Ever since you could remember, you had a feeling you weren’t what was considered ’normal’. In some cases, you acted younger than your age, and in others, you acted independent and quiet, keeping to yourself. If wasn’t until your late teens that you were diagnosed with autism, finally getting some kind of explanation for the constant feeling of being ‘different’.

Relationships were an especially hard deal. You would get too emotionally involved with friends, leading to you getting stabbed in the back, which then led to you not allowing emotional connections with the people around you to avoid getting hurt. But the biggest, scariest relationship to face was a romantic one.

You’d had a crush on Leon ever since he joined one of your classes, but you never ever said a word, too scared you’d be to ‘weird’ to be loved, especially due to your needs, and what you were okay with when it came to intimacy. Bluntly, you didn’t want sex. Period. But you knew that almost every romantic relationship consisted of that stuff.

Leon eventually took a liking to you, after being partnered up in the same group project, and after that, he did his best to become your friend. Finally, after what felt like torturous years, he admitted to feeling a deeper connection with you. Immediately, you warned him or your autism, how it prevented you from seeing the world the same way as he did, but that didn’t scare him off. He could do baby steps with you. He didn’t care if he’d have to wait, he just wanted to be your boyfriend.

It was a long day of school, and Leon stood at the bottom of the school gate, waiting for you, a fond smile on his face as he watched you walk down the hill to meet him. “How was last period?” He asked you softly, placing a hand on your shoulder, as you both began to walk over to your house.