stranger ; 𝐩. 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫

30 | thirty

when her phone rang and she saw it was peter, she practically jumped across the room to pick it up.

"peter?" she almost shouted into the phone.

"congratulations, you have won a ticket to detroit, michigan, the armpit of the united states!"

"what?"

"i'm a telemarketer, remember?" his voice had its usual excited lilt to it, seemingly unchanged from the ordeal of a week ago.

lucy rolled her eyes. "are you serious? it's been a week since homecoming, and you, what, forgot to call? or text? or let me know you were still alive?" she couldn't stop the frustration in her voice from getting the best of her.

if he were in front of her, she was sure he'd have his head down. "sorry, luce," he said, "i just...i didn't want you to see me like that."

she sighed. "alright, fine. but you can't just disappear like that. it doesn't do well for a girl's mental state."

"sorry," he said again. "i didn't mean to."

"let's just get past it. i don't have the energy to argue."

"hey, mr. stark asked me to be an avenger." the words were so casual that she almost missed them.

"what? you're an avenger now?" she was smiling widely, having a little celebration party in her room just for him, who couldn't see her. "that's so cool!"

"yeah, it was," he admitted, "until i turned it down."

she froze mid-fist pump. "wait, seriously?"

"yeah."

"okay, i need to sit down for this," she said, pulling up a chair. "so you were offered a job for tony stark, which involved being a superhero and getting to meet the rest of their freaky family—"

"i've already met most of them," he interrupted, "captain america was really nice when he wasn't trying to kill me."

lucy pauses, mouth hanging open. "okay, we're talking about your fight with captain america later. but still, you got offered all of that awesomeness, and you turned it down?"

"um, yeah, as far as i know."

lucy scoffed in astonishment. "you're something, peter parker. you really are."

"i mean, it all seemed fun, but i'm just a kid. i've got college, and i would never leave may. but honestly," he confessed, "i didn't want to leave you."

lucy's mouth was dry. "did you get that from a movie?" she teased, but it didn't come out with enough humor. he'd rejected becoming an avenger for her.

"no, that one's from my fat brain, believe it or not."

"you're crazy, spiderboy," she said.

"spiderman," he corrected, as if it was commonplace for people to say it wrong.

"same difference." she smiled. "i'll talk to you later, pete."

"are you doing anything later?" he asked.

lucy shrugged. "how much later?"

"like, in a few minutes?"

she chuckled. "that's pretty short notice, petey, i don't know if i'll be able to make it."

"please?" he asked. "i'll be over really quick."

lucy nodded. "yeah, okay." then she hung up.

he wasn't lying when he said a few minutes. all of a sudden, there was a whoosh outside her window, and a boy in a red and blue spandex suit was sitting on the windowsill. in one smooth motion, the mask was pulled off to reveal peter.

"that was quick," she remarked, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "that was making up for homecoming," she explained as his cheeks flushed red. recovering quickly, he smiled widely.

"hey stranger. wanna go for a ride?"

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THE END

[a/n: hahahahaha woop!!!! this has been such a long time coming(like almost a full year), but i'm so glad you guys waited for me to rediscover my writing! i won't say too much, i'm saving most of it for the afterword. but yay! we've reached the end!]