Later on in the day, Dawn and AJ went shopping. They didn’t get a lot done because people recognized AJ everywhere he went. It seemed that no matter where they went, people were snapping pictures of them.
At first AJ wasn’t in the mood to sign autographs or take pictures, he wanted a little privacy, he wanted to spend time with Dawn, but he knew that they wouldn’t get any privacy going out in public, that was just part of life, his life, it was part of being a Backstreet Boy.
He paid a lot of attention to the way Dawn handled all the attention. She really didn’t want her picture taken because of the bruise on her face, but with a little make-up, it didn’t look too bad.
His bodyguard, Marcus, went with them. At one point during he day, a little girl, about 6 years old came up and asked AJ for his autograph, while he was signing for her, the girl turned to Dawn and asked.
"Are you AJ’s girlfriend?" Dawn looked down at her, sort of surprised. She never thought about the fact that people would think that’s who she was.
"No sweetheart, we’re just friends,” she answered and smiled down at her.
AJ and Dawn looked at each other after she said that.
‘I wish she was my girlfriend,’ AJ thought to himself.
The mall was starting to get more and more busy, so they decided to head home. On the way to the car they got mobbed by fans. They both put on their sunglasses and AJ took Dawn’s hand.
"This could get crazy,” he said to her as he flashed her a little smile.
AJ walked ahead of Dawn, holding her hand. Marcus did his best in shielding them from the fans. Some fans started to grab at them and Dawn got a little scared. She tried walking with her head down to shield herself from all the people.
Finally, AJ yelled, "Don’t worry about me, get her in the car," to Marcus.
AJ stopped and tried to calm the fans down that were bothering them.
"I will sign a few things as long as you guys calm down and stop rushing us,” he yelled to the crowd.
He was taking a big risk standing out there like that without his bodyguard, he just wanted to protect Dawn and make sure she was safely in the car. Marcus did the best he could of shielding her from the fans as he ushered her into the car. He then went to go get AJ. As soon as they were all safely in the car, they drove off.
"That was scary,” Dawn said as they started towards AJ’s house.
"Are you okay?,” he asked.
"Yeah, just a little frazzled, that’s all,” she answered.
He put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.
When they got to AJ’s house, there was a message on the answering machine. Dawn didn’t want to hear it, she was afraid it was from Anthony. He didn’t know AJ’s number, but she was sure if he really wanted to, he could get it.
She went into the bedroom to take her new clothes out of the bags then AJ came into the room.
"You can go ahead and hang up that stuff in my closet, there’s plenty of room,” he said as he sat down on the bed. "Oh, and the message was from Kevin. He wants to know if we want to join he, Jessica, Brian and Leighanne for dinner tonight".
"Would we have to deal with what we just went through at the mall?" She asked.
"Usually, when we’re out at a restaurant, especially if we’re there with girlfriends or something, the fans are pretty good. They’re pretty respectful, they’ll actually come up and ask for our autographs nicely and they usually wait until we’re at least done eating.
"Oh, so I'm your girlfriend now?" She looked over at him with a smirk on her face.
"Well, no.." He answered sheepishly as he fiddled with the corner of his shirt. "You know what I mean".
"Yeah, I know," she replied as she continued hanging up her clothes.
"I don’t know, I kind of get the impression that Kevin doesn’t like me too much.” She said from the walk-in closet.
"Why do you say that?" He asked.
"I don’t know," She answered, walking out of the closet. "Just the way he talks to me sometimes, the sarcasm in his voice. Plus the look he gave me this morning when he was here,” she answered.
"That’s just Kevin,” he started. "It takes him awhile to warm up to people at first. Give him time, it’ll be fine. And, hey, think about it this way, if he really didn’t like you, he wouldn’t have invited us out with them tonight".
"Unless they want to fire me or something,” she half-joked.
"Believe me, that won’t happen. You sound too good with us,” he added. "Plus, they’d have to get everyone’s input if they wanted to do something like that, and I know they sure as hell didn’t say anything like that to me."
"Gee, that makes me feel a lot better,” Dawn teased. "Alright, what should I wear?" She asked AJ as she looked through the clothes she just bought.
"I can’t believe how hard I had to push you to try on anything even remotely sexy," he commented.
"That’s because I don’t think I’m sexy,” she answered.
"Are you kidding"?? AJ exclaimed. "You’re gorgeous!"
"Stop", Dawn said as she blushed and walked into the walk-in closet to look through her clothes.
"You should show off your body more", he told her. "You used to be at least a little more daring in high school, what happened?" He questioned.
He knew what happened, he shouldn’t have even asked. Anthony happened. AJ could see the difference just in Dawn’s personality and confidence when he first talked to her. It was all the years of abuse that she had been through. She was not the same person he knew years ago.
"I don’t know, I just don’t think I’m all that great,” she said.
"Well, we have to meet them at 7:00, if you want to go", he said. He really didn’t want to get into this conversation now.
"Sure, why not,” she replied.
"Ok, I’ll go call Kev,” he said as he started to walk out of the room. "And by the way", he said as he peeked his head around the corner at her in the closet, "wear the leather pants".
"To dinner??" She questioned as he walked out of the room.
A couple hours later, AJ sat on the couch waiting for Dawn to finish getting ready. He had butterflies in his stomach thinking about the night ahead, he didn’t know why.
‘I feel like a teenager going out on a first date instead of someone going out to dinner with friends,’ he said to himself. He lit a cigarette and continued to wait.
Dawn finished getting dressed and examined herself in the mirror. She had to admit, she did look pretty good. She couldn’t remember the last time she actually said that about herself. Anthony didn’t like her to dress in sexy clothes. She had on black leather pants that she bought that day and a short burgundy sweater. She took one last look at herself in the mirror, grabbed her purse and walked out of the room.
AJ was sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette. He had on a pair of dark baggy pants, and a sleeveless white shirt underneath a black leather jacket. He had probably spent longer on his hair then Dawn did. It didn’t seem to do what he wanted no matter how hard he tried. It was so stiff at the moment, if anyone touched it, it would probably leave scars on their hand.
"Well, well, aren’t we looking awfully spiffy,” she commented to him when she saw his outfit.
"You don’t like?" He asked.
"No, I DO like it..a lot, especially the jacket," she smiled.
"You look great,” AJ responded in his low, raspy voice. "And the pants look incredible".
"Thanks,” she blushed. "I’m just not used to wearing pants so tight".
"They’re tight in all the right places,” he said as he winked at her.
She playfully punched him in the arm then he grabbed his keys and they headed out the door. When they arrived at the restaurant, everyone was already there. Kevin was with his girlfriend, Jessica and Brian was with his fiancee, Leighanne. They were having a good time laughing and joking.
After dinner was over they sat and had a few drinks. Dawn excused herself to go to the ladies room. As she passed the front door she looked at the group of men walking in, they were quite loud. Then, her eyes locked with the last man in the group that walked in the door, it was Anthony.


Chapter 16
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