Lara Jean and Peter’s scrapbook

Lara Jean and Peter’s scrapbook is a handmade record of their relationship that becomes a contested sign of its future: for Lara Jean it is a labor of love, while Peter fears it turns their shared past into something finished. The couple’s amended contract eventually reclaims the scrapbook as a visible declaration that they remain together, making the object part of how they plan to sustain their relationship across college.

A Keepsake Reinterpreted

During an argument about their growing distance, Peter points to the scrapbook as evidence that Lara Jean has been saying goodbye ever since deciding to attend the University of North Carolina. He recalls that she described it as something to remember them by, and asks why he would need such a reminder if they were still together. In his reading, the scrapbook is not merely a record of what they have shared; it anticipates their separation.

Lara Jean rejects that interpretation. She says she spent months making the scrapbook and accuses Peter of placing the responsibility for their distance on her when, in her view, he has been pushing her away since Beach Week. The dispute exposes how one keepsake can carry opposed meanings: the same work that demonstrates Lara Jean’s investment in the relationship can look to Peter like preparation for its end.

The Beach Week Dispute

The scrapbook argument opens onto a deeper disagreement about the couple’s earlier experience at Beach Week. Lara Jean says Peter is the one who has been pushing her away; Peter answers that the night she wanted to have sex felt to him like she was trying to put a bow on their relationship, as though he had completed his part in her first love story and could be put away in her hatbox. His response connects the scrapbook to a broader fear that their relationship has become a finished chapter in Lara Jean’s life.

Lara Jean says that was not what she meant by wanting sex, and apologizes that Peter understood it that way. The exchange does not settle the dispute, but it clarifies why the scrapbook has become painful: Peter interprets its commemorative purpose alongside the Beach Week incident as a sign of closure, while Lara Jean insists that neither gesture was meant as a goodbye.

The Amended Contract

After the wedding guests have left, the chairs have been stacked, and the leftovers put away, Lara Jean returns to her room and finds the yearbook on her bed. At the back is Peter’s message. She first approaches it as a message, then recognizes that its form and purpose have changed: it is a contract, setting out concrete promises for their relationship.

The contract calls for Peter to write Lara Jean a real handwritten letter every week, rather than an email, and for Lara Jean to call him once a day, preferably before bed. It also specifies that she will put a picture of Peter of his choosing on her wall. The scrapbook itself receives a new role: Peter will keep it out on his desk so that anyone interested will see he is taken.

The remaining promises make the object part of a wider agreement rather than a substitute for the relationship. They will always tell each other the truth, even when it is hard, and Peter will love Lara Jean with all his heart, always. The scrapbook’s meaning thus shifts from a possible memorial to a visible sign of continuing commitment, alongside regular calls, handwritten letters, and honesty.

Meaning in the Relationship

The scrapbook matters because it preserves the past while forcing the couple to negotiate what that past means for their future. Peter’s reaction reveals that a keepsake can appear to confirm an ending even when its maker intends it as an expression of care. Lara Jean’s months of work and Peter’s fear of being remembered rather than kept are both attached to the same physical record.

The contract does not erase that disagreement; it answers it with explicit acts and terms. Rather than leaving the scrapbook to speak ambiguously on its own, Peter gives it a place on his desk and makes it a public sign of their relationship. The object remains a record of what the couple has shared, but it also becomes part of their plan for staying connected while apart.