So I have gotten a lot more reviews, and let me tell you, they have made my day! I didn't know how you guys would like my last chapter because the first time I posted it, it didn't turn out so well, so thanks so much for making my writing a lot easier by not worrying about how things are going to turn out, and I'm definitely am going to try to give you guys the best!! Thanks so much for supporting me with the reviews, it just makes me smile when I see "great job" or something!! You guys are the best, and keep them coming please, I look forward to reading them!!

NATE'S SIDE of the STORY:

I drove off to the movie rental place, to get some movies for Avenue and I to watch. I had a plan. . . If Avenue didn't tell me what movie she wanted to see, I would call Parker. When I entered the store, I pulled my cell phone out and scrolled down my contact list and found Parker. I hit dial and waited for the ringing to stop and for Parker to answer. Sure enough she did, "Hello?" She asked into the phone.

"Hey Parker!" I said.

"Hey Nate! How's it going?"

"Good, but I wanted to know what Avenue's favorite movie are. She's coming over, but I have no idea what to pick out."

"Just pick out the movies you think she'd like. . . You know it's kind of cheating to ask me for short cuts to get knowledge about your girlfriend."

"Parker! Please, I know, but she wouldn't even give me hints. . . Just tell me her favorite movie and I'll pick out the rest."

"Alright, but I'm warning you, this movie makes her cry. . ."

"Just tell me!"

"Okay, it's called 'A Walk to Remember'. It's a really sad movie, but she loves it because the boyfriend really shows he cares for her in the end and all this stuff."

"Got it."

"Alright, go pick some others by yourself, because I'm not helping you any more today."

"Uh-huh, thanks for helping though."

"You're welcome." And we both hung up.

I went to the clerk behind the counter. "Hello." I said to her.

"Hi." She said smiling at me. I saw her name tag read, Stephanie, and she was about my age, probably working here just to get a little extra money.

"Stephanie, do you think you could help me?" I asked her.

"Of course!" She said. "With what exactly?"

"Well I'm looking for a movie called 'A Walk to Remember'."

"Um. . . Okay. . ." I guess she noticed it was kind of a girl movie and I came in alone.

"No it's for my date." I told her. Bad move.

"Date?" She asked, her smile disappearing.

"Yeah, with my girlfriend." I don't think I should have told her any more than that.

"Oh, I should have guessed you weren't single, I mean your Nate Gray from Connect Three." I think she was frustrated with herself for thinking she had a chance with me. Don't get me wrong, she was very pretty, and she seemed nice and all, but there was something about Avenue. I think it was her resistance that made me interested and how she opened up that made me more and more into her every moment.

"Thanks, but no, this girl is not like that, she doesn't care who you used to be, she looks at you and if she can't see you, man she finds you, let me tell you that." Stephanie gave me a small smile.

"She sounds great."

"She is, she's amazing."

"Wish I could meet her. . . Anyways, we were looking for something right?"

"Right, 'A Walk to Remember'."

"Okay, I think it's over here." She lead me to the Romance/Hurt/Comfort section. (I got the from ff ;). She pulled the DVD out and gave it to me.

"Thanks." I said to her.

"No problem, that's why I'm here." She smiled and walked back to her post - behind the counter for the check out.

I walked around the place and picked out three other movies, a horror, a comedy, and I was thinking of adventure, but I decided to go against it and pick out another comedy. (Be creative and think of the titles yourself!). I went to stand in line, and then waited for the next clerk to be ready and sure enough, I got Stephanie. I put the movies on her counter and she started to laugh at the other movies I picked out.

"What? You don't think she'll like these?" I asked.

"No, I think she'll love them because you picked them out, but I don't think they're exactly what she would have picked out." Stephanie told me. I frowned. Did I pick the wrong movies?

"Well, I don't have time to pick out any other movies, and this is the best I could come up with. I don't really know what to pick when it comes to those teen-girl-movies."

"You mean Chic Flick?"

"Sure."

"Haha, these'll be fine, you'll just have her clinging to you in this one," she held up the horror movie, "and if you like her laugh these to will be good." She held up my other movies. "Just maybe next time, come ask me to help out you pick the other ones, okay?"

"Okay, thanks." I decided to rent the other ones, and buy "A Walk to Remember." Just in case we get bored or something and we can watch it again.

I drove home as fast as I could in my slow car - reminding myself to insist Avenue that the nice cars are only faster. . . and nicer. When I got there, I put the movies on the coffee table, got a couple of blankets out, and put some popcorn in the microwave. Mom and dad wouldn't be home until a lot later and Joe had a date, and Kevin was upstairs doing some homework, but promised me he wouldn't come down.

"Knock knock!" I heard Avenue's voice at the doorway.

"Hey! Come in!" I yelled.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully. "Sorry for just coming in like that, but I don't think you heard the kock on the door and I didn't want to bug you by calling, so I let my self in. . . . the door was unlocked."

"Don't worry about it! It's fine, you could do it again if you wanted, we don't mind." I wrapped my arms around her and leaned down to kiss her. "How are you?"

"Good sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Well two things. I was thinking while I was walking here, and decided I'm going to go for the job at Martin's Publishing."

"That's great! I'm just going to miss seeing you!"

"Well, I'm still going to school, so I think they might be giving me around the same hours as you, and because Frank now personally knows the manager I could ask for the same day off's as you, hopefully they would give me that much."

"Hopefully!" I saw her face fall a little though. "It's going to be great, you'll see!"

"No it's not that, I know it'll be good for me, but there's another thing."

"What other thing?" I was getting a bit worried now.

"Jake was at my house today." Now I was serious.

"What?! When?! Did he hurt you?!"

"When you left and I got in my house, he was sitting at the counter. No he didn't hurt me, just scared me."

"What did he want?"

"He said he wanted to talk, but Nate. . . I wasn't ready to talk! I told him to get out, but he was resistent and I had to yell at him to get out! Nate I'm scared!" Sheesh, I was scared too! But for her, there was no way she was getting hurt again!

"Don't worry, I'm never leaving you alone again! I can ask my parents if you can stay in the guest bedroom or something, or make sure your mom and dad are at your house when you're asleep, other than that, you can spend the day here, or at school, or at work -"

"But it's true! What he said was true!"

"What did he say?!"

"One day, I'll have to face him sooner or later. . . It's true, I'll have too."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do. I need to. He won't give up till he's gotten what he's wanted. I have to talk to him Nate."

"Well you don't have to do it alone."

"I hope not, but it might not end up the way we want it too." I looked into her eyes.

"We'll figure something out. . . Now let's have a good time and stop worrying. I got four movies and you get to pick which one's first."

"Yay." I grabbed a couple of sodas and she got the popcorn and we went to the couch. I got the movies and showed them to her. Right when she saw "A Walk to Remember" she smiled. "How did you know?" I kind of stopped smiling. I didn't really want to tell her I called Parker, but it was the truth. "You called Parker didn't you?" She already knew.

"Yeah. . ." She grinned.

"Thank you." She said, and stood on her tip toes so she could kiss me real quick. I grinned now. I put the movie in, and we sat down on the couch with our popcorn and sodas and the blankets over us. We have this cool clicker thing for the lights, so I got that and turned them off, except the sun was still out and the blinds were open and I didn't feel like getting up to close them, so we just watched the movie.

A couple hours later, it was nearing to the end, and though it wasn't my favorite, I could see why she liked the movie. I looked at her when the credits started going, (okay it wasn't the first time I looked at her, but this time I think I really noticed it. . .) and saw tears falling down her cheek. I chuckled a little and just watched her for a few seconds. She quickly wiped them away, thinking I wasn't looking at her. When she turned to look at me, I grinned at her. She rolled her eyes and looked away.

"So let's watch another movie. . . Which one do you want to watch next?" I asked.

"Your pick now." She told me. I looked at the choices. I kind of wanted to watch the horror movie, but because of Jacob, I wasn't really in the mood and I didn't want Avenue to be too scared tonight. "How about this one?" I held up one of the comedy movies I got.

"That's great!" I put the movie in and went to go make more popcorn. When I came back the commercials were done and it was the opening credits. I looked at Avenue wrapped up in one of the blankets like she was cold, and put my arm around her so she would lean in. Her head rested on my shoulder and I could smell her hair. It smelled really good, and she looked so peaceful just sitting there on the couch. I can't believe she was in my house, on my couch, in my arms! She could do so much better than me and yet she's here. I knew Jacob liked her, who didn't? I knew he wanted her for himself, who didn't? But what I didn't know was if he really cared about her. It seemed like he did, but there were things that definitely stood out to me. If he loved her like I did, because I know there can't possibly be any person here on earth who loved her like I did, but if he did, he would leave her alone, and prove that he would be worthy enough. I mean seriously, what kind of jerk, would blow his first chance and then come back, expecting she's going to give him another chance, when he just might end up breaking her heart again. And that can't happen. Not again. I looked back at Avenue.

"Why do you have to be so pretty, and nice, and smart?" I asked. She blushed a deep red.

"Shhh." She whispered. I knew she didn't like it when I complimented her like that. I mean, she probably did, because everyone likes to be complimented, but she always felt embarrassed as if I was just being nice to her.

"I love you." I told her.

"I love you too, Nate Gray." When she said my name, it made me want to do a cart wheel. Don't ask why. If you have ever been in love, you would know what I mean.

AVENUE'S SIDE of the STORY:

At the end of the movie, both of us were practically in tears from laughter. Anyways, I think we both wanted to do something different than watching a movie.

"Let's talk about something." Nate said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"I don't know. . . Maybe your birthday?" I groaned.

"No, not my birthday. . ."

"But it's in two weeks!"

"So? Your moms birthday is in two weeks, how about we talk about hers?" I had the same birthday as Mrs. Gray.

"We can do that later, let's focus on yours. I was think about a party, we could have it here maybe a few nights before your actual birthday -"

"No! I don't want a party!"

"Why not?"

"Because, I hate it when the spot light's on me!"

"But it's your birthday!"

"No."

"To late, I already started planning, and you don't want to break all my plans and thought I have put into this. I have everything pictured already, I have everything planned."

"Ugh. Fine. But if anything goes wrong, I blame you."

"What could go wrong?"

"Everything."

"Uh-huh."

"Let's talk about something else."

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

"Hmmm. . . How about when we first met."

"Ugh. That dreaded day."

"Haha, you make it sound so terrible."

"It was! I was so confused, because everybody else seemed to be okay with me, but right when you walked in, you hated me."

"Need I remind you, not everybody liked you, just the girls and teachers. I was so set on you being a jerk, I never realized how great you were."

"Yeah well, now you know!" He joked with me. "Just kidding! You should have seen me when I came home. Ask Shane and my mom, I was so upset that I had a lready made an enemy, and that it was a girl out of things!"

"And the next day when you came to my desk I didn't know what to do! Some part of me wanted you to stay and the other part of me told me not to let a boy get to me, that I needed to stay strong."

"I was so jealous when I came in and saw you and Carter talking, and how you would smile at something he said and when I saw you guys almost kiss, I thought I lost it! You don't know how I wanted to punch that guy in the face and kiss you right there."

"Yeah, well I really didn't want to kiss him, so I felt a sneeze coming and decided it was my perfect chance to get away. But I was so confused, you were watching so intently as we got closer and then you laughed when I sneezed."

"Because I was in shock! I actually thought you were interested in him, and I was so mad that you guys were going to kiss, that when you sneezed I was laughing because I thought it was funny, his face, and how he was embarrassed that I had seen, and I laughed because I was anxious and happy. I think that was the first time I ever really realized I liked you, even if you couldn't have cared less for me."

"You should have felt my heart flip when you found me in the library, and when you told me I was beautiful, I was like wow, this can't be happening, no one's ever really told me I was beautiful."

"You were so closed up, and I was nervous if anything went wrong, you would fall apart, but I just wanted you to know how I felt."

"You were so sweet, I think that's when I started falling for you. . ." I smiled at him. He was so wonderful, I can't believe he was going out with me. Then we heard a couple of people come in.

"Hey, we're home! How's everything going?" It was Mr. and Mrs. Gray that came in.

"What are you guys doing here?" Nate asked.

"Hey Avenue! Glad to see you, how is everything?" Mrs. Gray said, totally ignoring his question.

"Hi Mrs. Gray, I'm fine, how are you?" I asked.

"Great, so I hear your birthday is coming up!"

"Ack, not again, how did you know?"

"Well it wasn't pretty hard to miss -"

"On our calender, the whole month of April is covered in marker with arrows and exclamations, and some other doodles I can't identify since Nate can't draw, pointing to a box that says 'AVENUES 17th BIRTHDAY!'" said Mr. Gray. I blushed. Thanks Nate.

"So I was thinking, if you didn't have anything going on, or if your parents are busy, you could come over Sunday night and we could have dinner, and we could invite Frank, I'd like to meet him, and Parker too, and if there's anybody else on your mind that's close to you, we could invite them too." Mrs. Gray was saying.

"But, Mrs. Gray, that's your birthday too!" I pointed out.

"Yes, well I have something different in my mind for me, but I'm talking about yours, you know, something with the family." Those last words shocked me. I didn't know what to say. I was so pleased that I was considered their family now.

"Um. . .Okay. . ." I couldn't say anything else.

"Great, then it's settled, you can come over Sunday night, and we'll have dinner, but I'd still like to meet Frank and Parker before all this, so I was wondering if you wanted to invite them to have dinner with us maybe Wednesday night, if it's not such short notice and you'll come of course too."

"Yeah, sure, it sounds nice!" I was excited now.

"Sorry about that, I truly thought they were coming later." Nate told me.

"It's fine, you know I love your parents."

"Yeah, well sometimes they can be a little embarrassing."

"Trust me, that is hardly embarrassing, my parents do much worse." And sometimes it wasn't funny.

We decided to watch another movie and when it finished, Shane came home from his date. He was humming a tune, and seemed to be in a good mood.

"I'm assuming you had a good time, with what's her name, Landen?" Nate asked. Wow. He didn't know anything.

"Lauren!" Shane said, sounding annoyed.

"Okay, sheesh! My bad. . ." Nate said, holding up his hands defensively.

"Sorry. Yeah I had a good time, she's so much fun, and she's pretty, and neat."

"Okay, good for you, Avenue, you want to play a board game?" Nate said, turning his attention back to me.

"Sure, Shane you want to play with us?" I asked. Shane was so happy, I think he was up for doing anything.

"Okay, what game?" He asked.

"Do you guys want to play Monopoly?" (Okay, yes I could have been more creative, but whatever, Monopoly's cool. P)

"Yeah!" Shane and I said at the same time.

"Go see if Jason wants to play Shane." I told him.

"No way! He'll get mad at me if I go interupt him while he's studying." Shane said.

"It's true, he'll probably get upset with us, but he wouldn't get upset with you Avenue." Nate told me.

"Yeah, you go!" Shane said.

"Alright, I'll go." I said. I stood up and walked up the stairs. I saw a door with cars on it, so I think that was Shanes room. Then I saw a door opened a crack and saw a messy room, I think that was Nates, And then I saw a door with guitars all over it. I was pretty sure that was Jasons room, since Mr. and Mrs. Gray had their room below along with the guest room. I knocked on the door.

"Come in!" I heard Jason shout.

"Hey, it's me!" I said as I walked in. His room was nice and tidy, and it looked like he was playing some games on the computer. Good, he was finished studying.

"Um, I just wanted to know if you wanted to come play Monopoly with me, Shane and Nate." I said.

"Sure! I'll be down in a sec." He told me.

"Okay, cool, see you later!" I went back out the door and saw Shane grabbing the Monopoly box from the closet of games.

"So is he playing?" He asked.

"Yup!" I said.

"Awesome! I call the car!"

"Whatever you dork."

"Hey!"

"Haha!" I ran downstairs with Shane on my heels. Right as I got to the living room and I ran into Nate, and we fell onto the couch behindd him.

"Good thing there was a couch behind me, or we'd be in a lot of pain." Nate said. I laughed.

"You'd be in a lot of pain." He laughed too.

"Right. . ." Jason came down and saw Shane laughing, me on top of Nate laughing, and Nate laughing under me.

"I don't think I want to know." Jason said.

"Nope you don't, so let's play!" I said, getting up. I got the Top Hat, because that was my favorite and every body else got their characters, then decided that Jason would be Bank. It was funny seeing the three of their competitive sides. After a while, Mr. and Mrs. Gray said it was dinner time.

"You could eat with us, if you'd like." Mr. Gray told me.

"Oh no, as much as I want to, I need to get back home." I said.

"Oh, come on, please stay." Nate said.

"It would be great if you could join us." Mrs. Gray said.

"Yeah stay!" said Shane.

"That would be cool." said Jason. I was glad they wanted me to stay.

"Okay, I'll stay. Thanks so much for inviting me." I said.

"Our pleasure." Mr. Gray said smiling at me. Infact they were all smiling at me.

"Yay!" Shane said. We all laughed. We all sat around the dinner table, and Mr Gray said the prayer, then we ate. This time it was chili, and it was good! We all just talked about different stuff. This time was better than the last time, the time of my first date with Nate, and that was a great night, except for the part nearing to the end, but tonight I noticed how I really missed that, and how much I loved being with the Gray family.

"It's been a while since you've eaten with us Avenue!" Mrs. Gray said. "You should come more often!"

"Aw thanks, yeah I really like being with you guys." I told her.

"Yeah it's totally fun!" Shane added. My left hand was under the table, and I felt Nate squeeze it. I smiled at him, and saw he was smiling back. After dinner was over I told them I had to go.

"We haven't even finished our game of Monopoly yet!" Shane said.

"Shane shush, you can do it some other time." Mrs. Gray said.

"Oh yeah, now you have an excuse to come back again! Okay, see you later!" He said.

"Bye! Thanks for everything!" I said, as Nate dragged me out of the house. "Okay, I get it, you are trying to get rid of me, I see."

"No! Not at all, I just wanted to get out. . .It's totally not you!" Nate said.

"I'm just kidding, gosh Nate Gray, you're so sensitive!" I said teasingly.

"Haha." He said seriously, then chuckled.

"What?"

"I'm just really happy right now."

"Why?"

"Just everything. Today, being by ourselves for once, even if it wasn't for that long, because time flies when you watch movies, but just us, and you for being strong when it comes to Jacob, and opening up, and how you're so great with my family. . ." I just walked up to him and kissed him. It wasn't much, something simple but it was something special, because it was true, time did fly and soon we weren't alone, but it was a nice day. . . other than Jacob.

Nate drove me home and I saw a light on in my house and I saw my dad's car in the driveway, so I told Nate not to worry about Jacob. He kissed me good night and I opened the front door with my key and walked in face to face with a very angry mom, looking right at me. . . Great, just what I need to spoil a good day.

So I hoped you like the chapter! I do think it is one of my weaker chapters, but that's only because I have planned for the end, and haven't gotten all the details to my chapters filling up the gap from here till then. . . So I will try to think of more things, and feel free to give me ideas!! I would love them, and they would make my story so much better!!

REVIEWS WOULD BE GREAT!!