Unfiltered Story #94391

(It’s one of the last days of sixth grade for me and I’m in the bus on the way home. My stop is one of the last stops so there aren’t many people still on board and I’m in the back by myself. I decide to be “rebellious” in a very 11-year-old way and slouch in the rear seat and, while the bus is stopped at a long light, I press my hand against the rear window with my middle finger fully extended. After a couple seconds I start to wonder if there’s actually anybody there, so I look and there’s a guy, probably in his late 20’s, sitting in the driver’s seat of the car directly behind us absolutely losing his mind, screaming and shouting and gesturing at me/the bus. Sitting next to him is a woman with her face buried in her hands, completely withdrawn. Since I was 11 and *all adults* were still authority figures to me in my mind, I was mortified. I moved up to the front half of the bus and hid in a seat. I was right in front of a friend, now, and told him what happened. The bus started to move again and we were driving down a long, 4-lane boulevard for well over a mile. I looked out the side of the bus and saw the guy who had been behind us leaning out the side of his car as he sped along side the bus, screaming at the bus driver to pull over. Again, I was mortified. Eventually we turned off the main road into my neighborhood and the guy in the car kept going straight, never to be seen again. It was at this point the bus driver spoke up.)

Driver: “Does anybody know what that guy was screaming about next to us back there?”

Friend: “YEAH! [My name] GAVE HIM THE FINGER!”

Me: “NO I DIDN’T!”

Friend: “YOU JUST TOLD ME YOU DID!”

Me: “I WAS JUST KIDDING!”

(It was dropped after that and never came up again. It’s been over 25 years since that happened and to this day I wish I could know what the heck that guy’s problem was. No one likes to be tossed the bird, but I feel like most people can also take the source into consideration when it’s coming from a 60-pound weasel on a yellow school bus.)