I have a love/hate relationship with this chapter but I'm still good with it. Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think! Your comments mean the world to me and some of you guys say the right things that remind me not to conveniently "forget" some things. Things will be picking up a lot more now since the majority of the players have been introduced in some way and it's now just a matter of connecting all of the millions of dots I created.
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**| Sang's POV |**
North and Luke ended up joining Gabriel, Victor, and me on the shopping trip. North said something about needing to keep Luke away from the candy store and keeping an eye on us troublemakers. Apparently when Gabriel, Victor, and Luke were together, they were sure to find trouble.
"With Trouble with us, it's guaranteed we will get into trouble," Gabriel said as he helped me out of Victor's car.
"You shouldn't be dragging her into your shit," North said.
Luke smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "It's early yet. Maybe nothing will happen."
North snorted, grabbing my hand and tugging me with him into the mall.
Once again I was overwhelmed with all the people around, especially since the mall just opened up. Gabriel seemed to have a game plan because I was pulled into a store near the entrance. Before I knew it, my arms were full of skirts, shorts, pants, blouses, sweaters, and dresses.
It took him all of three minutes to fill my arms up and the next moment he was shoving me into a changing room.
"Put the green shorts on with the white top," he called through the changing curtain.
The next hour was spent on trying different clothes, sometimes the same one but in a different color. By the time we were finished, I was already tired.
"This is too much," I said as the lady rang up all the clothes. Luke kept me turned away so I couldn't see the total. Every time I tried to look, he would cup my cheeks with his hands and force my head still.
Luke did it again when I tried to look after she finished ringing everything up. "Just say thank you," he said to me with a wink.
I sighed. "Thank you, Gabriel and Victor."
"You're welcome," they said at the same time. North grabbed the shopping bags and we all made our way back out the door. As we were passing a display, I saw a tall man with sandy blonde hair duck behind something but then Luke distracted me by making a weird squealing noise that had me faltering in my steps.
I looked over at him. He was jumping up and down and pointing at a store.
Ah, the candy store.
"Fuck no!" North yelled.
"Please. I want to show Cupcake all my favorite candies."
"She doesn't need to know that shit."
I looked up at North with pleading eyes. "But I like knowing more about everyone, even something as simple as someone's favorite food."
He looked down at me and then swore. He rubbed a hand over his face and shivered. "Fuck. Fine. But you can't buy any of that shit!"
Luke cheered, grabbing my hand and tugging me with him into the store. I looked around, my eyes growing big. The store smelled of pure sugar and chocolate. My mouth watered when I spotted a display of chocolates. We were in Candy Land. A real life Candy Land.
"So beautiful, right?" Luke said with a dreamy sigh. I nodded in response, still unable to say anything as I took everything in. They had everything. And I mean everything. The store ended up being two stories. Who needed two stories of candy?
Luke grabbed a clear baggie and began dumping candy in it.
"North said not to buy anything."
Luke snorted. "What North doesn't know won't hurt me."
"But how will you hide a bag of candy?"
He winked at me. "I can show you." His eyes swirled with his thoughts, and though I didn't know what the look meant, I blushed.
We went up and down the aisles as he showed me everything they had. We were on the second floor when Gabriel came in.
"What the fuck, Luke? You're wasting my shopping time with her and North is about to storm the store if you don't get your ass out in the next five minutes."
Luke laughed and we headed to the checkout where Luke paid for the candy. He smirked at me as he grabbed one of the shopping bags Gabriel was carrying and buried the bag of candy inside of it.
I laughed and shook my head while Gabriel just smirked. They were the real troublemakers.
Gabriel grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the store with Luke following behind. North eyed Luke as if he was trying to see where the candy was but when he didn't see any, his shoulders relaxed.
"Next!" Gabriel yelled out and dragged me to the next shop which turned out to be a lingerie store.
"Fuck no, I'm not going in there," North said and sat onto a bench. Luke joined him, his face turning a little pink though his eyes glazed over as he went into a daydream.
Victor just shrugged.
Gabriel snorted. "Wait here then."
We entered the store and I think I turned bright red. There were a lot of intimate clothes and most of it I didn't even understand how they were put on or why anyone would want to wear it.
I was frowning at a piece that seemed to be made of straps and according the mannequin it was on, it didn't really hide anything.
I turned to Victor who was staring at me. "What's the point of wearing this if it doesn't cover anything?"
Red crept into Victor's cheeks as Gabriel broke out laughing.
"Ah, sweet, sweet Trouble, you are fucking amazing." He slung his arm over my shoulder.
The next ten minutes were spent in measuring my size in bras and underwear. After the female attended helped me with that, Gabriel grabbed a handful of different styles in my correct size and gave them to me.
"Try these on and tell me which styles you like. We'll go from there."
I grabbed them and ducked into a changing room, trying on the underwear.
The last one didn't fit right, the cloth stopping over my butt cheek.
"Uh, Meanie?" I called out through the door.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice muffled.
"I, uh, think you grabbed the wrong size?"
"Let me see."
I opened the door and he came inside, his eyes roaming over my body. I turned bright red, the blush going all the way down to my chest. I didn't think he would come in. I thought maybe he would just go get another size for me to try on.
"Fuck, Trouble," Gabriel whispered and rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. "It's the right size. That's the style of the underwear."
I frowned. Why would someone want something that stopped halfway down the butt cheek.
I nodded, too embarrassed to say anything.
"Trouble," Gabriel said, his voice now serious.
I looked up into his crystal blue eyes.
"Do you mind?" he asked, staring at my stomach. I looked down, seeing the bruises and realized he wanted to touch them. They looked a lot better now that they've been healing for a little over a week now. It was mostly just yellow dotting my skin, some of them still green. Another week and there would be no more signs of the bruising. As long as Diane didn't hit me again.
I shook my head and he reached out gently, his warm fingers lightly touching the bruising. I made sure to keep my back to the wall, not wanting him to see the bandages on my back.
"No, Trouble," he whispered when he noticed the slight movement I made. "Don't hide from me, okay?"
I blinked up at him and his sad expression, the normal light in his eyes gone.
"I know this may seem awkward but I dress all eight of my brothers. I know every inch of their body and I say that in a non-creepy way. It's just what I do. I dress them. I make them look good. If you trust me, I can do that for you too. Sometimes, I will need to see your body and I'll come to know your body as well as I do my brother's. And while your step-monster is a real piece of work and has hurt you, you're still beautiful. Scars and all. You have nothing to be ashamed of and you don't need to hide from me. Please, trust me."
I nodded, taking in by the pleading look in his eyes.
"Say it, Sang. I need to hear it."
"I trust you, Gabriel."
He smiled. "Thank you." He let his fingers fall away from my growingly hot skin. "Now, is this the last one you had to try on?"
I nodded.
"Which styles did you like?"
I picked up two different underwear styles.
He smiled. "Good, get dressed and I'll find you some more in these styles."
He disappeared out the door.
A couple minutes later, I joined him but he was already at the counter with a huge pile of clothes. There were other things in there other than just bras and underwear. There were tops and bottoms too.
"Come on," Gabriel said. "Let Victor handle this. There is a swimsuit store just a couple stores down from here."
He dragged me outside.
North and Luke were still sitting on the bench and I frowned at a girl who was chatting with them. North was glowering at her and Luke didn't look happy either but she seemed to really want their attention.
She had raven-colored hair and I recognized her as the girl who was with Helen.
When we approached them, Gabriel had no issue confronting her, his eyes narrow in suspicion.
"Who the fuck are you?"
The girl turned to us and winced at the aggression in Gabriel's voice. "Jade," she said. She turned to North. "I look forward to practice on Monday. I'm sure you'll be first string."
She walked away with an extra swing in her step.
"Who the fuck was that?" Gabriel asked.
Luke shrugged. "I don't know. She saw us sitting her and started talking. We told her we weren't interested but she wouldn't shut up." He let loose a shiver he must have been holding back for a while now.
I stared after Jade. There was something about her I didn't like.
When I turned back to the boys, I spotted dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. I frowned as he walked around a corner, going out of sight.
"Sang, are you alright?"
"Remember the man I bumped into at the mall last time?"
"The same one you saw at the diner?" North asked.
I nodded.
"What about him?"
"He's here," I said.
The boys stiffened as Victor came out of the store.
"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the tension.
"That fucker is following Sang again," North growled, scanning the crowd around us.
"Following me?" I was confused now.
"Baby, no way in hell is it coincidence that he shows up where you are," North said.
My body grew cold with his words. Someone else following me? Why? My body shook and Victor drew me into his side, lending me his warmth. They all shared looks with each other, having a secret conversation that I wasn't privy too but at the moment I didn't mind because my thoughts were on the man.
Luke nodded and turned to me with a smile. "Looks like I'm going to go play Ninja Spy."
"What do you mean?"
"If he really is following you, we need to know why," Victor said.
I looked in the direction where the man disappeared. If he really was following, I did want to know why. I was tired of all the unknowns in my life right now so getting just one answer would go a long way to saving my sanity.
I nodded but frowned at Luke.
He pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead. "I'll be fine, Sang. I'm a great ninja. Just you see."
He walked in the opposite direction, disappearing around a corner.
I looked back at the boys.
"Come one, let's flush him out and get him moving." Victor grabbed my hand and we walked to where we last saw the man.
It didn't take us long to see him hanging out at a magazine stand when he saw us approaching, he turned and walked away Victor picked up his pace while North sent out a text.
We turned a corner and saw him slipping outside.
North's phone buzzed. "Luke has him. He's going to take your car to follow him. Kota is going to drop his car off and get picked up by Mr. Blackbourne since they still have things to do. They want us to head to Victor's house."
"Okay, good," Victor said, tapping away on his phone now. "Hopefully, we can get some answers now."
I felt the same way they did. We all wanted answers.