CtC29 day 5

Today's prompt had me write something inspired by the Writer Igniter prompt generator. I wasn't sure I could actually do anything with the prompt -

Character: Former beauty queen
Situation: reads a book eerily like his or her life
Prop: Romance novel
Location: fancy multi-level mall type place

I'm still not sure if I did anything good with it - but I always assume my writing sucks. So, here it is, in all it's incomplete glory :)

She and her purse dropped onto the bench. Shoppers thronged around and above her in the multilevel shopping mall. Not even a wander through {swanky department store} settled her nerves. Tired and irritable, she sighed, slouched, and tried to think of someone to call. Cleaning out her childhood bedroom, which should have been one more happy step on the path of independence, had upset her. She smiled and nodded as her mother prattled on about redecorating. Inside, she screamed an inarticulate tantrum. She shifted on the bench, not liking to admit to the frustration, even to herself. As she moved, her bag moved too. As she caught it, she saw the old paperback book she'd found between the mattress and the wall. She smiled again, as she had on finding it earlier that day. She's loved this book as a little girl, and dreamed of being as pretty and happy as the main character. She was certainly prettier than the bland blonde on the cover. She shrugged, set her bag more firmly on the bench, and opened the book. Other than turning pages, she barely moved for almost two hours. She only looked up when a touch on her shoulder startled her.

"Goodness!" Her friend exclaimed, "I called and called your name, but you didn't even look up. Must be a really good book." The woman sounded a hint sarcastic - neither of them really read books. She put on the appropriate apology-face and smoothed things over with her friend. She only half heard her friend's chatty conversation - the book could have been about her. The main character had grown up in the same kind of family, did pageants just like she had done, even started dating at the same age. She was a little afraid to keep reading - the main character was about to clean out her childhood bedroom.