On the bus today

[I take the bus these days. Sick of paying so much at the tank, and you see a lot of stuff you don’t otherwise see. It seems a good source of blog stories, so here.]

On the way home today, the back of the bus was dominated by 5 boys, probably 14 to 15 years old. I didn’t ask for this, I had had a tough day and wanted to just nod off. But NOOOO. They dudes have to be loud and obnoxious. There was a girl with them — a strong girl — good thing, and the boys were shouting about her vagina to the whole bus. She played along and it bounced right off her. These all looked like kids of wealthy parents. They were very loud and bellicose most of the people didn’t want to sit next to them. I did.

The first dude that got out in Beverly Hills had to prove he was cool — his parents being the richest, so he pulled the window open from outside in cooperation with the long haired blonde boy inside. The bus driver was pissed and came back and cussed out the blonde boy. After the bus started going again, they had to prove they were still cool. The big latino boy encouraged blonde boy to listen to some music on his iPod,. He did. As he listened, the latino boy said “You’re gay!” to which the blonde boy bounced up and down in time to the music, but interpreted by his friends as “Yes I am.” They kept calling him gay, and he kept bouncing up and down to the music. They made him take his ear plugs out and explained what they were saying. He laughed, thought it was funny but was not upset. The taunters, the greco boy and the latino boy looked like FFA to me, er, future fags of America. One by one the boys got off at their separate stop and they became less and less powerful. The blonde boy got off at my stop and went south. His parents were probably lived in West Hollywood. Hmm.. Maybe they are lesbians, or gays?

I remember sitting at the lunch table as a senior in high school and a friend said to me, in front of everyone “You’re gay.” It was so shocking, I of course denied it, barely knowing what it was myself. They were right, and I was the last to know. The little scene on the bus brought all that up again. Teens can be so cruel to each other, but they are also so fragile.

I kept thinking during the ride, ‘I should tell those boys there is nothing wrong with being gay, and who the hell are you to be so crude to this girl in public.’ But no, I was the unwise observer of mankind, no energy to try to change these fragile youths.

Kids these days!