Disclaimer: Don't own anything except Laura
Mark entered the near-empty community center quietly. He thought it was ironic that of all of the people in the city with AIDS, this group reached an all-time high if 15 people sowed up. The session had already started. He hated his tendencies to be late Especially since nothing went unnoticed by Collins
"Hey man" Collins grinned and pulled him into a tight hug. "Guys, this is Mark Cohen. One of my best friends."
Mark blushed and raised his hand in a slight wave.
"Sit down" Collins smiled and pulled another chair into the circle. He noticed the camera in Marks hand. "I thought you were done with that documentary?"
"Well.." Mark looked down at the ground. "I am. But I don't know, I was kind of hoping if I filmed maybe Roger would watch and want to come back."
Collins touched his friends shoulder. "OK, well let's begin."
Mark turned on his camera and glanced around the group. They were all new faces. Everyone from the first meeting he went to...Gordon, Pam, Sue, Paul and all of the rest were gone now. Collins was the only one left from that Christmas Eve meeting. There were 9 people in the circle including him. The new people were a gay couple holding each others hands comfortably, a woman in a suit with bags under her eyes, a man, a woman who looked in her mid 30's and one girl who looked way younger than everyone else in the circle. "She can't be much older than 20" Mark mused to himself. Of course, Mimi had been 18 when she got AIDS, but Mimi always appeared older than her age. This girl looked young and hopeful. He focused his camera on her.
She was sitting cross legged on her chair with her elbows resting on her legs, slightly leaned forward. She had her head slightly cocked to the right side. She was wearing faded jeans and swimming in a baggy button down white cotton shirt over a tank top. She had brown hair which fell limply below her shoulders. Her face looked lost, confused. She was pretty though. Mark zoomed his camera in on her face. She had big green eyes that gave off an intelligent gleam. For some reason her eyes made Marks stomach sink.
Collins clapped his hands together, "Alright. Since this is your first meeting Laura, why don't you start." The girl that Mark had been watching shifted in her seat.
"Oh" the girl gave a look of impending dread. Then she shook her head and gave a nervous laugh. "Umm...hi, I'm Laura. Which...you already knew." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I'll be 23 in January" Mark was surprised because she looked much younger. The girl, Laura, threw an uncertain glance at Collins. She gave the nervous giggle she had given before. "I'm not really sure what I should be saying."
Collins prompted her. "How about, why you are here, Laura."
"Ok. Well...I just graduated college." She smiled slightly, "Thank god, right?" Her eyes displayed a sarcastic twinkle. Mark smiled along with her, despite himself. "There's this guy," Mark felt his smile fade. "Charlie. We had started dating during our sophomore year. He was my best friend." She looked down to the ground. "He was my first love" She sighed and looked back up. "So during our senior year, he said he needed to talk to me about something important. He took my hands and he told me he loved me so much, but I needed to know that he'd been cheating on me for the past five months with another guy. We talked and cried...and yeah. So that had happened in February and we hadn't really talked for a few months, but then I get this call from him saying I should go down to the clinic to get tested. Apparently the guy he was with wasn't a very clean guy. So I went, and sure enough." She opened her arms, not needing to say what she found out. She looked around the circle "I am trying to forgive him. Honestly I am." She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I mean, he didn't do it on purpose, you know?"
She was young, sweet and naive. "Mimi would have hated her" Mark laughed lightly to himself.
"Well," she smiled, "I've been stealing all the conversation. Next?" she joked.
Mark was enamored.