All Chapters of She's No Beauty Queen: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

Lily hadn’t expected things to change so much after Mark gave her a birthday present and told her to tell him random facts whenever she thought of them but that somehow lowered her inhibitions around him. It started slowly by talking to him about more than skateboarding but worked its way up over time. She wasn’t sure how it happened but he became one of her closest friends.It was incredibly ironic that she had started out disliking him only to end up here. He had slowly but surely worn her down by being nice and easy to talk to until he was almost on par with Randi.She wasn’t close with very many people. Most of the time, she preferred talking about superficial things than what was actually on her mind, even with the people she loved.Mark was different. He was such a good listener that he tended to draw her worries out of her. She was able to talk about things with him that she didn’t with anyone aside from her mother, who had a similar ability. She hadn’t thought she would be abl

Lily must have given Mark some sort of pep talk but why would she do that if she didn’t really know him? Or give him Donovan’s old P.E. clothes? None of this was adding up. She had always been too nosy for her own good but didn’t get involved with strangers unless they obviously needed help.A thought struck her. Hadn’t he said something about noticing when she got into a fight defending a nonverbal autistic girl and asked if it was because of Adam?He also claimed she was ‘reckless as always’ when she volunteered to be bait. That implied remembering more than one fight. Why would he pay attention to all the fights she got in? Most of them weren’t even during P.E.Was it possible that she had gotten into a fight defending him too? That would certainly make someone pay attention to what someone else was doing. But if so, why hadn’t he said anything?She tried remembering everything Mark said about knowing her in high school but there wasn’t much to work with. She had been confused that

Randi looked across the table at her best friend curiously. “Why not?”Lily had a million reasons why not but she was having a hard time putting them into words. “I already told you the last time you asked me this. I thought you dropped it.”“That was before you two started spending a lot more time together. Can you honestly say you don’t respect him anymore? I know that was one of your big hang-ups about the whole thing but you wouldn’t put this much effort into someone you don’t respect.”“No,” she admitted begrudgingly. Her recent revelations about what happened between them in high school had changed that. “But he’s still too different from me and he would never like me because he doesn’t do attachments.”“Disregarding the last part, how are you too different?” Randi asked skeptically.“He doesn’t have an ounce of passion in his entire body. I could never be with someone like that. We want completely different things out of life too. Liking him would be pointless.”“Doesn’t mean y

A few weeks later, Angelina got a very excited phone call from her twin. She could practically see Lily jumping up and down.“Angel, I did it! I got a job for after I graduate! It’s with a local marine mammal rescue facility so I won’t have to leave Monterey. I’ll be able to do fieldwork instead of staring at a screen all day, which is exactly what I wanted!”“That’s great!” Angelina replied with equal enthusiasm. She knew how much time and effort Lily had put into job hunting recently. This was a big deal for her.“The pay is more than I expected and they have benefits but the best part is that they’re closed on major holidays and I won’t have to work weekends,” Lily continued eagerly. “I didn’t expect to find something like that straight out of college!”She couldn’t relate to that sort of thing either but was still happy for her twin. “Cool! So when do you start?”“Uh…the week after graduation. I know you already bought plane tickets and everything. I can stay with Aria as planned

Once all of the pictures were done, their group headed out to dinner. Edward had offered to treat everyone because it wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford it. The Bennett parents had been surprised yet pleased.Mark ended up talking to him the most since he didn’t know many people here well and those he did were otherwise occupied. Lily was engaged in conversation with her grandparents, who had come down for the occasion and Genevieve was vying for Angelina’s attention.“We’re leaving Sunday night for France so I want you to check in on Aria every day after the housekeeper leaves,” his boss told him. “We’ll be gone for a week.”“Babysitting isn’t exactly in my job description. I have almost no experience with kids,” Mark hedged. Aria meant more to Edward than anyone aside from his wife. Putting him in charge of her was a terrible idea!Edward snorted. “You wouldn’t be babysitting. I just want you to go over there and make sure everything is okay with the babysitter and see if she needs any