Babydoll (Steel Rebels MC #1) [Completed]

FOURTEEN - Boogieman

Isabella

Pepper and Helium sure managed to turn Isabella's thoughts away from her own troubles. But instead of getting her mind to calm down by listening to other people's stories and issues, it was now overflowing with so much information about the club and its members that she had trouble keeping up.

She had also learnt quite a bit about Knux's private activities that she hadn't wanted to know - or at least not yet. It left her feeling even more inadequate than she had before. Pepper and Helium didn't seem to notice and neither did Kitty, who came by to sit and chat with them from time to time, when she wasn't swimming or hanging out in the pool with a drink in her hand. But maybe they just thought she was embarrassed because it felt like Isabella hadn't stopped blushing since she had stepped into the garden. She also hadn't supplied much to the conversation, because the other women were rather chatty and the drinks that Kitty and a couple of the other girls kept bringing out did their part in loosening tongues.

A few of the other girls came to say hello to Isabella but most didn't stay long, but all of them seemed quite friendly in her opinion. 

Vixen came out into the garden about an hour after Isabella had settled on a sun chair. She was sitting with her back to the sun to keep her legs and arms from burning. Isabella had never been one for sunbathing. Vixen had three other women with her and the way they strode into the yard reminded Isabella of her high school days when her sisters and their friends had stalked around campus to throw their weight around. It felt like the mood dropped a bit around the pool and Isabella caught the arriving women's angry looks, which made her want to duck her head. But she remembered what Pepper and Helium had told her earlier. Vixen was a bully and if Isabella didn't want to become a slave to the woman, then she needed to keep her head up and at least pretend that she wasn't intimidated. But it was hard for Isabella, especially on a day like this. Everyone had seen Isabella hit rock-bottom last night and while most women either related to her in one way or the other or simply had other things to worry about than the problems of a girl they didn't know, Vixen and a few others apparently wouldn't hesitate to use her weaknesses as leverage.

Isabella wanted to ask why Vixen or the other women were in the club, if they weren't liked very much but she of course didn't ask. However, she got the impression that in a lot of decisions the women's opinions didn't hold much sway within the club. But she wasn't surprised, considering what she had seen and heard so far. Most women were dependent on the men in one way or the other - just like she was.

Vixen and her group settled at the other side of the pool but continued watching Isabella with mean looks.

"Just ignore them," Pepper advised her. "They are envious bitches, because you got the guy that most girls here want to sleep with."

Isabella didn't know what she was supposed to say to this statement. She had understood that Knux was a popular man.

"He's a handsome beast, your man," Helium added with a grin and raised her drink to Isabella in salut. "And he is mature and responsible, but also a bit naughty and a bad boy at times. What more can a girl want?"

Helium winked as if she was only half serious but to Isabella all of the statements seemed true, so she nodded to agree, but otherwise stayed quiet.

***

Another hour or so later, the first men started to come back as the sound of motorbikes reached the backyard.

"Momma's boys are back," Kitty sang loudly and all the women laughed.

Apparently, it was a running joke among the female members of the club. Vixen and her friends had stopped grilling Isabella with their eyes after a while and started talking among themselves, for which the younger woman was grateful. It had been hard to act like she didn't care about the hate sent her way.