You Can Be Whatever You Want

Mark was hesitant to answer. After all these years, he was finally talking to Lily Bennett and she wanted to know about her absentee identical twin!

He didn’t think much of her, to be perfectly honest. Finding out she was the busy and semi-famous Angelina Dawson had changed his impression slightly but before that, he thought of her as a deadbeat mother who didn’t reciprocate the love his boss had for her.

“I don’t have much of an impression of her. She’s hardly around when I am and if I do see her, she’s usually coming and going. Sometimes I see her with Aria. I’ve worked for Mr. Todd since she was an infant and I’ve never really interacted with her in all that time.

“I didn’t know she was Miss California until you were in the hospital…but I’d have to guess that her busy schedule is related to the pageants themselves and all of the community service that comes with whatever title she’s currently holding.”

Mark didn’t know much about pageants but knew they had different levels from talking to other people who did watch them. Countywide, statewide, nationwide.

Right now, Angel held a statewide title. She was currently the best of the best chosen to represent all of California in the Miss Americana competition this summer. If she didn’t resurface soon to fulfill her community service duties…would she lose her title to the runner up?

“Oh. She really is the complete opposite of me,” Lily said with a laugh. “The only community service I ever did was to help me get into college with scholarships. And I could never be in a beauty pageant.”

Based on how against conforming to men’s beauty standards she was back in high school, Mark could understand why. Not that there was anything wrong with that. He had liked Lily because she marched to the beat of her own drum.

Back in high school, she could outplay and outrun nearly all of the boys in P.E. She hung out with those others bullied on purpose so they wouldn’t have to be alone even though it dashed her chance at being popular. More than once, she had gotten into a fight defending someone else.

It was that kind yet slightly nosy nature of hers that ended up changing the course of his life. A group of kids had picked on him about being trailer trash and the fact that his dad was an unemployed alcoholic when they found out he couldn’t afford to buy replacement P.E. clothes after his were ruined. He had gotten in trouble with the teacher for not wearing the right uniform.

Mark had been feeling progressively more hopeless about his situation in life anyway. His grades weren’t good enough for any scholarships so he was beginning to despair at the thought of going to college even though he wanted to leave the trailer park more than anything. He slumped against the wall on the outside of the gym and nearly resigned himself to a life of fast-food jobs.

Lily overheard what they said and marched over to him, dropping a candy bar in his lap. “Hey. If you need P.E. clothes, I think my brother’s should fit you. He graduated last year and a lot of his clothes are still in storage at my house.

“Don’t listen to those jerks. You can be whatever you want; your parents don’t define you. If where people came from was all they would ever be, hardly anyone would amount to anything. Goodness knows I wouldn’t either.

“We all have our challenges but we can’t let them stop us. Look at me! I could have a seizure at any time without warning but I’m still determined to get my driver’s license even though everyone says I shouldn’t. So hang in there, okay? You can do it. I believe in you!”

After that, she brought him those P.E. clothes the next day as promised. He thanked her but that never felt like enough because she was the reason he went to college in the first place. Her pep talk lit a fire under him.

He went to community college for two years to get his general classes done first because it was cheaper before transferring to Cal State Monterey. He worked full-time during summers to graduate with as little debt as possible and after getting such a high paying job with Edward Todd, he was nearly done paying them off.

Lily Bennett stayed tucked away in his heart as a beautiful, shining memory when he was busy working himself down to the bone. Even now, he still didn’t have a social life because he didn’t want one. He was too goal-oriented to get distracted by meaningless things like socializing.

His mother leaving was what drove his father to hit the bottle. Even a powerful man like his boss was helpless to the whims of his woman. He didn’t want anything to do with that.

Mark never expected to run into her again. He had assumed she went away for college because she was always talking so big. But no. That bright, beautiful girl was still living with her parents, likely because of her health issues.

She had only been a freshman when they met so she couldn’t be more than twenty-one now. She might be in school but he had no idea what someone like Lily would want to study.

“You don’t strike me as the type,” he admitted. “I can see you doing something active or outdoorsy with your life…am I wrong?”

She grinned at him. “Ding ding ding! We have a winner. I’m a marine biology student. After this semester, I only have a year to go. I already have an internship set up for this summer and I can’t wait!”

“Nice to know that some things never change.”

Lily shrugged. “I guess my reputation as a tomboy stuck, huh?”

“Yep. We shared a P.E. class so—” Mark’s reminiscing was swiftly cut off.

“Nooo, that’s the worst possible class for someone to remember me by! I got into way too many fights with idiots that didn’t know what they were talking about,” she lamented. “So embarrassing!”