Tig, Swamp Man, Rat Boy, the Chicago Sons, Skyla and Abel watched as the 11 women walked up on the stage. Beneath the white shirts, which were clearly destined to turn transparent upon contact with cold water, each woman wore a two-piece string bikini.
Skyla did not need to ask which one was Angelica since the New Yorker stood out noticeably.
The women paraded around for a while, showing off to the applause of the audience before the inevitable moment of a wet t-shirt contest arrived.
Lizzie, Mary, Caroline and Ariella were some of the more experienced when it came the contest.
The other girls had some experience yet shrieked when the water struck them.
When Angelica felt the water hit her, it took all her strength to keep from shrieking when she felt how cold the water was. Apparently, the fabric of the shirt she was wearing had a tendency of shrinking under cold water or it felt like it when it practically molded to her body, showing off every muscle she had as well as her very large chest.
It didn't stop with being doused with water. The girls then shed their wet shirts to show off their bikini clad bodies. It was not easy for some since the water made the fabric a bit heavier.
Angelica had no problem taking her shirt off, revealing her bikini-clad body and how strong she was at the same time.
When the roar of applause died down and everything was still, the votes were counted, resulting in a tie between Ariella and Angelica. It came to a vote by fanfare between the petite Californian and the tall New Yorker.
Tig, Swamp Man, Skyla, Rat Boy, the Chicago Sons and Abel all cheered as Angelica was awarded the first prize.
Ariella was a good sport and hugged Angelica along with the other girls, congratulating her on winning the contest.
Changing back into her clothes, Angelica was surprised when her shirt became noticeably tighter. Her biceps and triceps tore through the sleeves and the shirt's neckline plunged deeper, revealing more cleavage than it did before.
On the way to collect her prize, Angelica and Ariella were met by a bunch of Sons, an Old Lady and a young teenager congratulating the New Yorker on her victory. Ariella kept to the side for the most part until Angelica pulled her forward. "Everyone, this is a friend I made while in the contest. Her name is Ariella."
Everyone nodded in acknowledgment, including Abel, who was clearly attracted to Ariella. Angelica spotted this without calling attention to it though she might have to call Abel's attention to it later on.
When the time came to collect the prize, Angelica asked Ariella, "How did you get here from Modesto?"
"Caroline, Mary, Lizzie and I hopped a bus heading out to Vegas and here we are." Ariella answered. Angelica looked at the money in her right hand and the keys to the El Camino in the left hand. Thinking about the possible outcomes in her head but mostly the long explanations she would have to give her father, Angelica came to a decision. "I got here on my Harley. There's no way I'm going to be able to ride it and this car back to New York. I'm happy with the cash." Tossing the keys to Ariella, Angelica gave up the El Camino. "Tell your girlfriends to get their stuff on the El Camino. You're all riding home in it."
"Thanks, Big Apple. If we're lucky. we might see each other again." Ariella said, hugging Angelica with gratitude. "If we meet again, it won't be here in Vegas or anywhere in California." Angelica said before walking away with her people, Ariella called the other three girls from the wet T-shirt contest now had a way to get home that did not involve hitch hiking.
With Ariella in the driver's seat, Mary in the middle, Caroline sat near the widow and Lizzie sat comfortably in the back among the four duffel bags secured in place in front of her, they rode off towards California through Death Valley in Ariella's El Camino.
When they got back to the SAMVEN clubhouse, Abel and Angelica, in her room, began counting all her winnings. Between the Riviera winnings and the 5 grand from the wet t-shirt contest, Angelica won 45 thousand dollars. Taking three thousand from the pile in small bills, Angelica gave it to Abel. "Put that towards your education or stash it for a rainy day."
Though Abel never could have imagined holding so much money in his hands, he did not like the idea of having to say goodbye to Angelica.
"So you are heading off to New York tomorrow?" Abel asked.
"I have to get back in time to catch my ride to Parris Island." Reaching over to run her hand through Abel's hair, Angelica added, "This is not goodbye. Though I will miss you, Abel. When we do see each other again, I'll take you up to New York so you can meet my family. Angelina would love to meet you and I bet you and my brother Angelo would become good friends."
"I've never been that far from Charming before in my life. I once went to Oregon with my parents and my brother. I can't remember much of it but something bad happened. None of the Sons talk to me anything about it. Whenever I ask them about my family, they get very quiet. It's almost like there's something they are keeping me from. Did you ever meet them?"
Angelica shook her head. "For most of my life, I was kept in New York. From what I heard within the club, your parents never really had a reason to ride up to New York. I guess that is why we never met. You and I were on opposite sides of the country." Pulling him close to her side, Angelica asked, "What exactly are you looking for?"
"Answers. The truth." Abel said. "Or at least the truth no one wants to talk about."
"The problem with finding the truth, lad, is that you might not like what you hear." Angelica and Abel turned towards the doorway where Chibs, Happy and Tig were looking at them with a grim demeanor. "Angelica, can you give us a moment?" Tig asked.
With the rest of the money packed up, Angelica pulled Abel close and kissed him on the forehead. "If you need me, I'll be in the gym." Stashing the cash away in her duffel bag, Angelica grabbed a towel from the bathroom counter along with a pair of sweat pants and a string bikini top from her bag before walking out of the room. When she was halfway to the gym, Angelica heard the door close with an ominous click that echoed in her ears.
Inside the dorm room, Abel looked at the three men who he had come to know as his psycho crazy, over protective uncles.
Chibs stared at him from the foot of the bed with Tig at his right and Happy at his left. It was as though they were sat at the table in chapel.
"We can not tell you everything in one night, Abel. We can answer three questions. The rest will have to wait for another time." Chibs said.
Abel thought for a moment, trying to figure out what he really wanted to know right then and there. "I had a test done at St. Thomas. One of those tests that helps you track family blood lines. My biological mother is Wendy Case. She overdosed on drugs while I was still inside her. I was born with a hole in my stomach and a weak heart. Did my mother try to kill me?"
Tig took a deep breath, wishing he had a shot of something to take the edge off what he was going to say next. It didn't help that he saw Wendy Case. "I'm dead. There's nothing I can do for him. He might as well know the truth now before he finds out from someone else."
"The times then were different. Your father was too." Tig started. "He was a wild, arrogant, immature, skirt chasing kid who rode around Charming like he owned the town. One day, his girlfriend told him she was pregnant with his child. He bailed. It broke her to the point that she got hooked on meth. Your grandma found her when she was overdosed and lying on the floor. The doctor who wound up raising you, the one you would later call your mother, saved your life and patched up your stomach. The weak heart was something that was inherited from your father's family."
"When he saw you for the first time, your father loved you right then and there." Happy said.
"Did anything like that happen to my brother?" Abel asked, wondering if it was normal for Teller boys to be almost killed by their mothers.
Though Chibs and Happy shook their heads, Tig shocked them all by saying, "Something almost happened." Standing behind Happy was a visibly upset Tara Knowles-Teller. The expression was a combination of anger, regret and shame. "Tig, do not do this to me. Don't destroy his memory of me." Taking a deep breath, Tig continued talking. "The only reason why it did not happen was because your mother was kidnapped before it could happen. She told me this when she was at a real low. I don't know why she thought about doing it but your step mom, not your biological one, planned on ending her pregnancy. If things had gone on without a hitch, you would have been an only child. I know about the kidnapping because I was the one who talked to your mom while she was held hostage. In the end, your brother Thomas was born and she was glad that she did not go through with what she had planned."
"My mother tried to kill me before I was born and my step mother almost killed my brother before he was born. Did either of us have a mother that loved us?" Abel snapped. "Not only that, why didn't my dad stop them? Didn't he love us at all?"
That was as painful to their ears as a bullet through the heart. Chibs had to really think hard about what he was going to say that wouldn't destroy the family Abel remembered from his childhood. It did not help that he saw Jax stood next to Abel and Happy, looking heart broken.
"Everything I ever did was for my sons." Chibs heard Jax say once.
"Yes, you did. Your parents loved the both of you and don't you think anything different. They were not the best parents in the world and I'm saying this as someone who knew them."
Pushing himself off the bed and out of the reach of the three Sons, Abel stormed out of the dorm room and towards the gym. Walking in, he could not appreciate the sight of Angelica doing chest presses while in a bikini top because all he could feel was rage.
Seeing the punching bag that hung down from the ceiling, Abel started hitting it over and over again. One moment, he imagined he was punching Jax Teller for not wanting to be a father. Then he saw his step mother, Dr. Tara Knowles and his own mother, Wendy Case. Abel hated the three of them for wanting him and Thomas dead before they even lived. The punches kept hitting the bag until Abel wound up in Angelica's arms. That was his breaking point; when everything he had bottled up inside came out and he cried.
Angelica did not try to pry answers from Abel or ask him anything. She just held him until all his tears were shed. There was nothing left inside of him and he soon fell asleep in her arms.
Looking up, Angelica saw Chibs, Tig and Happy standing there before her. Each man held a grim expression on his face. Picking Abel up with one arm hooked underneath his knees and one holding him up from the back, Angelica carried him to her room, passing the SAMCRO officers silently without giving any of them so much as a glance. In spite of the emotional turmoil, the three Sons were surprised at how much strength Angelica had to carry Abel in her arms and walk steadily without any strain or fatigue.
Laying him down gently on the bed, Angelica stood over him for a moment before climbing into bed with Abel and wrapped her arms around the young boy.
When the time came, they both woke up because she did not want him to wake up alone in bed.
Abel helped her pack her bags until there was only her leather jacket and shirt left to put on before the inevitable happened. Angelica was still wearing the same bikini top she wore the night before. With all that anger flushed out of him, Abel was able to appreciate how big Angelica's breasts were in her top. He tried to look her in the eyes only to see that she probably already knew what he was looking at. Leaning in, she whispered, "The first day we met, I knew you were watching me. I know you liked everything you saw just like you like everything you see now." Abel's eyes widened from what she whispered into his ear.
What happened next would be forever burned into Abel's mind as he watched Angelica sit him down on the bed and stradle his lap. They were still clothed from the waist down so she had no plans on taking his virginity.
"This stays between us, understand?" Angelica said.
"I promise." Abel said sincerely.
"Good." Angelica said before giving Abel his first experience of motorboating a woman. She was patient as he shook his head back and forth as his face was lightly slapped by her boobs. When he was finished, Abel pulled back from the depths of Angelica's cleavage and looked up to her.
"Do you feel better?" Angelica asked. Abel nodded his head.
Rising back up to her feet, Angelica put on a shirt over her bikini top. Seeing Abel's chagrin at seeing her boobs hidden under her shirt, Angelica ruffled Abel's hair. "Abel, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. Don't worry. You are bound to have many more experiences with women other than me. Speaking of which, that girl you saw with me after the contest, Ariella? She may be attractive to you but she is older than you. When you're more grown up, when you know a little more and if she is interested in you, give it your best shot then."
Taking his hand in hers, Angelica led Abel to the kitchen. "Right now, there's something else you are going to experience and it's going to help you out later on with women."
Chibs, Tig and Happy woke up to the sounds and smells of cooking in the kitchen. They looked in and saw Angelica teaching Abel how to cook breakfast. The smile on his face made the three men let out a sigh of relief. They were afraid he was going to emotionally close himself off to everyone. Angelica somehow served as a healing balm for Abel's wounds.
Now there she was, teaching him how to prepare an actual homemade breakfast.
"Come in, fellas. You're just in time for an early breakfast." Angelica said, setting the heaping plates full of food on the table with Abel's help. Within moments, the five of them sat down together and ate the hearty breakfast happily. Tig, Happy and Chibs had cups of coffee while Angelica and Abel had orange juice.
"Abel, are you alright?" Tig asked.
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around what I just found out but I'm OK, Tig." Abel said, feeling happier than he had in a long time. In spite of the questions he had not asked, Abel chose to enjoy the time he had with Angelica for as long as he could. It helped that she made some of the best food he ever ate in his life other than what his step mother, Tara, made for him and Thomas.
"Who taught you how to cook?" Happy asked Angelica between bites of his eggs and bacon.
"My mother taught me, my sister and brother how to cook. It was important that we learned. There is a saying that she would tell us: 'Quando si mangia bene, si vive bene.'. My father would say the same, only he would say: 'Cuando usted come bien, se vive bien.'."
"Darling, since none of us speak a word of Italian or Spanish, could you translate?" Chibs asked.
"When you eat well, you live well." Angelica smiled at them. "While I'm away, I'm counting on the three of you to feed Abel and his brother well. That means no fast food or grease joint grub. Nothing beats a good home cooked meal."
"Yes, ma'am." Chibs said with a smile at Angelica delegating kitchen duties to the top officers of SAMCRO. Just when they were drinking coffee, Abel casually asked them, "Do you guys know what motorboating is?"
Three Sons did a triple spit take, causing Abel and Angelica to laugh, especially at the look on their faces.
Angelica quickly put them at ease by explaining to them why the question was raised. "Some of the girls at the wet t-shirt contest mentioned how half of them wanted to have Abel motorboat them just to see who could make him redder than a tomato."
Tig, Chibs and Happy all took turns giving high fives to Abel who was smiling and laughing as though the night before never happened.
"Since I took care of Abel last night, can the three of you help us out with handling the cleanup here?" Angelica said as she and Abel walked out of the kitchen.
"Angelica, what about the other half?" Happy asked. Angelica stopped at the door and turned to look at Happy. "You said one half of the girls there wanted to have Abel motorboat them. What did the other half want?" Angelica smiled and simply said, "The other half of the women there wanted to motorboat me." With that, she left the three Sons and Abel with a mental picture they would not soon forget.
Later on, the Prospects of SAMVEN wound up cleaning the kitchen.
A/n: I tried to give plausible cause to how such information could be revealed or uncovered. If it is or is not plausible, I tried to do what I could with what I had to work with. I also tried to put some levity to lighten the chapter so it wasn't gloomy. The last chapter is coming up soon.