Snapshots

27. Without Regret

Phineas sighed. He should be upset, shouldn't he? Breaking up was a big deal. Everyone he knew got upset when they were broken up with. But he just felt... indifferent.

Except that wasn't actuate. He was upset, but not about the breakup. He'd lost one of his old friends. Someone who, for a little while there, he thought he could spend the rest of his life with.

"Are you ever going to stop moping?"

Phineas twisted his head to face Ferb. Ferb hadn't look up from his textbook and notes.

"I'm not moping, I'm thinking." He stared at his brother another moment. "Should I have fought for her or something?" If anyone knew the answer to that, it had to be Ferb.

"Oh, heavens, no," Ferb muttered. "You and Isabella's breakup was inevitable. It's better that it happened sooner rather than later."

That got Phineas' full attention, and he sat up on the couch. "What are you talking about?"

With a sigh, Ferb set down his pen. "You and Isabella are incompatible."

Phineas frowned. That didn't make any sense. "But you wanted us to get together. You told me about the dinner in the backyard and how all our friends wanted me and Isabella together. Why would you do that if you knew we'd just break up?"

Staring at the open page, Ferb rolled the pen back and forth on the table. "She had liked you for a long time, and you liked her. With the way your friendship was going, it was unlikely to last much longer. Had it ended with neither of you confessing your feelings, it ran the risk of being a moment of regret in both of your lives. It seemed easier to allow the relationship to run its course with the truth aired." Ferb's fingers still on the pen. "Besides, there was always the chance I would be wrong, and it would last. Had things gone differently, I believe it could have."

Phineas blinked at his brother before flopping back down on the couch. "University has made you chatty. It's weirding me out."

"You weren't here to speak for me."

"Yeah." Maybe he should have been. But that felt selfish in away. Like he wanted to keep Ferb to himself by always talking for him. Ferb deserved a chance to be his own person, and Phineas knew that. That didn't mean he had to like his brother changing though.

Phineas traced a barely notice crack in the ceiling of Ferb's flat with his eyes. "Do you really think it could have worked out if I'd done things differently?"

He had tried to do things right. He'd done his best to make her happy. Even when it came to things he didn't really want to do. He'd thought she was happy, right up until the breakup.

"No." Before Phineas could question the answer, Ferb continued, "The relationship didn't hinge on your choices. It hinged on Isabella's. It always had."