Summer At The Store

Lose You to Love Me

"I can't thank you enough for going to get these guys." His mom took a chair from him and placed it in the back warehouse of the store. "At least you got to have a little adventure this summer. I know we're not going anywhere special, but at least you got to get out of town for a day." She smiled at her son who's head was somewhere completely different. "Did you have fun?"

"I'll get to it, Mom." He said putting down the last of the dining chairs. His mind obviously elsewhere.

"Okay, so you really weren't listening to me." She put his hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry." He shook his head. "Just thinking about stuff."

"Does this stuff happen to be Lara Jean stuff?" she said in a sing songy way.

"Mom." He groaned. They were not the kind of family that talked about relationship stuff. Peter's mom could have been having a mind-blowing love affair, and Peter & Owen would have been none the wiser. The only time Peter remembered anything about his mom's love life was when she cried a lot when his dad left, but they never spoke actually spoke about it. "I'm not talking about this with you."

"Peter Grant Kavinsky, I will not have you moping around like a sad puppy. Now, what is going on with Lara Jean? I know you've been joking yourself just saying you're just friends. I've seen the way you look at her. She blushed anytime you get within 3 feet of her."

"Well, we are friends." He tried to convince himself. "I think she may actually be my best friend." He took a moment before he could no longer hold it in. "We kissed last night."

"Oh, you don't seem as excited as you should be about that. I remember when you first started dating it was like your feet didn't even touch the ground."

"She is still maybe in this thing with McClaren." He rubbed his eyes.

"Oh," she pondered, "so where does that leave you?" She leaned closer to him against one of the chairs.

"We were fine this morning. Then we were trying to talk about what was going on, it got weird. Then we were about to be good again, but John showed up out of nowhere at the car door when I was dropping LJ off and threw us out of whack. I think I just messed it all up. I should have said something. I basically just handed her over to him. Not that she's a possession or anything, but you know."

"What is she going to do about John?"

"I have no idea. It's all messy. I just don't get why she chose him in the first place. This would all have been easier if she didn't go running to him the moment things got hard." He shook his head, finally letting his frustration out.

"That's a tough place to be." She rubbed his back. "I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have to do what's best for your heart, but I think you have been through a lot with Lara Jean. It's totally normal you would be a little protective of yourself after your first real heartbreak." He smiled back at her. His mom always knew what was actually going on whether she said anything or not. "But just make sure you're not being too protective." She cocked her head at him. "If you build too high of walls, you're going to be left all alone in your castle."

He nodded, knowing she was right. "Thanks Mom." He stopped for a moment. His mom smiled and began to turn away. "Just promise you won't hate Lara Jean." He spat out and looked up at her with despair in his eyes. "No matter what happens, you can't hate her. She looks up to you so much and would fall apart if you abandoned her."

She kissed him on the side of his head gently. "You're a good man, Peter Kavinsky."

Her dad was playing Billy Joel over the speakers when Lara Jean & John walked into the house. "There she is!" he hollered from the couch.