Perseids meteor shower

The Perseids meteor shower is the anticipated spectacle around which Lara Jean and Peter spend the night before she leaves for college. Yet the scene’s significance lies less in what the sky displays than in the couple’s last shared hours, Lara Jean’s difficult choice to leave Kitty behind, and the promise of a future “next time.”

A Farewell Framed by the Forecast

The night before Lara Jean leaves for college, a meteor shower is forecast, and she and Peter drive to the lake to watch it. Kitty longs to join them, though she cannot bring herself to ask. Lara Jean recognizes her sister’s rigid, barely contained wish; at another time she would say yes, but with departure so close she wants this time alone with Peter.

Kitty’s disappointment shows briefly in the twist of her lips before she hides it. Lara Jean imagines how hard it is to be the youngest, the one left behind, and the drive makes her feel sick with guilt at being possessive of her remaining time. She thinks that Margot would have brought Kitty, sharpening the contrast between the sister she wants to be and the choice she has made.

The Unseen Sky and the Couple’s Promise

Neither Lara Jean nor Peter suggests turning around to fetch Kitty. Their shared silence gives way to sheepish laughter and relief, and Peter says, “We’ll bring her next time.” Lara Jean echoes the promise, reaches for his hand, and takes comfort in the sense that they feel the same way and that, for this moment, there is no distance between them.

At the lake, they spread a blanket and lie side by side. The moon looks like a glacier in the navy night, but Lara Jean sees nothing unusual in the sky: it looks like an ordinary night. Peter wonders whether they should have gone to the mountains; Lara Jean answers that the lake is perfect and that stargazing is a waiting game wherever one is. The forecast supplies an occasion, not a guaranteed display. The scene’s emotional focus settles instead on waiting together.

Leaving, Waiting, and “Next Time”

The meteor shower places the night at a threshold: Lara Jean is about to leave for college, while the couple faces the distance that departure will bring. The promise to bring Kitty next time extends the moment beyond the immediate farewell, and Lara Jean’s clasped hand with Peter offers present reassurance without erasing the coming separation. The ordinary sky, set against the expectation of a spectacular shower, keeps the scene’s intimacy grounded in what the two share rather than in what the heavens may show.