I was 21 and a college student. Having little money I always took the bus across town. Most of the time the other passengers ignored me and I ignored them. But one day, it was different.

A man at least twice my age kept trying to catch my eye. When I finally looked at him, thinking he wanted to ask me something, he winked at me and handed me a slip of paper with his phone number on it and some sort of comment on the lines of, “You’re hot! Call me!”

I looked back at him feeling creeped out and saw him grinning and leering at me. I said nothing to him and forced myself to stare out the window for the rest of the ride. I was frightened and embarrassed. I refused to look at him. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid that he might follow me, so when the bus came into the square downtown I fled the bus as fast as possible and ran for the nearest public building – a coffee shop. As I was sitting there, trying to calm down and make sense of what had happened, I looked at the slip of paper in my hands and felt a sudden wave of rage and humiliation. I crumpled it up and threw it as hard as I could into the nearest garbage can.

- Anonymous

Location: Cincinnati, OH

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