Mandy awoke with a tightness in her neck and a need to crack her back. She seriously needed to get a new mattress. She slightly lifted her head to read the bright green analog clock planted right above the ugly chartreuse-yellow door. Then her stomach sank.

It was 10:15. 

Amanda Campbell, New York model and magazine covergirl hadn't been late to anything in the past two years.

Mandy smelled like a wet dog had just taken a bath in salt. She was in desperate need of a shower, so she hopped behind the curtain and turned on the hot water. Two minutes, she told herself. No longer than that.

A model's shower routine is much longer than two minutes.

By time she was out of the shower, it was 10:40. Scrambling to search for something fashionable to wear in such a short amount of time, Mandy ended up settling for a flowy, white athletic skirt, a tight gray tank top, and her beige flip flops. Scratch that, make it her black flip flops. She wouldn't want a hottie like Elijah to catch her wearing something she had worn the day before. 

That would be embarrassing.

Mandy left through the front door and started to make her way to her destination. Alright, the road to  Pancake Palace is to the left, Mandy tried to remember. Or is it to the right?  She used to know the entire town of Seashell Beach like the back of her hand, but all of that was becoming a blur.

Mandy ended up using her cell phone's GPS to make her way to Pancake Palace, and it was 11:00 when she got there. She wasn't five, twenty, or forty-five minutes late. She had set back the date a whole hour.

An HOUR.

As she entered the breakfast cafe, Elijah was nowhere to be found. Why am I surprised? I was the one who came late, Mandy thought. If anything, it was good that Elijah was absent. In all her rush she'd forgotten to wear makeup.

The vicious beast otherwise known as Mandy's stomach roared, and she decided to stay and grab a bite to eat. She took a seat next to the window (great for staring out of now that she had nobody to talk to), far away from the center. She'd been nothing but the center of attention for the past two years,  and it would be good to have a break.

"Welcome to Pancake Palace, what can I get ya?" said a voice that she would recognize anywhere. Mandy looked up at the waiter with a gleam of sudden happiness in her eyes.

"Xavier!" Mandy jumped out of her seat in excitement and embraced him. Xavier looked startled and took Mandy by the shoulders, detaching her from his body. He then examined her face in disbelief.

"Mandy, you never told me you were coming back. Dammit, you never even told me you were leaving."

Mandy stared at the ground. Another wave of guilt, much stronger than the one she felt about Elijah, washed over her. Xavier had been her best friend ever since elementary school, and she ghosted him completely when she left. He wasn't the problem, she was. She had been trying to start a new life in New York and didn't want to bring any Floridian things with her. 

"I'm sorry," Mandy glued her eyes to the black-and-white tile floor of Pancake Palace. She had a feeling that she would have to do a lot of apologizing as long as she was up-and-about in Seashell Beach. 

"Mandy, get your stupid eyes off the tile and look at me."

She lifted her eyes to meet his. They were a deep brown, but they were still somehow entrancing. His olive skin looked perfect under the sunlight beaming through the window, and his fluffy dark brown hair - almost black - was the perfect last piece of the puzzle.

She did NOT remember Xavier being this handsome.

"I don't know why you ignored me, or where you went, but all I know is that you're here now," Xavier took Mandy's hands. "We close in less than thirty minutes. Talk to you then?"

All Mandy could do was nod her head. If she let any words escape from her mouth, she might reveal the wrong inner thoughts. Not the ones about how she was starving and seriously craving some blueberry pancakes, but the ones about how she thought Xavier was really cute.

"Oh shoot I almost forgot... what would you like to eat?" Xavier asked.

Mandy simply pointed to the blueberry pancakes on the menu. Better safe than sorry.

Thirty minutes later, Mandy watched as Pancake Palace closed up for the day. Then she watched waiters, chefs, and a janitor exit their workplace as she waited nervously for Xavier to change out of his work clothes. What if he was mad at her? Would he ask her any personal questions? What if she said the wrong thing? Could their friendship ever be repaired?

Xavier walked out of the building and flipped the sign from "Open" to "Closed" since he was the last employee to leave. "Let's take a short walk, just around the area," he suggested. Mandy agreed. It's not like they had anything better to do.

They walked past a few random stores like Lori's Laundromat and Bob's Candy Shoppe without uttering a word. Then, almost out of nowhere, Xavier took the first step.

"Where were you?"

Mandy felt goosebumps grow onto her baby-smooth skin as she looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact. "I was offered a two-year modeling contract in New York," she said in a serious tone. "It was an opportunity I couldn't miss."

"Well, I'm not surprised."

"What, that I took the chance? That I wasn't scared to leave my home behind?" Mandy felt slightly offended.

"No stupid, that people wanted you to be a model."

Mandy's face turned beet red. What was he saying? Was Xavier actually calling her pretty? She needed to change the subject. Fast.

"How was everything while I was gone?"

Xavier looked at her with a curious yet amused look on his face for a few seconds. "Are you blushing?" He smirked.

"Are you avoiding my question?" Mandy snapped.

"Jeez, why are you so crabby this morning?"

Mandy sighed. "Yesterday I saw Elijah, and he told me to meet him at Pancake Palace today," she started spilling. "and I totally screwed up by waking up late and he probably thinks I bailed last minute."

Xavier went dead silent, and Mandy noticed that his jaw was clenched and his hands were balled up into fists. Did Elijah and Xavier have beef? They never really talked to each other when she was around, but that was all pre-high school. Who knows what happened during those two years that she was away?"

Mandy heard a familiar deep voice grow louder as it moved toward her and Xavier, one that she had heard the day before at night on the beach. It was Elijah, and she didn't know what to do. He will be so pissed, Mandy thought frantically, to see I missed breakfast with him and I'm out with another guy. After listening some more, she realized there was someone else with him. A girl. Her heart stopped. That well-known high-pitched voice that screamed fake and plastic was very easy to recognize, and very easy to hate. Mandy and Xavier watched as Elijah came into sight, with a skinny, tan, wavy-haired blonde bimbo basically leeching onto him. 

It was none other than the Wicked Witch of the West.

Otherwise known as Rachel Holloway.