Lara Jean has had the same group of friends since middle school, and while there are now many rifts and rivalries between them, they still all think of themselves as a group. Even Genevieve—once Lara Jean’s best friend, and now her arch enemy—attends Lara Jean’s reunion party at the treehouse where they all used to gather. She may do this partly to gall Lara Jean, who has not invited her, and partly to show off her closeness to Peter, Lara Jean’s new boyfriend. It also seems likely that something in Genevieve yearns for the closeness and security of her old social circle, even while she seems to be doing her best to disrupt it.

The main cause of all the new divisions in the group is sexual rivalry and the advent of sex in general. There is Genevieve’s rivalry with Lara Jean, and Peter and John’s underground rivalry with one another. Lara Jean feels uncertain about Peter partly because she knows him to be more sexually experienced than she is, which makes him seem slightly dark and untrustworthy to her, even though he is careful not to pressure her for sex. Lara Jean is also put off by the aggressive sexuality of her friend Chris, who is also Genevieve’s cousin.