She's No Beauty Queen

Out of all the public appearances Lily had been forced to make as Miss California she hated this one the most. All she could see were fake smiles and people making insignificant small talk with each other.

She had always loathed small talk. She would rather talk about anything in the world but the weather or other mundane day-to-day topics.

Was this what the majority of Angel's life was like? Was she a chameleon too? Lily wanted to meet her and hoped they would be able to get along but she couldn't fathom this lifestyle at all.

If she had to guess, he was used to this sort of thing but didn't necessarily like it. Maybe Angel was the same way. Lily had a hard time imagining anyone could actually enjoy this sort of stuffy environment.

What a way to spend a Friday night! Normally her Fridays were spent doing something or other with Randi and her friends or hanging out with her family. She would much rather be doing either of those things right now.

Randi had invited her over for a game night and that would be so much better than this. Game nights tended to get pretty chaotic with her friends but it was a fun sort of chaos.

Her parents were surprised that she had been out so often this week since she was normally a homebody on weeknights but she was an adult so they didn't call her out on it. Genevieve had teased her saying it was about time she got a boyfriend.

Everyone had noticed Mark picking her up each time and she corrected their assumptions. He was NOT her boyfriend. If she ever dated anybody it wouldn't be someone like him.

Guys tended to do one of two things when it came to Lily. Avoid her because their fragile little feelings got hurt by the things she said or treat her as one of them. She had never met one that actually thought of her as a woman.

What did it matter if she wasn't dating anyway? She was only twenty, albeit almost twenty-one. She had her whole life ahead of her. It wasn't as if she was lonely anyway. She had plenty of friends and family to do things with. She didn't need a man.

The way she saw things, relationships were meant to be done only when both parties got more out of it than they did by being alone. Her life was plenty fulfilling already—despite the craziness that had been happening lately—so the only way she would date someone was if he made things even more fulfilling.

Her parents' relationship was like that. They were best friends and partners but they still had their own lives outside of that. Her mom liked going on girls' trips every few months with her friends. Her dad spent a few nights a week tinkering on an old car in the garage with one of the neighbors who was also an amateur mechanic.

Donovan and his wife were like that too. If she ever got into a relationship that was the kind she wanted. One where she enjoyed spending time with her partner but was also able to enjoy her own interests.

Sometimes she wondered if that was even possible. She had always been told she was too much for people. Too passionate. Too loud. Too willing to say things that needed to be said but made everyone else uncomfortable.

No less than a dozen men had come onto her tonight that Mark had successfully fended off. They were only interested in her because she currently looked like Miss California.

This dress, makeup, and hairstyle weren't Lily at all. If this was a normal Friday night she would either be in jeans and a graphic tee or her pajamas wearing her glasses instead of these awful contacts.

How did Angel ever get comfortable in getups like this? Was she simply used to it after dealing with it for so long? Eddie had mentioned she had been in pageants since she was three.

A three-year-old couldn't make a decision like that for herself. It was obviously her mother's choice. With a controlling parent it was possible that she went along with it because she felt like she had no other choice.

He also said Angel wanted to be a doctor. That was pretty far outside the realm of beauty pageants. That had to be her own choice. But why would she keep doing pageants after her mother's death when she wasn't trapped anymore instead of going straight to college?

These were all things she wanted her ask her twin when she got the chance but she didn't exactly have the right. They were very personal questions and they didn't actually know each other.

She might be creeped out that this person she had never met knew so much about her when she did come home. Most of the information Lily knew were things Eddie told her to try and jog her memory when they had their identity mix up. The rest were mannerisms and opinions she had gotten from those videos Mark compiled for her.

Granted, those opinions might all be fake. They were for publicized interviews that were a part of the judging process of these competitions. They may have been written for her by someone else.

What Angel said about epilepsy had to be at least partially her own opinion though. She did want to be a neurologist after all.

Lily wished they could talk all of these things out like real sisters but she didn't know if that would be possible even if they did manage to get Angel back. She didn't even seem close to the father of her child; she probably didn't open up to others easily.

There was also the chance that their plan might fail. Lily might get hurt or even killed in the process and her future could vanish in an instant.

She wasn't afraid though. She was determined to see this through to the end. Even if Angel didn't want to be friends she still would have done something right by her niece. That would have to be enough.