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Matt lay on the grass, fingers running through the blades. It was beautiful outside, with the sun shining and white fluffy clouds in the sky. Plus, it was the perfect temperature. It was warm. It wasn't too hot or too cold, just right. Stretching his arms, his hand bumped into something that it took him a second to identify. It was the fence the neighbors used to separate their house from his, he remembered. Now that he was this close to it, he also remembered wondering what it felt like.
Rubbing his thumb on it, he smiled feeling all the grooves in the wood. The fence had an incredible texture to it; he could probably stim with it for the rest of the day if he was given the chance. Running his fingers over the wood and humming to himself, it seemed like the day was going great-until he heard a voice.
"Hey, uh, Mac, whatcha doin over here?" Matt recognized that voice.
"Eduardo?" Sure enough, it was him, along with Mark and Jon. "Oh, I'm just enjoying the way the fence feels. I like the texture of it."
"Huh, never heard that before. I mean, what kinda person just goes around screwing with things that have a good texture?" Eduardo smirked, not expecting a response.
" What, haven't you heard of stimming before? I'm autistic!" Oh, if only he knew what saying that would cause.
"Well, we always thought something was wrong with ya, but we never knew what it was!" Eduardo broke out into laughter, Mark joining him. Matt, still not fully understanding what was going on, joined in, but was laughing nervously.
"I mean, we thought you were just stupid, but you're straight up retarded!" That was what got Matt to stop laughing. His laughter turned to choked sobs as he covered his face, trying to hide tears that were all too noticeable.
"Do you think we might've gone too far?" Jon asked. Even if he did make fun of the others, that was definitely out of left field.
"Nah, he'll be fine. He's probably gonna forget it a few minutes from now!" Eduardo said, hitting Jon's shoulder.
"If you say so...." he muttered.
Matt burst through the door, tears running down his face. Edd ran over to him, holding onto him tightly.
"Matt, what happened?" Edd asked, just as Tom came to see what was going on with Matt.
"E-Eduardo-he-he said I was r-retarded..." At the mention of that, a low rumble emitted from Tom's throat, akin to a growl.
"Let me take care of this, Edd" He hissed, pushing the others out of the way.
"A-are you sure Tom? They were mean to me, they might be mean to you too." Matt choked out, still teary-eyed.
"Oh, don't worry about me. It's them who are gonna get hurt." He growled, slamming the door.
Eduardo and Mark sat on the couch, still laughing about earlier in the day.
"Man, that was incredible! The other two are freaks, think they might be retards too?" Eduardo laughed, an opened can of diet coke in his hand. Mark shrugged, suggesting a "probably", while Jon was on the other side of the room, wishing he'd actually stopped the others from making Matt cry like that. The further ridiculing of Matt was interuppted, however, when a slam at the door, along with something akin to growling was heard.
"Ey, uh, Tom, whatcha doin here?"
"Oh, nothing. I just wanna talk to the two of you." Tom huffed, pointing at Eduardo and Mark. Eduardo shrugged, but got up anyways, gesturing for Mark to follow him. Tom opened the door to the room right across from them, putting his arms over their shoulders.
As soon as they entered the other room, and the door was shut behind them, Tom cut his act of fake happiness and slammed the two of them against a wall.
"Okay, look. I'll be perfectly willing to leave you alone after this. All you have to do, is promise to never insult Matt or ANY of my friends like that EVER AGAIN. Got it?"
"Pfft, oh, whatcha gonna do to us? Rip our heads off?" Eduardo scoffed, only to be met with a dark grey claw at his throat. "Okay, okay, we'll leave him alone, just don't hurt us!" Tom eased his grip, and let the two of them down, still shaking.
Tom opened the door, chuckling as the two of them sat back down on the couch, eyes still wide with fear. Breaking his gaze from them, he turned to Jon. He seemed like he was nice. And he certainly didn't deserve to be with these two.
"Hey." Jon's attention was torn from the stones he was rubbing between his fingers. "You wanna come hang out with us?" Jon nodded, grabbing onto Tom's hand after slipping the stones in his pocket.
As the two were heading to the black-eyed brunette's house, Tom popped a question Jon never expected.
"Are you autistic too?"
Jon blinked in surprise, before nodding.
"I think you'll like our house better. It's a lot less sensory hell than that place. And Matt's super nice, even if he can be loud." As they reached the door and entered a less hellish place, the two of them were greeted by a "YOU'RE HOME!" from Matt. Jon covered his ears, only removing them when he was sure Matt wouldn't yell again.
"Jon! Nice to see you! Oh, was I too loud again? I'm sorry, volume is weird for me, you know?" Jon nodded, before Matt's face lit up as he had an idea. "Hey, you wanna share some of my stim toys? I got a few of the squishy ones a bit ago!" Jon nodded excitedly, hands flapping. "Well, come on!" Matt grabbed his hand, tugging him along to his room.
Tom nudged Edd in the side, laughing. "Well Edd, looks like you were wrong about one thing. Our neighbors aren't all bad."