“Wow this has got to be the biggest mall in America!” exclaimed Howie.
“It is the biggest mall in America hence the name Mall of America” AJ shot back.
“Okay so how do we want to do this? Do we want to start on the first floor and go up or do we want to start on the fourth floor and go down?” I asked.
“Let’s start on the fourth floor.” Molly said.
We all got on the elevator that would take us up to the fourth floor. I forgot that this particular elevator would drop us off in front of a very popular restaurant and bar chain. Very popular with men anyway.
“HOOTERS!!!” all of the guys yelled at once.
“Oh no, we’re never going to get them away from there!” Mandy whined.
“Hey AJ! Shopping, hair dye, clothes, remember?” Molly said while waving her hand in his face.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have started on the fourth floor” Ashley said.
As soon as we dragged the guys away from Hooters we marched right back on the elevator and went down to the third floor. I had forgotten that the fourth floor was nothing but bars and restaurants. The third floor was all stores.
“Why did you make us get back on the elevator, I wasn’t done looking at what they had to offer on that floor.” Nick whined.
“Oh, so what I have to offer isn’t good enough?” I said while pointing my chest.
“Oh no that’s not what I meant at all. Hooters shoomters I wanted to see Planet Hollywood.” Nick explained while giving me a kiss.
“We can go eat lunch at Planet Hollywood if you want, okay.” I said completely satisfied with his answer.
“Sounds good to me.” Nick said and the others agreed.
We got off of the elevator onto the third floor. The first store that we came across was Abercrombie & Fitch. We all decided to go into the store and look around. We weren’t there for more than five minutes when we heard screaming coming from the direction of the changing rooms.
“OH MY GOD IT’S THE BACKSTREET BOYS!!!” a girl screamed.
The whole store pretty much caught on at that point. About 10 girls came out of nowhere and ran towards the guys. The guys were again very gracious and made sure all of the girls got an autograph and a picture. They were so nice to their fans that it gave me a newfound respect for them if that’s at all possible. I had so much respect for the guys already. After all of the girls had left we continued on our shopping spree. We had been walking for a while when all of sudden Nick took my hand and winked at me. We continued to walk hand in hand. We walked around a corner when I saw a store up ahead that I knew would cause trouble for our little group.
“VICTORIA’S SECERT!” yelled all of the guys again.
“Oh no not again. I wanted to go in here too. Do you think that you boys can handle it if we went in?” Ashley asked while looking playfully at Kevin.
“I know that Araysa wants to go in there, weren’t you talking about it last night?” Nick asked.
“Yes as a matter of fact I do want to go in there, so lets go.” I said.
We trekked over Victoria’s Secret and headed in. I already had a bra and underwear set picked out because we had a Victoria’s Secret in LaCrosse. I ran right over to it and asked to try it on.
“Need any help in there?” Nick asked from outside the changing booth.
“No thanks Nick!” I laughed back
I paid for my purchase and we were on our way again. Nick took my hand as we walked over to the elevator to go down to the second floor. We got off the elevator and headed right over to Sam Goody, a music store. We walked in and I spotted a new Journey live CD in the new releases rack. Since I knew that Nick loved Journey I called him over.
“Hey did you see that Journey has a new live CD out?” I asked Nick while picking the CD up.
“No, I didn’t. Hey do you like those guys?” Nick asked with a big smile.
“I love Journey! The only CDs I listen too are yours and Journey.” I said.
“That is so awesome, what is your favorite song?” Nick asked.
“I have a few favorites. I like “Faithfully”, “Who’s Crying Now”, and “Separate Ways.”
“Those are great songs. My all time favorite song is “Open Arms” I sing that in concert sometimes. It goes over pretty well.”
“I know, I’ve heard a clip on the Internet of you singing that song. I cried the first time I heard it.” I told Nick while giving him a big hug.
Since neither of us had the new CD we decided that I would buy it for Nick and Nick would buy it for me. We paid for the CDs and walked over to the video section where Brian and Mandy were. They were looking at all of the Backstreet Boys videos that were for sale.
“I never realized we had this many videos out already.” Brian remarked.
“I know somebody that has all of them and then some.” Mandy said motioning to me.
“Just how much stuff of ours do you have? And be honest.” Nick asked me with a grin on his face.
“Well, since you really want to know. I have all six videos, 32 CDs, most of those are import singles though. I have hundreds of magazines and posters, and last but not least I have six T-shirts.” I said.
“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Have you ever calculated how much money all that stuff is?” Brian asked.
“I tried one time. I know it’s somewhere in the thousands.” I answered back.
The guys were all amazed that one person could spend so much on one group. I felt kind of embarrassed though. I didn’t want them to think I was psycho or anything. We left Sam Goody and made our way to some other stores. We came across the new Tommy Hilfiger store.
“Oh I gotta go in there!” Nick said while running in the direction of the store.
We all ran after Nick and went to the Tommy store. I found an awesome pair of khaki cargo pants the second we walked in there. I got my size and went to try them on. I was in the process of trying on the pants when a tank top came flying in the changing room.
“Here, try this on with the pants. Come out so I can see what you look like.” Nick said.
I put the tank top on and looked at myself in the mirror. Wow, that boy had good taste even in girls’ clothes. I opened the door to show Nick and the others the outfit that I had put on.
“WOW! You look so good Araysa, you have no idea.” Nick said while pulling me in close for a kiss.
“Thanks, I think that I’m going to get the pants and the top.” I said.
I went back to the changing rooms to put my regular clothes back on. After I was done changing I went up to the register to pay for the clothes. I was getting out my credit card when Nick said behind me.
“Don’t worry I’ll get it” he gave the clerk his credit card.
“You don’t have to do that, I’m capable of paying for it myself you know.” I said while stopping the clerk from swiping Nick’s card.
“Araysa, I want to get it for you. It’s not a problem really.” Nick said back while giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“I owe you a big one then if you do this.” I said.
“I’m going to hold you to that too.” Nick said with a devilish grin on his face.
We left the store and made our way to the elevator again. We went down to the first floor. This floor has an amusement park in the middle and we all decided we would take a break from shopping and go on some rides. We were walking around Kamp Snoopy when we came across a ride I had been wanting to go on forever. It was the NASCAR Simulation ride.
“OH MY GOD!!! We have to go on this I’ve wanted to do this since they opened it last year.” I screamed.
“You like auto racing?” AJ asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, I do AJ. Is that a problem? I’ve liked racing all my life. I grew up around it.” I said.
“I like racing too.” Mandy piped up.
“So what if the girls like racing. Our family is into that too. We’re from Kentucky remember.” Kevin said pointing at himself and Brian.
“I want to go on it too. It will be just like Mario Kart!” Nick said pulling me toward the ride.
We got in line for the ride. As we were in line a very pretty girl came up to Howie and asked for his autograph. They were talking for a bit when she decided to join us in line. I walked over to her and asked her what her name was.
“My name is Allie.” she said.
“Well, Allie it’s very nice to meet you. My name is Araysa and these three girls are my best friends. This is Mandy, Molly, and Ashley. I’m sure that you already know who these guys are.” I said motioning to the group.
We talked to Alllie for a while. We found out that she was 21 and she was in town for business and that she had taken time out to go the BSB concert last night and then the mall today. I could tell that she was very interested in Howie so I left them to get to know each other. Finally we were at the front of the line waiting to chose the cars we wanted to drive.
“I get Jeff Gordon!” I yelled.
“I get Jeff Burton!” Mandy yelled back.
“Who the heck is Rusty Wallace?” AJ asked as he was strapping himself into the #2 car.
“I can’t believe you just asked who Rusty Wallace was.” I yelled back at AJ.
“I’m sorry I don’t know anything about racing. All I know is that they go around a track for hours and hours.”
“Well, AJ, Rusty is a Winston Cup driver along with all the other guys whose cars we are racing. He’s a really good driver too.” I said back.
“Thank you for the info Araysa, now I will be able to say ‘Hi, my name is AJ, and I know who Rusty Wallece is.’” AJ said sarcastically.
“I’m sorry I just thought that you would like to know a little bit about the car that you are driving.” I said giving AJ the biggest death look.
“Okay you two, let’s not fight.” Howie said trying to calm us down.
As soon as we were all strapped in they started the cars up and the green flag dropped. I took off right way and took the lead. I was out front for a few laps when all of a sudden I saw a car come up behind me. It was AJ’s car. I could hear him yelling from inside his car.
“I’m Rusty Wallace and I’m going to take you out Araysa!”
Next thing I knew AJ’s car came crashing into the side of my car and sent me spinning. I was so mad. I turned the car around and went after him. I was just about to crash into him when our race was over. Brian ended up winning this one. I got out of the car and ran over to AJ.
“What the heck was that back there?” I asked pointing at the computer screen.
“As they say ‘That’s racing’”AJ said with a smile.
Of course I couldn’t argue with that. I’ve been around racing long enough to know that when you go for the win, you go for the win. I smiled back at AJ and gave him a hug.
“No hard feelings okay, now let’s go shopping!” I said doing a signature AJ pelvic thrusting move.
“Hey that was pretty good, I’ll use that one in the next show, except I’ll think about Molly and then it will be twice as sexy.” AJ said while looking at a open-mouthed Molly.
We continued on our way through the mall. Soon everyone agreed that we were getting hungry. We made our way up to the fourth floor and to Planet Hollywood. We got seated and were talking for a while when Mandy asked the question that all of us knew would sometime need to be asked.
“So when are you guys leaving?
“We have to leave as soon as we get back to the hotel.” Kevin said while looking down at his hands.
“So what’s going to happen? I mean I know that you can’t carry on a relationship with everyone that you meet.” Ashley asked trying to hold back her tears.
“Don’t worry, it’s not like we are going to leave and just forget about you.” Brian said.
I looked at Nick and saw that the life that he usually has in his face had left. I reached under the table and squeezed his hand. I had never felt like this in my entire life. It felt like my heart was being twisted around. I was trying to hold back my tears. I looked up at Nick again and and I couldn’t hold back anymore. The tears spilled out. I looked down at my lap so none of the others could see me crying.
“Oh Araysa don’t cry you’re going to make me cry. Too late.” Molly said as she started to cry.
Nick leaned over and wiped my cheeks. He looked into my eyes and then gave me the sweetest kiss. I looked around and saw that all of the girls were being comforted by their guys. Nick and I decided to take a walk before our food came. We walked out of the restaurant and sat down on a close-by bench. We sat there just holding each other for a while. I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes.
“So what is really going to happen?” I asked.
“I don’t really know right now. This is so confusing. I like you so much Araysa. When I first saw you backstage yesterday I knew that you were special.”
“Really? I didn’t even think that you liked me at all.”
“I did, it’s just that I get really nervous when I meet a girl for the first time. Especially one that’s as pretty as you.” Nick said with a smile.
“You’re so sweet Nick. I never imagined that you would be like this in real life. This is so hard for me. I know that you have a life and a career. I don’t want to come between that, and I know that I’ve only known you personally for a short time but I’ve fallen so in love with you.”
“I wish I could say that I love you too, but like you said we only met yesterday. I would however like to get the chance to fall in love with you.”
“Are you serious? I would like that so much.” I said while giving Nick a hug and a kiss.
“I’m so glad I met you Araysa.” Nick said as he leaned in for another kiss.
We were sitting on the bench kissing when somebody came up to us and tapped Nick on the shoulder. I looked up to see Brian standing in front of us with a smile on his face.
“Ah hem...Nick, Araysa, the food’s here. You wanna wrap this up so we can eat.”
We walked back into the restaurant with our arms around each other. We all sat down and proceeded to eat our dinner. After everybody was done we got up and made our way back to the vans to make the drive back to the hotel.
Chapter Four
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My Stories
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