hubristic

Whoa.

I was on the subway coming uptown from the gym, and at 42nd St a drunk-smelling dude pushed onto the train behind me. I refuse to ride the train with a drunk dude pressed up against my butt, so I moved around so I was looking at him. He was a chubby, middle-aged black guy with a mustache. He was hogging the pole that I was holding on to, so I gave his arm a little nudge -- just a little one, I swear! He said, "Don't fucking look at me. I'm not homeless. I'll punch you in the face. I'll punch you in the face." I said, "Don't say that shit to me." I put on my ipod. He said, "I punched plenty of white ladies in the face before. Plenty." I said, "Yeah, okay." I admit, I got a little aggro, which secretly makes me feel pretty good in those situations.

We rode in silence until 72nd St, and as soon as the doors open he broke. I thought he got off but turns out he'd gone in the other direction. He was getting up in this blond girl's face, and all of a sudden he pulled out a knife -- like a small garlic cutting knife. He waved it around and then waved it toward the brown-haired friend of the blond girl. She immediately started crying and actually I think she puked slightly and then swallowed it. The guy got off the train. He stood right by the doors; no one moved. The doors closed and the train pulled away. This other white girl went up to the targeted white girls and asked if they were okay; they said they were even though the brown haired girl was still crying. I asked if they were okay too -- it seemed like the right thing to do even though I had just heard them say they were.

All the white girls got off at 96th St to wait for the local train. No one else said anything. We all got off at 116th St and walked onto campus and off in different directions, and then I had to go to my office hours, so here I am now.