Love of Autism Ch. 13

"What? Is something wrong?"

Scott looked behind Katie and smiled. "Well, that depends. Do you like being watched as you make out with your boyfriend?"

Katie immediately turned around and saw Carly in the hallway standing there with a big grin on her face. "Carly! What are you doing out of bed?"

"I wasn't tired so decided to come out and see if you and Mr. Scott wanted to play with me."

Katie laughed to herself and got up from the couch. "No Carly. It is bedtime for you and you need to be in bed," she said as she walked towards Carly.

"But I want to stay up and hang with you and Mr. Scott!" Carly said pouting.

Katie grabbed Carly's hand and walked her back to her bedroom. "No Carly. You need to be in bed and try to sleep."

"But I don't wanna go to be bed!"

"Sorry, but you..."

"I don't wanna go to bed!" Carly cried out.

Katie stopped where she was at. "Carly stop it right now! It is bedtime and you need to be in bed."

"But...Katie," Carly said quietly, scared because Katie had never yelled at her before.

Katie lowered herself to eye level with Carly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, but you need to listen to me and obey. I know bedtime stinks, but you need to get a good night's sleep. Ok?"

Carly nodded her head. "Ok."

Katie grabbed Carly's hand again and they went back to Carly's bedroom. Katie tucked her into bed, gave her a hug and a kiss on her forehead before she left. She rejoined Scott on the couch feeling drained.

Scott pulled her into him so that her back was against his chest and he put his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head before he spoke. "Are you ok?"

Katie took a deep breath before she answered. "Yeah, just very drained."

Scott put his hands on her. "We can just relax if you want."

Katie nuzzled her head into Scott's neck and closed her eyes. "That sounds nice."

Within minutes Katie was fast asleep, but Scott didn't mind. They were already laying back in a comfortable position and the feeling of her body against his felt good. It wasn't the same feeling of feeling her naked body against his, but it still felt very nice and...comfortable. So comfortable that he took off his glasses and set them on the coffee table before he gently laid his head on hers and also fell asleep.

Scott woke up from a noise that he wouldn't identify, but then heard people talking quietly. He looked around trying to hear what was being said.

"You're going to wake them!" a female voice said.

"Sorry! I didn't know that would drop out of the fridge like that," a male voice said that sounded familiar.

Scott lifted his body, waking Katie in the process to see who was talking. As he turned his attention towards the kitchen, he saw Trevor and Lauren picking something up from the floor by the open refrigerator. "Too late," Scott said. "You woke me up."

"And you woke me up," Katie complained. She was enjoying the sleeping position she was in and didn't like being woken up.

A sudden realization came to Scott. "What time is it?"

"We already called your parents," Trevor began, "they know we were out late and that you probably didn't leave here yet. If you want, you can spend the night here. I have some shorts that will probably fit you."

"Thanks," Scott said, "but I should get home."

"Are you sure?" asked Lauren. "It's after midnight and you and Katie can sleep in the guest bed together if you want."

Katie immediately turned and looked at her boyfriend. "Scottie, we get to share a bed," she said with a big smile.

"I should mention though," Lauren continued, "the guest bedroom is right next to our room so if you two decide to do something, we will hear."

Katie hated hearing that but Scott hugged her tight. "I know it's not ideal, but we can still just sleep together. You know we'll never get a chance at my house again and honestly I've wanted to sleep with you in my arms again since we slept on the couch together."

"I guess that wouldn't be such a bad thing," Katie said trying to sound not that happy about it.

Scott couldn't help but smile. "You can't fool me. That is your 'I'm actually happy but just going to play it off' voice."

Katie turned and narrowed her gaze at Scott. "How in the hell did you figure that out?"

"I maybe autistic but I can also learn."

**********************************************

"Honestly Katie, I don't see how you think this looks good on me," Scott said as he walked out of the dressing room.

"Because it does!" Katie said super happy to see Scott in a dark blue button up shirt. "You look so handsome!"

Scott rolled his eyes, disgust all over his face. "This shirt is ugly."

"No it is not! This is the fourth shirt you've shot down that looks really good on you. In fact, this one looks the best on you."

Scott ran his hand through his hair and looked away, frustrated by the situation. "Katie, I don't see why I need new shirts. There is nothing wrong with the ones I own right now."

"Yes, but there is nothing wrong with owning a couple more 'nice night on the town shirts'. Plus you never know when you might have a job interview and need a nice shirt to wear."

"And I have nice shirts for that," Scott complained.

Katie noticed a couple girls walking by. "Hold on a second," she told Scott as she went to talk to the girls. She asked them if they could give an honest opinion of how her boyfriend looks in a shirt and they said sure. When Katie brought them to look at Scott they both smiled.

"That shirt looks really good on you," one of the girls said.

"I agree. I wish my boyfriend had a shirt like that to wear when we went on dates," the other girl said.

Katie turned and looked at Scott. "See, it's not just me who thinks you look good in that shirt."

Scott still wasn't happy about it. "I just don't like it."

The two girls excused themselves as they didn't want any part of a couples quarrel.

Katie took a deep breath before addressing Scott. "Honestly Scott, what is wrong with that shirt or any of the other ones?"

"They are not something I like or would normally wear. Plus I don't like the material it is made out of. It's not comfortable."

"Since when does it matter that a shirt is..." Katie stopped herself midsentence as it finally dawned on her why Scott has been hating everything single shirt she had him try on. "Oh...sorry Scott. I completely forgot that you are very sensitive to how things feel on your skin."

Scott also took a deep breath to calm himself down. "I'm sorry for not telling that the shirts were uncomfortable. I know you mean well, but this is stressing me out."

Katie approached Scott and gave him a hug. "Let's forget about trying to get you some new shirts and let's get lunch at the food court."

Scott nodded his head in agreement and gave Katie a kiss on her forehead. He went back in the dressing room, took off his the dark blue button up shirt and put back on his t-shirt. Once the t-shirt was on him, he felt so relaxed. He loved the feel of comfortable cotton on his body compared to whatever those shirts Katie wanted him to wear felt like. He left the dressing room and put the shirts on the rack for the employees to do with them whatever they do and looked at Katie, guilt still all over her face.

"Hey," he said as he approached her and wrapped his arms around her, "you didn't know, and I should have told you sooner."

Katie tilted her head up to look at his face. "I know, but still, I should have realized sooner."

Scott gave Katie another kiss on her forehead. "Let's just chalk this up to another learning experience in our relationship."

Katie smiled as she thought, 'yep, another god damn learning experience'.

They proceeded to walk out of the store and towards the food court. After a small discussion, they agreed to share a plate from the Chinese place where they ordered steamed white rice, two orders of orange chicken, and an order of teriyaki chicken. They found a quiet spot to sit at and started eating their food. A few minutes later Scott heard the notification sound go off on his phone that he had received a text from his sister.

"That's weird," Scott commented.

"What's weird?" Katie asked curiously.

"Sarah just texted me."

"So...she texted you," Katie said not seeing what was so weird.

"She never texts me when I'm with you," he said shaking his head as he pulled out his phone. He proceeded to unlock and read the text he got from his sister, his eyes going big as he read it.

She had told Colin about her past struggles with an eating disorder and as soon she had told him everything, he hugged and kissed her. He told her that he appreciated her telling him and that he wouldn't hold it against her at all. Sarah ended the text by thanking Scott and that she would take care of laundry for him the following weekend.

Katie could see Scott's eyes go wide as he started reading the text, but then a smile formed on his face. "What did she say?"

Scott put his phone back in his pocket. "Just that her and Colin's relationship is finally getting better."

Katie smiled at that news. "That is awesome to hear."

They ate some more of the Chinese food while Scott worked up the courage to ask Katie a question he had been dreading to ask. He didn't know why he should be so afraid to ask, but he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"So um..." Scott began, "I was wondering if you would be my date for the prom?"

Katie's smile got even bigger. "Of course I will!" she said happily. "I wouldn't want to go with anyone else but you."

Scott nervously smiled, happy that Katie said yes but nervous about something else. "Awesome, but um...well...have any idea of how we could celebrate after the prom?"

Katie knew exactly what Scott was talking about and understood why he was so nervous asking such a question. "Well I'll see if I can talk to my mom or dad about getting us a hotel for the evening. Maybe we could even just spend the following day in the room relaxing."

"Yeah," Scott agreed, "that sounds nice."

"Plus, we can have some good 'fun' as well," Katie said with a naughty tone and smile. Scott picked up on the tone and look and gave just as naughty a look back.

"I think I'm down for that."

"Good, but you do realize this means we have to get you a tux and it is very possible you won't like the material the shirts are made of?"

"Well that is where you come in. You can come with me and help explain that to the people at the tuxedo rental shop."

"You mean your mom and me."

A look of horror came over Scott. "Ah...please not my mom. She will treat me like a little kid. Maybe Sarah instead? She'll be brutal and not talk down to me."

"Sure," Katie agreed, "we can do that. Plus it is a chance for us to bond."

"Ok, good," Scott said happy.

They continued to eat and talk about plans for the prom. Scott couldn't believe he actually had a date for the prom and of all people he was going with, it was Katie Paulson. How things had changed in such a short time. The whole school year had seemed like a dream. There was no way that Katie, his lifetime bully, was now his girlfriend. Hell, they even lost their virginity together. He didn't want this to end after the prom. If anything, he wanted to continue this into college.