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Years ago, I made a mistake

Dobokdude

Active Member
Long time, no see. I will say that though I've had my struggles(especially being on the autistic spectrum), I'm gonna say that I am not a perfect person and as this story shows I do have flaws that need to be worked on.

So let's start this Star Wars style: A long time ago in a high school far far away...

This was back towards I believe March of 2016. I was 15 and in 10th grade. There was a girl(no I didn't like her romantically) who I had geometry and English with. We started talking in English, since we both liked to contribute to group discussions and had some common interests. Though towards the end of 10th grade and the start of summer, she didn't really talk to me much, and she even seemed a bit depressed at times. I talked to our English teacher about it since she's one of those teachers people like to go to for advice. She talked to my friend and then told me that my friend was upset over some bad things she has been experiencing at school.

So before I get onto this next part, let me just say that I regret this and had no bad intentions but I know full well I didn't handle this part well. So as I mentioned in the past I have Asperger's Syndrome which means I may do some things which are socially inappropriate not out of intent but I don't quite grasp social norms, but none of that is an excuse. So in the last week of school I gave her my phone# and email so she could contact me. But i didn't hear from her for the first few days of summer, so I got a little paranoid, assuming she must have forgot them or something. I ended up finding her dad's # off the internet and texted him asking her to contact me(yes,he was a bit weirded out), emailing our geometry teacher asking her to pass on my contact info to her. I know that was too much and while I wasn't trying to be a stalker that sure wasn't a good way to go about it. She did email me telling me that that was alot and was abit pissed. I apologized and offered to leave her alone but she said we could move past that. When I told her that I hope she didn't think I was suicidal, she said she didn't (remember this). This was during the summer and things were fine for a bit, until August...

I got an email from her with her phone number(we had just been emailing) and she asked if I could do something for her. I texted her and this is basically what she told me she was planning:

-She was going to go from where she lives now, she moved during the summer to another by the train/bus alone, by herself. Her parents don't know and neither does anyone else aside from me, her therapist, and maybe a small other amount of people I'm not sure. But her parents she definitely didn't want aware.

-She's going there to meet some person she specified as a male. This isn't someone she has romantic intentions with, because I asked her if this was a boyfriend or an ex and she said no. She also said this wasn't anything illegal.

-What she had wanted me to do was to be a backup contact in case something happened to her. I had agreed at first. I asked her if she could text me periodically so i know she's alright, but she then said that she doesn't want to make this guy ''more suspicious''. She also said she isn't 100% sure if this was a good idea.

-This was on a Saturday, and when I had agreed to be her back up contact, she was grateful even texfing "(My name, if no one ever said you're awesome, you're awesome), the next day on Sunday she texted me saying she doesn't want me in her plan anymore because this seemed too much for me and that it was her business and not to tell anyone else.

Now this was where I began to feel this was actually a bad idea. My friend is a young, small-framed petite, 16 year old who's traveling from one city to another to meet some guy who seems not really safe, and she's doing this alone without her own parents knowledge. Knowing that this could result in the typical missing girl scenario you see on the news all the time, I decide to tell someone.

I emailed our old English teacher telling her I urgently needed to talk to her at lunch. The reason for telling my English teacher instead of my mom was because my mom isn't one of those parents that i real strict with me and knows everything I'm doing and i felt she would overreact. Frankly I don't tell either of my parents things like this because with all the trouble between them I don't look to them for much.I knew I had to tell someone, and my teacher like I said gives decent advice and considering how my friend had talked to her she could shed some light on this. I showed her the texts and explained to her , and while she couldn't tell me what my friend had talked about with her, she did say that this was related to what my friend told her and that she might have an idea of where she was going.

She ended up asking a school counselor and all she could end up doing was filing a report to CPS(she had to do it before after my friend had talked to her. She said my friend isn't experiencing physical or sexual abuse, but something is going on. Her parents aren't causing it but they re not preventing it either. My teacher said it was hard to explain what it was especially since my friend didn't even give her much detail.

I hadn't heard from my friend two days since that sunday, and i had called, left voicemails, emailed, and texted saying i was really worried(looking back it was kinda excessive). She finally got back at me on the Wednesday of that week, with a voicemail saying that she doesn't need my help, she's ''fine'' and to talk about something else.

We later argued over texts and here's what she told me since she lives in her new city (it's a higher risk area) she's always at risk anyway and she has her phone, charger, pepper spray, an app that alerts whether or not she made it to her location. She also has a nail polish that changes color if a drink has been tampered with, and that her that city wasn't as bad as her new one. She can take care of herself.

I then told her how i had showed our old teacher our texts and she texted back asking why I did that and tried to call me but I panicked and turned off my phone. She left a voice mail saying that if I was really being ''noble and considerate'' that I would have looked at things from her perspective and not told someone when she asked me not to.

So then after I gave us a few days to cool off, we talked on the phone and she said that she does have common sense and that between what i did during summer, I do too much and told me her parents are strict and don't let her go anywhere by herself and they don't know because they would try to stop her. She also said the reasons she told me initially was because I wasn't an adult/authority figure who coul stop her and even if I tried to talk her out of it she wouldn't care. I told her I don't want her to think I'm a bad person and she says we'll get better and that was that. She also mentioned that her parents being strict their judgement can't always be trusted. About two hours later, I texted her with some things I forgot to say and that while I did have questions, she could answer them when she felt ready. I also mentioned that I myself get frustrated with parents thinking they know everything(which I do). Big mistake. She sent me a series of texts saying not to talk about this anymore and stop trying to relate to her because I don't get it. She even straight up ADMITS that she never said the guy WASN'T dangerous, she didn't know his intentions but to just stop and stay out of it.

After that, I had let it go for a bit, but then sent an email which was honestly pretty cringey looking back. The TL;DR of it was that I basically pointed out every nuance of why I thought this was a bad idea and even threw in some self righteous stuff about being a friend or yesman. Again, I didn't have bad intentions but that doesn't mean what I went about things perfectly She responded saying how it was rude, unnecessary how I was hell bent on being a savior of some sort(she wasn't really wrong) and basically a repeat of what she said about how she would have to go on her own anyway and there's always risk. but added at the end I should stop for my own sake before she ''did or said something rude or mean.'' Maybe I should have listened.

So after that I did drop the whole thing for a bit and we did some small talk emails, but then I sent an email saying I wasn't implying all those things about her and how I felt this whole thing had strained our friendship. I didn't hear from her for almost two months and I did end up informing her dad of what she was planning. But let me just say I eventually found I knew I might've royally messed up. BADLY. Because during these two months I had tried to call and message her several times(which probably wasn't a good idea) and then I sent an email on a different account and she eventually replied. Long story short, she said she didn't care about my feelings or my ''duty'' to do what's right and that we were never friends, and that she was trying to get us to be because her dad was worried I would kill myself, and basically went off on me for continuing to get involved, calling me a ''crazy'' and a ''stalker'' She let a couple things slip about her dad calling her ''crazy like her mom'' and ''stupid'' and how he was already trying to "put her on a leash" and she didn't care what he had to say, but told me to stay out of it or she would get the police involved.

I then said sorry and asked if we could move past this, but she said no and to never contact her again in any way or risk police intervention. She also said how we were never friends because friends don't start things off like I did in the beginning and not to contact her father again and I had become more stalkerish, and she didn't want to hear from me again.

Almost 4 years since that happened. So yeah, a grade-A whiteknighting mess
 
That all sounds difficult, but as it's well in the past now, I think the best thing is to learn what you can from it, and let it go. Sounds like you see quite a lot of it a bit differently on reflection, which is often how these things go in my experience. It's pretty tough to have to worry about someone who actually isn't taking much notice of what you think or feel.

Hope you have some stuff going on now that's interesting, or if not, can start to plan for yourself? How's it going with the parental conflict, are they over it yet? Mine were the same but eventually they divorced. Like, finally.
 
We've all made mistakes in the past, you are clearly acknowledging what you did, aware of what you did wrong... Best thing now is to keep moving forward, and learn from those past events... And if possible (although it sounds like you've lost contact) apologize to her, with being too creepy... And if nothing else, forgive yourself for the mistake, it will help you move forward with your life...
 
I don't think you did wrong at all by telling someone where she was going - it sounds like even she didn't think it was safe, and it definitely wasn't safe. As much as teenage me would have agreed with her, adult me has to say that was the right thing to do.

As for the rest...eh. Yeah, you came off as creepy, but as a veteran "accidental creep" I can totally see how that happened. I never mean to be creepy either but I have a really hard time ascertaining the right thing to do in certain situations and it goes sideways sometimes. It's probably the worst of the social difficulties, for me at least. I never fail to beat myself up about it endlessly, either. Even if I know my intent was good, I just can't forgive myself when it happens.
 
The runaway part was scary. I hope things turned out all right. It is a hard decision but I think going to the councelor and parents was the right choice.

As for the rest one might summerize it as you were in chemistry but there wasn't.

I may be wrong but I find the 'didn't like her romantically' hard to believe. You certainly gave her a lot of persistant attention.
 
The runaway part was scary. I hope things turned out all right. It is a hard decision but I think going to the councelor and parents was the right choice.

As for the rest one might summerize it as you were in chemistry but there wasn't.

I may be wrong but I find the 'didn't like her romantically' hard to believe. You certainly gave her a lot of persistant attention.

I honestly didn't. Maybe I just had the observation she was cute but in all honesty at the time I just wanted friends and was pretty alone and socially awkward at the time. Looking back I wouldn't have found her dad's number at all and probably would have stopped at telling the teacher and counselor. I still would have told them because yeah, that was some Lifetime Movie-esque **** going on. I remember wondering if perhaps she was involved with gangs or some organized crime. Sounds silly, at the time I don't blame myself for considering that a possibility.
 
I don't think you did wrong at all by telling someone where she was going - it sounds like even she didn't think it was safe, and it definitely wasn't safe. As much as teenage me would have agreed with her, adult me has to say that was the right thing to do.

As for the rest...eh. Yeah, you came off as creepy, but as a veteran "accidental creep" I can totally see how that happened. I never mean to be creepy either but I have a really hard time ascertaining the right thing to do in certain situations and it goes sideways sometimes. It's probably the worst of the social difficulties, for me at least. I never fail to beat myself up about it endlessly, either. Even if I know my intent was good, I just can't forgive myself when it happens.
I can relate to that.
 
We've all made mistakes in the past, you are clearly acknowledging what you did, aware of what you did wrong... Best thing now is to keep moving forward, and learn from those past events... And if possible (although it sounds like you've lost contact) apologize to her, with being too creepy... And if nothing else, forgive yourself for the mistake, it will help you move forward with your life...
Yeah, I didn't contact her again after that last email so as to not escalate any trouble(plus her saying she's blocking any emails and texts), and I don't think she'd want/be open to an apology. I guess it's confusing. I by no means excusing any of the things I did do wrong here, but after the whole getting her dad's number thing I offered to leave her alone, and yet we moved on for a bit and then came her letting me in on her running away plot(even if it was only because I was a ''convenient option'')
 
That all sounds difficult, but as it's well in the past now, I think the best thing is to learn what you can from it, and let it go. Sounds like you see quite a lot of it a bit differently on reflection, which is often how these things go in my experience. It's pretty tough to have to worry about someone who actually isn't taking much notice of what you think or feel.

Hope you have some stuff going on now that's interesting, or if not, can start to plan for yourself? How's it going with the parental conflict, are they over it yet? Mine were the same but eventually they divorced. Like, finally.
At the moment, I'm finishing up EMT training and preparing to move to start a new life.
 
I honestly didn't. Maybe I just had the observation she was cute but in all honesty at the time I just wanted friends and was pretty alone and socially awkward at the time. Looking back I wouldn't have found her dad's number at all and probably would have stopped at telling the teacher and counselor. I still would have told them because yeah, that was some Lifetime Movie-esque **** going on. I remember wondering if perhaps she was involved with gangs or some organized crime. Sounds silly, at the time I don't blame myself for considering that a possibility.


I still don't believe you. :D But don't take it personally. I interpret it as you being emotionally attached to her, which is a form of romance often I think. If it was simply a matter of friends, 1 ea, you would have dropped it and invested your time elsewhere, like with George down the street.
 

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