"come on, come on, pick up..." 

"the number you are trying to reach is not available. at the tone, please record your message. when you are finished recording, please hang up or press one for more options."

peter let out a frustrated breath, and dialed her number again.

"the number you are trying to reach is not available..."

"lucy," peter whined, "why can't you just pick up?"

"maybe she's mad at you," ned offered, distracted by the new star wars posters he'd bought, entranced by the colors. "did you do anything to make her mad?"

he sighed. "i don't know what to do. i mean, it's not like this thing was going to actually pan out into a real friendship, right? right, ned?" he turned around, trying to get the attention of his friend.

"uh, yeah, sure, peter," ned dismissed it easily.

"ned, i'm serious, what do i do?" he took the posters from his friend's hands, hiding them behind his back. "you're not getting these back until you help me figure this out."

he shrugged. "do you want to tell her that you're, you know..." his voice lowered in case aunt may heard them, "spider-man?"

peter's eyes flew to the door, afraid may would come bursting through the door. "um, no, that's why we started arguing, remember? besides, i hardly know her, what if i tell her, and then...and then she tells, like everyone?"

"who would she tell? she's talking to you, she can't have that many friends."

peter shot a weak glare at the boy sitting on his bed. "she definitely has friends," he defended his faceless friend, "she's the type of person that would have tons and tons of friends, and people just trying to be her friend, and she'd let them because she's too nice and wouldn't want to hurt their feelings."

ned's eyes widened in realization, and his mouth dropped open. "you...you like her!"

the fifteen-year-old's cheeks reddened. "no - no i don't..."

"you totally do, man," ned shook his head. "okay, can i have those posters back? their beauty is calling my name."

peter rolled his eyes and reluctantly obliged. "fine, maybe i like her a little. but i don't know her. we've only talked for, like a week. i'm pretty sure she still thinks i'm some weird kid that has no friends."

but ned wasn't listening. "hey, you know what this means? you can have lucy, as long as you let me have liz."

he sighed. "ned, you're not helping. can you just...be quiet for a little bit?"

there wasn't a response, so he guessed it was a yes. 

he dialed the number again, this time waiting for the beep. "hey, lucy, can we talk? i really need to hear from you. i'm sorry about everything i did, i just...i want to make it right. call me back, okay? alright, bye."

he waited for two days. she didn't call back.