Like a hallway (chapter 2)

I hate people. Especially morning people. Like my neighbor, for instance.
Whenever I walk outside, she insists on talking with me like we were friends. It's not that I dislike her, I'm just not a morning person like her. But for some reason, morning people don't seem to understand that we're not like them, which, of course, applies to all kinds of people. Morning people, daring people, intelligent people, everyone! No one understands the other kinds of personalities!
As soon as I opened my door to go to the bus, I regretted it. She was talking to her dog, like her dog could understand a word she was saying, but when she saw me on my way outside, when I didn't even have time to talk, she turned her attention on me.
Her name is China. Yeah. Like the country. It's a little ironic, considering her brother had adopted a Chinese baby, but that's not important. Unlike me, she loves to interact with people. She's one of those people who love to be outdoors, enjoy long meaningless conversations with every person she meets (even her mother, which in my opinion always makes the most awkward conversations), and always look on the positive side of things. Gross!
I tried to avoid her without showing that I tried to avoid her. Everyone who's ever tried that (which I believe is pretty much every person in the world) know that it's both hard and frustrating.
She started asking all the usual questions:
"How are you?"
"Have you slept well?"
"How's your sister?"/i}
"What is scheduled this day?"
As if anything had changed from the night before.
Don't get me wrong. I love all our neighbors, I really do. Just not so early in the morning. I enjoy talking to China much more when I'm on my way home (she hardly ever goes to work anymore because of her leg. She's not old, but not young either), and since that's when the whole day has passed, then there's a lot more to talk about. Even if it might not be that interesting all the time.
However, I answered her questions as quickly as I could, and then politely told her that I had to go now if I didn't wanna be late, turned away and kept going.

There is one thing I feel most people misunderstand about me. I don't have low self-esteem. I'm not insecure. I'm just not the guy who likes to make myself seen in front of everybody. Of course, I joke around when I'm with my closest friends, like Abani or Rich, but when I meet new people it takes a very long time for me to get comfortable around them. And it's not because I'm not sure of myself, it's because Iâm not sure of THEM.
If I wanted to, I could be outgoing with people I don't know so well too. I could joke around and act like a drunk hippie with them too, it's just that I choose not to, simply because I don't feel the need to, because:
I'm          happy with the friends I have, thank you very much.
         If          they don't know me, and I don't know them, we don't          even know if we're gonna meet again. I don't wanna act          like that if we only meet one time.
Plus, I don't like having too many people in my contacts. I don't know if it's because I have a light case of Asperger, but I simply can't deal with too many friends. Now you're probably gonna say, "You can never have TOO MANY friends! How can you say that?" and I'm not saying that you are wrong, you can have as many friends as you want. But just like you are allowed to have as many as you want, then I'M allowed to have as many as I want too. And I don't want so much more than this.
I don't know how I can explain it, but imagine your life as a phone. A phone has a contact list, right? But let's say that your contacts were all your apps. A phone cannot have an infinitive number of apps, right? It would fill up all the space.
That's how it is with me and friends! I love my friends, they're the most important thing in the world to me, but if I get too many, I feel like I simply don't have enough time for everyone. Yeah, that's kind of a problem. No matter how many friends you have, you simply cannot please everybody, I know that. But my mind can't seem to understand that.
I also feel like life gets too confusing if I have too many friends. It would be like trying to watch 5 different movies at the same time. I just couldn't do it. It's not in my nature.
But!
That doesn't mean that I'm not the social type. Like I said, I love spending time with friends and family (but I enjoy the first option more, because my mother is kinda weird hanging out with. I'll explain why later.), and that's also a reason I'm not so outgoing when I meet new people. I think it's fine the way it is. I guess it's also part of my Asperger. I don't like changes.
Now, like I said, I only have a LIGHT case of Asperger. I'm not like one of those people, who... You know what? Let's tell a story:

Once upon a time, there was a girl who had Asperger. Like, BADLY! She was strict about routines, had to sit at the exact same place every time she ate dinner, she didn't like to socialize, and she had more friends among the teachers than the students at her school.
One time, her Mom was sick. She had spent her day at home, and her husband wouldn't come home from work until 8:00 PM.
Then her daughter came home. Let's call her... Sophie! Yeah, that was her name. Sophie!
Her mother politely asked her: "Please, dear, can you take out the garbage?"
"Sure", her daughter said and went into her room and closed the door.
Her mother shouted up to her:
"Sophie! Why did you say Yes if you're not gonna do it?"
Sophie opened her door and answered:
"Well, I CAN do it. But you didn't tell me to."

Yeah, I don't have THAT kind of Asperger.