Isabella hadn't seen Phineas for weeks now. Well, that wasn't true, she saw him every day, she just didn't talk to him. She had no friends now, no one in the popular group remembered her, now she spent her lunch in the library with the creeps. She spent her days here because they were the only people to accept her. Even then she thought it was because of their secret hope that the girl was paying attention to them.

But today was going to be different she decided. Today she would apologize to Phineas and hopefully win his love back. Quietly she approached the table where he sat discussing something with a small fifteen year old.

Isabella walked over and greeted him with her once-usual catchphrase: "Hey Phineas, Watcha Doin'?" she asked trying to put on a smile. Phineas didn't seem to have noticed her at all and kept talking with the boy. It seemed that he was deliberately ignoring her, hoping she would go away without him interacting with her. He didn't want to see her, let alone talk to her.

Upon being ignored by Phineas Isabella shot the boy a menacing glance. He took one fearful look at her before signing the paper held in Phineas' outstretched hand and running off. Phineas then turned back to his papers and shuffled through a few of them, trying to get engrossed. He tried ignoring her for a few more minutes but, upon seeing that she was still there, realized that she would not leave until talked to. He sighed and rubbed his temple without looking at Isabella.

"Isabella, I don't want to be stepped on so you can return to your friends. Just go back to your boyfriend and ask if you can get back together, profess your love to him! Or is this a challenge posed by him to get me to do something irrational? Regardless, I'm sure he'll take you back, what with him being one of the only people who can tolerate your personality. I certainly don't want anything to do with it or you, so can you go away? Besides, you're driving away my business"

Isabella was shocked at the way Phineas had talked to her. She did not expect him to just wave her away like that, he didn't care. Although, now that she thought about it, he didn't have a reason to want to see her or a reason not to wave her away, after what she'd done.

"n-no, that's not what I came here for..."

"Oh, I get it. I'm the new way for you to be popular again, that's it? Well look, Isabella. Don't bother, I don't want to be used"

"I'm not trying to use you"

"Oh, so you just want to break my heart again?"

Phineas' cold words struck her hard but she took a breath and continued. "No, actually I was wondering if you'd like to go to the upcoming dance with me"

For a moment a familiar gleam lit up Phineas' eyes as of old and Isabella turned hopeful. It looked as if the old Phineas returned; he opened his mouth to answer with a slight smile. But then he remembered all the things she had done to him, the reason why they weren't friends anymore, that this was probably a trick and that she would tear out his heart again. And so his eyes faded, faded to a cold, emotionless black and Isabella's faint smile waned. "I thought I was the reject loser in the way of your friendships" he spit before shutting his laptop forcefully and sliding everything from the table into his bag.

Still in disbelief at his words Isabella only barely realized he was leaving. She quickly ran after him and grabbed onto his arm, "please Phineas! Please, we need to talk, at least"

Phineas' expression turned to one of more sadness and anger but he led her into an empty classroom, realizing she would not leave him alone until they talked. "what do you want Isabella?"

"you're my friend..."

"I wish I could say the same"

"...and I love you"

At this Phineas turned and glared at her. "well YOU had your chance and you rejected me. Ferb told me that when we were young you prayed day and night that I would reciprocate your feelings and finally I did, you were the one who was too good for that"

"b..."

"you know, that's the funny thing: I thought we were gonna be together. As soon as we had set up the computer in our new house I sent you an email telling you that I did love you, you didn't respond"

Isabella remembered, she had been so upset that she had made an entirely new email address, she hadn't checked her old one since.

"still, I didn't lose hope, I figured that you were at camp or something and I'd have to wait a few days. I waited, and waited, still the email didn't come. As I kept sending emails without response I began to lose faith. But still I sent an email everyday, sometimes up to thirty emails every day, for six years"

Isabella looked on with tears in her eyes,

"123,457 emails" he recited, "123,457 emails and still you didn't respond. I tried calling you, I tried texting you, still nothing.

I had almost completely lost hope that I would ever see you again. Until Dad came home from work and announced that his contract had expired and that we were moving back to Danville. That was what had relit that spark, I knew I was going to see you again and we were in love, or at least one of us was.

Do you know how long it's been since I felt happy?"

Isabella shook her tear-stained face,

"that first day of school. I was so happy that I could see you again and was so very eager at the thought of us getting together. When I got there though I found you had a boyfriend already and that really put me off. I moped around for awhile wondering what to do with my life, because of you being taken. But after then I figured it was only natural.

I just decided, based on the way he treated you, that you would leave him quite soon and we could get together. However, as time went on it seemed that no matter how badly he treated you you wouldn't break up with him. I couldn't understand this, he didn't give you anything except popularity... but you had never cared about popularity. That was one of the first signs that I should've given up then and there, but I didn't, I loved you too much.

At this point I was getting desperate, I didn't know what to do, you weren't leaving him. I stumbled around for an idea to get you away from him, to convince you that you and I were meant to be together. As I looked for an idea I saw an advertisement for the school dance and I figured that if I asked you to the dance you would automatically say yes. So that was what I did. I asked you and you gave me the one reaction I did not expect: you crushed me, rejected me and sent me packing, the one person I had thought was my friend, the one person who was supposed to be.

That destroyed me. Why would you do something like that, I hadn't done anything wrong had I? And then it hit me, the problem wasn't me, it was you, or rather what you had become. My problem was that I was still in love with someone who no longer existed, a relic of times past. I saw you for what you were: just another of the snobby mean girls that hung around with their buff boyfriends.

It saddened me that you had become this when you had been so much more, but it also killed off any part of my former self that was still left. But I couldn't let go of little Isabella from my childhood, not yet, I had to say goodbye to the little girl who had been my absolute best friend since I was one and a half. On the night of the dance I watched you and, when felt the time was right, I walked up to you. 'Isabella, I have to do this before I let go' I said. And then I kissed goodbye that girl I had loved so much knowing I would never see her again.

After this I felt better, the anger I had felt before had gone, or so I thought. It was then that the sadness kicked in: I had just lost the love of my life, what was I gonna do? The sadness didn't last long though and soon receded, that was when I met John.

John was like me, except in his case it was worse. He had been rejected by the love of his life early on, then his father had left them and then his mother. He had lost everyone he cared about and he taught me how to deal with it. From then on John was my only friend."

Isabella was in tears now, she had never known. She sobbed, Phineas' words stung her, she didn't want to hear them, she knew they were true.

"So yeah Isabella. You had your chance. You could've fanned that flame that had relit inside me. Instead you not only put it out, but you squashed the candle and threw it out the window. Now I'll probably never experience love again... especially you!"

At this he turned and walked towards the door,

"No!" Isabella cried, "I love you!"

"yeah, so did I"

"Phineas, come back! I love you! I promise, we can be together"

"oh yeah? Like how you 'loved' me since you were three? And look how that turned out! Sure Isabella..."

At this he turned and opened the classroom door before walking out into the hallway without a backwards glance. Isabella, crying, ran after him into the hallway, she didn't want to see him go. But when she got there he was nowhere to be found. At this she broke down in tears on the floor, ignored by everyone passing by. What had she done? It was all her fault, all of it.