Chapter Text
The moon over Danville is deep into its descent in the wee hours of the morning. Pickup trucks with tradesmen on their way to their job sites, truck drivers making pit stops, and police officers doing their patrols — that’s usually the only type of people up at this hour. Except, of course, for the giggling teenagers pulling all-nighters.
On Maple Drive, the Flynn-Fletcher home is pitch black, save for the soft glow of Phineas Flynn’s cell phone — much to Ferb’s chagrin, who was desperately trying to sleep. Phineas’ head is nestled deep into his pillows, Perry asleep on his stomach. His hands — and eyes — glued to his phone as he rapidly drafts a response to Isabella’s text.
Best friends since childhood, Phineas and Isabella are more than accustomed to staying up late talking to each other. Sometimes it’s memes and jokes, sometimes it’s gossip, sometimes it’s deep conversations that bring them closer together, sharing secrets they’ve shared with nobody else but each other.
Today, though, it’s memes. As the clock hits 4:00AM, Phineas was trying to stifle his laughter after Isabella sent some stupid meme about a burger in Vegas and a property in Egypt, to which he replied.
“Man, she’s hilarious… She's the best!” He thought to himself.
Across the street, Isabella is cuddled up in her blanket, shielding the blue light from her phone from beaming under the door so as to not let her parents know she’s awake. Isabella giggles to herself looking at Phineas’ text, her cheeks red from laughter and the familiar heat in her face that talking to Phineas has given her since they were young. "I’m so glad he finds me funny. He’s the best." She thought to herself.
Just then, Phineas sent over a meme making fun of “entrepreneur alpha male-mindset” instagram pages.
With a subsequent text that read,
Isabella couldn’t help but giggle at how dumb that was, accidentally letting herself get a little too loud. Just then, the sound of a light switch jolted Isabella out from under her blanket, the light from the hallway flowing in under Isabella’s door.
"Oh, crap." She thought to herself, scrambling to text Phineas goodnight.
Isabella tossed her phone aside and pretended to sleep, just when Mr. Garcia-Shapiro walks into her room. “Isa…” he says sternly. “Are you really still awake? It’s four in the morning.”
Isabella’s head slowly turns over to face her dad, letting her eyelids fall halfway down to make it look like she’s just been woken up. “W…hat?” she says dryly.
Mr. Garcia-Shapiro chuckles quietly before turning and walking back out of Isabella’s room. “Go to bed. Seriously.” A moment later, the light switched back off and Mr. Garcia-Shapiro walked downstairs to leave for work.
Across the street, Phineas read Isabella’s text. His eyes locked on the ♥️ she put at the end of the message. As best friends, it wasn’t unfamiliar for them to send each other hearts or even say that they loved each other — albeit abbreviated with an ily — and yet… staring at this heart… a strange yet familiar feeling began bubbling in his chest as he couldn’t help but giggle to himself.
Finally over his limit, Ferb whispered from across the room, “Some of us are trying to sleep.” Of course, that only made Phineas laugh more.
Ferb groaned, turning over in his bed and slamming a pillow over his own face. Phineas replied to Isabella’s text before putting his own phone down and going to bed himself.
Phineas spent the day dragging his feet, exhausted from his and Isabella’s late night chat, slugging from class to class. At lunch time, Phineas burst into the cafeteria — the smell of cheap, reheated cafeteria food invading his nose. He turned to see Baljeet waiting in line and walked up to him.
“Hey, Baljeet! What’s up?”
“Oh, hi, Phineas! Nothing, much. Mr. Doofenshmirtz managed to sub my AP Chemistry class. That’s about it.”
“Hm. That’s nice.” Phineas pouted his bottom lip, nodding. “Did you send in your college applications?”
Despite only being 15 years old, Baljeet was already on his way to college.
“Oh, yes!” Baljeet replied. “I totally forgot to mention it! It was actually very challenging because you have to write an essay for eve…”
Baljeet’s response slowly faded out of earshot — In fact, Phineas couldn’t hear anything now. In his passive looking around the room, Phineas’ eyes became locked on Isabella, who was just outside the cafe windows in front of him on her way to class, laughing and chatting with someone. Another guy — Jason Merle. A soft ringing began to reverberate inside Phineas’ head and a soft tinge of worry began to twist his stomach.
Then, Jason — still laughing at whatever Isabella just said — rested his hand on her arm, a smile beaming from his face. Jason’s hand lingered on Isabella’s shoulder as the light stomach twisting turned into a sensation as if someone was twisting Phineas’ stomach like they were trying to drain a soaked towel by hand. A wave of confusion washed over Phineas as he struggled to comprehend what was going on.
After a moment, Jason let go, seemingly saying “See you later, Isa.” and smiled at her before walking away. Phineas couldn’t bring himself to look away as Isabella softly laughed to herself and looked up into the ceiling for a moment. Phineas’ jaw dropped — he blinked, trying to shake it off, but the image stuck in his mind. Why did that bother him so much?
“Phineas?” Baljeet yelled — all of Phineas’ senses returning at once. Shocked, Phineas turned to face Baljeet, who was now some six feet away from him, practically at the cash register.
“S-sorry…” Phineas stammered. “I must’ve zoned out or something.”
Phineas then caught up to Baljeet, a kid a few places in line behind him exclaiming, “Finally!”
Isabella had just gotten out of Physics, barely able to keep herself awake since she spent all night texting with Phineas. Not being able to really pay attention bummed Isabella out, because the Space Physics unit was her favourite; it reminded her of the handful of times she and the Gang had gone to space.
Next on the schedule was Hospitality, which was one of Isabella’s favorite classes. One, she gets to hang out with Gretchen and Adyson, and two, cooking makes her feel connected to her family. A win-win in her book.
As Isabella walked through the door, Adyson’s face lit up as she began to wave from the trio’s shared station. “Hey, girl!”
“Hey,” Isabella smiled. “Any idea what we’re cooking today?”
“Nah, no clue,” Adyson replied. Then Gretchen chimed in, “I don’t know either, but I have some crazy gossip!”
Both Isabella and Adyson turned to Gretchen, eager to hear what’s going on.
“So, you know Jess?” Gretchen asked.
Adyson quickly replied, needing clarification. “Jess Day or Jess Buchanan?”
Gretchen sucked in her lips. “Buchanan…”
Isabella, confused, urged Gretchen to continue. “What about Jess Buchanan?”
Gretchen darted her eyes around the room, ensuring nobody was eavesdropping, before she leaned in a bit closer and whispered, “I heard she has a massive crush on Phineas!”
Adyson and Isabella’s jaws dropped. “What?!” Adyson replied. “How do you know?”
Gretchen giggled, starting to explain how she found out, but the sound couldn’t come through. Isabella’s eyes were locked on Gretchen’s, finding herself incapable of processing the news. Isabella had always worried that, maybe one day, if she didn’t say something soon, someone else might go after Phineas and have the courage to be upfront about it, making it impossible for King Oblivious to misunderstand what they mean, but… so soon?
And what if Phineas liked her back? Phineas and Jess, dating? Would Isabella even be able to handle that? Seeing Phineas in love with another girl, every single day? Would their friendship even survive? Could she possibly… lose Phineas?
Isabella shook her head vigorously, trying to fight off the thought, but to no avail. Her heart thudded hard, like it wanted out of her chest. Her fingers began to subtly twitch, tapping into each other; the only sensation she could feel right now.
And then, Adyson brought her back, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her lightly. “Isabella?”
Suddenly back in reality, Isabella realized that her mouth and eyes had dried out, and that she’d been staring at Gretchen deep in the eyes for half a minute straight with her mouth wide open. “Oh. Sorry. What were you saying, Gretchen?”
Gretchen and Adyson laughed, knowing exactly what happened. “Did you get freaked out because someone else has a crush on Phineas and you have competition now?” Adyson teased.
Isabella, in an instant, shot daggers at Adyson, her face scrunched in anger. “Stop.”
Adyson was taken aback. “Whoa. I-I’m sorry. I was just joking!” she stammered. “Does it actually bother you like that?”
Disappointed and upset, Isabella shook her head before turning to face the teacher, who was now beginning today’s lesson. “Let’s just pay attention. Forget it.”
Adyson frowned and looked at Gretchen with a remorseful look.
It felt like her chest had caved in whenever she considered that there was really a chance she could lose him. A heavy ache settled in her chest as she tried to focus on baking a cheesecake. Eventually, the internal turmoil became too much and Isabella excused herself to the bathroom.
Completely empty, Isabella picked a random stall. She sat on the toilet seat, head in her hands, and let out a shaky breath she hadn’t realized she was holding — her eyelashes brushing against her fingers as her eyes struggled to fight back a tear. In moments like this, there’s really only one person Isabella wants to talk to. Her number one confidant, save for one little secret; her neighbour, her best friend.