We were already standing. Bus packed shoulder to shoulder, people clinging to those grimy metal poles, pretending not to notice the one empty seat—blocked by a designer tote and a guy in sunglasses scrolling TikTok like he paid rent on that bench.
The woman next to me had a kid with her. Couldn’t have been older than five. The boy looked exhausted, swaying every time the bus jerked. She politely asked the man to move his bag.
