Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 2

~Beauty~

Her index finger was tucked between the next two pages of the book. It was like her very limbs were in anticipation of what would happen next. Her eyes couldn't consume the ink fast enough and she had to fight to refrain from reading ahead. Her muscles tensed as she leaned forward in her seat.

The love crazed man lifted his dagger, ready to plunge it into the chest of his wife. It fell down, crossing the space between the two until -

"Look out!"

Beth lifted her nose from the book just in time to see her best friend jump in front of her and catch a football in mid air. His muscular build landed in the grass in an ungraceful manner, sending dirt into her eyes.

Grayson smiled at her sheepishly. "I've told you a million times, you don't catch football with your face!"

"And I've told you a million times you don't play catch in a library!"

He shook his head at her. "We aren't in a library."

She looked around and then felt a burst of heat in her face. "Oh, right."

Her friend reached out a hand to lift her up, helping her dust off her jeans. "You completely lose yourself in those things, Beth. It's a safety hazard."

Grayson's friend from the football team jogged over. Out of all the guys on the team, he stuck out to her because he was a fan of one of her favorite book trilogies. However, she had talked his ear off about the series and was almost certain she ruined it for him.

"Hi Carter." He nodded at her.

"That's enough catch for today. Beth's trying to read," Grayson said clapping his buddy on the back.

"Of course, she is." Carter's gray eyes barely brushed over her but in the split second they did, they were filled with disgust. "I gotta go anyways. Catch you at practice."

Grayson didn't notice the look. He never noticed the looks.

Beth knew she wasn't drop dead gorgeous. She would never look like a model or a movie star but she had made peace with that. She made peace with her dead straight hair, her prone to acne forehead, and the couple extra pounds she carried. She also learned to embrace the things she really liked about herself like her heart shaped lips and the curves she had gotten from her grandmother. Nonetheless, she was no goblin. There was no reason for people to look at her the way they did.

No reason that related to herself.

Her mother struggled with addiction and everyone knew it due to her appearance at their freshmen orientation where she was far less than sober. No one wanted to let it go.

Not even her high marks in class could wash the judgment from her teacher's eyes. Some looks held more pity than disgust but unfortunately for Beth, every look melted together into one thing; an assumption. An unwanted judgment. And yet she could not bring herself to hate her mother for it.

"So I was thinking," Grayson started, breaking her from her trance, "we could go out Saturday night."

They had walked onto their college campus and were approaching the science hall. As the space got more crowded, more eyes landed on her. She could have been imagining it but she thought she heard pointed whispers that held her name.

"Sounds good to me."

"Maybe we could get some Chinese since I know you've been obsessed with orange chicken and egg rolls . . ."

"Egg rolls sound nice . . ." To say Beth was distracted was an understatement. The halls felt more narrow than ever. Were there really that many students attending their college? Wasn't small class sizes heavily advertised on the brochures?