Okay! I (18M) just got home from work and my friend thinks I’m TA here for instigating the argument so I want other thoughts.
I was on the bus home from shift (takes about and hour on the bus so I’m both tired from work and irritated at the time it’ll take to get home. Already on the bus behind me are 2 high-school aged girls (in uniform so I know they’re in highschool)
They were singing. SINGING. On a public fucking bus. SINGING. FUCKING SINGING. I was LIVID. Now, heres the thing. I didn’t say anything to these kids. I Said NOTHING. I just briefly turned for less than a second and side eyed them. That’s it. That was my horrific crime. A side eye.
Then, she addressed me.
(G1- girl 1, G2- girl 2, M- me)
(Vagurely put together interaction from memory)
G1 "what?"
M "…what?"
G1 "you just looked at me. What?"
M "…you’re singing. It’s annoying"
G1, suddenly agast in that fake shock you see from chavy high-school girls in the UK "oh my god, its annoying?"
M "…yeah? You’re disturbing people"
G1, mishearing me and still in that mocking fake shocked voice "oh my god, I’m distracting people!"
From here, it just devolved into us b9th using childish insults. I (obviously) don’t remember the order of the interactions so I’ll just list a few insults.
– she said my hair looks awful (didn’t say awful but said something else that meant the same. May have said it looked shit or smth) and I said something like "No shit, dumb bitch, I just got off work"
-implied I was being childish (I was) and I said she looked about 8 and so shouldn’t be taking about childishness. She said thank you (to being called 8) and I said its an insult because 8 years old are ugly.
– she and her friend continuously mocked me by repeating what I said but replacing the word disturbing with distracting to minimise what they were doing.
– during the argument she kept saying she "was just enjoying herself" "was just existing" "was just having fun" to her friend as if she wading being disruptive on a bus of strangers.
That’s the bulk of what I remember that fits the subs guidelines.
Eventually, the argument ended and they went to talking to eachother about me loud enough so that I’d here. Including things like comments on my hair/appearance, mocking repeats of things I said, general insults and calling me "that thing".
At one point, one of them (G1 I think) was waving their hands behind my head to annoy me more. I just kept looking forward and stopped engaging by this point.
After getting home, I text what had happened to a friend. They say I’m the AH here for 1, engaging in the childish argument. 2, side eyeing them. 3, getting in a confrontation with people a few years younger.
AITA?
Edit: I had earbuds on. I could hear them through them.
Edit 2: diff friend said it should note that I’m mentally handicapped.
ESH
Yeah, singing in an enclosed space with a captive audience is rude. They’re obnoxious and stupid, but literally just children having fun. It’s better than boomers blaring Fox at top volume on their phones or something.
But all-caps “LIVID”? That’s a major overreaction. Good grief.
It’s rude, but it’s also not a church or a library or something. Get a grip.
The sensible, non-AH thing would be to just roll your eyes and deal with it and move the fk on afterward. Instead you made a scene and, honestly, embarrassed yourself.
Heard an interesting saying on YT recently: “You can’t chase a madman down the street naked after he steals your clothes, because nobody else will be able to tell who the madman is.”
ESH
Throwing side eye is not a crime, but engaging in an insult match with people on a bus is just ridiculous. You were just as disruptive as they were as it exploded.
If you turned to them and said, “hey, would you mind not singing so loud” or some such thing – fine. Heck, even if you told the bus driver to ask them to stop. There’s just no good reason to start calling people names.