I take a deep breath. “Is it... a little weird? I mean, first we were fake, and then we weren’t, and
then we had a fight, and now here we are and you’re eating fried chicken. It’s like we did everything
in the wrong order, and it’s good, but it’s... still kind of upside down.” And also were you trying to
feel me up during the movie?
“I guess it’s a little weird,” he admits.
I sip my sweet tea, relieved that he doesn’t think I’m the weird one for bringing up all the
weirdness.
He grins at me. “Maybe what we need is a new contract.”
I can’t tell if he’s joking or if he’s serious, so I play along. “What would go in the contract?”
“Off the top of my head... I guess I’d have to call you every night before I went to bed. You’d
agree to come to all my lacrosse games. Some practices, too. I’d have to come to your house for
dinner. You’d have to come to parties with me.”
I make a face at the parties part. “Let’s just do the things we want to do. Like before.” Suddenly I
hear Margot’s voice in my head. “Let’s... let’s have fun.”
He nods, and now he’s the one who looks relieved. “Yeah!”
I like that he doesn’t take things too seriously. In other people that could be annoying, but not him.
It’s one of his best qualities, I think. That and his face. I could stare at his face all day long. I sip
sweet tea out of my straw and look at him. A contract might actually be good for us. It could help us to
head problems off at the pass and keep us accountable. I think Margot would be proud of me for this.
I pull a little notebook out of my purse and a pen. I write Lara Jean and Peter’s New Contract on
the top of the page.
Line one I write, Peter will be on time.
Peter cranes his neck to read upside down. “Wait, does that say, ‘Peter will be on time’?”
“If you say you’re going to be somewhere, then be there.”
Peter scowls. “I didn’t show up one time and you hold a grudge—”
“But you’re always late.”
“That’s not the same as not showing up!”
“Being late all the time shows a lack of respect for the person who’s waiting for you.”
“I respect you! I respect you more than any girl I know!”
I point at him. “‘Girl’? Just ‘girl’? What boy do you respect more than me?”
Peter throws his head back and groans so loudly it’s a roar. I reach across the table, over the food,
and grab him by the collar and kiss him before we can fight again. Though I have to say, it’s this kind
of fighting, the bickering kind, not the hurt-feelings kind, that makes us feel like us for the first time all
night.
This is what we decide on.
Peter will not be more than five minutes late.
Lara Jean will not make Peter do crafts of any kind.Peter doesn’t have to call Lara Jean before he goes to bed at night, but he can if he feels
like it.Lara Jean will only go to parties if she feels like it.