I'm a step mom. I have a step son who is 14 years old. His mom isn't involved. I've been around the last 3 years. He switches between calling me mom, and Dani. He has autism but is also extremely smart. We like to build robots together and he's in several AP classes. He's been acting strange around me lately. Like he thought I was gonna be mad at him or something. He has this issue and I have never been mad at him about it. I tried to help him today and he told me he didn't want me to be mean. I asked when was I mean and he got red as a tomato and said "It's nothing. It's stupid." I told him if I did something that upset him just me." He said it wasn't me. It was dream me. He told me nevermind and he sounds childish and stupid. If it's bothering him should I just apologize? I don't want him to feel weird around me or like I'm going to be mad at him or get mean for things out of his control.