Mcyt -autistic- oneshots

Sand before the restaurant pt.2 (Jack and Phil+Wilbur)

Wilbur's POV:

Phil was stressing himself out because we were a little late to meeting up with everyone, and he had promised Jack we would be there. I told him not to worry, but when we got there, I realised he may have had a valid reason to be worried. We said hello to everyone, and did all our elbow bumps and stuff. Then Phil, nudged me in the side -which hurt quite a lot-, and pointed down to the sea. I could see Jack stood there, and decided that I should probably go check on him, and at least tell him that Phil and I were here. I stood behind him for a second and when he didn't turn around, I put my hand on his shoulder, and turned him around to face me.

He took out an ear bud and looked at me, "hey Will. How are you today?"

"I'm great thanks. How are you?"

"A little overwhelmed and anxious, but otherwise excited to meet everyone."

"Do you want to come and sit down with us? You can sit with me and Phil?" He turned to me and nodded, with a smile. Together, we trekked back up the beach and found our seats in the circle. Phil asked Jack how he was and he just gave a thumbs up back. Despite Jack saying he was okay, the fact he wasn't talking meant he probably wasn't great. 

As several different conversations occurred between everyone, I could see Jack shifting the position he was sat in every minute or so. "Hey. You know, if it's going to help, you are allowed to play with the sand. Just try not to put it in your mouth. But if you do, that's fine. Phil and I can help and no one is going to make a scene out of it. Okay?" He copied my whispering tone and said okay back, before reaching down to his side and moving his fingers through the sand. Instantly, I saw his shoulders relax and his face turn into one only showing concentration.

I wrote out a note on my phone and handed it to Phil: I've told him, he can play with the sand because otherwise I think he's just going to explode from being so nervous and underwhelmed. Don't worry, if he eats it, he eats it; it's just going to have to be like that. After nodding his head in return, we both went back to conversations. Every now and again, Jack would join in, make a joke or answer someone's question. It interested me about how something he was nervous to do because of it being socially unacceptable, actually allowed him to be more sociable. To be more socially acceptable, in some ways. And he seemed fine with the sand; his hand hadn't moved from it. Well, Tommy just had to say something to change that.

Now to be fair to him, he was just trying to make a joke and Phil hadn't explained the full situation to everyone. "Hey Jack? I thought Will was the one obsessed with sand, you know with him crunching on it and everything." Everyone laughed, it would have been a funny joke; had Jack only been playing with the sand because he was bored. Everyone laughed, but me, Jack and Phil. Jack instantly pulled his hands away from the floor and started brushing the sand of them, whilst looking straight into my eyes to try and tell me he was upset and needed some help right about now. And whilst I racked my brain, working out what to do, Phil told Tommy the joke wasn't funny and the situation was quite serious. Tommy's smile dropped and he apologised, now showing a very guilty looking face. Everyone else went dead quiet.

As people started up different conversations again, Jack started hitting his kneecaps and shaking his head from side to side. I told Phil to find a chew out of Jack's bag before he ate some sand, and started trying to talk to Jack and explain everything. It didn't go very well. Niki, who was sat on the other side of me, asked me if he was okay, and as I turned round to answer her, Phil raised his voice, "Will!" There Jack was, 2 handfuls of sand and some on his lips and cheeks. After, holding Jack's hands and brushing sand off them, I got given a chew, a towel and bottle of water, all of which Phil had found in Jack's bag. Jack told us later that by that point, he had swallowed the little amount of sand he had managed to get into his mouth, so the water didn't do much but give him a drink. He used the towel to brush his face of sand and shoved the chew in his face before returning to flick his fingers through the sand, this time on Phil's side instead of mine. We knew everyone was expecting it to happen, but it still didn't stop the weird looks.