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Audrey and Noah had been friends since middle school, and she felt more comfortable with him than she'd felt with anyone in her life, even Emma.
Still, though, she hid parts of herself from him, just as she did with everyone. It wasn't anything personal against him, of course. She loved him dearly and deeply appreciated his ongoing kindness to her, even as other friends came and went.
It was just private, shameful. No one needed to see her meltdowns or the way she would rock back and forth when she got excited or overwhelmed. No one needed to know that she actually didn't understand sarcasm that well and that when people laughed at something she did, it wasn't because she was trying to be funny. No one needed to know how much she struggled to empathize with others or that monitoring her tone and facial expressions was an exhausting chore.
This was all stuff that would've quickly gotten her labeled as retarded, and she didn't want to deal with that. She could deal with people commenting on her dark clothing and calling her a queer, but she wasn't sure she could live with herself if people knew about her... Quirks.
One day, though, her carefully balanced house of cards came crumbling down.
As soon as she woke up that morning, she could tell she was having an off day. Just getting dressed felt overwhelming, and she'd struggled to find clothes that didn't make her want to rip her skin off. Eventually, though, she found a passable outfit, skipped breakfast (the thought of anything going in her mouth at that moment made her want to shrivel up and die), and left for school.
Everything felt loud and too bright and Noah could tell she was in one of her moods. He was used to her occasional periods where she got overwhelmed and snappy, so he didn't think much of it.
However, when lunch came around and they didn't have their usual selection of meals, she completely snapped, walking out of the cafeteria and quickly going to a quiet and secluded corner. Noah awkwardly excused himself from the lunch line to follow her, and that was when he saw it.
She had crammed herself up against a wall and was sitting in a ball on the ground, rocking back and forth and humming in a discordant, distressed manner. There was no melody to her humming, just a repetitive noise emitting from the bottom of her voice. Noah didn't know what was happening or what to do so he just awkwardly sat next to her and waited for whatever this was to get out of her system.
Eventually, she calmed down, and refused to look at him.
This was her actual worst nightmare. Not only had someone seen her in one of her most vulnerable moments, something which she'd put forth a lot of effort to avoid, but it was her best friend. What if he didn't want to talk to her anymore?
He deserves an explanation, at least.
"I'm Autistic" she told him. A million things clicked in his head when she said this. "Sorry" she sighed. "I was doing really well to hide that. I didn't want you to see"
"Audrey, you don't have to hide stuff like that from me" he told her gently. "I mean that's, like, a big part of your life and who you are" he continued. She didn't say anything. "Actually, now that I know, that makes a lot of sense" he went on. She looked over at him in surprise. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you hid it well. I couldn't tell what was up with you, but a lot of things make sense now, like your random periods of snappiness, and honestly even us getting along as well as we do"
"What do you mean?"
"Cause of my ADHD?" he cocked his head. She nodded in understanding. He had told her about that before, she'd just forgotten. "Thank you for telling me, Audrey"
"Thank you for being chill about it"
"Wanna skip for the rest of the day?" he asked. She looked at him and smiled.
"You know me so well"