"he got aids"

On the bus with some young black kids – they couldn’t have been older than 21 they were loud and tattooed and funny as hell. The one girl was yelling about her beautiful firend and how she shouldn’t keep breaking up with her boyfirend cause tey were meant for eachother. Then the girl sitting next to her told her to shut up. I was grinning from ear to ear. The girl asked me “what are you laughing at?”

“I was laughing at im” I pointed to a young man who was enjoying the conversatoin as much as I was and was clearly a friend of the girls.

That got a rise out of everyone. They started picking on him “oh, he got AIDS!” they said. I was shocked at their cavalier attitude. The crew broke out in laughter.

“Hey, that’s not funny!” I shouted. One of his compatriots responded, “he’s tryin to be proud of it”

As I stammered dumbfounded for something to say an absolutely gorgeous girl stood up and started shouting at the top of her lungs about how her gay friend had gotten caught at work giving head to a co-worker. The whole back of the bus broke out in a cacophony of laughter and shouting as the boy attempted in vain to defend himself as we pulled into the bus depot.

I am amazed at what a hard city this town is. Everywhere I see young kids covered in ugly tattoos. Neck tattoos. It is not that hey are harder than anywhere else, but they look it. It is raw here. Ugly exposed.