Okay this happened a few years ago and honestly is the reason I'm so much more cautious when I'm out and about nowadays (as in, keys between my fingers past 6pm if I'm alone and spray-deodorant in my bag if I can fit it, as well as occasionally carrying a craft knife in my bag too). Also sorry it's long, I kept trying to shorten it but felt it left out too many details and, frankly, writing it out was kind of like a bit of a release to me. I never spoke about it in detail with anyone. My parents and sister know the rough outlines but not the details of what happened, I don't think.

​

​

I'd had an interview in the city centre and had met up with a couple girlfriends afterwards. I was dressed quite nicely; white blouse, black cardigan, black trousers (not jeans) and some cute kitten heels. It had been raining and so I was a quite damp and blech, you can fill in the blanks. Looked like the results of a wet t-shirt contest or a car wash gone wrong.

​

​

My friends had to go home, so I hopped on the bus that stopped essentially right outside my house. It wasn't late (maybe like 4pm, and in summer, so it was still light out and had stopped raining by now). I sat at the back of the bus where you usually have 9 seats - 4 facing backwards, 5 facing forwards - so that the heat from the engine of the shitty old bus could warm me up a little. This guy, Frank, was already sat there but he was tucked away in a corner and I had headphones in so assumed he wouldn't talk to me/was harmless. I was incorrect.

​

​

Soon as the bus took off, Frank shuffled over next to me and said something. I took an earphone out and asked him what he said and he basically just said "Hey, how's it going? What've you done today, missy?". I replied politely and started putting my headphones back in but he started talking again. This time he introduced himself and reached out to shake my hand. I gave him a fake name (thank you, parents, for teaching me about quick thinking and hammering it into my skull!!) and shook his hand. He wouldn't let go. For like a solid minute. And was staring at my cleavage before I even said "my" name. I pulled my hand away and he put his on my thigh. THIS is where I should have got the bus driver involved or at LEAST moved seats. Guess what? I did neither of those things. We talked for about 5 minutes more. I think the physical touch sort of sent me into minor shock tbh haha. I froze.

​

​

He started asking me personal questions (after asking how the interview went, etc), such as who I lived with, would anyone be home when I got home, etc. I lied and told him my butch-as-shit girlfriend would be waiting for me as she'd cooked dinner for me (I was hella single, but he didn't need to know that). As all creepy old men on buses do, he started asking about our relationship; how long had we been together, would we get married, did we want kids, would we need a donor, etc. Your usual shit, really.

While he was asking all this crap a young guy, Sam, who was maybe my age at the time had gotten on the bus, made eye contact with me and sorta half-smiled, then went to the top deck. So after Frank asked the, somehow, line-crossing question of "Will your girlfriend be waiting for you in the shower?" I stood up, told him I'd recognised a friend go upstairs, and practically ran up the stairs to the top deck where I explained everything to Sam. He let me sit by him in case Frank came upstairs after me. The question was line-crossing for me, I think, because of the way he stared at me when he said it. I vividly remember him licking his lips and clearing his throat and everything, it was vile.

​

​

I got home about 5 minutes after going upstairs. Frank was thankfully no longer on the bus. When I got into the house, nobody was home. My parents and sister were all out elsewhere and I tried calling them all, but nobody answered, so I cried and shook and threw up. Alone. For almost two hours. I was a shaky mess even when they got home, and had nightmares for weeks and saw him everywhere I went although when I'd check, he definitely wasn't there. Never saw him again and wrote in a report to the bus company, I think, telling them the day and rough time I was on the bus, where I was sat, and roughly what he and I looked like.
I honestly got the creeps just writing about this, even though I've wrote about it briefly in an AskReddit comment in the past.

​

​

So, creepy piece of shit on the bus who frankly ruined my day after having an AMAZING interview? Let's not meet ever, ever again.