You are not alone

Ashton

I woke up the next morning and when I turned over to see Jace, I smiled. I was so lucky to find someone who's so nice, and who cares so much about me. I saw him start waking up, and his eyes fluttered open.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, as he leaned towards me.

"Actually, I'm feeling a lot better."

"Good."

"I'm not sure exactly why, but I do feel better."

"Well, I'm glad you feel better."

"Yeah, I'm going to go downstairs and work on some stuff."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I have some work to do, and I'm running the meeting later."

"Ok."

I stood up, and I got ready and dressed. Then I walked downstairs and went to the front lobby. I was shuffling through papers, when someone walked up to the desk.

"Hi, do you need any help?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to need to live here."

"Oh, well we have plenty of room."

"Ok."

"I just need you to fill out this form real quick." I said, as I handed her a paper with a clipboard.

"Oh, ok." She grabbed the clipboard.

"There's a meeting later today, if you think it might help you." I offered, noticing her unsteadiness.

"Oh, that could be nice."

"If you're nervous, you could sit by me. Have you ever been to an lgbt meeting before?"

"No, I wasn't able to sneak away from my parents."

"Oh, well you should definitely come today. I can stop by your room before it starts of you want."

"Ok, that's fine."

"Great. What was your name?"

"Ashton. Sometimes people call me Ash though."

"I like Ashton."

"Thanks." She said, awkwardly, and blushing a little.

"Here's your room key, and I'll see how you're doing when I get you for the meeting, ok?"

"Great." She said, taking the key and started to walk away, before she turned back. "Thank you." She said simply, before continuing to her room.

I got ready for our group meeting for later, and when I was done, I decided to check on Ashton and see if she was ready to go. I went up to her room and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.

"Hi." She said, as she opened the door."

"Ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said, as she grabbed the door, and closed it behind her.

"Are you excited? Nervous?" I asked.

"A little bit of both."

"Well, hopefully yours goes better than my first one."

"Really? What happened at yours?"

"It doesn't matter, but I'll make sure nothing like that happens to you."

"Thanks."

"There's no need to be worried when I'm here, ok?"

"Ok." She answered, as we walked into one of our larger rooms.

"This is where we hold meetings."

"Wow."

"Yeah, it helps people find others similar to them, and can help them talk about problems they've had, just stuff like that."

"Oh."

"Yeah." I said, as I was adjusting chairs so they were all in a nice circle.

"When do people start showing up?"

"They should be coming soon." I said, as I shuffled some stuff around, trying to keep busy until they got there.

After a couple minutes, people started walking in., eventually everyone showed up, and we all sat in the chairs I had fixed earlier.

"Ok, we are going to go around the circle and talk about what we identify as." I instructed.

Everyone went around the circle, and stated what they were, and sat back down. I got the average results, until it came to Ashton. I looked at her, and gave her a look of confidence. She stood up slowly, and started to speak.

"My name's Ashton." She paused. "I'm asexual." She rushed, and then sat down.

I looked at her in amazement, for a minute before I stood up.

"Ok, we're going to get to know each other for a couple minutes." I said, and once everyone started moving I went over to Ashton. "You're asexual?" I asked.

"Umm, yeah."

"Oh my gosh, I'm asexual!" I said, excitedly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've never met another one."

"Wow, I guess we have a lot in common."

"I guess we do."