will i ever be able to communicate with others fluently?

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i'm 16 and autistic and struggle with mental illnesses. most of my best friends are people that Ive known for 3+ years. all of them are also neurodivergent. i guess that makes it easier to communicate with them, because we have a history and an understanding of each other.
for reasons i don't know, I'm a very approachable person. people usually start conversations with me or turn to me with questions during school. i don't typically enjoy socialising with people, because I'm very anxious about what they think of me, and my biggest issue is knowing how to respond to them. despite this, i enjoy getting to know people and find people very interesting.
but i can't get over my inability to communicate with them. I'm usually good at laughing when I'm 'supposed' to, or making frowny faces when I'm 'supposed' to. but i can't carry a conversation to save my life, unless it's about my special interests, but not a lot of people are interested in those things.
it's really frustrating and inconvenient that i can't carry conversations and often freeze up when people talk to me. i use a lot of social scripts, i say what i see other people say, but when it comes to communicating 'naturally', using 'my own words', i can't! is there anything i can do to work on this? or will i be this way my whole life? i want to branch out of my comfort zone and make some new friends, and respond to people when they start conversations with me... i suppose if i can't though, i have a few good friends and my special interests to occupy me.
i hope this makes sense, thank you for reading! feel free to share your own experiences.

A while back I found this website: http://unlearningasperger.blogspot.de/2 ... aimer.html
which gives some tips that might help you. I don't know how much it can help because I haven't tried it myself yet, but I figure it wouldn't hurt you to give it a shot.

Practice makes perfect. I think, with time and experience, that you will improve. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and to learn from them.

This greatly works for me: practicing, practicing and more practicing. The more often I can do that, the better it gets. On my work, for example, I am considered as social, friendly. My former group home staff member said to me that I can communicate and listen pretty well. I could effectively be NT while still having ASD.

In the past I couldn't practice often enough and I always was the odd-man-out socially (less social than others) and intellectually (more intelligent than others). I am still very intelligent by others, but socially I could be close to normal, but not really normal.

I don't see me as a second Raun Kaufman, because I still have small deficiencies and I still do not consider myself cured from autism. Autism is a life-long condition and that is what I will always be, however much social I am.