I walked into my parents house holding Gabriel's hand. I looked around and saw Lex and Ben sitting in the kitchen talking to my parents and Lucas and his brother and parents sitting in the living room with some of my parents friends. I smiled walking through the the living room to the kitchen. "I'm home." I said walking in. "I was wondering where you were since you do live here." Lexie said turning around. "I had to go get Gabriel." I answered. Lexie nodded and I felt Ben's eyes boring into me. I tried to ignore his stare. I finally caved and glanced over at him. I gave him a smile and he returned it. I instinctively let go of Gabriel's hand. He raised his eyebrows at me when I looked over at him. I lent over and stood on my tiptoes so I could whisper to him. "I don't want the old people to feel uncomfortable to see me on the hand of you, because you're kinda hot." I whispered close to his ear. I saw his cheeks turn a light shade of pink when I moved away from him and I giggled. I looked over at my parents. "Is supper almost done?" I asked at no one in-particular. "Almost. I'm going to set the table. Want to help me?" Ben answered. I reluctantly agreed.

Gabriel started to follow me but I stopped him. "Lucas is in there why don't you go get aquatinted with my aunt and uncle...ill be in there soon." I said softly. He nodded and started in the living room. I watched him walk in there and then I turned to join Ben in the dining room. When I walked in there he had already set all the plates out. He glanced up when I walked in. He set down the stuff he was holding and went over and shut the glass doors connecting the dining room to the hallway. "I'm glad you brought your boyfriend." He said blandly. I nodded. "I thought it'd be nice to spend New Years with my boyfriend." I answered. He took a deep breath. "When we get done in here meet me upstairs there's something we need to talk about. Meet me in the game room." He said glancing behind me at the kitchen. I nodded. We finished setting the table about the time that Chelsea came in. I greeted her then disappeared upstairs. I waited in the game room and he appeared in the door way about 3 minutes later. I looked over at him expectantly. He was silent.

"...so you wanted me to come up here?" I asked. When I spoke he seemed to come back to life. He stepped forward until he was only inches from me. He planted his lips on mine. He brought his hands up and cupped my face. He broke the kiss and bent down resting his forehead on mine. "Jayla...I love you." He breathed. "You love me?" I asked in disbelief. He cracked a smile. "I love you." He said again. I brought my hands up to his face and brought my lips eagerly to his. "I love you too." I answered. He grinned and picked me up and spun me around. I laughed and he put me down. He looked at me the serious look returning to his face. "I love you Jayla, and I want to be with you, and I don't want you to be with that boy." He said simply. I looked at him shocked. "Ben... You know it's not that simple." He nodded his head. "But Jay it is. We could do this. I don't know a whole lot right now but I do know I love you. We can make this work...if that's what you want." My heart felt torn. I wanted too but I didn't want to hurt Gabriel.. or Lexie.. I opened my mouth to answer but I heard footsteps on the stairs.

I jumped away from Ben and gave one glance back at him walking out of the game room. I passed Lexie on the stairs. "Where you the only one up there?" She asked stopping on the stairs. I racked my brain for an answer. "Yeah I think so..I'm not sure I was just in my room I didn't go in any of the other rooms. She nodded. "I've lost my husband.." My eyes grew wide. "Wh..What?" I stuttered. She raised her eyebrows at me. "I can't find my husband?" I let out the breath I had just realized I was holding. "Oh.. I haven't seen him." I said and gave out a nervous laugh. "Are you okay Jay?" She asked. I nodded with a small smile. "Yeah I'm fine." She nodded not believing me. "Well I'm gonna go down and see how my boyfriend is making it." I said starting down the stairs. She nodded and continued on her search for her husband. I made it to the bottom of the stairs and saw Gabriel standing there talking to Chelsea and Lucas. I smiled at them and walked over. I slipped my hand in Gabriel's making my presence to him known.

"I hope everybody's been nice to you." I said. He nodded with a smile. I looked over at Chelsea who was standing quite close to Lucas. I raised my eyebrows at her causing her to giggle. Her giggling cause Lucas to look over at me. I smirked at him and saw his cheeks turn a faint shade of pink. I turned away from him and looked at the stairs to see a returning Lexie coming down the stairs with Ben. I glanced over at him to find him already staring at me. I quickly glanced away from him. About that time my mom called from the kitchen to say dinner was done. I headed in there pulling Gabriel in the dining room with me by his hand. Everybody grabbed their seat and lucky me I was beside Gabriel and Chelsea and had Ben directly across from me. We ate and had polite small talk most of the night. Lexie brought up the idea of me doing an internship at Ben's office to get a feel for it, and get experience on what it'd be like having my own office. "So what do you think?" She looked over at Ben who then looked at me skeptically. I gave him an innocent smile and wriggled my eyebrows at him. After about 30 seconds he finally answered. "I guess she can.." He said in a fake pout. I grinned. He winked and grinned back at me. At that point dinner was pretty much over. I got up and grabbed some of the empty plates and started in the kitchen.

"An internship huh?" Chels said walking up to the sink to drop the plates in the dishwasher. I nodded and turned to look at her. She had a smirk planted on her lips. "What?" I asked. She turned to make sure no one was in here or near the door. "You're one lucky girl." She said. I shook my head. "Are you starting this again Chels? He's married. He's doing this to be nice. And I need to take every opportunity I am offered to get myself ahead if I plan on being a doctor." She came closer. "Oh I totally agree, but it's not the end of the world if you get to shadow that sexy man out there." She whispered. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head trying to play it off. She just won't give it a rest. "Spending all those long hours in the office together. The stole glances. The accidental touches here and there. I can see it now." She said suggestively. I tried to deny it. "Nothing will happen Chels. He has Lexie." I whispered in reply. I heard someone come in the kitchen and I glanced up to see my mom coming through the door. "It's really sweet of Ben to let you be an intern isn't it." My mom said walking over to the dishwasher. I nodded in reply and I saw the smirk return back to Chelsea's face. I just sighed. "Why don't y'all go out there. I'll finish in here." My mom said. "Thank you." I said to my mom before walking out, Chelsea trailing behind me.

I walked into the dining room where a game was being set out. Strangely enough Ben and Gabriel were talking. I walked up to them and heard them talking about sports. "Oh hey Babe. I didn't hear you walk up." Gabriel said throwing an arm around me. I gave him a fake smile. Ben clearly mad excused himself and went over to stand with my Uncle Mac. "What in the hell was that?" Chelsea had materialized beside me and was now whispering in my ear. I shrugged. "I don't even know." That was it. I acknowledged for the first time in front of Chelsea that I knew what she was talking about. "Well seeing his arm around you has made him livid." She said playfully. "I guess it has." I responded blandly. She threw me a smirk before walking back over to Lucas and sitting down at the table with him. Trying to ignore Ben I turned and went with Gabriel to sit down. I sat down beside Chelsea. Eventually everybody migrated over to the table...everybody except Ben. "Where's Ben?" My mom asked. We all turned to look at each other but nobody knew. "I'll go see if he's outside." Lexie said getting up. "I can go check upstairs." I offered letting go of Gabriel's hand so I could get up from the table. Lex nodded and I headed up the stairs. I went to the game room first, no luck. I turned around and went back to the hallway. I saw my bedroom door slightly ajar. I crept towards it and quietly opened it to find Ben sitting in my desk chair. "What are you doin' ?" I asked coming over and leaning against the desk in front of him. "I'm not in the partying mood Jayla." He answered shortly. His attitude ticked me off.

I got up and shut the door before spinning back around to face him. "No. You don't get to do this. You don't get to make a request of me and when I stop to think for 2 seconds you go all asshole on me. I have that right Ben. I have the right to think about what I want and try to figure out what in the hell we're even doing. Gabriel is a nice guy and hasn't done anything to cause me to dump him, so if you want me to pull this off I'm going to need you to quit being an ass and let me think." I said my voice softening at the end. He looked up at me. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose you." He said getting up. He came over to me and bent down to kiss me but I moved my face so his lips met my cheek. I turned and headed towards the door and opened it. Before walking out I turned my head and called over my shoulder. "Come downstairs your wife is looking for you." I walked out the door and down the stairs. He does not get to act like a douche to me when he's the one married here. No way. I went back and down by Chelsea and Gabriel. About 10 minutes later Ben came down the stairs and joined Lexie at the table. We played card games all night. I tried to have fun, but I kept thinking about this wonderful guy beside me and whether or not I was willing to break his heart for a married man. We stopped playing games and at about 11:45 we went in the living room to watch the ball drop. I couldn't take it anymore. I looked up at Gabriel and at his smiling face. "Can we go talk somewhere Gabe?" I whispered. He nodded his head a look of knowing coming across his face. I took his hand and led him out to the back porch. I took a deep breath. I wiped a single tear that had escaped from my eye. "Gabriel, you are a great guy and I've loved getting to know you these past few months. You're so sweet and kind and always make me laugh...but this just isn't working. One day you will make some very lucky girl happy...it just can't be me." I said softly. He gave a slight nod and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Goodbye Jayla." He whispered and turned and walked out of the fence around the house. I sat down on the patio letting the tears fall from my eyes. I'm a horrible person. This secret is tearing my life apart.