Author's Note: New chapter! The nice feedback really gives me confidence to continue, even though I think my writing is boring, personally, haha. But I'm also doing this just for fun anyway. And I'm not really gonna update everyday or anything because I work for a living and I need to be inspired to write, but I'm gonna try not to take breaks for months at a time. Again, the feedback really means a lot to me, and I thank you all! Hope you enjoy!

Vanessa pulled into her parking space at her apartment complex next to the cherry red convertible that belonged to her roommate and long-time best friend, Lacie. She shut the engine off and got out of her bright yellow car, a car that she honestly would have never pictured owning back when she was sixteen. Her tastes in colors had drastically changed since her days of wearing all black everyday, even in the summer. This car was her baby, though. It was stylish, cute, and all hers.

She walked over to her front door, struggling to get her keys out of her purse. It had been such a long day at work and all she wanted to do was get inside and lay down on the couch forever. The only good part of the day was seeing Ferb again. I wonder when I'll hear from him, she thought as she finally unlocked the door, threw her keys and purse down inside, and flopped down on the couch with a deep sigh.

As if on cue, the same roommate and long-time best friend emerged from her room, yawning.

"I thought you got off at eight; now it's almost ten. The heck were you doing for almost two hours?" Lacie asked.

Vanessa turned her head towards Lacie so that her words wouldn't be muffled from the couch cushions. "I was just catching up with an old friend after work."

Lacie nodded. "Uh huh. What old friend?"

"Do you remember Phineas and Ferb? Those kids that always made crazy stuff during the summer?"

"Yeah…?"

"Ferb came in around the end of my shift. I haven't seen him in forever, so we decided to catch up."

"Interesting, interesting," said Lacie. "Were you two close or something back then? Isn't he, like, five years younger than you?"

"Six, I think," said Vanessa as she began to sit up. "We just hung out a few times, usually with him saving my life or something during those times."

Lacie scoffed. "Saved your life?"

"You just had to be there," Vanessa said. "But yeah, we're gonna hang out again soon. He's a pretty cool guy."

"Do you mean he actually talks now?" Lacie smirked.

Vanessa huffed. "He did back then, too, just not very often. But yes, he talks more now, a little bit."

"Mhm… You know I have to ask- is this gonna go anywhere?" Lacie smiled.

"Ha! I doubt it. We're just-"

"Don't you dare say 'just friends', Vanessa, we both know that's crap," said Lacie, pointing an accusing finger at Vanessa. "Just keep me in the loop, 'kay? I'm going to bed. G'night."

"Night," Vanessa sighed. There's nothing wrong with old friends going on a friendly friend date to catch up as friends, she thought. Although she did have to admit that Ferb was quite the looker now that he finally hit puberty and whatnot. But thinking about that was just weird to her. She still thought of him as the ten year old kid that she would sometimes run into at the strangest times throughout the summer.

Speak of the devil, her phone vibrated in her back pocket and she not-so-secretly hoped it would be from a number she didn't recognize, meaning it would most likely be from him.

"Hello, friend."

Vanessa smiled. Yep, that's probably him. She quickly sent a text back-

"Hey! Now I have your number, too."

The next thing she received from him was a thumbs up emoji. She decided just to leave the conversation at that. After all, they had a friend-date planned for Thursday.

Ferb turned down onto Maple Drive on his bike and pulled into their family's garage. He put his bike up on its kickstand and laid his helmet on one of the handlebars. The only thing he could think about on the way home was the giant coincidence that he just so happened to want to take a bike ride to a new coffee shop that just so happened to have Vanessa Doofenshmirtz as an employee. What luck.

He noticed that both his parents' car and the car that he and Phineas shared were both home. So that meant Phineas is back from Buford's. The family was probably not having a "proper" dinner tonight, so he figured he didn't miss much. He wasn't really that hungry anyway. His stomach was still fluttering and he was pretty sure that if he tried to eat anything right now, it would just come back up in a very unflattering manner.

Ferb opened the door from the garage to inside the house and made his way to the staircase. He secretly hoped that if he was quiet and quick enough that no one would question where he had been for the past two hours. Unfortunately, Phineas has some sort of built-in Ferb radar and almost bumped into him on the staircase. In all fairness, Ferb should have seen it coming with his built-in Phineas radar.

"Ferb! You're home! Where've you been?" Phineas asked intently.

"Out," Ferb said. Just keeping it short and sweet. He started back up the stairs again, Phineas not far behind him.

"Where did you go while you were out? I just got back a few minutes ago. I think I had a breakthrough with Buford- there may be hope for him yet! But where were you?" The thing with Phineas is that sometimes he could get ahead of himself and be prone to rambling.

"I went down to that new coffee shop in town," said Ferb, opening the door to their room. He flipped on the light switch as he went by it and went straight to his side of the room. Phineas followed suit.

"Oh, that's cool! You were there an awfully long time, was it very busy?" Phineas asked. Honestly, Ferb was in no mood to explain things. Not that he was in a bad mood or anything, but Phineas was an oblivious soul and would probably not understand why seeing Vanessa Doofenshmirtz again was such a big deal to Ferb. And from the way his stomach was still fluttering, it really was a pretty big deal.

"Little bit," Ferb said shortly. He figured it would be best to let Phineas think what he thinks and just go along with it to save some energy.

"Good for them!" Phineas said. Then he let out a huge yawn and stretched. "I think I'm gonna go shower and then hit the hay. I'll be right back." On that note, he gathered a few clothes and left the room.

Ferb gave him a thumbs up as he left, then took out his phone. He looked back at his palm and realized he should probably wash off Vanessa's number before Phineas saw it. Or worse, he could accidentally sleep on it and then have her phone number all over his face. That would make for a fun conversation, but now was not the best time. He went back downstairs and washed it off in the sink in the kitchen. After getting back to his room, he took out his phone again and pondered a difficult choice. To text now or to wait?

She'll be expecting it anyway, he thought. He just didn't understand. This should not have been this big of a deal. They were just exchanging numbers and catching up some more on Thursday. No biggie. But yes biggie.

His thumb hovered over the text bubble next to her number for a good five minutes. A couple times he had accidentally clicked on it and quickly backed out, even though he knew just opening up an empty conversation with her wouldn't do anything. You're being ridiculous, just do it, his inner monologue scolded. He opened up the empty conversation again and this time actually wrote something- "Hello, friend." He didn't bother putting his name, as he figured she would assume it was him. Sure enough, less than a minute later, he got a text back from her. He just sent an emoji back, assuming that would be the end of the conversation for now. Without even realizing it, he was smiling at her text. Now she has my number.

At that moment, Phineas barged back into the room. "Hey, whatcha smiling at your phone for?" he asked. Phineas was also way too observant of Ferb, but then again, Ferb was also way too observant of Phineas. It worked both ways.

Ferb panicked for a split second. "Cat video."

Phineas let out a quiet "aww" and went over to his bed. "Well, I'm going to sleep. Do you mind if I turn this light out?"

Ferb gave him another thumbs up. Phineas picked up a remote control from his nightstand and turned off the overhead light. Sometimes the simplest inventions they made promoted such laziness.

Ferb decided that staring at Vanessa's one text for over ten minutes was starting to get a little excessive, so he locked his phone and set it on his nightstand. He rolled over onto his side and began to attempt to go to sleep, but his mind was still racing.

What was up? Why did she have such an effect on him? It was the same feeling that he used to get when he was much younger, maybe even stronger now. He was so sure that he would have gotten over it by now, gotten over her. It was just a childhood crush at the time, but for some reason, the thought of her stuck with Ferb for the next seven, almost eight, years. He never dated anyone else; he came close many times, but he never really liked anyone else the way that he liked her all those years ago. And if that tremendous feeling wasn't there, then what was the point? Phineas never understood it, either. He didn't understand why his brother would refuse dates left and right. Ferb never really thought about it until right then and there. It was because he still, no matter how much he denied it, was still head over heels for Vanessa Doofenshmirtz. It only took seven to eight years for him to realize this, too.

He hated this.