He Went Bro Mode
On a flight to Philadelphia this past summer, the airline employees had asked people with the larger carry-on bags to please check them at the door, as there wasn’t much room on the plane. The bro in line in front of me had a huge bag, but kept telling the airline people “Nah, it’ll be fine, it’ll fit. Come on, don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine. Blah blah blah,” until finally, the employee got sick of it and just let him through with the bag.
Inside the plane, we go down the aisle a ways, and suddenly, still several rows in front of my row, he throws his bag down into an empty set of seats, then enters the row himself until he’s almost completely out of the way of the aisle, and starts digging through his bag. His butt is still sticking out into the aisle slightly, and I don’t want to brush it as I walk by, so I wait for him to realize he was still accidentally blocking the aisle.
After about 30 seconds, the people behind me are grumbling, so I ask the guy very politely, not mad at all, “Excuse me, mind if I just slip by”? I assumed he just didn’t realize he was still blocking the aisle. Suddenly he switches on to full “bro mode,” wheels to me, gets in my face, and says very aggressively and loudly, “You even flown on a freaking plane before? You gotta wait until I put my bag up”.
I’m not a confrontational guy at all, so I’m shocked and try to explain quickly before I can even really think about what I’m saying: “Sorry man, but your butt was the only thing in the way and I sure didn’t want to touch it”. Not very graceful or articulate, but I was in shock from the sudden aggression. He did not like it.
He pretty much yells in my face, spittle flying, “I don’t appreciate your language,” (uh, what, the word “butt”?) “Do you wanna turn this into something”!? He assumed an aggressive stance, arm cocked back slightly. I honestly can’t even remember what I did or said next, but whatever it was, it was enough to make him give up on the attempted bro-down, turn back to his bag, and heave it up into an overhead bin.
He then goes back out into the aisle and goes down a few more rows… to my row…and sits in the seat next to my ticketed seat. Yep, we were seat buddies for the whole darn flight. When he saw I was coming to sit down next to him, he looked like he wanted to punch me. It was a very uncomfortable flight for the both of us, I’m sure.
Story credit: Reddit / apackofmonkeys