A/N: *peeks out* *checks calendar* Well, I said I'd update on Friday right?
Enjoy! And thank you all to you wonderful reviewers, favorites, follows, and lurkers! I love you all.
Ferb texted Phineas as the final bell of the day rang.
Meet you out front?
He got a reply almost immediately.
OK. Mr. Robert's wants to meet with me for a minute. Wants to make sure I'm ok.
Ferb furrowed his brow and shot off a response.
Want me to come?
Nah. It shouldn't take too long. Thanks though
Ferb couldn't help but smile a bit. He finished packing up his bag and zipped it up. He'd go wait outside of Mr. Roberts room.
Just in case.
Mr. Robert's was waiting as Phineas wheeled back into his room after school.
"Hi Mr. Roberts."
"Hello Phineas. Thanks for staying after. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright."
Phineas laughed again, but not in the happy way.
"Like I said, I'm getting some help. I… told my parents what happened and I'm gonna start seeing a therapist."
"Good, I'm glad. So you have your parents and Grace," he shook his head fondly at the thought of, quite honestly, one of his brightest, and most loyal, students. "And Phineas please know that I am here for you as well. Again, I am so sorry this has gone on for as long as it has. I should have done more."
"You moved their seats and that helped," Phineas proffered.
"But still," his teacher insisted. "If I have anything to say about this, it'll never happen again. But, as I was saying, your parents, Grace, me, who else do you have as a support system? Ferb I'm assuming." Phineas nodded.
"Oh yeah. When I left the other day, um, Ferb's the one who found me. I,-" Gosh, he hated these tears that were threatening to fall. "I decided not to go through with it. I want to live. I just don't want to be miserable while I do it, y'know?" He shrugged and tried to smile. He would be fine.
Mr. Roberts nodded. "I do know. I have depression myself." Phineas's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He never would have guessed. "I've been on meds for the past five years and did therapy for the first couple years and it really helped me. I hope it'll do the same for you." He smiled and then got to his feet. "Your brother must be waiting for you. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you, alright? If you need to take a mental health day, need an extension on homework, consider it done."
"Wow. Thanks Mr. Roberts!" Phineas didn't know what to say.
"Of course. See you tomorrow."
Phineas wheeled out into the hallway and found Ferb leaning against the lockers.
"I thought you said you'd meet me out front." Ferb shrugged and Phineas let it go.
Ferb glanced at Mr. Roberts door questioningly.
"It was fine," Phineas replied. "He was just checking up on me. Making sure I was getting help, had a support system. He has depression too." Ferb quirked an eyebrow at that. "That was my reaction! In any case, he was really understanding."
The two boys walked the rest of the way home as quickly as they could; it was getting cold! As they stepped inside, their phones buzzed.
"It's Isabella," Phineas said, sounding pleasantly surprised. It was a group message to him, Ferb, Baljeet, and Buford.
Isabella: Hey, you guys wanna have a game night at my place? It's been way too long since we've all hung out!
Ferb: *thumbs up emoji*
Phineas: Sounds great!
Baljeet: When and where? I will need to work it into my schedule.
Isabella: Friday evening? Around 6 at my place?
Ferb: *another thumbs up emoji* count us in
Baljeet: Sounds good!
Buford: I'll be there. There better be snacks!
Phineas's brief excitement disappeared as he saw Buford's text come in. Unfortunately, Ferb seemed to notice.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing Ferb." He couldn't manage to say anything else. The false reassurances seemed to die in his throat. "Buford just… we haven't… I-He hasn't… been the nicest lately," he finished in a mutter.
If lightning could have crackled ominously behind Ferb, it would have.
"Ferb, wait, no! It's not that bad, really! It's fine. You don't need to do anything drastic."
They moved to Phineas's room where they dropped off their book bags while Phineas waited for Ferb to say something.
"Has he really been bullying you again?" he demanded.
"I mean, I guess you could call it that," Phineas admitted. Ferb was pacing around the room now, trying to cope with a feeling that could only be called betrayal. "What are you going to do?"
"I honestly want to punch him," Ferb admitted. "And never let him near you again."
"Ferb, you don't have to do that. In fact, please don't do that. It won't solve anything. Maybe he doesn't realize how bad it is." Because despite everything Phineas was going through, he was still Phineas, determined to see the best in people and give them second chances. "I'll talk to him before Friday, okay?" In all honesty, the idea sounded absolutely terrifying and exhausting to Phineas, but he knew it had to be done. Ferb seemed to pick up on that and stopped pacing to kneel down in front of Phineas and kind of just dropped his head into his brother's lap.
"I'm sorry about all this," he murmured.
"It's not your fault," Phineas said. "It's going to be okay."
And maybe, just maybe, it would be.
Friday afternoon rolled around and Phineas still hadn't talked to Buford. He honestly kind of felt like throwing up whenever he thought about it, but today it was really do or die. Phineas was putting his books in his locker before lunch, giving himself a little pep talk, when his problem was solved for him as he heard someone say, "Hey Dinner Bell!"
He almost dropped his books. His heart rate spiked as he saw Buford coming towards him.
"Hey Dinner Bell, I got a question."
"S-sure Buford. I actually had a question for you too. What is it?"
"Do you know why Ferb's been avoiding me?" Phineas sucked in a breath. Ah. Of course. "He's been giving me the cold shoulder these past couple of days and I thought you might know something."
"Yeah, about that." You got this Flynn, it's now or never. "He heard you had kind of taken up bullying again and wasn't too happy about it."
"What! I haven't been bullying anybody!"
"Buford… you've kind of been bullying me."
Buford was silent as if what Phineas said didn't compute. He blinked a couple of times and shook his head.
"Wha- no I haven't! What did you tell him? I haven't been bullying you, have I?"
"Well… you kind of have. I've kind of been avoiding you too even. There was that one time by the lunch room, you said there was no point hanging out with me if I couldn't build things. And making fun of my voice and my legs and my brain damage," he said, self consciously twisting his chair's wheel. Buford gaped at him.
"Phineas, I didn't mean any of that! I-I was just joking, y'know? You- you didn't take me seriously, did you?"
Phineas stared at him and then laughed, slapping a hand over his mouth before he could stop himself. Well, he had been right; Buford hadn't realized what he had been doing.
"I already thought my life was a joke, but wow. I can understand that, but it still hurt Buford. Besides, what about Marcus and Cooper and Bryant? Didn't you hear what they were saying to me? Or doing to me?"
"They were just joking around too, Phineas. I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt-"
"Didn't mean to hurt me? They literally pushed my chair over! Twice! And destroyed my homework while they were at it!" Buford backed up a step. He had seen Phineas angry maybe twice in the whole time they had known each other. Guilt started to bubble in his stomach as he realized he was now the reason for the third.
"You knew exactly what they were saying! And you were saying those things too! And that's what hurt the most. I-" Phineas stopped. "I'm sorry. I want to finish talking this out with you, but I can't right now. I gotta go."
Buford watched as Phineas wheeled away, wanting to call after him, but not feeling like he could. Despondently, he made his way to the lunchroom, beating himself up the whole way. How could he have hurt his friend this bad? He hadn't realized how caught up he had been with Marcus and the others to realize how badly Phineas was hurting. He clenched his fist. Phineas was more of a friend than the others had ever been and look what had happened.
He marched into the lunchroom, ready to give them a piece of his mind, and was actually surprised to see Bryant and Cooper at their normal lunch table. The three of them had been absent the past week, which had also seemed really weird to Buford.
"Hey," he barked at them. The two of them looked up.
"Hey Buford," Bryant waved.
"Where have you two been? And where's Marcus?"
"We got suspended," Cooper muttered. "Marcus got double what we got though."
Suddenly, Buford had a sinking feeling. "What did you do?" he asked. Bryant waved him off.
"Marcus gave Wheels a note as a joke and the idiot took it seriously."
"Who would of thought he'd actually try to off himself?" Cooper laughed.
"You what?!"
Seeming to sense the sudden danger, the two turned to look at Buford while sliding away from him as fast as they could. But Buford was faster and a moment later had grabbed Cooper by the shirt and pulled him face to face.
"You guys told Phineas to kill himself?!"
"D-dude! It was just a joke!"
I was just joking, y'know?
You knew exactly what they were saying! And you were saying those things too!
He had really messed up.
He threw Cooper back down on the bench and stalked away.
"Hey! Where you going?" Byrant called.
"To find Phineas."