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Thanks to Ayleen, AjsSweety, Anastacia, Tori D, Stephanie and frackandbonechick for reviewing chapter 20!!! here is 21! Enjoy and I can't wait to hear what you think!!!

Chapter Twenty-One

Once inside the store, Amber right away fled to the girls side, hoping that A.J would separate to the mens side, beginning to browse through the piles of clothes, and racks of jeans. She started picking through the low-cut hip-hugger jeans, looking for a pair in her size seven. She stopped suddenly, freezing. A thought struck her all of a sudden. A thought of what had caused her to be raped in the first place. Had it been her tight fitting clothes, hugging her body snugly? Amber wondered if she should go to the maternity store to find some loose, baggy outfits to hide her form. She drew her hand back from the rack. She didn’t want to appear like a sexual object to men. For the first time, she thought that maybe her appearance had been what caused her to be violated.

“Finding anything that you like?”

Amber spun around quickly, startled. Her heart was pounding in her chest at what seemed to be a million beats per minute. She backed away, the clothing rack limiting her escape route from the man standing in front of her.

“Not yet?” A.J. asked, tilting his head to one side and smiling at her warmly, “Take your time...we have the rest of the afternoon...until the mall closes, if you like.”

Amber just nodded, her breathing slowly returning to a normal state. She gulped, feeling trapped. She could see in A.J’s brown eyes that he had nothing but good intentions. That didn’t help her fear much though. She wanted Nick there, but due to an untimely phone call, he’d stranded her with someone she hardly knew, without even thinking about it. She knew though, that it was through no fault but her own that she didn’t have communication skills between her and any of the other Boys besides Nick. Brian and Howie didn’t seem interested in getting to know her. Nick described it as not wanting to push things. She was petrified beyond belief of Kevin. Could anyone really blame her though? He’d been suspect of her rape. She had not seen the perpetrators face, so she’d no clue who he really was. She couldn’t be too trusting of anybody. A.J was really the only one other than Nick who was trying to make a point of getting to know her, yet she wasn’t letting him.

A.J held up a pair of jeans that looked like they’d be two sizes too big for him. Amber hadn’t noticed before that he had been holding anything. She then noticed that he was holding several pairs of pants and a few shirts.

“I’m going to go to the dressing room and try these on,” he informed her, “If you need anything, just shout through the door.”

Amber nodded, and A.J. smiled kindly at her once more before turning and walking away to be let in to one of the changing rooms. It wasn’t until she was sure that he wasn’t going to come back that she stepped away from the jeans rack. She rubbed the top of her back where it had been pressing into the sharp edge of where the jeans hung. She hadn’t noticed that she was in slight discomfort and pain until then.

Letting out a shaky breath, Amber turned back to the rack, deciding to try out some of the clothes that were in the store. She liked how they looked, and didn’t really want to dress like an old woman. Nick, she knew, would protect her from any harm that came her way.

Taking a couple of different styles of jeans and some tight, cropped off tops, she went to the dressing rooms as well. As she passed by, a door to one of them flew open. She stopped quickly, her breath catching in her throat, as she came inches from being hit in the face from the door. A.J, stepped out, wearing one of the outfits he’d taken in with him. He closed the door to a crack, then noticed Amber standing there.

“Hey,” he greeted, “There aren’t mirrors in the rooms in this store. Ya gotta come out of the room and look on the other side of hte door.” he explained.

“Oh,” she said softly.

“You going to try that on?” he asked.

Amber nodded her head, trying to find her voice to answer with words this once. A.J was being nothing but friendly towards her. It would do her good to talk to more than one person, other than Nick’s sisters. After all, in a few days, they wouldn’t be around any longer. Before she had the chance to answer though, A.J. started to speak again.

“Just go up to the counter, and ask for the door to be unlocked. Some places, they keep the doors locked. This is one of them.”

Amber stared at A.J. for a second as he turned to the mirror to check out the baggy jeans and loose orange long-sleeved shirt.

“That looks good on you,” she nearly whispered, her voice shaking as she spoke for the real first time since she’d come to realize that she had been raped and her trust of men vanished.

A.J. whipped his head towards her, startled as well as shocked. Had he been hearing things? He wasn’t sure, as he hadn’t expected a response other than nods and head shakes. That had been enough for him. It had been a small step forward

“Did you say something?” A.J. asked, just to make sure, so he didn’t miss anything.

Amber nodded, clearing her throat, “I said you look good in that,” she said louder this time.

A.J. smiled at her, trying not to show his shock, “Thanks,” he replied.

“Your welcome,” Amber responded before quickly scurrying away to get an employee to let her in to one of the dressing rooms.

A.J. shook his head, smiling lightly to himself. He was thrilled that he had actually gotten somewhere with Amber, proud of his accomplishment. His plan was working, only he felt slightly guilty for setting Amber up. All he could do was treat Amber with respect and delicately. He hoped that he was working towards slowly winning a small portion of Amber’s trust.

Taking another quick look in the mirror, A.J. shrugged, knowing he would probably end up buying it, for the sole reason that Amber had liked it, even if the ‘preppy’ look normally wasn’t something he went for when it came to shopping for himself. He opened the door, sliding back into the limited space of the dressing room just as Amber followed a young girl back to the room next to his, unlocking the door and letting her inside.

Ten minutes later, Amber had tried on all of the clothes she’d taken in with her. She still felt guilty about having the Boys buy her stuff, but they had insisted, so she decided on a pair of jeans and a few tops. She opened the door, her selections draped over her arm. A.J was already on the other side waiting for her with a pile of clothes in his hands.

“Ready?” he asked her with a patient, soft look in his eyes

Amber nodded as A.J. held out his arms for her to add her stuff to the pile. She carefully did so, almost as if she were afraid that he would lunge at her if she came too close.

“Okay, lets go pay now, and then we’ll wait for Nick outside,” he stated with a friendly grin, “I love shopping.”

Amber slowly smiled back at him, “Me too,” she said softly, then got up the courage to ask, “Won’t Nick want to shop in here?”

A,J shrugged as they stepped in to line to wait to have their things run up. The mall was surprisingly not very crowded for it being right after Christmas.

“I don’t know,” he answered, “Who knows. If he does, we can make fun of him or something while we wait.”

Amber wasn’t sure if she was supposed to laugh or not at that. So she just stared at A.J as if he’d grown an extra head. She felt kind of bad that the Boys teased Nick all of the time. To her, he’d always been nothing but a perfect gentleman. She wondered though if that was just a fake personality that he had to force upon himself, or if he naturally had that side to him.

Amber suddenly thought of something she’d wanted to do, or rather buy. She bit her lip, knowing that this was the perfect opportunity for her to get the list of things that was on her mind, and had been for a little over a week now. Amber took a deep breath, not really wanting to say more to A.J. than she had to, but since Nick was nowhere to be seen, she figured that she really had no other choice.

“Can we go to a music store?” she asked.

A.J looked down at her, and the look in her eyes reminded him of a little child. Despite the fact that a sick man had ripped her innocence away from her, she still had a look of just that in her eyes. She was vulnerable to the world, and he could see that she still feared him. He would do anything to make that fear go away.

“Sure thing,” he answered, moving forward as the woman in front of him left, her shopping backs swinging from her arms. A.J. placed his items up on the counter.

Nothing else was said until the cashier said the total amount of over six-hundred dollars. Amber’s eyes widened in response as A.J. handed over his credit card as if it were pennies. Amber then remembered that to someone like him, it practically was.

Once the transaction was complete, A.J. took the two shopping bags, and Amber followed him out of the store. He led her to a couch right outside, sitting down. Amber hesitantly sat next to him, leaving a good two-foot space between them. She wondered what was taking Nick so long. Sure, A.J. was friendly, but she could only take being alone with someone new for so long. This was definitely pushing that time limit. She felt slightly uncomfortable, shifting every few seconds or so. She didn’t understand how Nick could take half an hour on the phone.

“Probably got lost on the way here,” A.J. chuckled, as if reading Amber’s thoughts, “Even though we come here at least four times a year.”

Amber smiled weakly, wanting her new friend to just hurry up and rescue her from the awkward situation. The silence must have been getting to A.J, for after another five minutes, he started to speak to her.

“So, um...are you excited to start touring with us in the next couple of months?” he asked her, his hes glancing at her sideways for a split second.

“I guess,” Amber answered, “Sounds exciting.”

“It is. It does get tiring, I will admit, and demanding, but I love it.” he answered honestly, “I think that you will too.”

Amber was about to respond, but was glad that she didn’t have to when Nick came towards them, and A.J. stood up. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Where the fuck were ya, man?” A.J. asked, punching Nick playfully in the arm.

“I got an important phone call,” Nick replied, giving Amber a small smile, who was standing up slowly. His look told her the phone call had something to do with her, “And then I got hungry, so I stopped at the food court...then I um,” Nick coughed as he finished off saying, “Couldn’t find the damn store.”

A.J. laughed, “Only you.”

“Yeah, well, the phone call...it was...I have some really good news,” Nick stated, finally finding the right words to describe he situation, “Amber, I think that you’ll be rather pleased to hear this.”

Amber looked up at Nick, her eyes full of question. She wondered what could be so good that he had to tell her. Nothing in her life was good lately. She was depressed and down on everything, although she tried to hide it. She didn’t want to appear ungrateful to Nick, or even the others.

“What is it?” A.J. asked.

Amber sucked in her breath as Nick slipped past A.J and looked deep into her eyes. He took a deep breath as well, as if he was nervous about what he was going to tell her. The information he held, she feared, was not what she expected to hear.

“The sick bastard that raped you...” he started, as Amber squeezed he eyes shut, remembering the horrific day and details of it all. Details she never wanted to think of again. Tears pooled in her eyes as she was forced to think of it again against her will, “They caught him.”