Back in ‘09 or ‘10, my church’s youth group made a trip to a nearby amusement park. While I knew pretty much everyone in the group, there was one girl roughly my age that I didn’t recognize. She must’ve been someone’s “plus one”, but I don’t recall ever seeing her before or after this night.

Throughout our day there, she was stuck to my side the whole time. Being the young autistic boy I was (am), I was as polite and friendly to her as I would be to anyone else. As far as I was concerned, she was just another kid in my youth group. After a certain point though, I did finally start to pick up on something. She had been flirting with me the whole time?! It was very much so the “assertive girl/shy boy” kind of flirting. Now mind you, I had a girlfriend already, and as soon as it got through my thick skull what was going on, I made it a point to mention that I had a girlfriend. I brought it up in a casual way, of course. Shouldn’t be too direct, lest I seem confrontational. You know what she says? She just calls me “lover~ boy~” and continues flirting with me!

Now, being a good boy, I knew that no means no, but that only applies to girls. I genuinely didn’t know what to do if I say no to girl, and she doesn’t respect that. So I just tried to distance myself from her. This didn’t work, of course. I don’t what she saw in me, but she just would not leave me alone. At one point I called my girlfriend, half as a general check up and half trying to deter this other girl, and as soon as I hung up the phone she continued teasing me! “Aww, you love her? You’re such a lover~ boy~.” At this point I was genuinely confused on what else I could do to subtly tell her I wasn’t interested.

As our day there comes to a close, we all start filing out of the theme park. The sun set quite some time ago now. As we walk though the dark parking lot towards the van, she grabs my hand! And just holds hands with me! Again I froze. Nobody and nothing had prepared me for this. So, I just let her hold my hand. As soon as we get to the van, I pull some bait and switch to convince her to sit at the back of the van, where we had both sat on the way there, and then quickly take a seat at the front.

For what it’s worth, when I got home and explained all this to my then-girlfriend, she just laughed it off and even teased me about it. Like I mentioned before, I never saw her again after that night. She let on some hints throughout the night that her home life wasn’t the best, so I assumed that she just didn’t know how to act appropriately. This wasn’t all that uncommon for the guests people would bring to the youth group events. Nonetheless, I hope she’s doing alright these days; where ever she is.