Daisy's P.O.V
It was 10 and was walking down the street to the life cafe. I had Mark's jacket on. It was so warm and soft. I didn't want to take it off. I saw him standing outside the cafe with his scarf wrapped around his neck. He seemed nervous.
"Hey" I said.
"You made it."
"Well yeah I mean you gave me your coat so I kind of owe you."
"You don't owe me anything. Now come on, I think you'll like my friends." He offered his hand and then quickly brought back to his side. He then opened the door for me and I walked in. The waiter then suddenly came up to us.
"If you and your friends are going to be here again tonight can you promise to not make a scene?" Mark thought for a moment.
"I make no such promises." He then snuck behind the waiter and he took me to the long table in back of the cafe. "Sorry about that." He whispered to me.
"It's fine."
"Now about my friends at times we get a little..."
There was thin a huge shout of "WINE AND BEER!"
"Crazy." I looked over at the large table were a variety people were sitting there and talking loudly. "Hey guys." He said. "I want you to meet Daisy."
"DASIY!" They all shouted. A blonde hair guy came up to me and shook my hand.
"Hey I'm Rodger I'm Marks best friend." I then realized I would have to get these guys approval. He sat down and a Hispanic girl stood up next and gave me a hug.
"Hi I'm Mimi." Then an African American man stood up and shook my hand
"I'm Collins Tom Collins." A drag queen who was sitting next to Collins stood up and gave me a huge hug.
"I'm Angel, sweetie." She smiled and then sat down next to Collins taking his hand. A black haired girl wearing leather pants stood up and gave a stage bow.
"My names Maureen." The African American woman who was next to Maureen stood up and shook my hand.
"I'm Joanne" Before Joanne could sit down Maureen pulled her in for a kiss. I stood there awkwardly for a moment until Mark gestured for me to sit down next to him. I walked over to him and took the seat next to him.
"So Daisy..." Angel asked. "What do you do?"
"Uh.I'm a dancer, ballet to be precise." They all smiled as I said that.
"Have you been on stage yet?" Maureen asked.
"Well no not yet, I'm trying out for a company in three weeks."
"Wait Joanne it would be great to have a ballerina at our next protest. She could do a dance and..." Before I could say something to her Joanne stopped her and soon enough they were in a small argument. Mark face palmed himself but soon enough the two of them were laughing again.
"How did you meet Mark?" Mimi asked.
"Well um..." So I went into the story on how I meet Mark and sure enough all of them thought it was cutest thing in the world.
"That's almost like how we met." Mimi said to Rodger
"Expect she didn't bend down and show him her ass." I choked on my water on that mere thought of doing that to a person I just met. They all just laughed and Rodger took Mimi for big kiss.
"Somehow did all you meet?" I asked.
"Well that's a certainly a very long story." Mark said leaning back in his chair.
"But it's pretty entertaining." Rodger retorted back.
"Well then let's begin the story it all started December 24th 9 pm eastern standard time..." Mark and everyone else told me this huge long story of everything that happened from Christmas Eve to well...now. After he finished I sat there for a moment taking it all in. I guess a lot can happen in 8 days and its kind hard to think that half of the people of I just met all have HIV/AIDS.
"That is one hell of a story." I held up my beer glass, "But I think I like you people. La vie Bohme." I said raising the glass for a toast. They all picked up there drinks and said back,
"LA VIE BOHMEN." I laughed and Mark smiled at me flashing those blue eyes. I felt my cheeks grown warm but all of a sudden I heard a voice I have grown to hate.
"Not this again." I looked at the doorway and saw it was my lousy landlord Benny. When I moved in I told him I don't have the money to pay the rent and he told me he gave a year with no rent until I could scrounge up so money. They all of sudden he is like boom I need you rent or your out. It pisses me off.
"I thought we wouldn't see you here again." Collins said standing up.
"I'm not going to let you bohemians ruin my favorite place and I see you've added a new one to your motley crew."
"Daisy this is..."
"I know who this jackass is." All of them gasped as I called Benny out right here in this restaurant.
"Daisy." He nodded towards to me. "Do you have that rent?"
"I told you I don't have it. I can't pay besides you told me you would let me off this year. I got fired and you said you would let me off. You remember that or do you have short term memory."
"I need someone to pay rent and if they won't." He gestured to Mark and Rodger, "Then you have too."
"Hey Benny." I held up my middle finger. "Go fuck yourself, I'm not paying any rent." Everyone at the table started laughing and soon they were all flipping off Benny. He stormed out of the cafe not even looking at us. I leaned back in my seat and took a sip of my beer.
"You my girl have earned my respect." Mimi said to me laughing. We then sat there for a while talking just talking, we got loud pretty often the waiter asked us to quiet down a few times. Soon it was like 3 in the morning and we all decided we should like get some sleep. Rodger went with Mimi to her place, Maureen with Joanne and Angel with Collins, which left me with me Mark.
"So um sorry about Benny and all of that, he has heart underneath all that money."
"Yeah will see about that." We were walking down the sidewalk back to our apartments. My fingers reached towards his hand but quickly retreated back. "I hope my heat got turned back on."
"Well if it isn't you can umm...crash on my couch." He realized what he just ask and he rubbed his face "Uh just forget that I asked that."
"No it's sweet. You are a really sweet person. Maybe I will crash on your couch." His hand reached out towards mine and reached out too. Soon our hands were intertwined and we were holding hands. His hand was warm and provided a sense comfort. We continued to walk down the sidewalk and up to our apartments. I peeked into my flat and saw it was still freezing cold. "I think I may take you up on that offer for that couch."
"Come on up with me to my lovely flat."
"Yeah right it's as shitty as mine."
"Come on." He opened the door and we were back inside his apartment. "Well here's the couch and..." He went into his room and brought out an extra blanket. "This should you keep you warm."
"You're always making sure I stay warm."
"No one should be cold." He said with a smile. I sat on the couch as he handed me the blanket. "Well um...sleep well." He begun to walk to his room when I stood up and ran to him.
"Hey Mark."
"Yeah." I looked into his eyes as he smiled. It was dorky smile but it was an adorable smile.
"Um well night." I awkwardly went back to the couch and laid down faced away from him. I heard his bedroom door close. Mark kept running through my mind what it was about him. That made me smile. What was it about him that made me feel warm? I ran my fingers along my arm and quietly fell asleep.
I woke up with the sun blinding my face. I sat stretching and stood up doing my daily morning stretches. "Must a ballerina always stretch before she starts the day?" I looked up and saw Mark was filming.
"If she wants stay fit." I jumped across the table. "She must." He set his camera down and walked around to a shelf.
"You want breakfast?"
"What do you have?"
"How does Captain crunch sound."
"Sounds like my usually." He threw me the box and poured some of it into a bowl that was on the table. I threw it back to him and he caught it. "Ah the breakfast of champions."
'More like the breakfast of people who can't pay their rent." We finished breakfast and I knew I would have to go back to my apartment.
"Thanks Mark for um letting me spend the night. It was fun but I should probably get back to my shitty apartment."
"I guess so but um...hey if you want to you know want a change of setting I'm always up here. I'm going to be walking around today filming so..."
"Can I join you?" I asked him. "And you know help with the filming?"
"Sure meet me outside around 3?"
"Sounds great."
"It's a date then." He then realized what he just said and started rambling on..."Not like a date date but a date as in two friends getting together and hanging out and..." I had to stop him so I gave him a small peck on the cheek and said
"It's a date." I then walked out of his apartment before he could say anything back. With a smile on my face I went down to my apartment were my smile quickly faded. There was an eviction notice on my door. I tore it off and ripped it into tiny pieces leaving the remains of it on the ground. I then walked into my apartment where I gathered any pieces of paper I could and started a fire in my "stove." I looked at my ceiling wondering what Mark was thinking about.