Kendall, James and Logan were sitting at the dining room table in 2J, talking to each other when Carlos entered the apartment in a good mood. "Great news, guys, Lex says she can come over tonight. Now we only have to make the final preparations."

"What preparations?" James wanted to know. Carlos looked at him in disbelief. "Well, the preparations for our New Year's Eve party. We invite our girlfriends to come over and have a great time together."

Kendall bit his bottom lip. "Yeah, cool idea, Carlos, but...actually...Jo and I were planning on going out tonight. We booked a table at a restaurant, you know?"

Carlos blinked, then smiled hesitantly. "Oh, sure. Yeah, you two do that, we'll still have loads of fun together, right, James?"

"Well..."

"Oh, come on!"

"Hey, you know Lucy got her motorcycle license this year, and for Christmas I helped her buy this super awesome motorcycle. And tonight we're taking it out for a test drive, so...sorry, buddy."

"...Logan?"

"Yeah, actually, I was planning to go over at Camille's."

"Doing what?"

"Oh, well, you know...just ordinary boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, totally normal," Logan murmured sheepishly, hiding his face in his cup of tea. Kendall and James exchanged a look, both shaking their heads.

Literally everyone at the Palm Woods knew that Logan and Camille were no longer as innocent as Logan always wanted everyone to believe. And while Camille was very open about that fact, Logan was the exact opposite...which was the real reason why his friends were mocking him about it.

Carlos stared at them with wide eyes. "Wait, does this mean that we...we won't be spending New Year's Eve together?"

"Come on, Carlitos, that's not the worst thing in the world, is it?" Kendall tried to reassure him. "Besides, didn't you say Lex was coming over? Well, that's great, right?"

"And remember, this will be your first New Year's Night with a girlfriend," James pointed out.

"Same goes for you, James," Logan said and James grinned. "Hey, you're right...sweet!"

Logan rolled his eyes.

"Guys, come on. We've spent every New Year's Eve together so far. You know what people say, same procedure as every year, right?"

"Carlos, just think about it. This is the first time we all have girlfriends at the same time, so it makes sense that we want to spend time with them, right?" Logan said.

"But...why don't we all just celebrate together? Boyfriends and girlfriends?"

"Yeah, well, sometimes there are things you wanna do with your girlfriend in private, am I right, Logie-bear?" James said with a grin, causing Logan to choke on his tea. James just rolled his eyes at him.

Carlos hung his head in sadness and disappointment. The other three boys looked at each other uncomfortably. Logan got up from his chair, put his cup in the sink and said, "Okay, look, I'm sure Camille and I can arrange to come over later."

Sensing that James was about to make another inappropriate comment about Logan's last sentence, Kendall quickly put a hand over James's mouth. "Don't." He looked at Carlos. "I'm sure Jo and I won't be out that long either, so don't worry, okay?"

"Yeah, same goes for me and Lucy."

Carlos nodded, but he had trouble believing his friends.

He sat in the lobby, where Alexa spotted him as soon as she entered the Palm Woods. "Hey, you," she greeted him cheerfully and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hi..."

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked worriedly and sat down next to him.

"I'll tell you what's going on. My friends don't care that we won't be spending New Year's Eve together because they all seem to have other plans and are totally ignoring our New Year's traditions. So New Year's Eve is officially ruined."

"So, if the guys have other plans, then it's just you and me?"

"Um...yeah?"

Lex smiled. "I can work with that." She tugged on his hand to get him to stand. "Come on, let's get started."

"Get started on what?"

"To celebrate New Year's Eve."

And she pulled him with her.