Again: What's wrong with people?

Yesterday, when I was sitting, in the tube station, waiting for the tube, a couple came up to where I was sitting. They were both smoking, even though smoking is not allowed in tube stations in Sweden, as in many other countries.

The girl/woman asked me and the person sitting next to me, if we could move a bit, so that she could sit down.

"Yes sure, if you can please put that cigarette out first, I said to her very nicely.

She looked at me and asked "Why?".

I didn't believe that she asked that. Of course I understand that she was trying to provoke me, but still. What's wrong with people? Why not just say, "sure, no problem", if someone asks you something like that in a polite way.

"Because first of all it's not allowed to smoke in here", I replied. "Second, cigarette smoke makes me feel sick, and third I'm pregnant and do not want to inhale cigarette smoke".

She just turned her back to me and repeated to her boyfriend, with a silly voice, what I had said.

Just then lots of seats got available behind me, so they sat down, still poisoning my air with smoke. I had to get up and move. They didn't care at all.

I know kids can be stupid. I remember myself smoking in the tube when I was around 20. Something I feel embarrassed by today. But even at that age, it only happened when I had been out partying, and was on my way home, late at night, when there were practically no people in the tube. Yesterdays event happened in rush hour. And on top of that this couple was not 20. They must have been at least 25.

The fact is that someone smoking next to me, once in a while, probably doesn't do Noam any harm. But it's a good excuse to use at the moment, as cigarette smoke makes ME feel sick. The fact is also that it didn't hurt me to get up and move. But the whole situations really annoyed me, which is why I had to write it down. To then be able to let it go.