Kate

“The first sixth-grade assembly.”
I look up at him. “Huh?”
“That’s the first time I saw you. You were sitting in the row in the front of me. I thought you were cute.”
I laugh. “Nice try.” It’s so endearingly Peter to make up stuff to try and sound romantic.
He keeps going. “Your hair was really long and you had a headband with a bow. I always liked your hair, even back then.”
“Okay, Peter,” I say, reaching up and patting him on his cheek.
He ignores me. “Your backpack had your name written on it in glitter letters. I’d never heard of the name Lara Jean before.”
My mouth falls open. I hot-glued those glitter letters to my backpack myself! It took me forever trying to get them straight enough. I’d forgotten all about that backpack. It was my prized possession.
“The principal started picking random people to come on stage and play a game for prizes. Everybody was raising their hands, but your hair got caught in your chair and you were trying to untangle it, so you didn’t get picked. I remember thinking maybe I should help you, but then I thought that would be weird.”
“How do you remember all that?” I ask in amazement.
Smiling, he shrugs. “I don’t know. I just do.”
Kitty’s always saying how origin stories are important.
At college, when people ask us how we met, how will we answer them? The shorty story is, we grew up together. But that’s more Josh’s and my story. High school sweethearts? That’s Peter and Gen’s story. So what’s ours, then?
I suppose I’ll say it all started with a love letter.”
― Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean

“I like the way he looks at me, like I am a wood nymph that he happened upon one day and just had to take home to keep.”
― Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean

“Peter puts one arm around my waist, pulls me in, and, looking down at me, he says fiercely, "Neither of us wants to break up. So why should we? Because of some shit my mom said? Because your sister did it that way? You're not the same as your sister, Lra Jean. We're not the same as Margot and Sanderson or anybody else. We're you and me. And yeah, it's gonna be hard. But Lara Jean, I've never feel for another girl what I feel for you." He says it with all the certainty only a teenage boy can have, and I have never loved him more than at this very moment.”
― Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean

“I throw my arms around him and lift my chin expectantly, waiting for my good-night kiss. He nuzzles his face against mine, and I feel gladness for the fact that he has smooth cheeks and barely even needs to shave. I close my eyes, breathe him in, wait for my kiss. And he plants a chaste peck on my forehead. “Good night, Covey.”

My eyes fly open. “That’s all I get?”

Smugly he says, “You said earlier that I’m not that good at kissing, remember?”

“I was kidding!”

He winks at me as he hops in his car. I watch him drive away. Even after a whole year of being together, it can still feel so new. To love a boy, to have him love you back. It feels miraculous.

I don’t go inside right away. Just in case he comes back. Hands on my hips, I wait a full twenty seconds before I turn toward the front steps, which is when his car comes peeling back down our street and stops right in front of our house. Peter sticks his head out the window. “All right then,” he calls out. “Let’s practice.”

I run back to his car, I pull him toward me by his shirt, and angle my face against his— and then I push him away and run backward, laughing, my hair whipping around my face.

“Covey!” he yells.

“That’s what you get!” I call back gleefully. “See you on the bus tomorrow!”
― Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean