Eternity's Dime

Chapter Seven: Preparation Conversation

"What do you wear on a date?"

"Personally, I'd wear a dress, but I don't think that would work for you." Isabella sounded amused. "Where's he taking you?"

Phineas never realized how little clothes he actually owned. Or at least, how little variety there was. Granted, he rarely ever got dressed up so t-shirts, hoodies, jeans, and shorts made up most of his everyday wardrobe.

"I don't know." He had to have something nice somewhere, right? Forgoing digging through the next drawer where it was, he secured the cellphone between his head and shoulder before pulling the drawer from the dresser. A moment later, he dumped it out on his bed, startling Perry from his nap on Phineas' pillow. "Not even sure when he's picking me up." Phineas sighed. "When we met, he said to call him when I was ready but then he asked me, and I-ugh, I'm not ready."

"Then why did you agree to it?"

"Heat of the moment, I guess?" He paused in putting his shirts back into the drawer as he went through them. "I wasn't thinking."

"If this hadn't happened, would you have called him?"

"Yeah. Eventually." Did he have any clothes still unpacked somewhere? Phineas shoved the rest back into the drawer.

"Phineas," Isabella sighed over the line, "I've known you almost my whole life, so trust me when I say this, you wouldn't have called him. You can't keep-" she cut herself off.

Phineas replaced the drawer. "Can't keep what?"

"It's not important." If that wasn't a lie, Phineas would eat Perry's food. "What did Candace say when you told her?"

Crossing the small room again, Phineas flopped down on his bed while taking the phone back into his hand. The too soft mattresses dipping slightly under his weight as he stared at the ceiling. "I didn't tell her. I meant to, I was going to, but I started playing with Amanda and it didn't come up, then she left, and then I left when Jeremy got home. It just didn't come up." Probably because he didn't really want it to.

A random thought made him laugh. "Maybe I should just wait until the next family get together and really give everyone a shock." Once the words were out, his amusement died.

On the other side of the line, Isabella was silent for a few moments. He could sense she wanted to ask how he was. How he was taking it. Start talking feelings which was the last thing he needed to talk about right now. His muscles were already tense at what was going to happen tonight. He had hoped a shower would relax him, it hadn't.

Finally, she spoke, "You're still taking your meds, right? I don't need to fly home and make sure you're not freaking out on me?"

Phineas rolled his eyes. "Yes, mom. I'm fine, Isa. Really. No need to fly out early." Like he'd put himself at more of a disadvantage by not taking them. He'd tried that once and it was something he'd rather not repeat.

"I know, but if you need me to... Anyway, speaking of moms, I saw yours on TV."

"Really?" Reaching over his head, he scratched Perry's lower back, smiling when the platypus' tail shot straight up. "They rerunning old concerts again?"

"No." Confusion seeped into Isabella's voice. "Apparently she's hosting some awards ceremony. You didn't know?"

Phineas' hand stilled. He hadn't known. Sure, it wasn't the first time she'd hosted some ceremony or decided to spontaneously go on some tour, especially since he moved out, but she normally told him about it. "I didn't."

"They showed some footage from one of her newer tours. She still sounds great." Isabella, always going for the positive.

"She lip-syncs." He tried not to sound bitter. He really did. He loved his mom, but once he found out she lip-synced to someone else's singing, he'd lost respect for her career.

"Oh. I didn't-"

"It's fine." Yep, everything's fine. Maybe if he kept saying it, it would be true.

Some background noise drifted over the line followed by some muffed talking.

"Isa?" Phineas sat up, grip tightening on the plastic phone case.

"Sorry, Phineas, I have to go. You're not the only one with a date tonight." She sounded so happy saying the last line, it made Phineas' stomach turn. How could she be that happy at being told who to be with?

Nevertheless, he forced out a reply, "Have fun."

"You too! Love you!"

This time, he didn't even have a chance to try to say it back before she hung up.

Phineas sighed, the hand holding the phone dropping into his lap. Glancing over his shoulder towards his pillow, he blinked. "Hey, where's Perry?"

Now that he was off the phone, the nervousness was starting to build up again. Maybe he should have taken her offer to come out. Not that it would be of any use to him tonight. And if he did, what good would it do? It would help him, sure, but how much would it screw up her plans? He couldn't do that.

Phineas stood up with resolve. Like anything else, he would find a way to do this himself. He'd fix his own problems. There was no reason to make other people fix them for him. Still, his stomach was in knots. And he still hadn't found anything to wear. He let out a slow breath. God, this was a mess.

A chatter came from the doorway.

"Oh, there you are, Perry." He turned towards his pet. His pet who had a pile of light blue material at his feet. "What you got there, boy?"

The platypus just stared, brown eyes pointed in two different directions as usual.

Phineas walked over to Perry and knelt down. The material felt soft when he picked it up and straightened it out. "A shirt," he muttered. "Where'd you find this?" He'd never seen it before. At least, he didn't think he had. The quality was too nice to be one of his. But it looked like it might fit him.

Perry chattered again before head butting Phineas on the calf, and Phineas got the weird feeling he was being glared at even though the eyes weren't looking at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll try it on." He was being bossed around by his platypus. Phineas couldn't help but smile ruefully. How the hell had his life ended up here?