The museum still looked the same to her. Then again, museums never really change all that much unless there's new exhibits added or whatever. She rushed over to Phineas' house to see just how well he and Isabella were doing. It then dawned on her that they both were already in college. Phineas' car was gone, and the lights were off in his room.

"Hm, what school were they going to?" she thought outloud, but she suddenly saw the shape of Phineas' head moving in the darkness of his room.

That meant he was home still. Why were the lights dim? She shrugged, and she rang the doorbell. Nobody answered which meant Phineas might have been the only one home for the moment with Linda and Lawrence probably at some antique convention or whatever. Candace was obviously at college since this was ten years later than her time. That meant her older self was too. Ferb was most likely in college too. The question plagued her mind: why was Phineas home? There was no answer from the door, so she rang it again.

"Ah! Knock it off, I'm coming!" Phineas yelled from inside, and he opened the door, "What?"

When Marissa saw him, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Phineas didn't look like himself. His clothes were worn down, his hair was oily and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. His teeth were yellow, and his eyes had bags and dark circles underneath. His shoes had no soles in them, and his toenails were long and disgusting. He stunk really bad too. Marissa had to resist gagging and plugging her nose. Phineas just leaned against the door frame, and he crossed his arms. Marissa was surprised at the lack of facial hair, but she ignored it.

"Phineas? Wh-what happened to you?" she asked.

"I'll tell you what," Phineas answered in a low voice.


Five Years Ago

Marissa had left, and Phineas walked Isabella back to the school. As they walked, they held hands, and they couldn't stop smiling. They couldn't believe this was happening.

"Am I dreaming?" Phineas asked, "I mean, I'm going out with the prettiest, cutest girl I know."

Isabella giggled, "I'm going out with the hottest guy I know."

"I don't know," Phineas teased, "Ferb's pretty handsome."

Isabella pushed him playfully, and they exchanged a kiss. Isabella then gave a small frown. After all, how did she know this would last?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Phineas asked.

"It's just…" she trailed off, and sighed when she found the words she was looking for: "I'm afraid this won't last what with you always focusing on your inventions and all that. You've been focusing on your inventions so much for so long that you never even noticed me. I couldn't have been more obvious when I gave hints."

Phineas caressed her cheek, "Not anymore. From now on, you have all my attention."


"And when I said all my attention, I meant all my attention," Phineas continued, "I stopped inventing, and I stopped focusing on school. She was all that was on my mind for years. I didn't care about anything else anymore. She was all I wanted and needed."

"I don't understand. Why are you like this though?"

"Well, I ended up flunking out of high school. I eventually said 'To hell with it', and I dropped out. I was sick of doing classes I didn't care about anymore. I didn't care about school anymore. Unfortunately, even though I dropped out, Isabella still seemed to juggle time with me and time for school work. She went off to college, and I just stayed here. I didn't have the only thing that mattered to me anymore, and so I let myself go. I was still in love with her, but she fell out of love with me. I stopped caring about anything anymore. I haven't talked to Ferb since he left for college, and Mom and Dad are always on business trips. I basically live here by myself a majority of the time."

"What about food?"

"Mom and Dad go grocery shopping when they get home usually. I have a feeling they're getting sick of me though. I really messed my life up, and now I- -"

"You can fix it though. Come on," Marissa said, and she pulled him out into the sunlight.

Phineas hissed like a vampire, and he shielded his eyes, "Aaah! The sun!"

"Don't be a baby, come on," she pulled him, and soon they were at the museum again, "This is the time machine you built when you were younger. You can use it to go back and fix your mistakes if you want. I used it when I went to get you two together."

"Wait, what?"

"Well, I went forward in time to see when you guys would get together, and I was upset since it wasn't till after high school, so I went back and got you guys together sooner."

"You mean...you did this?" Phineas said, his face turning red, and his fists curling up, "You ruined my life? You mean to tell me that you did change something about the past?!"

"I didn't mean for things to happen like th-"

"I don't care what you meant! You changed something that was just fine without you?!"

Marissa could see his fists were on the time machine, and he was starting to break it. She tried to calm him down, but he just got angrier.

"My life would have been just fine without you meddling in it?! Do you know how FURIOUS I am with you, Marissa?! You ruined my life all because you wanted us to get together sooner!"

"But we can fix that. We can go back and tell yourself in the past not to drop out of everything. We can fix this-"

"No! You're DONE with time travel, Marissa," Phineas said, and he grabbed a large mallet that was near the fire extinguisher.

Marissa panicked as she realized what Phineas was going to do, "Phineas, no...No don't!"

It was too late; the time machine lied in smithereens with Phineas angrily holding the mallet, breathing heavily. Now, not only could Marissa not go back and fix this...but she was stuck in another time possibly forever.