Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Steve’s party is filled with pot smokers watching soccer on a big screen television. Lara Jean finds Lucas and tells him her news about UNC, and he tells her he thinks it will be good for her to get away from home, like he will be. Genevieve, Peter’s ex-girlfriend, congratulates her without irony in the kitchen, and Lara Jean is caught off guard. Then, she wishes her good luck with Peter, hoping he doesn’t cheat on her. Peter spends the night apart from Lara Jean, drinking heavily, but she notices he seems to be in a happier mood. At one in the morning, she finds him playing flip cup, and she reminds him she has to get home. He offers to take her, but he is drunk. Peter believes she’s mad at him. Lara Jean gets a ride home from Lucas and arrives just before curfew.

At home, Peter continues to text her, and she convinces him to spend the night at Steve’s; she can’t sleep, so she goes downstairs and makes grilled cheese sandwiches for herself and Kitty. While she’s pressing the sandwich into the puddle of butter at the bottom of the pan, she realizes that’s what her cookies have been missing: direct contact, to get crisp. Parchment paper will do the trick, rather than her non-stick Silpat. She makes a batch straight away to test in the morning.

She sleeps in again because she was awake until three baking and watching TV with Kitty. Peter has texted her remorsefully; she wants things to go back to how they were, so she invites him over to test the cookies. After listening to her speech, Peter devours one. Kitty is the harsher critic, but she tries to take five to her room. Peter is still trying to make up for his behavior the night before. She asks him how he feels about UNC again and she can sense his reservation; she hugs him tight for reassurance.

Now that Lara Jean has decided on UNC, she feels like everything is happening at once—informing William and Mary, sending in her deposit, telling the guidance counselor, picking up caps and gowns for graduation, along with announcements for the ceremony. Again, she tries to get Peter to invite his father, but he’s not willing to. Peter suggests a movie night, but she’s already made plans with Kristen to finalize bachelorette ideas. When Peter jokes about male strippers, Lara Jean reassures him that she likes lean muscles, going above and beyond to give him comfort.

Peter is outraged to hear her father is foregoing a bachelor’s party, and he volunteers to take the reins. When naming her father’s friends, Josh’s name comes up, which is still a sore spot for Peter, as Josh and Lara Jean once showed an interest in each other. Peter vows to plan a nice dinner in a steakhouse, inviting a few people Lara Jean’s father regularly interacts with. While Kitty was miraculously alright with being left out of the bachelorette party, she manipulates Peter into inviting her to the steak dinner.

There are only three days left of high school, and yearbooks have been distributed. Peter lets Lara Jean write his quote, which just reads: “You’re welcome.” All the seniors who usually eat lunch off campus are in the cafeteria signing each other’s yearbooks. Lara Jean hands hers to Peter and asks him to write something “memorable” and “romantic”. He asks her to let him do it another time. He takes it home with him that night, but he forgets it at home the next day. He says he finished it and will bring it the next day.

In the meantime, Lara Jean is thinking about Beach Week, which begins the day after graduation when the senior class goes to Nags Head for a week. Ten or so friends go in on renting a house together. Margot didn’t go her year, choosing to go camping with Josh and their friends instead. Likewise, Lara Jean wouldn’t have considered going if not for Peter. Peter and Lara Jean are staying in different houses, divided into men in one house and women in the other.

During the planning phase, her father agreed, but now he seems to have forgotten, and Lara Jean has to remind him of the details. He seems wary, but Trina comes to Lara Jean’s assistance, reminding him that Lara Jean will be living on her own full-time in just a few months. While her father is out of earshot, Trina gives Lara Jean advice on utilizing a buddy system if she’s drinking. Lara Jean imagines Peter doing those things for her, but Trina reminds her he won’t always be there. She reminisces about her own experiences at Beach Week.