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Having exited the presence of his father, Phineas, making sure to check for oncoming traffic, crossed the street to meet his princesa. Ever since the glorious day he and Isabella had started dating, Phineas had been one happy fellow. Apparently, that’s just what love does to a fellow, but Phineas knew that he and Isabella, together, were something special, beyond words almost. He was going to make it last forever if it killed him.
For Isabella’s part... let's just say an overcaffeinated jackrabbit couldn’t hold a candle to her newfound energy. She finally had Phineas, her Phineas, all to herself, and she cherished every moment of it. In fact, and as contradictory as it may sound, since she was finally able to express her love fully had empowered her to be even more herself. Granted, that also meant she could be a little... intense at times, but she had a good reason to be. After all, she had been waiting for her feelings to be reciprocated for a stupidly long time, so she savored every second spent with her beloved like it was her last. All this is to say that when Phineas knocked on her front door, she was already eagerly waiting, and opened it immediately.
“Hey Phineas, whatcha’ doin?” She asked playfully. As she draped her arms around her boyfriend, she made it unequivocally clear that she did, in fact, know exactly why Phineas was there (as if the glimmering smile on her face didn’t give it away already), but Phineas played along anyway, because above all else, he liked making her happy.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Phineas teasingly lied, pausing to listen to Isabella’s adorable giggle and feel the flow of her velvety soft hair. “I was thinking that, maybe, we could go and do something together.”
Isabella pulled Phineas’s face unnervingly closer to hers, brushed her cheek against his, and whispered, “So, something like a date then?”
Phineas smiled widely. “Yeah, you could call it a date.”
For a tender moment, time stood still, and Isabella let her body go limp as she let Phineas hold up her skimpy, but surprisingly strength-laden body. There, he felt her gentle breathing, smelled the scent of lavender in her hair, and felt the calm rhythm of her heart. There, for a moment, the world felt at equilibrium, as though in their own little singularity, and despite the universe's insistence otherwise, they had stumbled their way into a state akin to perfection. How long could they make it last? Probably forever, but neither of them knew for sure. Either way, they weren’t going to let any fear of the future stop them from enjoying the moment.
I the real world though, time ticked ahead unwaveringly, unconcerned with the have and have nots of freshly minted love. After all, the jubilance of youth is a fleeting experience, and the incalculable joy in finding your star, the literal light of your world, before the darkness falls on you is perhaps the greatest of human experiences, or so people say.
Phineas and Isabella weren’t thinking about this though; they just stood where they were, too dazed to do anything else but bask in each other’s presence, and even when they remembered that they had loosely defined plans beyond just acting clingy, nothing about the romantic vibe changed in the slightest.
“Well, what are we waiting for then?” Isabella proclaimed, finally taking back some control of her body, enough to turn Phineas’s hug into something more of a caress or a side hug. Then, as tenderly as she could, she nudged Phineas down her front walkway, back towards his house, and sighed euphorically.
“Lead the way good sir.”
Without a word, Phineas obeyed his beloved’s commands, and the two lovebirds walked towards the road like a bride and groom walking down the aisle. They took every step in as though it meant the world, because to them, it did. It did mean everything; every touch, every nuzzle, all of it meant so much.
~~~
Sooner or later, Phineas and Isabella made their way across the street. After that, they eventually made it all the way to the garage and Phineas’s pickup truck. Now let’s be clear; just because Phineas had a pickup truck didn’t mean it had a four-speed manual and a plethora of analog buttons. Other than the bench seat, which he and Isabella had installed, everything else about the truck was mind-bogglingly ahead of the times. Among the many useful features were the ability to fly, self-driving, and the windows that were actually bulletproof. Of all the modifications he’d made though, his favorite was undoubtedly the bench seat, because it allowed him to drive without a pesky center console depriving his girlfriend of much needed touch, as she could get very lonely at times.
Keeping with the flow though, once the young couple reached the truck, Phineas was gentlemanly enough to open the door for Isabella, which made her giggle the most adorable giggle ever.
Slowly and carefully, Isabella stepped up into the cabin, taking her sweet time while Phineas watched her longingly. By God, he knew he was lucky not only to have her, but that she loved him as much as she did. Otherwise, he may never have found someone who let him love so much, or understood that he didn’t operate under typical human constraints, but he didn’t have to worry about that anymore, because he had Isabella, and that was enough.
Once his beautiful girlfriend had settled herself inside the cabin, Phineas pushed shut the passenger side door and walked around the front of the truck to the driver's side. As he slid into the driver's seat, Phineas found that Isabella had, as expected, made herself comfortable in the middle seat, and was smiling the brightest of smiles at him. He responded with a smile of his own, and made sure to snuggle up close once Phineas had buckled his seatbelt.
Yeah, she was allergic to personal space, but it’s not like Phineas minded at all.
The next few minutes flew by; with the only continuity of events the two lovebirds could remember being Phineas starting the truck, one of them turning the radio on, and the pickup’s self-driving features activating due to the inattentiveness its driver, but everything was still going as intended. Phineas and Isabella got to enjoy each other’s company, and get wherever it was they were going, so they were both very happy. As silly as it sounds, the only imperfection occurred when a certain song started playing on the radio.
You see it all around you
Good lovin' gone bad
And usually it's too late when you
Realize what you had
And my mind goes back to a girl I left
Long years ago who told me
Just hold on loosely
But don't let go
If you cling too tightly
You're gonna lose control
Your baby needs someone to believe in
And a whole lot of space to breathe in
It's so damn easy
When your feelings are such
To overprotect her
To love her too much
And my mind goes back to a girl I left
Long years ago who told me
Just hold on loosely
But don't let go
If you cling too tightly
You're gonna lose control
Your baby needs someone to believe in
And a whole lot of space to breathe in
Don't let her slip away
Sentimental fool
Don't let your heart get in the way
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You see it all aro...
“Ugh, that's a horrible song.” Isabella griped, reaching forward to change the radio station. “I don’t want to hear it ever again.”
Both enthralled and concerned, Phineas eyed his beloved fervently, and placed a soothing arm around her shoulders. “Why is that?”
Still flashing her sudden mood, Isabella continued fiddling with the radio, scanning ahead for stations more fit to her liking. Once she finally found a reasonable station, and let her stiffness dissolve into Phineas and brothels of love.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Isabella looked to Phineas with an embrittled smirk and began to explain.
“Because the lyrics are horrible. ‘If you cling too tightly, you’re going to lose control?’ No wonder everybody’s always giving me bad love advice; because they listen to songs like these.”
Before he could process everything that she had said, Phineas motioned to cradle his friend securely within his arms, which Isabella returned with a hug of her own.
After he was certain that Isabella felt supported, Phineas let some carefully chosen words slip from his mouth.
“Why are people giving you love advice?” Phineas asked as soothingly as he could. “We’re finally together, so people shouldn’t be doing that anymore.”
“Yes,” Isabella replied, tracing little hearts on Phineas’s chest “but now they’ve moved from telling me to ‘just confess’ to saying that I somehow love you too much or something like that.”
Despite the spiteful nature of what she was saying, Isabella spoke with an exuberant joy in her voice, as though the perturbations she was complaining about were only a minor inconvenience, not anything worth expending emotional energy on. As such, Phineas took the topic with a similar degree of lightness.
“How would it even be possible to love someone too much?” He pondered earnestly. “That doesn't make any sense.”
“Exactly!” Isabella exclaimed, exuberantly nuzzling her head into Phineas’s neck. “And we’re happy together, so we don’t need what anybody else says messing this up.”
As he indisputably agreed with what she had said, Phineas showed it by lifting his girlfriend’s head up, staring directly into her blue-ish eyes, and giving her a kiss right on the lips. Admittedly, that was far from the first time they’d ever kissed and it certainly was not the last time they ever would, but like most things Phineas did, this kiss had a soothing, paralyzing effect on Isabella. All that she was, all the outside world saw in her; it no longer mattered in the slightest. She was enveloped in the arms of the boy she loved more than anything or anybody else, and it was all she’d ever need.
As the intensity of their make out session slowly faded, not that the closeness or affection between them had changed, but the urgency of the situation did, and that was enough for Phineas to temporarily shift his glare away from Isabella and out the windshield.
“It’s a good thing we made the truck self-driving.”
Isabella immediately gave Phineas a sultry look.
“Yes.” She uttered, and pulled her lover into another kiss, and his eyes from the road and fully onto her, not like Phineas minded at all.
While Phineas and Isabella continued to immerse themselves in each other, a new song came on the radio, one much more to Isabella’s liking.
Summertime is finally here
That old ballpark, man, is back in gear
Out on 49
Man I can see the lights
School's out and the nights roll in
Man, just like a long lost friend
You ain't seen in a while
And can't help but smile
And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard
Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cause it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss
It's a sip of wine, it's summertime
Sweet summertime
Temperature says 93
Down at the Deposit and Guarantee
But that swimmin' hole
It's nice and cold
Bikini bottoms underneath
But the boys' hearts still skip a beat
When them girls shimmy off
Them old cutoffs
And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard
Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cause it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss
It's a sip of wine, it's summertime
Sweet summertime
The more things change
The more they stay the same
Don't matter how old you are
When you know what I'm talkin' 'bout
Yeah baby when you got
Two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle rollin' on the floorboard
Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cause it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss
It's a sip of wine, it's summertime
Sweet summertime
As the souring outro guitar solo slowly suffocated via a pop fade out, Phineas found himself, somehow, smiling wider than he had the rest of the day. Under his breath, he whispered, “You just can’t beat summer.”
Isabella gave Phineas a joyful look as she smiled back and patted her hand over his chest. “Well, you know they say; summer doesn't last forever.”
Eyeing each other for an instant, they both fell into a fit of hearty, hysterical laughter. For all the world knew, they didn’t know them, and they didn’t know anything about making the impossible possible. Every kiss, every touch, every stare; it was all a reminder that those rules didn’t mean a thing to them, as they had every right to be the exception to, not the victim of, human psychology.
Song Credits:
Hold on Loosely – Jeff Carlisi, Richard Donald Barns, James Michel Peterik
Summertime – Steve Ewan, Craig Wisman