# Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Wet Clothing Forum - Beach Club ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Robert on October 09, 2022 at 21:41:29

Haven't posted in a while for various reasons. But here's a story summarizing some of the happenings recently involving Sam and Robbie, and their friends. This one hits a bit of a different nail too, and has lots of non-wet context. If it's too long, sorry in advance. But I feel like it's important to discuss.

As I've noted before, Sam just started Grade 9 (high school). He has a crush on a girl I'll call Idoshe here, and the two have been dating and going out a lot. There's this other kid that's new to the area that just started school here who I will call Ben (Did I use that name before?? If so, not the same person...). Unfortunately, Ben is being bullied a lot by his peers, and is on the autism spectrum, so he is not comfortable socially nor with other people. This, I think, is what causes a lot of others to take advantage of him and then get him to say something weird, then bully him for it.

Well, Sam started feeling really bad for him and stepped in one day. "Hey! Stop picking on him, it's not his fault he doesn't know what you're talking about!" Sam said.

His peers just kind of looked at him and laughed, then proceeded to pick on Ben again. Idoshe also stepped in and began to tell the kids to pick on her instead, to which one of them called her a bad racist name that begins with an n. Well, she did ask for it, essentially, but it just shows how bad the bullies are.

My problem with all this is that these teachers don't seem to want to deal with the bullies. It's always Ben who "should learn how to handle it" instead of the bullies who should "learn to tolerate those who are different".

Me, being someone who has long suspected I am on the autism spectrum as well (but have never been diagnosed), felt horrible when Sam was telling me about this that I thought it might be a good idea to offer to come to the school to speak about autism and bullying, and other such things. I do this kind of stuff anyway for my work (I work for a non-profit now that works with under priviledged kids - many of whom have diorders such as ADHD, autism, PTSD, and other things like fetal alcholol syndrome, and the like.) It was like pulling teeth trying to get the school to agree for me to come, as they didn't think it was necessary "since the cirriculum covers this already". Yeah, well, then start doing something about it. I did end up getting to attend one of the classes - I'll cover this more below.

So, in short, Sam and Idoshe became very friendly with Ben. Started trying to involve him in things and protecting him. Eventually one of Sam's other friends (who he only just met at this school too), I'll call him Greg, also became involved. They found out that Ben's "obsessions" include things like public transit (buses and trains), maps, and sports statistics (particularly baseball, and even more particularly, the Blue Jays). He knew more than the employees about public transit in the area - where the bus garages were, which buses are assigned to which garages, which commuter trains have upgraded crew cabs, where the track switches are and how they work, etc. Encyclopedic knowledge of those things. Since Sam takes the bus a lot from our town into the big city and the bigger city to go out to things (either with Idoshe or with other friends), he's very appreciative of someone who knows what's going on. Greg came from a household of some abuse, so he lives now with his aunt and uncle, and has always tried to "take a step back" from being fully involved in the teenage life atmosphere (because it would just make things at home worse), and he really enjoys now hanging out with Sam and his friends.

Sorry, I know this is getting boring since it's non-wet. Trust me, it gets wet later.

One recent weekend, Sam arranged a sleep over for Greg and Ben (not Idoshe - I guess you're not supposed to have sleepovers with your girlfriend??? - anyway, she had one with some of her female friends anyway around the same time), along with Mickey whom I mentioned in the baseball story. Mickey lives in Big City nearby and goes to a different high school. Ben was initially worried and anxious about meeting someone new, but he quickly warmed up to it when he learned that Mickey likes baseball and is a pitcher.

When Mickey showed up, he showed up with a large-ish suitcase. "You're only staying one night, Mickey," I said to him.

"I know. I thought I might need some changes of clothes," Mickey said.

Oh, I see. So I just smirked.

Greg showed up next and came with just himself and his backpack. Greg is half-Black, has the really short black curly hair that is very common among people his race, and is quite tall for his age - he and Mickey are basically the same height, over 6 feet tall.

Sam had gone out to get Ben and the two were going to walk to our place together. Ben was obviously very nervous and anxious, and his mother said he had a bit of a tantrum not wanting to go. But Sam convinced him. They showed up about a half-hour after Greg arrived.

Upon arrival, Ben just sat there in the family room silent. The others were talking about the upcoming dance, a pep rally, and a couple of other things. I was sitting in my office and could hear what was going on, and Lisa (my wife if you have forgotten) was going to make them dinner soon.

Suddenly, I heard a lot more talking. I went out, and Ben was chatting! He seemed to be very interested. When I heard what they were talking about (the Blue Jays), I asked if I could join in.

-----

Quick tangent - I don't want to talk about the Blue Jays complete and utter choke in the playoffs... None of us in our household want to talk about it. Robbie and a couple of friends, including Arowyn (his girlfriend) and Lester were at Game 2... All I will say now is that the household was so quiet last night you could have heard a leaf fall from a tree and hit the grass.

-----

They were all chatting about the Blue Jays' playoff chances. Ben was going on about his encyclopedic knowledge - things like how the Rogers Centre is laid out, where the clubhouse is with respect to the field, how the players get paid, how their agents work with them, how the retractable roof works, how many games have started with the roof open and finished with it closed, etc. Mickey was genuinely interested, as was Sam. I could tell Greg was a bit less interested, but he knew about Ben's condition and didn't say anything.

I mentioned something that I wasn't sure if Ben would know. "So Ben, can you tell me how many games in Blue Jays history have started with the roof closed, then open, then closed again?" I asked.

"Uh, none as far as I know," he said, with a look on his face like I 'got him'.

"One. Robbie and I were at it when he was 8. Roof was closed at first pitch, but started opening right away. Was fully open by the bottom of the 1st. Then it was open all the way through the 7th inning before a bunch of rain clouds appeared out of nowhere and poured on us, so they shut it again," I said. "It was noted by the commentators that this was the first time this had ever happened."

Ben said, "no no, I there was another," which was one of the things he always got picked on for - correcting people. But I was interested, because I was just going by what the tv reporters said after the game, which could very well have been wrong.

He mentioned another game where the same thing happened.

Anyway, this is all just setup. Basically, that now Ben was fully involved (dominating a bit, but that's ok - people on the spectrum tend to do that and need to be respected for doing that).

After dinner, Mickey asked, "so what're we gonna do tonight? I brought some extra clothes," then smirked.

Neither Greg nor Ben knew what Mickey was talking about, but Sam did.

"Oh, sure! We can get wet!" said Sam. "Let me just go change."

"Uh, uh, uh! No changing! Soak exactly what you're wearing!" said Mickey.

Sam just smirked as Greg looked confused. "Uh, what are you talking about?" he said.

"We're gonna get soaked tonight. Hope you don't mind," said Mickey.

"Uh, I didn't bring any extra clothes other than another pair of underwear and a shirt," said Greg.

"That's ok, that's part of the fun," said Sam. I have other clothes that should fit you."

The weather was quite warm, still, when this happened, so the boys went to the backyard and got out the sprinkler and the hose, and a couple of water guns along with a bucket. Ben initially was sitting over on the deck beside Greg watching as Mickey and Sam got completely, 100% soaked.

For those interested, Mickey was wearing grey skinny jogging pants with the elastic at the ankles, a black t-shirt, white socks and black/white Vans shoes. Sam was wearing his beige skinny cargo pants, a white collared golf (polo) shirt, and ended up putting on his brand-f***ing new white Uptempo shoes.

"Are those shoes new?" asked Mickey, just as he saw the water squelch out of them with a step.

"Yup. Got them yesterday," said Sam.

"F***ing awesome!" said Mickey, as he directed the hose water more directly at Sam's shoes.

Sam looked over at Greg and Ben. "Come on, join us! Your clothes will dry, it's only water!" he said.

Greg seemed a bit interested after being invited, but Ben said a quiet, "no thank you."

Greg approached and got a bucket of water poured on him. So he was now fully involved. Greg was wearing black skinny jogging pants, a white long-sleeved shirt, and at that very moment had on only his black socks. But that was rectified when Mickey ran (or rather, "squelched") up to the deck and sprayed water into his black Air Max Plus (TN's) shoes (like these: www dot nike dot com/ca/t/air-max-plus-shoe-xqTPR4El/AJ2029-001).

That was it, Greg was interested and very involved.

I noticed Ben still sitting there with the others having fun. So I went out and sat beside him.

"Gonna join them?" I asked.

"No thanks," Ben said.

"You might find it fun to get all wet," I said.

"I don't know," said Ben.

Sam saw me sitting there talking to Ben, so all the boys stopped and "squelched" over to the deck.

"Sorry, Ben, we should have you involved here too! C'mon, join in! It's fun to have a water fight!" said Sam.

Ben looked extremely nervous. "What's on your mind?" I asked. "It's ok to talk about it. If you think it will feel bad and trigger your anxiety, I understand. But what happens if it's soothing and is better for your anxiety?"

Note that this is what I felt and is one of the "sensory" issues I've dealt with all my life. I hate the feeling of dry clothes on my body, particularly seams and tags and other things that protrude from the clothes. But when clothes were wet, all that seemed to go away. I know this isn't always the same for all people on the spectrum, but I figured I would tell him this.

Sam then sat down beside him.

"See, my clothes are completely soaked, my shoes are soaked, and they make funny sounds when you walk, and feel even more incredible when you walk or move them," Sam said while 'squelching' his shoes to make the sounds.

"My Mom would kill me," said Ben.

"Let me handle that," I said. "This is a sleepover, you're here under my supervision tonight and you can live by my rules."

"Why don't we put a little water on you first and see if you like it," said Mickey.

Ben just smiled, but I could tell it was a forced smile.

Mickey got the bucket of water and filled it up. Then he poured a little bit down Ben's back.

Again, for interest, Ben was wearing light blue faded blue jeans, a yellow t-shirt, and had on all black Air Monarch shoes.

Ben laughed as the water went down his back, soaking the back of his shirt.

"Hey, that tickles," he said.

"More?" asked Mickey.

Ben smiled again, but I still thought it was a bit forced. "Sure," he said.

I did stop him again, to say one thing. "Ben, you don't 'have' to do this. Don't feel like you're being pressured. If you don't like it, just say so, and the boys will stop and you can come in," I said.

"Of course, I know that with all of you," said Ben.

Well, Ben got fully involved and was fully soaked within 2 minutes.

The water fight made it out to the front yard. We live in a very rural area, so don't have a house extremely close by, but the river/stream/waterfall is walking distance, and lots of people usually come by. By the time they were out front, Ben was as involved as the others and you would never have known he was ever sitting on the deck worried and anxious about doing this.

The boys were out there until it got dark. When they came in, Sam said, "ok, time to wash off in the shower. I'll go first."

"The shower?" asked Greg.

"Yeah, wash out the dirt and such. We were rolling on the ground a lot, and our shoes are not, uh, clean," he said.

Just as they were coming in, Robbie got home.

"Having fun?" he asked, clearly excited.

"Absolutely," said Mickey, who purposely 'squelched' his shoe close to Robbie to make water come out.

All four boys ended up in the bathroom (!!??) - with the door open/unlocked - and were taking turns in the shower. Then I heard squelching suddenly.

"Mr. D?..." (I forget what I used as my fake last name on here, sorry), "... I don't want to track water through the whole house, but can you please bring me my suitcase?" asked Mickey.

Mickey was shiny wet, and was asking for his suitcase. I knew exactly what for.

"Sure," I said, as I got it from Sam's room.

"Thanks," he said, squelching back into the bathroom.

I heard some more squelching later, which was Sam going to his room and getting more clothes. Basically what happened was all four boys had gotten a whole bunch of clothes soaked either in the shower or the bathtub.

"Let's walk outside like this," I suddenly heard Ben say. "No one will notice if it's dark out."

They had already been outside soaked, so I was confused. I went to check on them and realized right away. All four had on nice suits (only Mickey had on a tie), completely soaked.

"Where'd you get those?" I asked.

"Mine's from my closet," said Sam. "Greg's wearing one of my dress shirts, Ben's wearing one of Mickey's extra suits."

I smirked. "What's the fun of it if no one will see you?" I asked.

"Good point," said Mickey. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we do this again in the morning and then go door-to-door pretending we're selling something."

Ben suddenly looked nervous.

"Uh, what?" asked Greg, smiling.

"Yeah, would be fun to get people's reactions," said Mickey.

"I have a better idea. Why don't we let them mostly dry tonight, then go down to the river tomorrow like this, and play around in the water. THAT would get looks," said Sam.

Robbie overheard that and piped up. "What's this about going to the river?" he asked.

"Tomorrow. We're gonna go to the river like this tomorrow," he said.

Robbie immediately had an idea (which leads me to Robbie's story).

The boys all undressed and changed, and ended up staying up late with Ben talking them to sleep about the buses in the area. I think it was 1 AM before they were actually asleep. In the morning, Robbie was in the bathroom a long time.

"Come on," said Lisa. "My stuff's in there and I'm going to work today."

This was a Saturday, but Lisa works in retail a bit so this was one of her shifts.

"I'll be a minute, Mom!" he yelled.

Finally, about 15 minutes later, he emerged. All of the other boys almost spit out their breakfast.

"Robbie!??" said Mickey.

"No!" he said in a high-pitched voice. "I'm Roberta!" as he twirled around with his arms up and his long hair moving around.

Robbie's hair is quite long now. He wanted it to get like Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays, so let it keep going. But he still had some of Arowyn's clothes, so he decided to put them on and do makeup and the whole bit. And then go with the boys to the river. He was wearing the black pantyhose, a short white pleated skirt and a black skinny top that reveals the belly button and has cap sleeves that reveal his underarms.

"I'm coming with you like this," Robbie said in his normal voice.

"Bit revealing, no?" said Greg.

"Why? Because of my arm pits?" asked Robbie, holding his arms up.

"That white skirt's gonna kinda go see-through," said Greg.

"That's fine, that's why I wore it," said Robbie, smirking.

I noticed Ben was just staring at Robbie. Staring him up and down.

The boys finished their breakfast, my wife rushed to get herself ready and went off to work, and the boys then got "dressed" in their still-damp suits to go down to the river.

I didn't tag along, so everything from this point is hearsay, but I trust most of it is correct.

"Let's just walk down the trails first. Robbie, you pretend you're my girlfriend and hold my hand," said Sam.

To be honest, Sam and Robbie are basically the same height now, so you wouldn't be able to tell the age difference. But the way Robbie did himself up, he looked "normal" except for being a giant in height compared to most girls.

As they got down one of the trails, some old couple said to them nicely, "is there a wedding down here today?"

"Nah, just an outing before a quadruple date," said Sam.

"Oh," said the old man, smiling. "New thing I guess with the kids."

No one had noticed that the rest of the boys' suits were wet, since they weren't shiny-wet. But that was about to change.

Finally, as they got down to where the waterfall is (and the resulting "pool" of water), Robbie started to speak in his faked high voice.

"We should try to climb on those branches and hang over the water," Robbie said.

"Nah, just jump in," said Mickey. "I like being full wet better than this damp wet. This damp wet is actually quite uncomfortable."

"Agreed," said Sam.

"Ok, then, pick me up and throw me in," said Robbie in his normal voice.

"You're on!" said Sam.

Sam and Mickey picked up Robbie, who was also wearing white and blue Air Jordans, and started to swing 'him' towards the water. Robbie started pretending to not want to be thrown in using his high-pitched voice. They were about to let go when they suddenly heard, "Hey!!!" from behind.

"Hey, put her down!" the voice yelled again as another old couple appeared off one of the trails. "Put her down, she obviously doesn't want to get thrown in! And look what she's wearing!"

Mickey and Sam put Robbie down and Robbie spoke in his normal voice. "Hi, uh, sorry, I'm actually a guy and we're just having some fun. I asked them to throw me in," he said.

"Oh, uh, you're a cross-dresser?" the guy asked.

"Not really, just like doing this for fun now and again. These are my girlfriend's clothes," said Robbie. "But I'm not a 'cross-dresser' in the sense you're thinking."

"Oh I see," said the old man.

"Are you coming from a wedding or something?" asked the old lady. "Kinda early for that?"

"Nah, just wanted to have fun and get reactions. Didn't quite intend for this kind of reaction, but it's neat that we're talking to you," said Robbie.

"I see," said the old lady.

"Well, have fun then, I guess," said the old man.

"Oh we will!" said Robbie, who ended up just jumping into the water right in front of them.

"Oh my!" another voice said further back.

"They're boys and they're being boys," said the old lady.

"Oh, that's not a girl?" said one of the other people on the trail.

"No," said the old lady, who was smirking.

Sam jumped in next, followed by Mickey. Greg needed a bit of coaxing, and Ben was standing over by a tree keeping out of the situation.

"C'mon, Ben, water's warm!" Mickey said.

Ben smiled and dove right in.

They were messing around in the water as Mickey looked around and noticed they had a fairly large audience. The boys got out, jumped back in, had more fun, then sloshed and squelched their way back to the trail.

"Wedding party?" asked a young couple who were on the trail as runners.

"Nah, just a fun party," said Robbie in his normal voice.

"Oh you're a guy. Could'a fooled me," he said.

"Thanks," said Robbie.

The boys started 'squelching' back down the trail to our place. Robbie's pantyhose were completely shiny, the skirt was clearly transparent showing the pantyhose under them. He was a bit indecent, but didn't care since that comes with being a teenager. His black shirt was shining in the light once they emerged a bit from the forested trails, and the other boys' suits were glistening.

"Did you have fun?" Mickey asked Ben.

"Yeah, that was actually a lot of fun. But there were so many people looking at us. What if they tell our parents?" said Ben, whose voice was apparently shaking.

"Don't worry, no one will do that. Besides, if your mom says anything about this, my dad will talk to her. This is just some fun we have and it's harmless. Love the reactions from people, actually. I was shocked that we had an audience," said Sam.

"And people thought we were at a wedding party. Hmm, maybe we should plan something like this at our weddings," said Robbie, smirking.

When the boys got back home, they were still glistening wet. Robbie's pantyhose were still shining and were sort of see-through too since pantyhose kind of get like that even when they are dry. They messed around in the backyard again, before finally coming back inside.

"Need anything dried?" I asked the boys.

"Do you mind if I just leave my wet stuff here, Mr. D?" asked Mickey. "I can get it next time I'm in town."

"Sure. Want us to wash it?" I asked.

"You don't have to. But if you do, I'll pay for it," said Mickey.

I just smirked. I got all the other stuff dried, even Greg's shoes for the most part.

As they changed into dry clothes, they all sat in the living room. Robbie was back to being a boy again, and sat with them. They opened up Ben again and got going about the Blue Jays again. (Now you know why no one in this household wants to talk about what just happened in the playoffs...).

Greg's Mom came to pick him up, then Mickey's dad.

"Did you have fun?" asked Mickey's dad.

"Abso-f***ing-lutely, uh, I mean, absolutely," he said, blushing after the addition of a swear word.

Mickey's dad smirked, knowing what it meant, and I came down to greet him.

"They had a blast and even ended up with an audience in at the waterfall," I said.

"Mickey's always wanted to go to there," said Mickey's dad. "And I think do do exactly what he did."

"You know what he wore, right?" I asked.

"The suit?" said his dad.

Mickey looked a bit like he was shocked his dad knew, but also knew that he had permission to soak anything he wanted, so wasn't too worried.

"Yup," I said. "He's leaving it here. We'll take care of it and get it back."

"No no no, you don't have to do that," said Mickey's dad.

"It's quite fine, we have a couple to deal with. All of them wore suits," I said.

"I see. Oh, so you soaked both of them?" said Mickey's dad to Mickey.

"I soaked one. Lent parts of the other one to Ben and Greg," said Mickey.

"I see," said Mickey's dad.

We exchanged further pleasantries, then they went off.

"Want me to drive Ben home?" I asked Sam.

"Oh, can you?" Sam asked.

"Sure. But you should come along too," I said.

"Oh absolutely, but I was just starting to dread walking that far. I'm already exhausted from this morning!" he said.

So we got in the car and I drove Ben home. He asked if he could sit in the front seat, and ended up saying that he can only sit in the front or he'll get high anxiety. Not "car sick", per se, but part of his spectrum he needs to be able to see more out the front window to see what's going on.

After Sam and I got back home, I had an email from Ben's mom. In summary, it was basically like this:

"I want to express my heartfelt thanks for involving Ben in all the activities the boys did. He had a blast. He said he did things that I would normally have forbidden, and mind you it took him a while to tell me what they were, and I don't mind at all. His dad and I just want him to have a better childhood than he's had, and his friendship with your son Sam has meant the world to him. He looks up to Sam as a mentor, and apparently also admires Robbie now too as an 'older brother' kind of person.

"He's very thankful, and we're thankful that you and your son have helped him out. I understand your son's girlfriend has been instrumental too, and I will email her parents too - can you provide her email if you have it?

"Sincerely thank you,"

I was almost in tears after reading it, and just had to get into the school at this point. I did manage to get in and have a chat with one of Sam's classes.

I spoke about autism, the spectrum, and how all autistic people are different anyway. Not all autistics are low functioning, and also noted that 'high functioning' doesn't necessarily mean 'mild' which is a common misconception.

I kind of got the drift from the class that the teachers didn't believe that Ben has autism because he is quite high functioning, and felt it was more of him just purposely saying silly and goofy things to get attention, then ending up getting negative attention instead. One of the girls in the class, I forget her name so I won't even make up a name, said sorry right in front of the class and was crying. She then opened up about some mental health struggles she's had and how the stigma is the worst part. Then encouraged all her peers to think about others and not just about themselves, and recognize that we are all different and that it's ok to have our 'quirks' and such. Later, Ben stood up too, voice quivering like a leaf about to fall off a tree, and said that he's always been terrified of doing something wrong, especially since he'd get laughed at or bullied if he didn't do it right.

I think this was absolutely an eye opener for those students, and I'm glad I was able to do it. I think it was also an eye opener for that particular teacher, and my hope is that she reaches out to her colleagues and educates them a bit more about mental health and bullying and things like that, and how those things can be traumatic for teens and kids.

A little more about Ben.

I hope this was the start of helping Ben out more through high school. Sam said he's still being bullied by others, but not at all now by those in that class I went to. In fact, many of those students try to involve him more. I also made it clear not to force him to be involved, because him being in crowds and unfamiliar places may not be enjoyable for him, and it seems like most of those peers now are just trying to ask him what he does like and then trying to help him through those things. And then asking him if he wants to try something new (like a sport) and then helping him out with it, instead of laughing at him for being bad at it.

Ben did enjoy getting wet. He said to Sam after that the feeling of the wet clothes basically felt like it was the stress and anxiety dripping and squelching away. Ben's mom allows him get wet in the shower once a week, and in certain clothes and a pair of shoes. For him, that's lots as it gives him the reset he needs. He's not really a wetlooker, I'd say, because he doesn't (yet) do it obsessively like many of us do or used to do, but it may get to that if that's a good way of him lowering his anxiety levels. None of the adults around him want him to get too heavily into it, because it can become a bit too obsessive, and with his already atypical brain, it could end up affecting him negatively in life.

He likes to have a lot of alone time, and has at times found the help he's been getting at school now a bit overwhelming. He told Idoshe that one day and she told him that it's ok if he ever doesn't want to go to something or so something, but that if he did want to, to just ask and they'd help him out.

Ben is quite short for his age, but is still fairly slim-built, despite being a bit inactive when it comes to physical activity. He has short brown hair that is kinda curly and messy naturally, and he hates it when it gets too long. He has highly sensitive touch (i.e. he'll jump when someone touches him on the shoulder, even if it's one of his friends or a family member, and then will recognize it and laugh about it after; he also can't stand tags on the backs of shirts and also seams on clothing), and has a fairly bad sensitivity to light. Noises are an interesting one. He can hear everything. He heard some odd noise in class once that no one else apparently heard. It turned out to be an issue with one of the computer projectors that ended up having a little bit of a poof afterwards... His sense of smell, well, it's over-sensitive too - he was able to smell smoke apparently once from his neighbour's house when there was a small fire and his alert smelling of that allowed them to get out and actually deal with the fire in time to save most of the house. Most of the time, however, these over-sensitivities actually cause him anxiety and result in him shutting down and withdrawing from situations. Although when he's into something that's one of his narrow interests (i.e., sports stats like volleyball scoring), all those things mostly go away.

He's always been more comfortable around adults. This is a typical thing it seems among kids who are bullied, whether or not they are autistic. But the autism seems to amplify it a bit because the adults don't bully him, so he would find more comfort in their presence than the company of people his age. But that does seem to be changing.

Robbie invited Ben to come along with his volleyball team one time to learn to do the scorekeeping (a very statistics-based thing Robbie thought he'd like). Ben has such a good attention to detail that he made sure he did it right and was very eager to learn. He now really enjoys doing the scoring, and has even been doing some official scoring lately rather than just shadowing the official scorers. He had a ref say "I've never seen a scorer so young that knows exactly what to do and is so alert to what's going on." That did make Ben happy. So this is something he's doing involving sports now that he enjoys. Robbie invited him just last weekend to go with his team (all Grade 12-aged kids) to a burger joint when his team won the tournament, and Ben ended up having a blast. Some of Robbie's teammates were so impressed that Ben could remember exactly how many serves each of them had, how many aces there were, how many points were scored in each game, etc., and they were picking his brain constantly (in a nice way).

Sorry for digressing so much into this topic. The reason I did is because I think being on the autism spectrum may be a bit common for many of us who enjoy wetlook and being into wet clothes, and would love to hear comments about that. As Ben happened to put it, it's just relieving of the stress and anxiety. That's exactly how I felt when I was his age, and all the way through university. I feel like I masked many of the symptoms for so long, that I even convinced myself that I'm not on the spectrum, but then I end up down for so long that even my wife has a hard time getting me back "up". Anyway, I'm "up" now, in case you're wondering.

Follow Ups:

- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Wetnboy 16:52:55 10/15/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Danik 20:49:16 10/14/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Wet air max 22:10:27 10/10/2022 (2)
  - Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Robert 23:04:01 10/10/2022 (1)
    - Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Wet air max 22:14:29 10/11/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Dolby1000 14:41:22 10/10/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Matt 10:44:54 10/10/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things wetjumper 01:07:20 10/10/2022 (2)
  - Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Meadows of Hathern 16:29:49 10/21/2022 (0)
  - Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Matt 09:13:13 10/10/2022 (0)
- Re: Sam's Friend Ben - And Other Things Robert 23:39:21 10/09/2022 (0)

Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:

Comments:

Optional Image URL:

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Wet Clothing Forum - Beach Club ] [ FAQ ]