>High school, junior year
>Have a lunch time with literally no one I know
>Usually just wander the halls to hang with people cutting class or sneak into the computer room to play Quake
>One day I'm actually hungry so I go to the cafeteria and find an empty table
>Some senior I don't know comes over and sits down across from me, starts talking and is clearly autistic, kill me
>Somehow the topic steers toward Magic the Gathering (of course), which I'd actually been interested in for a little while but never learned
>He pulls out a couple decks, one obviously stacked in his favor, and we play a couple games
>Tell him thanks and that maybe I'd be around some other time to play some more, and I get up to leave
>HE PROCEEDS TO FOLLOW ME AROUND FOR THE REST OF THE FUCKING DAY
>Starts going off about Pokemon
>Pokemon was significantly gayer than Magic at the time so I try to quietly entertain him so no one hears about us talking about a fucking children's media franchise
>Have to stop by my English class after school because I skipped it at some point and missed a test
>He's still fucking following me
>Sit down to take the test and he starts talking to the teacher, pulls out his Game Boy and LITERALLY starts showing him his Pokemon
>I want to fucking kill myself from embarrassment on the spot because from this point on I will be associated with this autist in this guy's mind
This was my first real encounter with autism. I tried to unsuccessfully duck around this guy for the rest of my high school life. He'd bring his CD player and make me listen to Slipknot with him in the hallway. Thankfully I know how to navigate this sort of behavior now thanks to attending a stupid amount of conventions.
