Read Always and Forever, Lara Jean for Free Online Page B

cheated on me with?” Peter wags his finger at me. “Nuh-uh. I don’t think so.”
    I shove him. “We weren’t actually together then and you know it!”
    “A technicality, but okay.” He gives me a sidelong look. “Your number’s higher than mine, you know. I’ve only ever kissed Gen, Jamila, and you.”
    “What about the girl you met at Myrtle Beach with your cousins? Angelina?”
    A funny look crosses over his face. “Oh yeah. How’d you know about that?”
    “You bragged about it to everyone!” It was the summer before seventh grade. I remember it drove Genevieve crazy, that some other girl had kissed Peter before she did. We tried to find Angelina online, but we didn’t have much to go on. Just her name. “So that makes it four girls you’ve kissed, and you did a lot more with them than kiss, Peter.”
    “Fine!”
    I’m on a roll now. “You’re the only boy I’ve ever kissed kissed. And you were the first. First kiss, first boyfriend, first everything! You got so many of my firsts, and I didn’t get any from you.”
    Sheepishly he says, “Actually that’s not entirely true.”
    I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean?”
    “There was never any girl at the beach. I made the whole thing up.”
    “There was no Angelina with big boobs?”
    “I never said she had big boobs!”
    “Yes you did. You told Trevor that.”
    “Okay, fine! Geez. You’re missing the whole point, by the way.”
    “What’s the whole point, Peter?”
    He clears his throat. “That day in McClaren’s basement. You were my first kiss too.”
    Abruptly I stop laughing. “I was?”
    “Yeah.”
    I stare at him. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
    “I don’t know. I guess I forgot. Also it’s embarrassing that I made up a girl. Don’t tell anybody!”
    I’m filled with a glowy kind of wonder. So I was Peter Kavinsky’s first kiss. How perfectly wonderful!
    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 stillfeel 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!”
    *  *  *
    That night, when we’re in the bathroom brushing our teeth, I ask Kitty, “On a scale of one to ten, how much will you miss me when I go to college? Be honest.”
    “It’s too early for this kind of talk,” she says, rinsing her toothbrush.
    “Just answer.”
    “A four.”
    “A four! You said you missed Margot a six point five!”
    Kitty shakes her head at me. “Lara Jean, why do you have to remember every little thing? It’s not healthy.”
    “The least you can do is pretend you’ll miss me!” I burst out. “It’s the decent thing to do.”
    “Margot was going all the way across the world. You’reonly going fifteen minutes away, so I won’t even have a chance to miss you.”
    “Still.”
    She clasps her hands to her heart. “Okay. How’s this?