I had just gotten to my bus stop after my class was released, and I could already feel the perspiration welling on my skin, succumbing to the heat. I’ve never liked the heat, and anything over 72°F is bad news. The bus arrived at its usual time, which is 10 minutes late in the Bay Area. This, however, worked in my favor because it meant my class, which usually would have let us go right as the bus would normally have left, meant I got to my bus on time. I greeted the driver and prepared my pass before stepping foot on the steps, so it was a smooth transition going in and finding my seat. The AC would be on, but not freezing. Just enough to be different from the outside, but once inside, you could agree that it could be colder.
This, however, was not expected. I walked into the bus, and it was crowded. Shoulder to shoulder, even people were standing and holding onto the rails to give themselves some space away from the other passengers. There wasn’t much space left to stand, and only two seats were available. One up front with the handicap section and the other in the way back, where the seats look like a huddle for a sports game about to begin. I made the trek to the back and sat between two older gentlemen, one who was maybe in his late 40s to early 50s, and the other one had to be over 80. Both were clearly annoyed that I sat in this spot with glances and rolled eyes as I sat myself down, so the journey home would be interesting today.
What I couldn’t get over during the thirty-minute journey was the fact that our shoulders met. I could feel the heat being transferred from their body to mine and vice versa, making it almost impossible to feel any relief from the bus’s air conditioning. I was wearing a tank top, and the two next to me were wearing t-shirts. We tried our best, but the older gentleman and I were trying to make ourselves as small as possible so that our skin touched as little as possible. After about five stops, the older gentleman gave up, and the other one didn’t even try in the first place, legs spread open, squeezing me farther into the seat.
Throughout the whole 30-minute ride, no one moved in my circle at the back, and I was the first one in our unit to leave the bus. I could feel the fresh stain of sweat underneath my arms, and my back was probably soaked, but my backpack hid that from the rest of the passengers. I walked down the steps and into the fresh air, which felt cooler than the bus since there was a decent breeze. Even if it was close to 80°F today, it was better outside than in that crammed bus.