You are not alone

Meeting

I was at this place with Jupiter for a few weeks, and I was liking it there. everyone was fairly nice, but it was a little cramped. I walked up to Jupiter, in the living room.

"Hey do you want to go to an LGBT meeting? It's in a group I go to sometimes."Jupiter asked me.

"Sure, I've never actually been to one." I agreed.

"Cool, it starts soon, so if you want to change or something you need to do it." Jupiter informed me.

"Ok." I said, as I ran upstairs and looked at the clothes I had.

I hadn't taken too much from my house when I left, and I didn't have money to buy new clothes. I just got on a purple black and white button up shirt, with some grey jeans. I walked downstairs and Jupiter looked at me.

"A little too much?" I asked.

"No, ace pride right?"

"Yeah, I don't have much to wear." I replied.

"It looks fine, lets go." She assured me, as she gestured to the door.

I followed her out, and we went to this community center where a lot of the people from the house go. We walked back to a room that they rent out, and there were a lot of chairs positioned in a circle, in the otherwise empty room. A lot of people showed up about the same time as us.

"Alright, if everyone could have a seat." Someone said, and we all obeyed, as I sat next to Jupiter.

"We are going to start off by introducing ourselves, and our sexuality. I'll go first and we'll go around the circle." He paused. "My name is derrick, and I'm gay." He sat down as he finished, and a girl next to him stood up.

"I'm Jessica, and I'm a lesbian." She also sat, and it was one after the other as they went around the circle. Mostly gays and lesbians, with some transgender, agender, gender fluid, and some bisexuals thrown in. Then it was Jupiter's turn and next was me. I started shaking, as Jupiter went and I realized I had to go.

"I'm Jupiter, and I'm pansexual." She said, then sat down, and I unsteadily stood up.

"Umm, I-I'm Aria, a-and I-I'm Aromantic, Asexual." I quietly said, stuttering through most of it. Then I sat back down.

They went through the rest of the circle, and then we were told to get to know the others in the room.

"There's an asexual girl here." I heard someone near me say, and I couldn't help but feel all eyes on me.

"Does she think she's actually one of us?" I heard another.

"It's not like it's a real sexuality." said another.

"She's kidding herself."

"She just wants attention."

"She just wants to be special." Another said, as I felt tears forming in my eyes.

"Just ignore them." Jupiter leaned into me, clearly noticing everything.

"Why is she here?" Someone asked as they past me.

"I'm here, and I'm queer!" I said to her, and she turned around

"Whatever, it's not like you're really part of the LGBT community."

"You know, the A in LGBT+ is for asexuals, and aromantics."

"You think you're special?"

"No, I think I'm aro ace."

"I think you aren't a real part of LGBT, and you just want to be special."

I bit my lip, trying to keep the tears from falling. "Don't we all just want to be loved one way or another? Even if it's platonic? We should spread love, not hate. How would you expect anyone to respect the community if the community can't even respect parts of itself?" I turned around to start walking out of the room.

"Stupid wanna be." Someone said to me as they bumped into me while I was walking out.

"Just stop." I said, as I walked out, finally letting the tears escape my eyes and cascade down my cheeks.

I walked down the hallway a little, and sat against the wall with my knees to my chest. I let the tears flow, uncontrollably as I sat there.

"That was tough." I heard an unfamiliar voice say as they walked up to me.

"If you want to say anything else, just say it. It's not like I haven't heard it before. Go ahead and call me a plant, that's always a good one."

"I came to talk to you, I'm totally on your side."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm Jace."

"Aria."

"I'm sorry about that in there."

"Me too. Do you come to these a lot?" I asked.

"I've been coming for a while, but I just recently came out to my parents."

"Me too, now I'm living with my friend. She's in there." I said, pointing to the room I had came out of.

"I'm just kind of around."

"Why don't you come with me then?"

"What?"

"We kind of live at this place where people that get kicked out go to live."

"Oh."

"It's not official, but it's nice." I paused. I just have to tell Jupiter that I'm leaving.

After going in and talking to Jupiter, I walked back out to Jace and saw him waiting by the door.

"Ready to go?" I asked.

"Ready."