My best friend in the entire world is autistic, as am I. We don’t talk as much as we used to, now that I’m in college and he has a job, but we do emotionally look out for each other, reaching out and being a shoulder to cry on when the other is going through a rough patch. I can’t say for certain that I’m his best friend in the whole world, especially considering that ever since he went off to college, we no longer live in the same time zone, and I wouldn’t blame him for making new friends closer to home, but he’s made it clear I’m still in his top three. Besides, I’ve met his new inner circle both in person and through online videogames, and if even half of them are neurotypical, I’ll eat my hat.

Regardless of whether he considers me his best friend or not, your statement that an autistic person cannot be the best friend of another human being, or worse, anything other than the one “friend” who everyone only keeps around because they are useful, is simply false. I am deeply sorry that your experiences thus far have been so awful that they have led you to believe this, but I assure you, they are not universal. There is hope in the world. And I truly believe that even at your age, if you go looking, you’ll find plenty of people for whom being autistic is a bonus in a friend rather than a detriment.