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Chapter 2: The Stutter
"How does that even work." Chris says and the rest of the guys shook their heads.
"How did he even ask her out? She never speaks." Seth comments and most of the guys shrugged.
"Just imagine the awkward sex." Kevin joked just as Roman walked into the locker room.
"Imagine what awkward sex?" Roman questions, setting his gym bag down. All of the guys froze on their spots, not expecting the man they were talking about to enter the room.
"Uh nothing." Sami said trying to avoid the topic. He was aimlessly listening to conversation, wondering why they were even talking about Roman and Charlotte's relationship. He knew Charlotte was a nice girl and that she tried her hardest at whatever she wanted to do. He met her before she had stopped talking and she was a wonderful person. He felt bad for her and wished that she that she was able to be herself again. He still felt protective of her even after not talking to her for years.
"Nothing? It didn't sound like nothing. Fill me in, who we talking about." Roman asks and everyone froze, not really knowing what to say. How would they explain that they were talking about him and his mute girlfriend.
"We were talking about you and your girlfriend." Kevin answers bluntly. He wasn't going to skate around the topic and lie like Sami did.
Pussy.
"What? Why would y'all be talking about me and Charlotte." Roman quickly growing defensive of his girlfriend. She was unlike any other girl he had ever dated before. She was quiet and shy, speaking only to him or when she had to. She had this nervous stutter that disrupted her speech and she stopped speaking because of it. Their coworkers and his friends usually got the wrong impression from it. People thought she was arrogant or that she thought she was too good to speak to anyone but that was nowhere near the truth. She was as humble as they come, but also just as nervous. Despite him finding it cute and liking it a lot, she hated her stutter and stammering. She was so embarrassed and humiliated by it that's she just decided to talk less altogether.
"She's mute. She never speaks, how did guys even get together?" Kevin asked and Roman frowned. Why did they care about him and Charlotte, it was their relationship.
"She's not mute and why does it even matter? We're together and we're happy. What does that have to do with you." Roman states defensively and Kevin puts his hands up.
"I mean no harm, I'm just curious. Do you use tongues and clicks to talk to her? Does she have to write down her moans during sex?" Kevin teases and Roman could feel his temper rising. He couldn't stand this, he hated the comments that were made about Charlotte, she didn't deserve them. The guys all laugh except for Sami, of course, and jokes begin to be exchanged. Roman could feel himself losing his temper and was ready to exploded until he heard Sami.
"Oh Charlotte!" The red head exclaimed and everyone looked over to the door to see the blonde woman they were all just making jokes about. Her hands were shaking, a black iPhone secured in them. You could tell she had tears in her eyes and they knew why.
She had heard what they had been saying about her.
"Babe, what are you doing here?" Roman had walked through the group of men to his girlfriend. His instinct were kicking in and all he wanted to do was protect her.
"Y-y-you left...left your ph-phone in the c-car."Charlotte stutters as she holds up his phone in her shaking hand. Most of the men looked at her in shock, that being the first time some of them had ever heard her speak.
"Oh." Roman says taking it from her. He attempted to take her hand but she snatched it away. "Charlotte, can we-" Roman tried calm her down but she cut him off. She took her eyes from him and directed them to rest of the men, Kevin in particular. She quickly wiped her eyes, her sadness quickly transforming into anger.
What they were saying about her was wrong and she was better than that. She was tired of holding back and letting everyone talk about her as if she wasn't a person. She was going to defend herself, even if it meant talking.
"F-For your in-information, I...I d-don't sp-speak sign lan-language. He...he doesn't...doesn't have to...to write d-down what he want...wants to s-say to me. I-I don't kn...know tongues and I-I c-can moan just f-fine. Mind you...your own damn bus-business." Charlotte manages to say firmly and they all stood in silence.
The silence was broken when Sami clapped. Everyone looked at him and Charlotte nervously smiled. She had missed talking to Sami, he was one of her best friends before her brother died. It was comforting to know that he still had her back after years of not talking.
"Can we talk now?" Roman asks and Charlotte nods, letting Roman lead her outside of the locker room and into a quiet area of the hallway.
"You know you didn't have to do that. I was two seconds away from punching Owens in his face." Roman says, his temper quickly flaring again as he remembered the insults and jokes the Canadian man said about his girlfriend.
"B-but I did. Ev-everything they...they said wa...was cruel an...and mean but I-I should p-prove th-them wrong. I-I've let th-this control me f-for the p-past three y-years. Reid would...wouldn't want this for me. He...he would want me to truly be happy. No...not hiding away an...and never talk...talking to anyone." She explains and to him and he nods. He agrees with her, she shouldn't hide herself away. She was such a beautiful, kind person and no one knew because of some dumb stutter. She shouldn't let that hold her back. Roman smiled brightly at her before leaving down and placing a kiss to her lips.
He fell in love with a beautiful woman.
"So where do you want to start?" He asked her and she frowned for a second.
She had no clue where she could start. She can honestly say she had never thought about how she would get rid of her stutter. She just felt stuck with it and decided that not talking was gonna be her way to gonna be her solution.
"I-I don't kn-know." She tells him and he thinks for a moment.
"How about..." He stopped to think about a possible way to help her get over her stutter. "...you help me practice my promos. And that will help you work on your stutter." Roman suggests and Charlotte thinks it over before nodding.
"I-i think I c-can manage th-that." Charlotte nods, a bright smile taking over her features.
"Charlotte!" The pair turn to see Sami Zayn approaching them with a smile on his face.
"I'm gonna go change." Roman states and a sense of nervousness had taken over. She knew Sami was a friend and he'd never make fun of her but she still was used to Roman being there when she was speaking, his presence was comforting. Roman noticed this and took both of her hands in his, looking her in the eyes. "Just take deep breaths before you speak, Sami would never judge you." Roman reassures her and Charlotte nods before leaving one last kiss on his lips and letting go of his hands. Sami addresses Roman quickly as the walked passed each other before he walked up to Charlotte.
"I just wanted to say that what you did in there was really brave of you." Sami says, that bright smile taking over his features. He had always looked up to how strong Charlotte was and this added on to list of wonderful qualities that she had.
Charlotte takes a deep breath as she begins to formulate her sentence. "Thank y-you." Charlotte tell him and Sami nods.
"I, uh, hope we will be able to talk again, I've missed being your friend over the past couple years. You're one of the best people I know." Charlotte felt good that someone actually missed her. She felt as if she was forgotten after she stopped talking.
"I mis-missed you too. An-and I would re-really like to that." Charlotte says with minimum stutters and she felt proud of herself for a second. She felt like she was making Reid proud.
"Great. I gotta go find someone but I'll talk to you later!" Sami says happily, giving her a light hug.
"Talk to y-you later." Charlotte says in reply as he walks in the opposite direction.
Charlotte walked down in the hallways of the arena, her new attitude towards her speech putting her in a great mood. A bright smile took over her face and there was a different pep in her step. As she was walking she pulled out her phone and began looking through her tag and liking pictures and videos from her fans.
Just as she was retweeting a picture, she bumped into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry." The blonde person said. Charlotte looked up to see Dana Brooke. She had never really interacted with shorter woman, she had only seen her in passing.
"It-it's fine." Charlotte starts, remembering what Roman said about taking deep breaths and took one before continuing her sentence. "No, it w-was my fault." She says and Dana looked at her with shock.
"You do speak!" Dana exclaims and a hot red blush spreads across Charlotte's cheeks. "Everyone said you didn't speak so I wasn't sure. I try not to listen rumors but I've never heard you speak so I didn't know." Dana comments and Charlotte nods.
"I-I have a...a stutter. I d-don't talk much." Charlotte tells her and Dana nodded, understanding her reasoning.
"Well you should. You seem very nice and your in ring skills are off the chain! I'd love to have thee skills you have!" Dana compliments and Charlotte gives her a bright smile.
"Thank y-you." Charlotte tells her. Roman's influence was really powerful, he seemed to change her for the better. In the matter of an hour, she went from being mute to yelling and having two conversations.
Maybe she would be able to get over her stutter.
Six months later
After months of hard work and practice, you would have never thought Charlotte had a stutter. Day in and day out, her and Roman practiced her speech until she lost her voice. She refused to give up on her goal, not that Roman would have let her. Charlotte pushed herself to talk to new people, to interact with her fans and coworkers more. They stuck to their plan of rehearsing Roman's promos and they did made sure that she was able to say each promo flawlessly. She used every opportunity to help herself and it changed how she carried herself. Her confidence skyrocketed after she started getting over her stutter. She felt as if she could truly do anything she wanted to, nothing could hold her back.
"Charlotte!" Dana called from her table at catering. Charlotte looked in the direction of the sound and smiled when she saw her best friend.
"Hey!" Charlotte waves as she approached the table. She sits down across from Dana and smiles.
"You ready for tonight?" Dana asks and Charlotte shakes her head. She was finally going to cut a promo. A proper one.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Charlotte answers nervously.
"You'll be great, I know you will. You've been looking forward to this for months, you're ready." Dana reassures the blonde and Charlotte nods.
"Thanks Dana. I just really hope I don't stutter. That's the only thing I'm scared about." Charlotte sighs and Dana shakes her head.
"Don't worry about that! You'll be fantastic and you'll show Bayley who's really in charge here. And I'll be out there with you so I'll have your back." Dana says and Charlotte smiles.
"Of course. I can't help to be nervous though." Charlotte adds.
The pair chat about life and little details, their plans for later and the designs of their new gears before Roman showed up to the table.
"Hey babygirl." Roman smiles as he approached Charlotte. She smiled at him and leaned up to kiss him softly.
"Hey!" She says as he pulls a chair up to the table.
"So you're gonna act like I don't exist?" Dana jokes and Roman laughs.
"As if that's possible." He says and they all laugh.
As Roman and Dana engaged in idle small talk, Charlotte couldn't help but grin. They were most important people in her life. They helped her through her roughest period and helped her become the happy, social person she is now. She truly felt comfortable with herself and where she was. She had friends, it only took her a month or two before she started interacting with other coworkers besides Sami and Dana. She had a wonderful boyfriend who she couldn't imagine life without and she was on her way to becoming the raw women's champion. Life couldn't be better.
"Okay I'm gonna leave you two lovebirds to it and find Emma, she wanted to talk before the show. I'll see you out there girl!" Dana says bringing Charlotte out of her thoughts.
"Bye. I'll see you later!" Charlotte smiles as Dana leaves the table.
"So how are you feeling?" Roman asked and Charlotte smiled at him.
"I feel good. I think I'm gonna do good. I've been practicing with Summer and Dana and they said it was great so I think I'm ready! I just can't help but to worry about the stutter." Charlotte answers him.
"Don't worry about. You've gone months without it, you'll do just fine." Roman promises Charlotte and she smiled at him.
"I had a feeling you would say that." Charlotte comments and Roman smiles at her.
"Of course I would, I'm so proud of you." Roman kisses the side of her head and Charlotte looks at him with confusion.
"I have even done it yet." Charlotte comments and Roman rolls his eyes.
"Not just about this promo, I mean in general. You busted your ass these past six months and you didn't quit, not that I could ever imagine you quitting. And I'm extremely proud of you." Roman elaborated and a bright pink blush appeared on her Charlotte's cheeks as she grinned. It seemed as if Roman always knew what to say to make her feel invincible. It made her love him beyond what she ever thought was possible.
"I love you so much!" Charlotte blurted out and she froze. Roman could tell that she was embarrassed that she blurted it out but he was too excited about what she said. "I-I wasn't supposed to say that. Roman I'm so-" Her words were cut off by Roman's lips capturing hers.
"I love you too." Roman confesses, this huge grin appearing on his face. He meant it. He was absolutely in love with her and he had never been happier.
"You do?" She sputtered and Roman nodded.
"Charlotte you're my everything, of course I love you." He declares before confusion took over his features. "Why wouldn't I?" He inquired and Charlotte blushed with nervousness.
"Well I wasn't always this confident and I had the-" Roman cut her off with a groan.
"Babygirl, none of that matters! It never has! I love you because you're an amazing, beautiful, talented person. You're strong and brave and the kindest woman I've ever met. That stutter meant nothing, it didn't change the fact that you are the best person I know!" Roman stated. He'd let anyone know how much he loves the woman sitting in front of him. And he'd never hesitate to tell her how extraordinary she is.
Charlotte looked at him with shock, she hadn't expected him to say all of that, she hadn't expected him to say "I love you too." but here she was. And she didn't think she could be any happier than she was right here in this moment.
"Cmon lets go show them who the queen really is." He says, taking her out of her thoughts and she smiles at him.
He was right.
She'd do just fine.