intertwine.

"Oh you two are just adorable! I'm finally going to have a daughter-in-law soon! Oh I've always wondered when Nathan would bring someone home and when Annabeth walked in I knew she was the one my baby boy lo..."

"Mom," Nathan's eyes widen, "please just stop." His ears turn red.

"Not that I don't like to see my dear baby brother squirm, but how about we cut the chit chat and get started on the games!" Christian says smiling at me. I smile back. Not that I don't like to see Nathan squirm either, I mean it's cute, but I rather put him out of his misery... Just this once.

We all nodded in agreement, we picked up our plates and placed them in the sink to wash later then go to the living room. Today's game was movie charades again. I wasn't very good in drawing especially in front of others (sketching was a different story), and Rebecca just could not draw at all, last time she tried to draw a dog and a fire hydrant we mistaken it for a cactus and a peanut. So that had left us with Julie who could draw well enough for us to actually guess what she was drawing. The guys had chose Christian who was surprisingly good at drawing. They almost beat us but we won by a point when they couldn't guess Bridesmaids. I mean how could they not guess that?

The guys since they had of course lost another game night, had to wash the dishes and perform for us. We chose Bye, Bye, Bye by NSYNC because all the girls just loved the song and why not? Christian and Nathan sang most of the song while my dad and Alexander just mumbled the parts they didn't know and only sang the 'bye bye bye' part which was pretty hilarious because they got all really into it. It was weird that Nathan sang. I never heard him sing before and he was actually good, I couldn't help but lean in a little whenever he had a solo.

Of course they didn't finish the song. When Christian was doing his solo the guys were dancing behind him but then when Christian was walking backwards to start dancing as well and he tripped on the rug causing him to fall back into Nathan who fell back on his dad, who fell back into my dad. My dad balanced himself before he fell and grabbed onto Alexander in what looked like a trust fall while Alexander let Nathan and Christian fall onto the floor. They both looked at each other, then looked down at the boys on the ground pushing one another off, then to us, then back to each other, then gave us jazz hands.

We all burst out laughing. Nathan and Christian always seemed to end up on the floor somehow. They got up and bowed, glaring at one another which earned another big round of applause from us. After that they guys went to wash the dishes in the kitchen and clean up any mess we made on the table.

"So my brother hasn't been home for the past week." Rebecca says raising a brow at me.

"Wow I wonder where he's been sleeping." I say innocently.

"Oh come on I know he's been staying over here! I always see him come home only to get clothes before leaving the house only to return the next day getting a new set of clothes. Plus I overheard my mom talking with him on the phone asking if he could sleep over." She looks at me expectantly. "So... Have you and my brother got it in yet?"

I choked on air.

"No!" I was suddenly glad that Julie was in the washroom and the guys were in the kitchen bickering on about whatever it was they were yelling about, something about baseball?

"Hm, my brother has been looking so happy and in-" she cuts herself off, "anyways he's been looking extra happy so I assumed you've both done the deed." I wanted to crawl under a rock.

"No! All we've ever done is sleep!" I had this same talk with Lily. Once I called her when Nathan was out getting clothes for himself, I decided to call up Lily since it felt like I haven't talked to her in ages. She nearly screamed- actually scratch that she did scream- when she heard he had been sleeping over. I had to tell her over and over again that we didn't do anything besides kiss and sleep.

"Yeah sleep after you guys had sex!" Nathan and Christian decided to walk in right at that moment.

"Woah congrats little brother! Didn't know you had it in you!" He pats him in the back.

"What-no-no!" He stutters. "We haven't-we didn't- all we've ever done was kiss!" Rebecca waves him off, sighing.

"Yeah I know Annabeth said the same thing." His ears are red as well as his cheeks. Even I couldn't stop my blush from rising.

"Who knows maybe you guys will soon." Christian chimes in. If it's even possible Nathan turns even redder.

"Okay guys stop harassing him I think he's had enough." I laugh. They do as well. Thank god they're dropping the conversation.

"She's right." Christian says. "Maybe I'll have a better chance with her than you baby brother." He smirks, walking over and sitting down next to me. In a second, Christian is on the floor and Nathan's sitting next to me wrapping his arms around me, planting a kiss on my cheek.

"In you're dreams." He glares at Christian. "And not even in there." Christian mumbles under his breath 'I was just kidding.' But Nathan didn't hear it. Instead he's whispering in my ear. "Mine." He kisses me softly.

"I didn't know I was an object." I lift my brow. "Still mine." He smirks at me.

"Okay kids I think it's time to get going it's getting late." Julie says walking in the living room.

"Is Nathan actually coming home with us?" Rebecca says questioningly trying to suppress her laughter.

"Unfortunately he is." Alexander says walking in the living room with my dad.

"I agree with them it's time for you to go home son, and as much as Annabeth and I love having you stay over, I'm not completely oblivious of the fact that you have been sleeping in Annabeths room." Kill me. They all turn to us amused. Kill me now.

"We just slept!" I yell at the same time Nathan yells, "I didn't touch her!" I look at him, smacking his head.

"Ow!" I roll my eyes.

"I didn't even hit you that hard."

"Still." He rubs the back of his head.

We bid our goodbyes to each other at the front door. I promised Rebecca we would go shopping soon and promised Julie I would go over soon for tea. Alexander even told my dad to come over their house as well for next Sunday. I'm surprised my dad agreed to go. They actually bonded and I'm pretty glad he had a friend now.

Everyone was still talking inside the house when Nathan grabbed my hand and steered me away from them, leading me outside to my porch swing. We sit down, still holding hands.

"So they seem to think we've done more than sleep." He says chuckling.

"I know how can they accuse us of such a thing?" I fake gasp. He chuckles.

"But really technically we have..." I mummer. "I mean we've kissed and talked and cuddled." He chuckles again.

"True." He clears his throat. "You know we've never talked about it before."

"I know."

"Yeah, so do you agree in waiting for the right moment? I don't want to rush on anything."

"Yeah like that's been working out for us." I smile. "But yeah I think we should just wait on that for now."

He smirks. "For now." I punch him in the arm. He winces, grabbing hold of his arm. "Ow! Remind me not to get you mad."

"I'm always mad." I sigh. I peek up at him. "I didn't know you could sing." I say. It's true the other two times I didn't really get to hear him sing since the other guys were also belting out lyrics too. Today was the first time he had a solo and I heard him sing.

"I don't sing that good." He shrugs.

"Please." I roll my eyes. "You sing good. I'm surprised."

"You doubt my skills? I'm hurt, I'm really hurt." He clutches his chest.

"Oh shut up. How long have you been singing for?" I ask.

"Psh in the shower." I raise a brow. "Fine." He sighs. "At home I have a guitar and I practice it almost every night and I sing. But you're the only one that knows besides my family so shh it's a secret to the public." I smile.

"My lips are sealed."

"How about you? Do you sing?" He asks. I shake my head.

"You're ears will bleed." I laugh.

"You can't be that bad." He nudges my shoulder with my own.

"Well you don't know that now do you?" I smirk.

"Come on sing for me." He smiles.

I scoff. "If I don't sing in front of Lily or even in front of my dad or anyone else for that matter how are you going to be any different?"

"Psh cause I'm fabulous." He smirks. I laugh.

"I'm good with singing in the shower where nobody can hear me."

"You'll sing for me one day Annabeth! Hell we'll sing a duet together one day I promise. And you know I keep my promises." He smiles.

"Okay son ready to go?" Alexander asks. They were all walking leaving the house now.

"Yeah." He gives me a quick peck in the lips. "Until next time mi lady." I roll my eyes. I stayed outside and watch them leave. I stayed outside even after. I looked around taking everything in. My dad ends up going outside and sits next to me.

"Their good people."

"I know." I look straight ahead. This is the first time he's gone outside.

"You really like him don't you?" My dad asks. I know he's staring at me.

"Yeah. I do." I look at him in the eyes. He sighs, putting his arm around me, I lay my head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you found someone to make you happy again Annabeth. Who treats you right." I stay quiet. "I'm sorry I haven't been in you're life as much as I wanted to." His voice catches in the end. "It's just, you remind me so much-"

"I know dad." I say quietly.

"You're a hero Annabeth. Don't forget that." He says. "You know I didn't think you would ever bring someone home again after..." He stops. "I'm glad you have someone like Nathan who can protect you. That will stay by your side." We stay quiet. Sitting there. He tells me to go inside soon. I nod. He goes inside the house. I hear the tv for a little while. Then it clicks off and soon I don't hear a thing inside. I stay there. And think.

I'm not a hero. I'm a monster. And soon even Nathan will realize that. And he would want nothing to do with me. And I'll be hurt... For letting myself fall for him.

________________________________End of Chapter 12

Sorry for not posting! Also sorry if this chapter has bad punctuation, grammar, I really didn't go through it thoroughly but I felt like I should post SOMETHING!

But to be fair I have been working on upcoming chapters (input evil laugh here).

Anyways be expecting new chapters up soon! Don't forget to like the chapter :) Until next time! Bye!