my 4th of july

the bus was already half full when i - and about twenty other people got on.
i was hot. it's damn hot here. and i was tired because i just trained somebody all day and had done twice as much talking and smiling as i usually do.
all the window seats were taken except the one in the very back. it would mean sitting in direct sunlight on one hand, but on the other, i would get the breeze from all the open windows once the bus hit the highway.
directly in front of the back seat was a seat turned sideways. i do not understand why bus manufacturers do this to us. sitting in a sideways seat means consciously avoiding staring directly at the people across from you for the entire ride.
i took my window seat and the bus filled.
we started driving.
i felt something on my bare knees. kind of tickling me.
what the?
i looked down and lo and behold... it was hair.
lots and lots of hair.
it was attached to the head of a teenage girl who was sitting in the sideways seat directly in front of me. her hair was rapunzel-esque. it must be past her knees.
i kept trying to shift in my vinyl seat, pressing my calves into the side, but every time the bus stopped my skirt would slide on the seat, causing me to either slide forward or brace myself with my arms.
it was disgusting. all that hair was basically on my lap.
but i didn't want to make a scene.
i thought to myself that i wished i had scizzors, and imagined cutting it all. but then i looked deep into my soul and knew i wouldn't have the guts, even if i did have a pair of scizzors large enough to do the job in one fell swoop.
i also wondered if it would be illegal. would that be considered assault?

then i wondered if she had ever been cousin IT for halloween.

next to me were two guys in their mid-twenties who were desperately trying to get me to look at them. i had to keep my cool.
one of them had obviously very recently gotten a terrible tattoo on his hand and was constantly doing stretches and juuust reaching toward the window across from me with that hand, doing anything so i would notice his shitty tattoo.
funny how some people are so desperate to connect.
i had just spent eight hours talking to other people about their tattoos, i was not in the mood.

plus, i was concentrating too hard on keeping my knees together so a stranger's hair didn't blow between my legs.