Your Objective Is?

"I normally read on the bus so my head is down the entire ride so I don't have to look at human behavior, which for me, is quite aggravating because I'll see what doesn't inspire me. I am a misanthrope. But I was wiped out to read so I was mostly staring out the window. But, from the corner of my eye, I noticed someone sitting sideways with their nasty shoes on the seat that's walked in piss, shit,"

"Once I fixture on something, it's an obsession. I finally start looking at the person who is now full on staring at me, with no clue why I would do such a thing! Now it's a little taunting and smirking by this person as we keep doing these shenanigans. They'd look away, but I never did because I knew, every two seconds, there they were staring again. I mouthed WTF are you looking at."

The narrator usually reads on the bus to avoid watching people and identifies as a misanthrope. Fatigue led to staring out the window until a passenger with dirty shoes sat sideways, drawing attention. The passenger repeatedly turned and stared, triggering an obsessive focus from the narrator. The stares escalated to taunting and smirking, and the passenger moved seats while continuing the same behavior. The narrator critiques superficial eye contact, reserves eye contact for intimacy, and questions both the stranger's motive and their own reaction, ending with bemused self-awareness and a rhetorical question.

Read at Portland Mercury