Chapter Text
It’s been a bit since I was officially diagnosed with autism. But only Ellie knows so for me and Tom’s little mission for Jake, I was going to tell him but how?
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“Hey Gabs?” Tom said to me.
For context, I was driving the car to Camp Tipiskaw, where Tom needed to get his gift for Jake, a wooden heart carving that Tom had made.
“Yeah?”
“How many more minutes?” Tom curiously said to me.
I checked my phone, “3 more minutes.” I replied to him.
“So… Gabs?” Tom said nervously.
Now, I got a bit skeptical with what Tom said but I said, “Yeah?”
“How was the results-” Tom said but before he could finish that sentence, I braked the car at the median of the road and I started to nervous.
Tom realized I was nervous but allowed me to take my time.
“So Tom, I’m…” I took a long deep breath. “Autistic,” I said now blushing and being flipping nervous.
Tom puts his hand on my shoulder and hugs me.
I embrace the hug with some tears coming out of my eyes.
After that, Tom said to me,
“Gabby, I’m so glad you're on the spectrum, makes us and especially you understand well… yourself.” He said very kindly. “And I don’t mean it a jokester way, I really mean it, I’ll never stop caring about you bestie, OK?”
I was shocked, almost wanting to bawl out into tears, but I just nodded with a yuh-uh.
“OK, Let's do this mission!” Tom getting out of his seat.
“I’m right with you, Tom!” I said back.
—--------------------------------------------------
“So, Gabby that mission seemed pretty cool, huh?” Ellie said to me, I was talking about me and Tom’s mission.
“Yeah, yeah super cool!” I was blushing a bit.
As we were going to the apartment, Ellie grabbed my shoulder.
“So Gabs about you being autistic…” Ellie said. “I’m proud of you for telling everyone at the party about that but I hope that it doesn’t affect you, in some way.”
She was in tears? Wait, what?
“And I hope that you can still be my awesome girlfr-”
“Woah, woah, woah, woah, Ellie! Why are we crying over this?”
Ellie wiped her tears off her face, “Well Gabby, I know that some people aren’t the greatest to you” She whispered in my ear, “Do you know how many times I heard someone back talking about you and calling you crazy or people just looking at you weird?”
I thought for a bit, “Well now that you said that, uh…”
“MANY TIMES, GABBY! And… and…” Ellie said.
“Ellie, it’s ok, I love my autism as you Ellie and you are simply just adjusting to that fact.” I smile and Ellie smiles back too.
“Oh Gabs…” Ellie said happily and we had a nice kiss and it was when the moon was shining the brightest.
“I love you Ellie, you one kind of a diamond,” I said to Ellie, staring at her twinkling eyes and I was still a bit blushed out after that kiss.
“Gabs, that’s not even a real saying,” Ellie said, giggling.
“OK, OK!” I said back with a bit of a giggle too.
We laughed at my flirting skills. After that, we held each other's hands and walked back to our apartment.
As me and Ellie were in our bed, I was starting to think about that painting in my physicist's room, that rose. That rose…
Is me.
I was just a little bit different than anyone else, and well, it might seem a bit scary alone, but when you have people by your side who accept who you are, you can start to embrace your uniqueness.
With that, I thought of one of my favorite quotes that just stood out to me ever since I was a kid,
“You are a marvel. You are unique.”
And now I know why.