Thanksgiving Day was chaotic- it seemed to start, just as quickly as it ended. All the food was delicious, and everyone seemed pretty unanimous on Jake cooking every Thanksgiving from now on.

It was later in the evening now, and all the parents had gathered in the living room to continue eating dessert and drinking. The rest of us retreated to the tv room to watch a movie and recover.

Our siblings were scattered around the room, occupying furniture, as well as prime floor space.

We had decided on watching Coco, at almost 15 minutes into the movie, half of us were already asleep- Sophia included.

By the time Jake joined us, I was just about the only one awake.

He walked over to the arm of the couch and sat down, 'What the hell happened in here?'

'I think your turkey put everyone to sleep,' I replied.

He looks up at me, 'I'm fucking exhausted.'

I smile, looking up into his tired eyes, 'I thought it was great, really, everything was delicious.'

He licks his lips and whispers, 'thanks.'

He glances around the room, then he leans down to kiss me. His lips were soft, and I inhaled his familiar scent, parting my lips to let him inside. If we weren't trying to hide our relationship, I could have kissed him for hours- voyeurs be damned.

Kissing Jake was like coming home after a long vacation (if you could be sexually attracted to your house)- he was familiar, comforting, but somehow satisfying all at the same time.

I drank him in, enjoying the warmth of his tongue on mine. My hands reached under his shirt, feeling the muscles that I've grown so fond of. All sense of time and place tend to stop when I kiss him.

We broke apart briefly, gasping for air.

'We should stop before someone…'

'What the fuck was that?' someone shouts behind us.

My head spins around and I'm face to face with Sophia.

My jaw drops open, and I turn back to look up at Jake.

Jake is blankly staring at Sophia, completely unreadable. My eyes burn into him, trying to get him to look at me.

His mouth opens, and he blurts out, 'We do this.'

'We do this?' Sophia repeats, confused.

He swallows, loudly, 'Yeah, we…we're…we're seeing each other.'

His voice cracks a little as he says, 'Bells?'

He looks down at me, helplessly.

I face Sophia, 'We are seeing each other. We we're going to tell you, I swear.'

'When?' she demands, her face growing redder by the second.

'Today,' I mumbled.

'Today? Oh, that's convenient,' she spats.

'No, it's true, we were,' Jake confirms, trying to sound reassuring.

'How long has this been going on?'

'A few months,' Jake replies, quieter this time.

'A few months?' she shouts, tossing her hands in the air.

'Sophia, it's not like that, we weren't trying to hurt you,' I plead.

A few people had been woken up by the commotion, and we were starting to realize we had an audience.

'Can we go outside to talk?' I plead.

Jake nods quickly, looking around the room at all the eyes fixated on us.

When we go outside, things don't get any better.

'I just can't believe you guys would do this, why would you jeopardize our friendships like this?' Sophia demands.

'We talked about that, we don't want to ruin our friendships either,' I reassured.

'What are you going to do when we all go off to college? You're going to do long distance?' she fires back at me.

'Uh, I don't know, we haven't talked about it,' I murmured.

'Ok, well that seems like a pretty big thing to work out together,' Sophia fires back, her cheeks growing red.

'We just wanted to see where this goes, Soph, we're just trying not to put too much pressure on ourselves,' Jake chimes in.

'Oh, I get it, just casually date your best friend, risking a friendship we've all had since we were babies!' Sophia shouts in response.

'Soph, stop! You're blowing this way out of proportion!' I shout back, having hit my limit for patience.

'I don't think I am Bella, I think you two aren't actually thinking this through and it could be what ruins everything,' she snaps.

At this, she turns, and starts marching across the front yard.

'Where are you going?' Jake yells after her.

'I'm going home, tell my parents, I'll see them there.'

She stomps across the front yard.

I turn and look at Jake, 'Jesus, I didn't think she'd react that badly.'

Jake shakes his head, 'Neither did I. I thought she'd be pissed, but mainly because we were sneaking around.'

'She seemed genuinely hurt by this,' I reflected on her words, 'I think she's just afraid it's going to break us all up.'

'Does she not think we care too?'

'I just think she's afraid of losing us or having to choose sides.'

Jake shakes his head, then grabs my hand and pulls me in for a warm hug.

'We've never really fought like that before,' I whisper into his chest.

He chuckles, 'I know.'

I tilt my head to look up at him, 'Do you still want to do this?'

The corner of his mouth lifts into a crooked smile, 'Yeah.'

He leans down and kisses me gently on the lips.

'Woah! Are you two together?'

We spin around to see Jake's brother standing on the front porch, his mouth agape.

'Oh Goddammit!' Jake replies in anguish.