Chapter 6- Adore

Peter has had really good days.

He has had really bad days.

He thought he had seen really weird days

Like the day coach made the team eat a whole bunch of pizzas before making them run laps around the track twice until everyone got sick.

Or even the day he caught speeding in his new jeep by the police but because Trevor's dad is the chief got off with a warning and his mom never heard a thing about it.

Or the day that Gayle rocked up at the door to help his dad move out of the house and his mom made her a cup of coffee, even though Gayle was technically to be his step mom.

Or when he lost his virginity in the basement of Gen's aunt, Chris's mom. That was a mix between weird and bliss for him because he had thought they would have at least done it on a bed…

But this definitely takes the cup.

As he is driving towards the middle school to pick Owen up after school he gets a text which he reads at the traffic light.

Don't worry about picking me up. I have soccer practice.

Owen was the goal keeper and was actually really good. He used to be center but then their Dad left and he wanted to switch. Peter thought it had something to do with the fact that he did not have to communicate that much with the rest of his team mates.

But it did not matter what position he played, Owen was like his brother. He excelled in physical activity and they both excelled because they wanted nothing more than to be nothing like their father, who was never good at sports just jogging. And it was jogging that led him to Gayle…

Peter thinks for a moment while the traffic light is still red that perhaps he should go and watch Owen practice but Owen hated that.

He then thinks maybe he should text Gen and ask her if she is ok and then just reassure that he did not kiss Lara Jean. Lara Jean kissed him.

Lara Jean…

Peter then takes a left and begins to drive.

He knew where she lived because well everyone knew where the trusted Dr. Covey lived. He had also driven past her house before en route to Trevors and seen her sitting on the porch with her sister.

Her stops in front of the house and immediately also recognizes it when he was a kid and him, Gen, Trevor, Chris and Lara Jean and his old best friend, John used to hang out. They used to come over to each other's houses and just play whatever came to mind.

Then Lara Jean and him kissed and everything changed.

He knocks on the door and he hears the doctor shout.

"Lara Jean!" He says, "Get the door."

Fantastic, Peter thinks, this is the right house.

"She's not here Dad!" Another voice says.

"What, where is she?" Dr Covey says, "She was here a minute ago. Hold on is Josh still here?"

"No," The voice says again, "He left when I told him Lara Jean isn't here."

Peter frowns at the door thinking that maybe the two having conversation have forgotten that someone knocked on their door. So Peter knocks again.

"Kitty," Dr Covey shouts again, "Get the door!"

He hears someone coming towards the door and the small girl from the car that he met just last week is standing in front of him. She grins slightly when she sees him.

"Yes?" She smiles.

"Um hi," Peter says, "I was looking for Lara Jean but I guess I heard she is not here."

Peter begins to back away from the door as the little girl says, "Do you know where the Corner Cafe is?"

Peter nods slowly, not that he went there often but he did know where it was.

"She loves their Cherry Cokes because it's machine." The little girl says, "She will probably be there." She then closes the door leaving Peter completely gobsmacked.

Ok second weird thing that has happened today.

Peter walks back to his car and finds himself driving all the way to the cafe. He sees a bike outside the cafe hanging onto the wall almost like someone just dumped it there without a care in the world.

Peter parks his jeep and walks into the cafe. He sees Lara Jean sitting at the bar fighting to open a straw and then shoving it in the glass of coke with nothing but frustration.

"Hey, Covey." He said.

Lara Jean looks at him with wide eyes as she can't believe he's here.

A waitress comes over and holds Lara Jeans shoulder.

"Oh... Anything for your friend?" She asks.

"He's not with me." Lara Jean says quickly.

"I'd like a chocolate shake. Thanks." Peter says quickly

"Sure." The waitress and walks away with smirk. Peter found it interesting how comfortable she was in this space and how the waiters interacted with Lara Jean.

"So what you doing here?" Lara Jean asks suddenly.

"I'm just here to take down one of those chocolate shakes." Peter says causally trying to not make things more awkward than they had already been made.

"Cool." She said.

Peter decided not to beat around the bush.

"Actually, I stopped at your house, your sister said you'd probably be here," Peter said in attempt to make it clear that him coming here was not because he felt the same way, "Look, I just wanna be super clear. Okay."

"Okay?"

"I'm flattered, I am, but…" Peter didn't know how else to continue to he figured he's just tell the truth, "Gen and I, like, just broke up so…"

"Are you trying to reject me?" Lara Jean ask in way that doesn't seem offended but rather confused.

"Yeah, it didn't really seem like it took the first time." Peter explains with a weird expression.

"Peter Kavinsky," Lara Jean says like she is about to make a declaration,"I'm not trying to date you."

"Ok but," Peter began somehow not sure where to lead from this, "Your mouth is saying something,but your mouth said something different."

"What?" Now she sounded a little taken aback. The waitress returns with Peter's milkshake. Peter takes the milkshake and smiles at her.

"Thank you, uh…" Peter peers at her name tag, "Joan."

"Okay, um... So here's the thing," Lara Jean begins as Peter takes a sip of his milkshake. And as he does he makes a mental note to hardly comes the cafe because the milkshake was insanely good and insanely creamy, "I don't actually like you. I just had to make it look like I liked you so someone else wouldn't think I like them."

"Oh, okay. Okay, who?" Peter shrugs simply. Peter did not know what intrigued him about Lara Jean but he felt like he needed to know more about her. He felt like there was more to the cute bubbly shy smart girl who walks around laughing with Chris.

"What?" Lara Jean could not believe what she was hearing.

"Who?" He asks again and simply, "You gotta tell me

who this mystery stud is, otherwise I'm gonna go on believing you have a secret tattoo with my face on."

"No." Lara Jean shook her head looking ahead on the bar stool.

"Should I tell the school that you wrote me a love letter?" Peter said.

"Okay, okay. Fine. Fine. Um…" She says quickly, "It's Josh Sanderson."

Wait what?

"Wait, hold on, Sanderson?" Peter tried to clarify, "Doesn't that guy date your sister?"

"Yeah...Well, he dated my sister," Lara Jean defended herself, "in the past tense. He also got a letter, so you can see how awkward and complicated that's gonna get if he thinks I like him-"

"Hold on. Stop." Peter was now beyond shocked because she had just spoken about the letter but not the one he got, "I'm not the only guy that got a letter?"

Lara Jean slowly shakes his head.

Peter didn't know he felt sort of special until this moment and it's not because he liked Lara Jean it's because he was used to be guy that girls liked. That was generally how most guys thought right.

"Wow, you really think you're special," Peter sighs, "then you find out she wrote two guys."

"I wrote five," Lara Jean confesses like she is completely defeated, "so don't go feeling too special."

Peter was now on the edge of his chair.

"You wrote five love letters?"

"Yeah." She blushed.

"Damn, Covey, you're a player." Peter said admiringly.

Previously all Peter thought that this was a girl who was not interested in dating or was just really low key. Only now to find out that there were five letters of boys she had feelings for. He wondered if she had ever acted on her feelings.

"Who else did you write letters to?"

"If I tell you will you leave me alone?" Lara Jean sighs, you can see she has never had be so vulnerable before. Peter wondered why he would make an exception.

"Maybe." Peter sips his milkshake again.

"Okay, Lucas James."

Ok again, what? Peter thought.

"He's... He's gay." Peter said.

"You don't know that."

"Everyone knows." Peter said rolling his eyes, "Who else?"

"Um…Someone from camp and someone I went to Model UN with in fifth grade." Lara Jean said and Peter just looked at her with pure fascination. Lara Jean likes boys who she had innocent and pure interactions with. Not this weird social media slide in the DM crap that Greg does. Or the weird make the other person jealous that Audrey believes to work in relationships. Or him who just saw a pretty girl and didn't bother looking beyond that before the third or second month.

"So, are we good here?" Lara Jean asks as she lifts her bag off the floor and takes money out.

"Um... Yeah. No, yeah, we're good." Peter said looking at her as she begins to walk away. He then realized that he didn't see her car outside and the cafe was about a five minute drive, so it must be a quite a walk.

And he got here just as he got here. The bike must be hers.

"Okay, great."

"Wait, wait, wait." Peter says stopping her, "It's just...That sparkly bike out front, is that your ride?"

"Yeah." She nods simply.

Jip, Peter thought, this girl was a mystery he could not solve.

Peter pulled up to her house for the second time today. The ride was short and silent. She made no indication to want to talk and he did not want to push his luck. She had indeed shared more with him than she needed to, and Peter appreciated that.

The whole way we are driving his phone buzzes and he knows it Gen because as they were leaving the cafe he saw a texts from Gen.

Where are you?

Can we talk?

I don't believe what people are saying btw?

But in Spanish you looked freaked, WHY?

Omg answer Peter??

"Thanks for driving me." Lara Jean says unbuckling her seat belt.

"Yeah, sure." Peter said switching off the ignition.

"Sorry for the whole jumping you thing." She said awkwardly and blushes.

"Coulda been worse, right?" Peter shrugs. He did not want her to feel uncomfortable. "What are you gonna say to Sanderson?" He was curious.

"I guess the truth." Lara Jean shrugs.

"Yeah, but, you know…" Peter says feeling like he is prying. As he speaks he feels his phone vibrate but decides to ignore it, "What is the truth?Do you like him, do you not like him?"

Lara Jean opens the door and hops out, "It's not your problem, Peter." She then closes the door and goes to the back of the Jeep to retrieve her bike.

Peter quickly takes out his phone and sees that there are four missed calls from Gen and a number of texts. And one that says.

Are you with my cousins weird friend? Yes or no Peter.

Another reads:

I need someone to talk to. You're the only guy that gets me :(

Peter looks out the window and watches as Lara Jean finally gets her bike out the car and begins walking to her house.

Gen was jealous.

I mean she had been jealous before but never to this level and he had feeling that it had to do with the Lara Jean of it all. She made the move not him. She did nothing more than exist and it got her riled up. She had no regrets loosing her friendship to Gen because she got to kiss him.

Peter quickly gets out the car and jogs up to Lara Jean.

"Hey, hold on." He says holding the bike so she would stop. Lara Jean stops and looks at him, "What if you didn't tell him?"

"What?" She questions.

"What if we let people think we were actually together?" Peter says it confidently that he himself can't believe what he is suggesting, "Just for a little while. And not just Sanderson. I mean everybody."

You could see it on her face, she wore the confusion heavily.

"Why would you want that?"

"For starters," Peter begins deciding that if this is what he wanted to do he was not going to do Greg and Audrey's way but his honest way, "when Gen heard you kissed me, she went nuts, and if she thinks you and I are a thing, she'll want to get back together."

"Oh, so you wanna use me as your pawn?" Lara Jean frowns.

"Ah, well, see... Technically, you used me as your pawn first when you jumped me." Peter says simply which does not help his case because all she does is get on her bike and start riding towards her front step. So he tries again, "You don't have to give me an answer now,

just think about it, okay?"

"Yep. Don't hold your breath." She then hops off the bike and legs it fall and then walks straight into her house.

Peter walks away trying to remain hopeful but failing. As he walks he sees Sanderson taking the trash out but looking at Peter.

Oh so he lives next door to his ex girlfriend. How convenient. Peter thinks.

"Yo, Sanderson, yeah?"

He ignores Peter's greeting and says, "Taking Lara Jean home?"

Peter looks at the door and decides that omission was never a lie.

"Looks like it." Peter shrugs opening the door of his Jeep. The sound in Sandersons voice was off. Peter couldn't exactly pin point if it was brotherly concern or infuriated jealousy.

"Hey." Sanderson calls out. Peter steps on the step of the front door to look over at him, "how long you two been hanging out?"

Once again Peter decides that omission will never be a lie, "Uh...Not long."

He then gets in his car and drives away.

That night, Peter hardly looked at his phone because he spent time at dinner with his mom and brother. Then played Fortnite with Owen. Then got scolded by his mom because both him and Owen has homework. Then sat at his desk with his chem book open not sure what the hell he was looking at.

His phone, sitting in the charging port, buzzed again. He then looked at it to find Gen had been looking for him to talk and that Greg was asking homework notes.

Before opening his texts Peter opens Instagram. As he opens Instagram he finds that the first picture that pops up on his news feed is Gens. It is a picture of two people holding hands but you can only see the hands. The caption is a simple red heart. Peter opens her Instagram trying to see if she still has pictures up of the two of them only to find that she has deleted a few already but still has some up but has changed the captions to things that suade people into thinking that they are nothing more than friends.

The tag on the picture of the hands is of Brad but spare himself he decides not to open his Instagram. Peter rather decides to go to Lara Jean and is a little shocked to find that they follow each other.

She does not have that many followers but seems to be content just to post about cakes and cookies and other baked goods and her family. There are some with her sister. Some with her sister, Margot and Sanderson. Some with her little sister and some with her dad. She has one picture up with her mom and the caption is:

Every year on your birthday, I bake a red velvet cake and decorate it in an authentic Korean way with strawberries. I do this because I know you would have loved how sweet it is.

Peter couldn't help but feel a little sad for her because not many people knew that Lara Jean's mother died when she was very young. In fact, not many people knew much about Lara Jean but that she hung out with the rebel Chris.

It was Gen who one day said that Lara Jeans mother had died from hitting her head. This came after Chris was sitting with a crying Lara Jean at the bleachers and we had interrupted. It was the one time Chris and Gen were civil with one another and said nothing. Chris was holding Lara Jean and shielding her face from the rest of the world.

Chris had mouthed to her "her mom" and I had taken Gens hand and led her away from the two girls.

"I can't remember the details," she had said, "but yeah her mom apparently fell or hit her head or something crazy like that and Lara Jeans sister found her. I used to ask Lara Jean back in middle school would never want to speak about it."

She then changed the subject onto herself and Emily's fight.

Now looking at the post, he felt an urge to rewind the clock and give her a hug on that day.

His phone rings again distracting his thoughts.

It's Gen...

Hey guys,

I just want to say that even though it is the movie verse 100% I am still taking attributions from the book and adding it to the story. At the end of the day it still belongs to Jenny Han. So like things like Lara Jeans moms death and the baking thing, if you haven't read the book it could feel like a little confusing but not that much.

Remember to Review.