You, Me, Together

Abstract

Ben is a 16 year old boy, who begins his junior year in Mahopac High School. He is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, due to his repetitive words and lack of social skills. He has a hard time trying to interact with others his own age, thus never having a single friend in his whole life, that is until a girl named Hannah enters high school. Ben and Hannah first meet in junior year. Hannah is looking for a place to sit. Ben offers her to sit with him. Hannah accepts it and sits down with Ben.

As Hannah starts to sit with Ben, Ben thinks to himself if he should have Hannah as a friend to him. Ben tries to hide it from his mother Claire, because he would fear that his mother would get involved too much and she would claim that Ben is interested in Hannah as a girlfriend, but Ben, himself, refuses to believe that he has a crush on her. It leads to Ben, himself, figuring out how to get Hannah as a friend.

After a couple attempts to befriend her, Ben and Hannah start to become friends as they start to bond on the internet. Ben ends up asking Hannah on a friend-date on the internet, which Hannah surprisingly accepts. Hannah then starts to ask her mother Joyce, who is a therapist for disabilities, because after her first talk with her about Ben, Hannah starts to believe that Ben is autistic. Hannah opens up to Ben about her parents being divorce, when her dad cheated on her mom, and Ben opens up about his autism, which starts to bring them closer. Claire sees Ben and Hannah developing a relationship. Ben continues to keep Hannah a secret from Claire, while Claire is trying to understand her son growing up and having romantic feelings.

Ben's autism is in the way of his friendship with Hannah and Hannah's feelings about Ben being autistic is starting to question her thoughts about Ben as her feelings for him start to progress more . Although their friendship is complex, their feelings for each other bloom into something beautiful, but they both fear getting hurt, because Ben does not want to be confused about his feelings for Hannah and Hannah fears that she will hurt Ben, when she feels that she is turning into her dad, who struggles about his feelings. This leads to one of them making a hard choice to end the relationship, but the other trying to have hope to save their relationship.