We’ve all been there. Walking down the street when suddenly your hand brushes up against someone beside you accidentally. Then you spend the rest of the day dwelling on the moment you became a little too close to a stranger. Happens to everyone. Right?
Right?
Anyways, these Redditors who’ve had literal run-ins with strangers share the moments that keep them awake at night.
Source at the end of the article. Comments edited for Clarity.
He resembled my brother from the back. I slapped his butt and yelled at him. He turned and he was not my brother.
I apologised and then pretended to become one with the wall for the rest of the trip.
Nixconvie
I was walking through a hallway at work, where a guy and girl I’ve never met were talking. As I got closer, the guy held out his arms in a, “come on through,” motion, but instead, I hugged him. Afterward, I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept walking. I’ve never seen that guy again.
autumanempire
I was walking through the city in August, the peak of busy-ness. The population more than doubles and the pavements are absolutely packed with tourists. I’m only 4’0″ tall (I have dwarfism) and I have the advantage of being able to weave through you lanky giants, so I was dodging and diving at quite a pace compared to everyone else.
I noticed a woman ahead of me in the crowd, talking on her phone. She was very tall and also in 6″ heels. I took a millisecond before I tried to dodge past her but she side-stepped in the same direction and stopped in her tracks completely (reacting to the conversation on the phone I’m assuming).
I face-planted right into her butt with some force. She whirled around and screamed at me in horror (a reasonable reaction I think). I felt my face flush red, mortified. I blurted out a “sorry” and swiftly darted away into the crowd again before she could do any more, like slap me.
ghiscari_
I was in a wedding reception line, and hugged my buddy who was just got married, then hugged and kissed his new bride on the cheek and then moved on to, apparently, the maid of honor, who I had never met. In the rhythm of the moment, I reached to hug her too, then was about to kiss her cheek, when I got the instinctual impulse that this was too far for a complete stranger. So, I guess to not look I was performing a head fake on her, I bent my head and kissed her on the neck, right above her bare shoulder.
THSSFC
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Walking down the street with a super attractive coworker. It was pretty crowded so I ended up walking directly behind her.
One of her high heels got stuck in a sidewalk grate which made her stop walking immediately, and she kind of bent over at the waist to keep from losing her balance.
I was walking way too close and ended up bumping my crotch into her butt and grabbing her by the waist to keep myself from falling forward onto her because the people behind me had already bumped into me too.
empire161
While I was with my soon-to-be wife I tried to passionately throw her onto her back.
I misjudged the width of the bed and absolutely power bombed her head into the nightstand.
mynameisavegetable
I was in a store when I snuck up on my girlfriend’s sister and hit her with a boat paddle as petty revenge for hitting me with a broom earlier. Right on her butt (We were young and dumb).
As I muttered something clever like “How do you like dem apples??” She turned around and it turned out to be a lady in her 40s wearing the same jeans/ pink shirt combo.
I apologized thoroughly and explained myself (she was ok with it only because I basically told her she looked like a teenager from the back).
My girlfriend and her sister just watched it all and offered no help or confirmation of the same outfit from behind another aisle…
HatchbacK419
In high school, there was a girl who I had a crush on. I’m pretty sure the crush was mutual and we were doing that thing where we were hanging out a lot and talking a lot, but no one was making a move.
Anyway we went to a restaurant with a group of friends and she was sitting next to me. All the sudden she was leaning over so her head was almost in my lap. I just kinda froze and thought she was doing some weird gesture of affection.
She suddenly said “Could you move? I dropped something.” I said “Ohhh” and then she said “Oh, you thought…?” Brief awkwardness where I worried she thought I thought she was going for something else in the middle of a restaurant.
Anyway we’re still good friends.
urchigold
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Oh that’s easy. Went to see a friend’s play. (That coincidentally, had her getting naked on stage, which was a complete surprise to me.) I went to congratulate her after the show went in for a hug and accidentally got like a full on handful of her chest
And neither of us said anything and acted like it didn’t happen, like you do. I was mortified though…
Flutterwander
A woman getting up to leave the tram fell on my lap when the driver decided to drive another meter towards the station.
hangulsve
Walking through a haunted house on a field trip in high school and one of my cute classmates (who I barely knew) freaked out and jumped in to my arms.
I was startled but caught her and also my hand ended up in an…inappropriate place. Now I was the freaked one, but she was so scared I tried to let her go but she hung on to me like a sloth the rest of the way through.
I put her down at the end, gave her a nod and stumbled away. I think we talked like twice the rest of our high school careers.
jgoods77
We were going down a large waterslide into the pool.
I went first and she came behind too quickly, landing with her legs wrapped around my neck, forcing my head to go underwater.
Back2Bach
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Was sitting on the “Maid of the Mist”, the boat that tours Niagara Falls. And the boat rocked a bit and someone’s Mom fell over and landed in my lap in a sitting position making me feel like a bad Santa.
adstewart
Getting on a school bus, tripping on the final step and falling face first into the bus drivers crotch. He laughed, I laughed, other kids laughed, and I died a bit inside.
armoryofharmony
I was on a street car and was kinda spaced out listening to music and a woman came and sat down in the seat next me. To my horror, my hand was resting in that seat unknowingly and she jumped up and gave me a death stare and move to another open seat away from me.
A few other people were giving me dirty looks. I just got off at the next stop to end my public embarrassment.
Couch_Licker
Saying goodbye to a friend of mine after they graduated. Went in for a hug but our faces went in the same way and we kissed. Then tried to do it again and faces went the same way that time too.
We kept fumbling before getting it right and having a normal friendly hug. I think we were both too stubborn to give up but it only made it worse. We had and would continue to have 0 attraction to each other.
Tragxei
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I once saw a long time friend in the hall at School. We, of course, ran to each other like in the movies for a glorious hug. One of my female classmates was terrified standing in the middle of two 6′ dudes running at each other. We grabbed her to pull her in for the hug, but I accidentally grabbed her chest.
This was the day she didn’t wear a bra…
DatSander
I went to high school with my cousin. We were at a high school dance or some sort of event and I spotted my cousin across the gymnasium. I snuck up behind her, picked her up around the waist and ran across the gym with her just to shake things up a little bit.
After I put her down I realized she was not my cousin and I did not know her.
hankbaumbach
Had to shake a hand once. That was rough.
johnnytwoballs
Was at the doctor’s office, being examined by a cute resident about my age who was clearly nervous about physical contact – she kept asking consent for anything involving contact, including things like taking my pulse and using a stethoscope.
Then at one point, as I’m sitting on the table with my hand on the corner, she leans over toward me to check my ear, and her crotch is resting on my hand.
I didn’t move or say anything in order to avoid making things more awkward, and pretended not to notice. I think she was pretending not to notice too.
snow_big_deal
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I was taking a nap and one of my sister’s friends tried to wake me up (for dinner or something). I assumed it was my younger brother messing with me, so I put her in a headlock for roughly 10-15 seconds. After realizing my mistake, I let her go.
Thankfully she didn’t tell anyone about it but I’m still embarrassed about it to this day.
Confucius08
I was on my way to my next class in high school and was going downstairs with a friend when she slipped. She tried to catch herself and and instead of my arm she grabbed my sweats and had pulled them down.
I was lucky enough that my underwear didn’t come down also. Without a doubt was the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me.
dtex34-
Oh god.
Fell asleep on the subway in Tokyo, woke up squeezing an elderly Japanese woman’s shoulder.
GangreneDream
I was sitting in a bus, by the aisle, talking to the person on the seat in front of me and gesticulating a lot. Girl wearing a sundress walks by me right as I move my aisle-side hand upwards…catching the dress and lifting it way up.
So, technically no contact with her, but still very embarrassing. And I didn’t even see what happened because I was looking forward and she was very quick to pull it back down.
dlightman_au