I don't think I've told this story before (mainly because it happened a few months before I joined the site and since then I've mostly vented about things as they were happening or losses I was experiencing) but it's almost 3 years ago this month and I got reminded a few days ago. Usually I try to not think about it and forget again. For some reason the situation has been on my brain since I remembered and I just keep spiraling onto similar situations that also happened to me. Anyway, story (vent) time.
So I had a routine where I always took the same bus to and from work and would see the same people and bus drivers a lot. Every now and then the people would be people I actually knew who I'd talk to while on the bus (I get travel sick so it was a nice distraction and the polite thing to do when they start conversations). This translated into talking to the bus driver too every now and then, all of which were polite and good conversationalists despite my introverted nature and desire to be invisible. Fast forward to when I'm taking the bus home and there's no other passengers, the bus stops where I need to get off and the back door doesn't open. I can't remember why, if I thought it broke or, but I go up front instead. The front door doesn't open. The bus driver asks me for my number. This specific driver likes to talk to people sitting up front, which is something I avoid as much as I can while not sitting too far back to get more travel sick. So we had talked a few times before, but only about generic topics and I'd always been short with answers. But now the bus driver was asking for my number and deliberately not opening the door to let me leave.
I don't remember most of what I said but I know I gave at least 5 excuses as to why the bus driver needed to let me go and why I couldn't give my number. I sort of remember the driver being very doubtful of my words and insistent, I also don't remember what it finally took for me to be allowed out of the bus. I remember being extremely anxious to get home but not to walk too fast, because I didn't want the bus driver to remember the path I usually took, because my home was visible from the road as they drive past the bus stop.
I ended up changing my whole routine after work because I wanted to avoid the time this specific driver usually drove the bus (which I couldn't do in mornings, because there was only one bus early enough to get to work, but usually this was fine in that there was always lots of other people on the bus at the time), I'd feel cold every time I saw the bus driver at a time I wasn't expecting them to be driving and I'd spend the entire drive in the back feeling travel sick and anxious about it all.
I'm so grateful I don't live anywhere near there anymore, but I also can't get it out of my mind despite knowing I'll never see that bus driver again (hopefully, like a 99% chance).
And because my mind likes to spiral, I end up thinking about the other times someone has tried to force something from me in similar manners. Two of which a guy has outright asked to have sex with me, once in public on a train (very unfortunate, he would not leave me alone and followed me every time he saw me after that time - I took that train a lot for school and he appeared to actually live by the stop I needed to get off in mornings) and once in front of my bedroom (this one was worse because I'm supposed to feel safe in my own home, but I never do, and he has/had a girlfriend). Both of these were when I was like 16-18.
I've got more stories but they don't bother me as much as these do. And this is getting kind of long anyway. I'll likely regret sharing as I always do, but I'm kinda hoping all this will at least help me stop thinking so much about it.