The Night Owl was crowded, but I managed to get a seat up front near the driver and the door. I found that generally speaking, this was the least rowdy part of the bus. Being one with little tolerance for ass-clowns (especially drunk ass-clowns) I preferred the less rowdy part else be tempted to act like an ass-clown myself and spout off to some asshole acting like an asshole to shut the fuck up.

I was good like that.

So there I am, tipsy, but far from drunk, minding my own business in the front of the bus when suddenly, from the back, arose quite the commotion. Because the bus was loud to begin with, it was hard to hear exactly what was going on, other than 2 groups of guys were standing up (one in the very back and one more towards the middle) screaming at one another.

At first, I thought it was innocent school rivalry bullshit, the new school year had recently began after all, and after a few minutes, it became apparent that this was not a school rivalry and was far from innocent.

There was swearing. Insults. General put-downs and bullshit that gets spouted off between groups of drunkards. And this is where it got ugly. The guys from the back of the bus came up to the guys in the middle and I was convinced there was going to be punches thrown.

Only the guys from the back were laughing. Pointing and laughing, mostly unphased by the shit the guys from the middle were slinging. This only served to infuriate the guys from the middle as it was clear they were extremely worked up about something and were trying really hard to pick a fight with these guys from the back, who much to the guys in middle's dismay, weren't really buying what they were selling. They had their fun 'playing along' and somewhere around Kenmore square, got off, leaving the guys from the middle still mouthing off at them through the (closed) windows.

The guys turned around - they'd been facing the back of the bus nearly the entire time - and this was the first time I got a look at the guys from the middle. Turns out, they were the same group of Euroboys from Mantra that had been hitting on me and the girlz hours earlier.

BMWs my ass! The Banshee laughed. Those douche bags don't even have cab fare, let alone cars!

It was rather amusing, actually. That is until they turned their attention to some girls sitting more towards the front of the bus. After all the hootin' and hollerin' action from the back of the bus, they were feeling rather manly and decided it was time to pick up some hot pieces of ass, or at the very least try.

Now, what these dimwits didn't seem to realize (or care if they did) was that the two women they were hitting on were with their boyfriends. At first the girls were polite, and there was no need for the guys to get involved. But after the Euroboys repeatedly refused to take no for an answer, another brawl started to break out.

The boyfriends, who weren't drunk at all, stood up to confront the group and tell them to back off. This of course, just led the group of 5 Euroboys to start talking (yelling) about wanting to fight. It seemed pretty clear to me at this point that the Euroboys were just looking to start shit and they didn't care with whom.

The boyfriends stood their ground, things escalated, people started to yell at the bus driver to pull over (who for the record did not once stop the bus or say a damn thing about what was going on) and one of the Euroboys starts pushing one of the boyfriends, who tells him to knock it off.

It's very obvious to anyone witnessing this display that the Euroboys are trashed and the boyfriends aren't looking to get dragged into the slammer because these assclowns wanna rumble. So the boyfriends try to play it cool, but Pushy McEurotrash keeps antagonizing this guy and just as he pulls back to throw a punch into the Boyfriend's face, this guy, this innocent bystander comes outta nowhere, comes up behind Pushy and puts him in this crazy headlock that forces the kid to his knees on the bus.

"You will stop this," the bystander says.

Pushy McPunchy tries to squirm away, get his arms up and swing at the bystander, but the way he has him gripped, there is nothing Pushy can do. He's completely helpless. As are his friends, who are now all standing there, mouths agape, wondering what the fuck to do now, seeing as now the entire bus seems to be rallying around the bystander ready to take on these Euroboys if they need to.

The bus pulls into the next stop and the bystander forces Pushy out the door, his friends quickly following after him. Of course, the Euroboys had lots to say (all talk, no action) and as soon as the doors close, the bus erupted into applause.

The boyfriend thanked the bystander, who was quite humble and seemed a bit embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

Knowing Ginger would still be up, I called to tell her what happened. "It's crazy! This guy like came outta nowhere and I'm tellin' you he's like 6 feet tall and100 pounds; Lanky and totally dorky. I'm totally impressed, he's like some kind of hero!"

"Like Spiderman?" Ginger said sarcastically.

"Oh my god, TOTALLY like Spiderman. Can you imagine? Maybe he's Boston's own public transportation Spiderman!"

"You're crazy. I'm going to bed," Ginger said, not amused, mostly because I was wrong about her still being up.

Everyone on the bus was talking about what happened, and when we got to Harvard Ave, Spiderman and his friend departed, the boyfriends (and their girlfriends) once again thanking him.

And that's when I noticed this guy looking in my direction. A very cute guy. I remember seeing him during all the commotion standing ready to be of assistance if Spiderman needed. He had returned to the back of the bus and we were now engaged in a flirty game of peek-a-boo: I looked at him, he'd return my glance, and I'd quickly turn away. He'd look at me, catch me looking, and then I'd be the one to quickly turn away.

This went on until we reached my stop. I exited the front door and as I looked to cross the street, I saw that the guy from the bus had also gotten off. This elicited a few moments of panic as I slipped into worse case scenario mode and The Banshee prepared me for fight or flight.

He and I were the only two to get off at my stop, and all I could think was holy shit, he's a crazy stalker. He's gonna rape me behind the building and chop me up into little pieces and I'm gonna end up in some landfill. Awesome.

I hurriedly tried to dig my keys outta my purse without letting on to the cute stranger/stalker/murderer that I knew his plan, because if I let on that I was on to him, there was no telling what he'd do.

I quickened my pace and hurry into the vestibule and noticed that the guy is walking towards me, towards my building and is only about 10 feet from the front door. I fumble my keys and drop them on the floor and just as I bend down to pick them up, I see this pair of man's shoes, attached to a pair of man's legs, standing in the vestibule with me.

I stand up so fast all the blood rushes to my head and I laugh nervously. It's the guy from the bus.

"Hi!" I say, determined not to open the door. I remember there's a security camera in the vestibule and I nervously look towards it.

"Hi," the cute stranger/stalker/murderer says. He can tell I'm freaking out. "I'm Brandon."

"Uh huh," I say, still smiling at him, keys in my hand, not moving to open the door at all.

Great. Death by Brandon. Kind of catchy. I wonder if Boston's detectives are good lip readers and will be able to decipher my killer's name from the security tape, The Banshee comments. She's always so melodramatic...

"I live here," he says returning my smile, trying to calm me down.

Yeah RIGHT you live here! I'm gonna open a case of whoop ass on you if you even think of trying to touch me you pervert! The Banshee reams in my head.

"See? he says, pointing to the names directory under the call box. He pulls out his own set of keys and motions for me to allow him to open the door as proof.

Sure enough, they work and I feel like the biggest asshat that ever lived. I laughed (loudly) at my stupidity.

"I'm sorry, I've just never seen you before and well, it's late, and..." I stuttered, grateful that Brandon interrupted me before I could embarrass myself further.

"Don't even worry about it. I completely understand. You never know who you can trust out there. Pretty crazy what happened on the bus tonight. Does that kinda thing happen a lot?"

"Which part? the loud drunkenness, the brawls or the unsuspecting stranger breaking up the fight? 'Cause yeah. Happens all the time," I said with a smirk. "I take it you're new to the area then?" I asked, noting a slight accent that was not native to Boston.

"Yeah, I moved here about a month ago from Virginia."

"Well, welcome," I said, extending my hand. "I'm Christine."

"Nice to meet you," Brandon said, shaking my hand.

We both kind of stood there, looking at each other, as I waited for the elevator to come. He lived on the first floor and so bid me a good night. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to figure out ways I could 'nonchalantly' bump into Brandon again...