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One party. Just one Christmas party. The one time he has to act natural and play it cool he blows it, of course.
Morty sits on the front steps of a classmate’s house, he thinks it’s one of Jessica’s friends’, shitty pop music blaring on inside and feeding his budding headache. He just had to go and screw everything up didn’t he? Why does he always do this?
Parties have never been his thing, Morty doubts they ever will be. Everything is dark and crowded, everyone is drunk and loud and every time he even attempts doing something fun that everyone else his age is doing, he blows it and ends up embarrassing himself or having Rick pull him away for some adventure.
The only reason he even came to this dumb party is because Jessica said she was going, or rather, he overheard she was coming. But as soon as Morty tried to talk to her he totally froze and she ended up just talking to Brad all night while Morty hid in the bathroom. Fucking typical.
As if that wasn’t bad enough he accidentally revealed he’d never drank before in front of everyone- including Jessica!- and suddenly he had some drink in his hand and everyone was egging him on and it was all too much so he just drank it, immediately coughing up a storm. He doesn’t know how Rick stands the stuff. Everyone got all quiet for a bit before leaving him alone, even Jessica left to do something else. That was when he took refuge in the bathroom.
Morty grinds the sole of his shoe against the gravel path as the cold chips away at his energy. Tears roll down his cheeks as he shivers, clutching his elbows and waiting for his mom. He’s never felt so un-festive in his life.
He doesn’t know how long it’s been, but he doesn’t raise his head as a car pulls up onto the curb. Morty sighs, psyching himself up to explain why he’s coming home early and why he’s crying until he hears a familiar horn beep.
Morty looks up and sees the ship with Rick inside. Huh?? Morty sniffles and wipes his eyes as he walks tentatively forward. What’s Rick doing here? He asked for his mom to pick him up, he didn’t feel like dealing with Rick tonight.
Rick nods in the get-the-fuck-in-already way and Morty hurriedly walks the rest of the way over down the path, not at all missing the sound of the music coming from the house, he could feel the base in his teeth and it was making his head spin. He opens the door and gets in slowly. It’s warmer in the ship than it is outside, Rick lingering there in the street for a moment, hands idly placed on the wheel.
Morty decides to break the silence.
“Wh-Why isn’t mom here?”
Rick sighs and shrugs. “Beth’s got a late shift at the horse hospital a-and Jerry’s bedtime is at 8:30, of course,” He says, gesturing around vaguely. “so your mom asked me to come get you.”
Morty sniffles, not wanting to continue this conversation. He draws away from Rick and holds his elbows while trying not to cry, curling into himself and leaning against the door. He wishes he dressed in his regular clothes, now he just feels like an idiot.
Rick groans, still not driving away. “Alright, wh-what happened?”
Morty turns to him in confusion. “What?”
“What happened in there?” Rick reiterates. “Obviously something or someone made you want to come home early, so what was it?”
“Why do you care?” Morty retorts, averting his eyes again and watching the colourful lights blink on in the window.
Rick groans again. “Because if your mom finds out that your first actual ‘t-teenage party’ went poorly, sh-she’s gonna go apeshit, Morty.”
Morty sighs. “I-I don’t care, just- c-can we please go home?”
“Well, if that’s what you wanna do then sure, b-but I do have a coupon…”
Morty raises an eyebrow. “Coupon? F-For what?”
“Gloppy Drop. I-I found it in my glovebox on the way over here.” Rick says.
“R-Right now? Like- at eleven at night?”
“God- d-do you want ice cream or not??”
“Alright, jeez!” Morty says as Rick boots up the ship and flies up into the sky. Morty watches the familiar sight of his neighbourhood falling away, the lights and the music from the party disappearing. The sights are just as average as any other space adventure, except the usually normal silence between the two passengers is less than comfortable and the occasional sniffle from Morty is the only sound besides the sci-fi spaceship noises.
When they finally get there, Rick leaves the ship momentarily to go and grab their treats, weaving in between aliens of all shapes and sizes. Gloppy Drop must be popular. Morty looks out of the window at the swirling sky above them. The skies on different planets are usually nothing of note, when you’re in space every other day you start to view intergalactic sights the same as looking at the regular sky on Earth. This one is especially beautiful though, shades of mint and lilac and yellow swirl together like coffee and cream. Morty wishes he could blend that well with someone, he wishes he could make friends. He mixes in with other kids his age more like orange juice and toothpaste.
He wishes he could fit in like everyone else. High school is a jungle for everyone, he knows that much, but every time he gets something wrong, does something embarrassing or gets overwhelmed he just feels so small. Small and socially inept and stupid. Lots of things make him feel stupid.
—
Gloppy Drop was nice, this drive home isn’t though. Rick is driving at the normal speed but it feels like they’ve been heading home for eight thousand years.
It’s too quiet for comfort, until the silence is broken once again.
“How’s school?” Rick asks suddenly.
Morty couldn’t be more confused. He doesn’t think Rick has ever said those two words in a sentence to anyone, let alone him. Rick never asks about that kind of thing, he doesn’t care, it’s such an un-Rick question that just hearing it come from him after all of this is such a strange experience. Hearing Rick express any interest whatsoever in anybody’s day is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Well?”
Morty stares at him dumbly for a second.
“I asked you a question a-and you’re staring at me like I grew a second head.” Rick says, his eyes flitting between his grandson and the road.
Morty blinks. “Uhh…” he pauses, trying to decipher the intention behind Rick’s original question. “Sc-School is good…? Why’d you ask me that?”
Rick shrugs. “I don’t know, M-Morty, maybeee I’m just trying to ‘show an interest’ or s-something dumb like that.”
There’s another moment of silence before Morty sighs and speaks up.
“School sucks.”
Rick snaps his fingers. “Knew iiiit.” He clears his throat. “A-Alright, Morty, wh-who do I have to freeze?”
Morty blinks. “H-Huh? No-, Nobody.”
“Well, something during that party made you upset, sooo-“
“Oh my god,” Morty facepalms. “you don’t need to freeze anybody! Th-That was super unnecessary the first time.”
Rick groans. “Was it that one kid…” he snaps his fingers. “Uhhh- Brad? Was it him? What’d he do, talk to Jessica? I’ll freeze him.”
“Ugh, d-dont freeze anyone! You’re drunk-“ Morty crosses his arms.
“I’ll freeze whoever I want to, M-Morty,” Rick says, rolling his eyes. “a-and if it’s Brad talking to Jessica that’s getting you all- g-getting you all upset then—“
“Will you stop it with that?!” Morty says, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “It’s everybody! E-Everybody at that-, a-at that stupid party m-made it suck.” Morty loses steam fast, his nose stinging harshly at the recollection. Morty turns towards the window and leans against the door as he did when they first left the party. He huffs, trying to force down a sob. “E-Everybody was too loud, a-and too pushy, and I-I hated all of it.”
He can’t see Rick anymore but he’s not saying anything. Small mercies.
“I-I just hid in the bathroom the whole time after I got peer pressured into-“
Rick barks a laugh. “Peer pressured?? Oh, M-Morty, you really are…” he trails off before he sighs.
Morty sniffs, his eyes prickling with tears. “I-I really am what?”
Rick shakes his head. “Nothing.” He says, parking the ship sloppily in the driveway and opening the door. Morty sighs and gets out, trying to will away his inevitable tears. He couldn’t hold back the question burning his throat.
“Is there something wrong with me?”
Rick shuts the ship’s door and stretches out his arms in front of him. “Look Morty, I’ll say it a million times, school isn’t a place for smart people, especially your school.” He says, pulling out his portal gun before shooting two portals, one in front of him and Morty and one on top of the roof. Morty raises an eyebrow as Rick enters the portal, coming out onto the flat topped garage roof, concealed by a white blanket of snow. Morty quickly follows through as Rick continues.
“You struggle, right?” He asks. Morty nods. “School isn’t built for people like you. People treat you differently, they see you as an annoyance, or a problem. They don’t get you, you don’t get them. You have to try so much harder to be treated like everyone else, almost like you’re an alien on your own planet.” Rick glances down at his grandson. “Sound familiar?”
Morty frowns, staring at his hands. “Y-Yeah… yeah, i-it does. I-I always thought that something about me was weird o-or off. Summer was always better at making friends than I was, she just seemed to… f-fit in with everyone else. No matter what I did I was somehow always the weirdo.” He blinks away the residual tears in his eyes. “Through- T-Throughout m-my whole time in preschool, and middleschool, and even now, I-I never made a single friend. A-And at that stupid party i-it all just.. k-kinda crashed down on me.”
Rick nods, staring up at the starry sky. “Yeah. I-I know I always insinuate th-that you’re unimportant, or dumb, but we’re not so different in this regard, you and I.”
Morty pauses before realisation washes over him. He looks up at Rick but before he can say anything his grandpa continues.
“Yeah, I’m autistic. You surprised or something?”
Morty blinks. “Wh-What?” He stops to think for a moment. “I-if we’re ‘not so different’, then…” Another pause. “Y-You’re saying I might be autistic too?”
“There’s no ‘might’ about it, Morty.” He says. Morty’s heart almost sinks. “It’s not a bad thing though. It’s just another variable of human life and behaviour. Like the colour of your eyes or the shape of your nose.”
“B-But how? Y-You never struggled in school, you’re the smartest man in the universe.” Morty finds himself asking.
Rick shakes his head. “Just because I’m smart doesn’t mean people didn’t other me. They treated me probably a lot like they treated you.”
Morty nods. “…What can I do? I don’t wanna be different. I wanna fit in like Summer does. I wanna have friends, a-and be able to tolerate certain situations. I want to be able to get things right a-and be able to act normally.”
“There’s not really much you can do.” Rick says. “That’s part of the reason I left home. O-Out there in space, Morty, they don’t care. They think everything about humans is weird, they have no baseline, so if they think you’re weird for having less than six eyes or for having nails on your fingers then nobody’s gonna care if you flap your hands or get extra excited about something.”
“So I cant be normal here? I can only be normal when I’m with aliens who think every human is weird?”
“I’m saying that it doesn’t matter. If people don’t care then fine and if they do then so be it. You shouldn’t base your self worth on what other people think of you anyway. Being autistic doesn’t make you any less of a human. And, b-by the way, there’s no such thing as ‘normal’.”
Morty nods. “…Okay. How’d you find out you were?”
“Morty, I’m the smartest man in the universe, I can diagnose myself. When I recognised the symptoms I just decided it for definite.”
Morty chuckles. “I guess that makes sense.”
“And from what you just said,” Rick continues. “I’m confident you are too. You shouldn’t dwell on it though or let it distract you. It’s just a label to describe some stuff about you, nothing more, nothing less.”
“I-I think I get it.” Morty says before smiling and looking up at Rick. “Th-Thank you.”
Rick tries to suppress it, but a smile creeps onto his face too. “Yeah, whatever. Cmon, let’s go inside already.”
As the duo head into their house, something within Morty is settled, at peace, he finally knows what’s wrong with him, but now he also knows that maybe nothing about it is wrong after all.