"Ronnie... Ronnie! Is that you?" Veronica was pulled out of her reverie by
the booming voice of Meg, her best friend. She quickly dried her tears,
plastered on her best smile and turned to face the direction Meg was
coming from.

     Meg was half-walking, half-running towards Veronica. "There you
are! I've been looking all over for -- have you been crying again?"

     "Huh?! What? No... I'm fine." lied Veronica, looking away from Meg.

     "Ronnie, I'm not stupid you know. I've known you for 10 long years
and I can tell if you've been crying or not. What's wrong?"

     "Nothing... Really... I'm fine."

     "Like that's really gonna convince me. If you don't wanna talk about
it then that's okay, i'll let it be. But when you're ready to do so, I'll be here
to listen okay?"

     "Yea... Thanks Meg!"

     "You're welcome. Anyways, you up for breakfast?"

     "Nah... I'm not really hungry."

     "Michael's making chocolate chip pancakes... your favorite."

     "I'll pass."

     "You sure?"

     "Positive. You go ahead"

     "You'll be okay right?"

     "Yeah, don't worry."

     With this, Meg walked away from the shore leaving Veronica to her
memories again.

     As she made her way back to the beach house, Meg remembered the
old Veronica, the brown-eyed girl who had a smile that brightened
everyone's day. That girl was now lost somewhere.

     "Where's Ronnie?" asked Michael as Meg stepped into the kitchen.

     Michael was Meg's twin brother but they looked nothing like
siblings. Meg had thick mahogany hair that ran half-way down her back ,
dark brown eyes and beautiful fair skin. Michael on the other hand had
brownish-blonde hair that was always cut short, deep blue eyes and a
tanned complexion he had permanently acquired because of his love for
surfing.

     At that moment, Michael was standing by the kitchen counter and
was tossing freshly made choco-chip pancakes onto a plate in a neat pile.

     "She's by the shore. I asked her to come up for breakfast but she
said she wasn't hungry."

     "Did you tell her I was making choco-chip pancakes?"

     "Yeah."

     "And she still refused?"

     "Well, she's not with me, is she? So i guess that means she did refuse
right?" replied Meg, rolling her eyes at Micheal.

     "Geez... chill sis! She's thinking about Mark again, isn't she?"

     "She didn't say anything when i asked but it was obvious from her
swollen, bloodshot eyes that she had been crying again thinking about
him."

     "She really needs to move on you know."

     "Yeah, you wanna go tell her that?"

     "The last time I tried, she didn't speak to me for two whole weeks. I
don't think I wanna bring it up again."

     "We should just give her time to recover."

     "It's been a year Meg! How much time does --"

     "Could we just drop the topic please? Where's Johnny?"

     "That lazy bum isn't even up yet."

     "Then I guess its just you and me for breakfast bro!"SpoILed BraT39164.4423726852