You Make Me Stutter

Adam stood beside a girl in Starbucks as he waited for his order, the woman was fumbling with her wallet cussing quietly. She finally was able to get her card out as she tried to swipe it the guy behind the register said "Sorry ma'am our credit card readers are out right now. You'll have to pay cash." Adam felt bad for this brunette and said quickly "Add her order to mine." The woman looked up quickly and said "I-wah?" He paid before she could say anything else. He grabbed her arm and let her to a table in the back of the shop. "I don't know what to say." She said slowly. He could hear a twang in her voice, she was from the southwest somewhere.

"Just say thanks." He laughed. She grinned and said a small "Thanks and took another sip of her coffee. "So do you come here often?"
"Every morning at nine sharp. Never early, never late." He nodded and drank some of his juice. "Since you were amazing and paid for my coffee I want you to be here at nine tomorrow so I can return the favor." He laughed again and joked "You think you'll have money?" She rolled her eyes and said "That's very funny Mr. Levine."
"Mr? Mr. Levine?"
"Uh-huh."
"I don't think it's hardly fair that you know me but I don't know you." She was quiet for a moment and then said "Well my name is Rowan Trystin."

She and Adam met every morning at 9:oo sharp, they began talking about themselves. "So I'm guessing a pretty little thing like you is taken."
"Well, uh yeah I am." Adam was only joking about it but upon hearing that she did have a boyfriend his ego fell a little. "Whats the lucky man's name?" He asked trying to get over the awkward feeling that had settled upon him. "Adrian." She said with a fond smile. As time had gone on he had gotten to know her a great deal. She worked for an interior designer, and wanted to own her own business in the bizz. Her olive eyes twinkled a bit in the dim lighting of the Starbucks, it was overcast and muggy in the Hollywood Hills.

A week after finding out about her boyfriend he asked "Why don't you bring Adrian tomorrow?" She was very quiet for a long while and then finally said "I guess I can ask him. He might get kinda mad when he realizes that I have been hanging out with another guy for about a month." Adam disregarded the comment and said "I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure he wont get that angry, I mean it's not like we've been having sex for the past month." She laughed and then said "If we were I would be sleeping with a sex icon. Hmm, maybe we should re-think that." She said with a teasing smirk on her full lips.

Adam waited by the counter at 8:56, he knew she would be perfectly on time. Four minutes later Rowan walked inside with a guy with dark hair in tow. The guy was pretty tall and not to muscular, but he was toned. He had olive skin that was a bit tanned, his dark hair was pushed off his forehead revealing dark eyes. She waved with a smile, Adam grinned and waved back. He saw her face contort a bit, but in a second it was gone. He ordered his coffee and went to the table they always sat at. A few moments later the couple joined him. "Hi, I'm Adam." He said with a warm as he could manage smile.

Adrian looked at him through harsh cold black eyes and said "Hi." He looked Latin, Rowan was very quiet during this coffee 'date'. Finally Adrian spoke again and said calmly "Rowan Hazel Trystin how long have you been meeting with Adam here."
"A bit over a month." She sounded very quiet, that was the softest Adam had ever heard her voice. "And I am just now meeting him?"
"I-I'm sorry, I just didn't think about it."
"You don't think of me?" He challenged. Adam felt he was intruding on this and thank god he felt his phone vibrate. Jesse was texting him to meet him at his place. "Sorry Row I gotta get going, band meeting about some video ideas. It was very nice to meet you Adrian."

Something about leaving her alone with him gave Adam a gut feeling something bad was going to happen. Adam leaned on kitchen counter of Jesse's kitchen and said "I'm just worried about it."
"Why bother, you don't know anything will happen to her." Matt said from behind him. Adam glanced over his shoulder and all he saw was Matt's ass as he leaned into the fridge. "Yeah, but you didn't see this guy. He wasn't to big but he could do some damage to a little thing like Rowan."
"You'll see her tomorrow, so don't stress to much."

The next day as he expected she showed up at 9:oo exactly but with Adrian again. She seemed almost frail today, her usual bubbly, silly, sweet personality was gone. She looked like a glass doll. Her thick brown hair was loose all around her face, her olive eyes were downcast. Adrian seemed a bit more prideful today, almost like he enjoyed seeing Rowan like this. She looked like a puppy in trouble. Adam knew something was up now, she was never this quiet. She didn't say a word at all, just 'hey' and 'bye'. Everything seemed so strange with her at the moment.

The next day she was there without Adrian, she seemed a bit more 'Rowan-like'. She was still like a puppy though, Adam was finally curious "What's up with you?"
"Hum? Oh nothing." She said returning to her phone. He got the feeling that it wasn't nothing. "You sure?"
"Yeah, I gotta go though." She quickly scurried away from the table with a quick bye. Adam though long and hard about what seemed to be going on with his friend. She was such a beautiful, sweet, amazingly smart woman what was the wrong with her?

Jesse, James, Micky and Nick were sitting at the table with coffee's around. Adam stood near the counter, it was his turn to pay. Rowan walked inside her arms were covered in the long sleeves of a baggy hoodie. Her legs were concealed in skinny jeans she wore converse. Her hair was curly and messy half covered by the grey hood. It was pouring outside, she walked to him and said "Just the usual I guess." She had gotten quieter over the past three weeks, ever since he had met Adrian. She looked over at the table where the guys were sitting and then yanked on Adam's wrist to the other side of the coffee shop. "What the fuck Adam?"
"What?"
"Why are they all here?"
"Cause they wanted to meet you?" It came out as a question.

He looked at her, she seemed paler with dark circles under her eyes. "What did he do to you?" He cupped her cheeks and looked her in the eye. "Nothing." She said shortly. He raised a brow and said "Really?"
"Yes! Really." She snapped jerking away from him. "I have to go to work." Her voice cut through the air like an icy dagger. "You have over half an hour."
"Maybe I want to go to work early." She bit fiercely. She turned on her heel and stomped out of the shop. He decided he would take her coffee to her, going out to his car he drove to the interior design studio she worked at.

He held the coffee and opened the door, a pretty red head with icy blue eyes smiled at him and said in a sweet voice "Hello sir, how may I help you?"
"I'm looking for Rowan Trystin?"
"Should I tell her your here?"
"Nah, she'll get pissed." He smiled and looked at her. She chuckled and said "Well she is down the hall fifth door on the left." He walked where she pointed and opened the door. "Alexis I said I didn't want you to worry about it." Rowan said without looking up. "You left this." Her head snapped up and she saw Adam standing there with a coffee in his hand.

"Rowan. Call me when you get this." Adam said, it was almost ten o'clock. The door opened and Rowan walked in, her arms were covered again. She wore shorts, high tops, and a pair of shades. A beanie tried to hold onto her head. She seemed to be getting thinner, her wrists were covered in the long sleeves that also fell over her thin hands. She pulled her wallet out of her back pocket and walked to the counter. He studied her as she scanned the board. Her full bottom lip was busted, it looked as though she had tried to clean up with some water. But the abrasion was still noticeable. She ordered for the both of them and waited for them to call the orders. Adam rested a hand on her tiny shoulder "Hey." He said.

Adam knew something was going wrong with Rowan, she was so thin and pale. She always looked over her shoulder every time they were together. He looked out the window of his extremely nice house, the sun was setting over California. His phone rang, he looked down and saw it was Rowan. He picked up "Hey, what's up?"
"A-Adam, could you open up the gate." She sounded close to tears. He rushed to the door and punched the code in, he opened the front door and saw Rowan walking up to the door. She was shaking, her bloody lip was worse than this morning. He held her by the shoulders and examined her. She was still covered, he pulled one hand away from her shoulder and pulled off her sunglasses. A large black eye was staining her snowy white skin, her once bright olive eyes were empty and full of tears.

He couldn't help but engulf her in his arms "Row, what happened."
"Oow, l-let go. It hurts." He released her and then said sharply "Go to my room, get a sleeveless shirt and show me your arms." He led her to his room and opened his dresser and pulled out a wife beater and handed it to her. She pulled her sweater over her head and then quickly pulled the white cotton over her body. He carefully took her small hand in his and pulled her arm out straight. His fingertips ghosted over the extremely bruised flesh, she had purple and blue bruises over her upper arm and some fresh ones on her wrists. The other looked almost the same, she looked away from him. He pulled her to his chest and whispered "I'm so sorry."

Adam had her wearing a pair of loose basketball shorts that were about 8,000,000,000,000 sizes to big for her now tiny hips. "What did that bastard do to you."
"It started again when he met you, he got possessive again."
"He's done this before?"
"Mm-hmm." She didn't go into much other detail. Her phone started ringing. Adam snatched it before she could move; 'Adrian' a really good picture of them popped up. Without thinking Adam answered and said "Hello."
"I want my slut back."
"She's not going anywhere."
"You're not her daddy, she knows where she belongs."
"Yeah, somewhere she feels loved."

After an hour of calls and threatening texts Adam turned off Rowan's phone and pulled her into his arms and said quietly "Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Cause." She said not meeting his eyes. It was dark out, he sigh and said "Your staying here with me."
"I can't do that to you." She said. He pulled her closer "It wasn't a question."