Well...it has been a while hasn't it? Honestly life and a job that sucked my joy out of a lot of things is the big reason why this chapter took so long to write and get to my editor. As always thank you Tigersman for your amazing job editing my chapters. While this isn't a long chapter, it sets up the soon to be finale of this story as I try to tie up all loose ends left from this story and my previous one. Thank you everyone for your patience and enjoy!
"They were supposed to be here ten minutes ago," Scott complained.
"Just give them a few more minutes," Katie said.
Scott wanted to be patient, but everything about the situation was stressing him out. "I still don't understand how you convinced me to do this."
"Because you love me and know this is important to me. Plus, Alyssa asked that you come so you can give an honest opinion of the guy."
"And you can't because?"
"Because I'm not a guy and can't read a guy's body language like a guy can."
Scott turned and looked at her with a blank stare. "You and Alyssa want the autistic guy who has a hard time reading body language and picking up on social cues to read someone else's body language."
Katie quickly realized the problem that Scott was pointing out. "Ok...maybe you can at least pick up more easily how he talks to and about her and let us know if he seems like a good guy or not?"
Scott rolled his eyes before looking back at the entrance to the restaurant. "I should be able to do that, but honestly, Steve would be better at that."
"But Liz doesn't have the friendship I do with Alyssa," Katie countered.
"And Steve never did anything with Alyssa either. I haven't talked with her since I tutored her at the end of senior year and even then, I wasn't 100% completely comfortable around her."
Katie thought about telling Scott the truth about why Alyssa was a different woman at the end of high school, but before she could, Alyssa and her date walked into the restaurant and spotted them easily. They approached the table and sat down.
"Sorry we're late," Alyssa apologized. "I couldn't decide what to wear and well...it's just my fault."
"I told you sweetie, you don't have to pick out anything special for me," Alyssa's date said. "You always look beautiful."
Scott wanted so badly to roll his eyes at how clique Alyssa's date sounded, but knew he didn't want to give off a bad first impression either. "What's important is that you're here."
Alyssa's date turned and smiled at Scott. "Yes it is. I'm Nathan by the way."
"I'm Scott," he said, extending his hand to offer Nathan a handshake which he shook back.
A minute later the waitress came by and took their drink orders and Scott had to admit she was attractive. This made him think of to watch and see if Nathan would turn and watch the waitress walk away after she took their drink orders. Much to his surprise Nathan didn't and instead just looked at the menu. 'Well at least he isn't scoping out the waitress instead of paying attention to Alyssa.'
"So Scott," Alyssa said trying to get his attention which she did, "are you ready to start your second year of college?"
Scott just shrugged his shoulders. "As ready as I'll ever be I guess. Although one of my roommates might try to distract me from my studies once in a while," he said while tilting his towards Katie.
"I'm not that distracting," Katie said a little exasperated. "Besides I'm a damn good cook."
Scott turned and smiled at Katie. "That you are, but your pancakes need a little work."
Katie playfully pushed Scott's arm with a smile. "As long as you promise to never try to cook bacon again."
Scott shook his head and rolled his eyes. "That was one time."
"One time you burnt them and one time you uncooked them."
"And since then there have been no issues," Scott tried to counter.
"Liz and Steve still prefer me cooking the bacon over you," Katie said with an evil grin.
Nathan couldn't help but laugh at Scott and Katie. "Yep, you two have been together for a while. High school sweethearts probably from the beginning."
Scott and Katie's faces contorted trying to not laugh too hard as they both looked at Alyssa. "You didn't tell him?" Katie asked having a hard time from bursting out into laughter.
"Tell me what?" Nathan asked in confusion.
Alyssa grinned as she turned to look at her date. "Katie actually bullied Scott most of his life. It was only after homecoming senior year did things change when they started to become friends and shortly after that start to date."
Nathan's face contorted into confusion as he turned to look at Scott and Katie, still not believing what he just heard. "How does that happen?"
"Very, very, long story," Scott said, really not wanting to tell it nor thinking of a good way to condense it.
Katie on the other hand was ready. "Short version is he showed me that my ex was cheating on me, somehow helped salvage the night for me and made me realize how much I had misjudged him."
"Misjudge him how?" Nathan asked, now even more confused.
Katie opened her mouth but then stopped, hesitant to admit the reason she bullied him. She looked at Alyssa who also had a look of discomfort realizing how bad Katie was going to look in Nathan's eyes.
Scott could sense the tension and decided it was best for him to tell Nathan, but not before trying to soften the truth. "Before I tell you, you must know that I have forgiven Katie for being a bully to me." Nathan still was unsure if he wanted to know, but nodded his head in understanding. "She used to bully me because I'm autistic."
As much as Katie was grateful that Scott was handling the situation in the way he was, she still felt ashamed for how she bullied him in the past. Even with him saying that he forgave her, she still had a hard time forgiving herself.
Nathan's opened his mouth, but then closed it. He wasn't sure exactly how to respond to either piece of information. A few seconds later he decided to make a statement directed at Scott. "I don't know how you could forgive her for that."
Scott turned to look at Katie with a smile that told her that he loved her. "Most people wouldn't, but I'm glad I did. She's one of the best things to happen to me and I would go through it again knowing how much I love her now."
Katie melted as Scott said that and felt so lucky to have him as her boyfriend. She kissed him on the lips and said thank you to him loud enough for him to hear.
A few seconds later their waitress came by with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. While Scott had decided what he wanted before he even entered the restaurant, everyone else had still yet to decide. She said she would come back in a few minutes and left them to tend to another table.
Silence fell amongst them as everyone, except for Scott, scanned the menu. After a couple of minutes everyone had decided on what they were going to get and flagged down their waitress to give her their food orders. She left again and Scott decided to try strike up a conversation with Nathan. "So how did you and Alyssa first meet?"
Nathan smiled remembering how he first met Alyssa. "We are both taking the same math class this summer and pretty much hit it off right away. After our second class, we started doing homework together and studying together." He turned to look at Alyssa. "Again, I just want to apologize for making fun of you for using flash cards. You were right and turned out to be really helpful."
Scott couldn't help but grin knowing that he was the one to introduce flash cards to Alyssa. "You might have actually found a good guy Alyssa," he commented. "He is actually willing to admit when he is wrong and apologize for it."
Alyssa smiled at what Scott said knowing Nathan was getting his approval, but something more pressing was taking place. "I'll be back. I have to use the ladies' room."
"I'll come with you," Katie said standing up with Alyssa.
Once they left Nathan decided to say something to Scott that he wanted to say if they ever got alone at the table. "Hey, I just want to say how sorry I am that you have autism."
Scott had heard that sentence several times in his life and he had just come to terms with the fact people still think autism is some debilitating condition and ruins people's lives. If anything, he was very disappointed that people still thought that way. "You don't need to apologize. Being autistic isn't that worst thing."
"But it is part of the reason why Katie bullied you."
"Actually most of the reason, but I forgave her and don't hold that against her."
"Yeah, I mean it is more of your parents' fault that you have autism."
That statement seemed very odd to Scott. "Um, it's not my parents' fault that I'm autistic."
Nathan looked at Scott with empathy. "Yeah it is buddy. I mean if you weren't vaccinated as a young child, you wouldn't be autistic now."
That statement right there shocked Scott. He had heard that claim many times that autism was caused by vaccines. He had done research himself and found that there was no basis for such claims, especially when there were stories of parents' who didn't vaccinate their children and they still were autistic.
"I'm going to stop you right there. I'm only autistic because my dad is autistic."
Nathan shook his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Autism is genetic."
"Dude, I think you are greatly misinformed," Nathan said as if Scott were dumb.
Scott took a deep breath to calm himself, not wanting there to be drama and ruin Alyssa's night. "Let's not talk about this," he suggested.
"Alright," Nathan said, not really wanting to let this go. "Just thought I'd try to empathize with you and suggest ABA therapy as well."
Scott looked at him dead in the eyes, not sure if he heard Nathan right. "Excuse me?"
"What? ABA therapy could probably help you a lot. I mean, I know it's for kids with autism and stuff but maybe they could help you."
