Phineas flopped on his bed with a loud exhale.
"Long day, Phin?" asked TJ with an amused grin.
"Yeah." he said. "Could have been worse; we could have been stuck in traffic or something."
She agreed. "True, true."
"Yup. And I'm still not finished unpacking and stuff," he said with another sigh.
"I'd have thought you would be done by now," she said.
"Yeah, me too."
Suddenly Phineas' cellphone launched out a ringtone most annoying, in which a rough voice said:
"Ring. Ring, ring! RIIIIIIIIIIIII-" It was cut off by Phineas answering it and turning a bright shade of red. TJ laughed.
"Ferb must've...hacked my cell again, heh, heh..." he said as he finally answered the voice on the other end. "Hello?"
"Hello, Phineas. I'm here," said his brother.
"Hey, Ferb!" he said, cupping his hand over the speaker and turning to his cousin. "It's Ferb."
TJ rolled her eyes and waited for him to say something else.
"How was the flight?"
"Good, good; boring without you, but good, I suppose."
"Okay, cool. So you're in London now?"
"Yes. I'm waiting for my bags. Oh, there they are-hang on a second."
After a minute Ferb picked up again. "Okay, now I have to wait for Faye to get here to pick me up, and get checked in. It's good to be back home."
Phineas was silent for a second. "Yeah, that's cool." he said in a slightly saddened tone.
"Phineas, I didn't mean it that way."
"I know." More silence followed.
"Phineas, are you there?"
"Yeah, I-I'm here."
"I'm sorry. I miss you guys."
"Yeah, we miss ya too," Phineas said. Hoping for a subject change, he talked on another topic. "What time is it there?"
"Around two in the morning. Ugh, jet lag."
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"What about there?"
"Six."
"Jeepers. Eight hours' difference. It's going to take me forever to get used to that." Phineas heard a chuckle from the other end. He laughed as well.
"And when you get back, too." Phineas smiled. He laughed a little. "I hate that."
"Yes, it's quite a bother. DST, too, but even worse."
"Yeah. Well, hey, wanna talk to TJ?"
"Yes, please. Talk to you later, Phineas."
"Yeah, bye, Bro. Talk to ya tomorrow." He then handed the cellphone to TJ. "Ferb wants to talk to you," he said. She took the phone from him and began talking to her step-cousin. "Heya, Ferb!"
Phineas let them chat. He set his suitcase on his bed and began to finish unpacking. He began to miss his brother. They had never been apart for more than a day or so after their parents married; they had been nearly inseparable since then as the best of friends. So Phineas was a little unsettled. But, he told himself, you have to get used to it. 'Cause there's no going back now.
"Okay, talk to you later, Ferb. Say hi to Faye for me," she said, pressing the end call button.
"Jeesh, eight hours diff. That's a lot," she said, handing the cell phone back to her cousin. "I hate jet lag."
Phineas chuckled softly. "Yeah, me too."
"You almost done?"
"Yeah."
"Cool. Well, looks pretty good. Hey, I'm thinking about taking you, Izzie, and Ellie to go see a movie. You want to? There's a good thriller playing tonight."
"Actually, that sounds awesome," he said, smiling. "Let's go."
