The Entitled Woman

I don't have a car, I walk or take the bus everywhere. 99% of the time, this is a-okay. I might get that usual bus creeper, or that guy who did some meth before he got on the bus and spends the trip giggling to himself and flinching, but no big deal. We all run into that type. It is public transportation after all.

The other day I had run out of food and needed to to go the store. I had been trying to put this off as we've had days where it's 100+ degrees outside and walking any length of time or waiting for a bus is hell. But since my only other choice was "starve", I had to grin and bear it. "It's just the store and back, it's not a long trip, you'll be back before it gets too warm."

Since it was so hot, I wanted to treat myself to a reward for actually getting out of the house and doing this trip, so I bought five donuts for myself. I put them at the top of my bag so they wouldn't get smashed on the way home, cause after all. I'm walking, then getting on the bus, then walking again. As I'm walking towards the bus stop, I see a man and a woman laying on the grass next to the bus stop in the shade. I think nothing much of it at first, after all it's a hot day, and I planned to be in the shade too. I'd carefully planned to not start walking to the bus until just a few minutes before it came as well, so I could have the least amount of time in the heat as possible, but it seemed like to me this couple had been there a while.

As I approached, I stopped a good distance from the couple, probably 15-20ft away, simply because I'm not interested in interacting. It's too hot, and I just wanna do my thing and go home without getting bothered. 90% of the time, most of my fellow bus riders follow this unspoken rule and we all occupy the same public space, but keep to our own personal bubbles. I'm also wearing earbuds, as the universal symbol of "leave me the fuck alone".

I put my bag down by another tree in the shade and I see movement out of the corner of my eye, and I see the couple struggling to their feet and looking at me. Ugh ugh ugh. Don't let them come over, don't have them cover over. Please. So naturally what ends up happening?

They come over. The man stops about 5ft or so away and the woman comes right up to me, barely a foot away from me. Now, I'm also deaf, so when she says something to me, I don't know what it is. So I said, "I'm deaf, say again." She mimes smoking a cigarette, and I'm like, "no, I don't smoke." She looks at me, confused, and mimes a cigarette again, and her lips clearly say "give me."

"I don't have cigarettes," I tell her. She points at my bag and says "give me a donut, then." I tell her no. She remarks something about how it's just one, and I can give her just one. "No," I say again. She says something about how it's hot and since I don't have cigarettes I can give her one. I tell her that while it's hot, "I can walk my ass to the store to get a donut, you can too."

Then she points at my necklace and says that if I can't have a donut to "give me your necklace". Her face looks very angry now as she points and I take a step back. "Why," I demand. She says something too fast for me to catch, but then says something like, "you have to give me something!" I tell her, "I don't have to give you anything. You don't walk up to people and demand things from them, go away!"

Thankfully, at least she did at that point, and she turned to her boyfriend and said something, but as she was facing him and away from me, I don't know what she said. He looks at me and they turn back to where they had their things in the shade.

I silently pray again, please please don't let the bus be late, where's the bus. C'mon. I hope they're not on my bus, dear god what if they get on my bus and follow me home! I do carry pepper spray and a tazer with me, but since it was hot and I'm wearing a skirt today, I didn't have them in my pockets (since I have none) that day, and now they're at the bottom of my grocery bag.

So I crouch down and I'm resorting my groceries, and digging through, trying to find these weapons. I have the sun and trees at one side of me, so I can see a shadow behind me, and I stand up and turn around, there's the man behind me, trying to creep closer. He freezes when I stand up, and I'm clutching my waterbottle which is thick glass in my hand and he looks at it, and looks at my face. I glare him down, keeping my bag between the tree and me in case the woman is going to come up from another side. A quick glance sees that she is on my other side, though what exactly she's doing I'm not sure.

"Thought I told you to go away," I said to them and gestured. The man goes back to his little area that he's got his gear in with his lady. I turn and crouch back, this time where I can see them, and they're whispering to each other. I guess they didn't get the memo that I'm deaf, cause they could've shouted their creepy plan and I still wouldn't have an idea.

I got my weapons back out of my bag, and have the mace in my hand and put my tazer on top of my groceries. I pick that back up and I text a friend what is happening just in case I get robbed/hurt where I am, what's going on, etc. In the time it takes me to do that (probably 2-3minutes) I look up and I notice that the woman has vanished. I reposition myself to the same angle as before, with my back to the street, so I can see someone coming from almost all sides and so the sun will cast a shadow on the side I can't see.

Sure enough, I notice in the shadow that the woman is trying to come up behind me again. I can see in the shade she's got something in her hand. Club or small bat, I don't know what. I whipped around to her, adn she moved her hand behind her back, so I never got a good look. But I yelled at her, "I am armed and will defend myself if you try again!" She got a little wide eyed and went back to her boyfriend.

I know it sounds a little weird, but I was actually quite frightened. They'd tried to get behind me twice, and I don't know if their intentions were just to rob me or worse. And for donuts? Walk your asses over to the damn store and buy them yourself!

The bus came a minute later, and thank god, thank god. I got on and happily sat down only to realise: Oh no no no oh no. The couple was getting on the bus. Oh sweet jesus they're following me. I acted like nothing was wrong when they sat across from me, but as soon as the bus lurched away from the curb, I got up in a flash and moved several seats back so I could watch them.

I guess the story, fortunately, ends pretty anti-climatically from here. I worked myself up into a fury on the trip home, thinking they're following me, waiting for another chance to rob me, or worse. Luckily my stop is 2nd to the end of the line, and I don't know if they were that committed to carrying out this plan as it's a bit of a ride. They got out several stops before mine and I could finally relax.

I've never seen them since, and I don't want to. And honestly, because of this incident, I'm seriously considering buying a car, where I haven't had one in 10+ years. That's just how much it rattled me.