They walk up to the bus hand-in-hand and crowd on together. The bus is not made for people to walk two abreast, but these two do so anyway, pushing people aside and knocking shins in their wake as they press back to stand in the nearest open space. Unfortunately, this puts them directly in front of my seat. I bite back a sigh, knowing the normally short ride to my stop is going to be insufferably long now that I have to spend the whole ride staring at Joined-at-the-Hip couple.
Everyone has their own version of Joined-at-the-Hip couple. They may be Smug Marrieds that can't quite function without the other. They may be the new couple in your social circle that toes that awkward line between friends and more-than-friends. They may even be like mine - just strangers on the bus.
When you're in a good mood, their touchy-feely happiness makes you annoyed. When you're feeling sad and lonely, their ever-present togetherness makes you envious of that source of comfort, no matter how intrusive it may seem.
Personally, my Joined-at-the-Hip couple scares me. I lived across the hall from the girl during freshman year, although the guy was there so often he may as well have lived there, too. I don’t know if he even had his own room. Somehow, I’ve never spoken to either of them. It seems like every time our paths crossed, they stared right through me. If I’m not in the tiny two-person bubble that is their world, I guess they can’t see me.
More than that, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard them talk to each other. I seem to run into them everywhere these days - flocking like listless lovebirds around the mailboxes or huddled together at the bus stop so that it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. I even saw them at the mall once, the guy laden with shopping bags. She’s got him well trained. They shift positions so she can stand slightly closer to him, and I idly wonder if they coordinate their class schedules.
Article comments
1 - Ann Cardinal
I loved this piece. People like that scare me too. I call them "remora relationships" since one person is almost always taking more. Though I've had my degree of hip joining (new love always has a bit of that in it) I relish being my own person while in a relationship. And though I've been happily married for 14 years, I would throttle him if I had to spend that much time with him.
It makes you wonder about people like the couple you witness. Perhaps they're two introverts who found each other. Either way, we shouldn't envy them. Not everyone's hip was meant to be connected like a Lego piece to someone else's.