Eternity's Dime

Chapter Eight: Pick Up

The shirt fit. It actually fit him better than most of his shirts. Which further pushed the question of where Perry got it from. He briefly glanced over to where the platypus had reclaimed his spot of the pillow. If not for the slight slit of his eyes, Phineas would have thought Perry was asleep.

Phineas tugged at the collar of the shirt. It didn't go great with his jeans, but Perry hadn't dragged any matching pants into his apartment so his nicest pair of jeans was his best option. Hopefully, Ferbs wasn't planning anything too fancy or he might end up embarrassing the guy before their relationship even started.

Even without that, he might. What if he couldn't eat with the knots in his stomach?

Phineas shoved his shirts back into the drawer, attempting to push his worries aside and focus on the task of cleaning up. Pausing before grabbing more clothes from his bed, he tugged at the collar again. Was it choking him? It felt like it was choking him. What if it cut off his air and he passed out? He fumbled with the top button, managing to slide it through the hole after a few seconds.

He tried to take a deep breath. God, why did it still feel like that? Phineas leaned back against the dresser and the open drawer slid closed behind him. Why was this happening so often now? He thought it was getting better.

"Gah." He wasn't going to think about it. All he had to do was clean up his room. That's it. He didn't have a date. He just made a mess and needed to clean up. Keeping that in his head, Phineas stopped randomly shoving the stuff into the dresser and carefully folded each shirt he grabbed, losing himself in the task.

In the middle of folding the last shirt, a loud rap on the front door made him freeze. Phineas swallowed, eyes closing. It'll be fine. Opening his eyes, he set down the shirt.

"I can do this," he whispered, running his hands over the shirt he wore. "It's not a date, I'm just meeting up with someone. I can do this." Still, he didn't move from the spot. "It might not be him."

How would Ferbs even find him? What if he was some kind of stalker?

Phineas shook his head. Think positive. He needed to think positive about this. Except what was positive about this? Sighing, Phineas finally forced his feet to move when another bang struck the door.

When he reached it, he took a deep breath. His hand found the handle. The cold metal like ice against his skin. He could do this. He turned the handle and pulled the door open.

And then he slammed it shut again.

Phineas stood there, unmoving, staring at the closed door. It was him. And he'd just slammed the door on his soulmate.

Already this date was going badly.

Ferbs knocked on the door again, it sounded hesitant.

Phineas took a deep breath and held it. No, not a date. Just... just hanging out with a new friend. Because that was less horrifying. It would be like hanging out with Isabella. If Isabella was a guy. And not anything like Isabella. And this really wasn't helping. He slowly let out the breath.

Not a date not a date not a date-

He opened the door.

Ferbs smiled. "Hey."

"Hey." The reply was robotic. Ferbs was dressed similarly to himself, so Phineas was able to push away the fear of being underdressed. "Sorry for slamming the door on you."

Ferbs smiled turned more genuine. "Perfectly alright. I assume you get that from your sister."

That was random. When did Ferbs meet his sister? "What?"