Stupid thing I done once

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It's only a small thing, but sometimes I analyze it over and over in my head and start beating myself up inside about it.

It might have happened last year or the year before even. I was in the bus station waiting for my bus. A couple was standing near me (looked in their 60s) and the woman smiled at me and said, ''I saw you get on the bus from [town I got on in] this morning''. I wasn't expecting them to say that to me because I didn't recognise them from anywhere. So I found myself saying, ''yeah...'' then I wanted to say more but couldn't think of what to say, so I stood there staring and grinning at them for a few seconds like an idiot. I'm OK with small talk with people I know or at least familiar with, but I'm no good with speaking to strangers unless I really have to. Then after that they kept staring at me with straight faces, and I knew I had embarrassed myself. Then I knew I had definitely done something wrong because I turned round to find everybody else around me staring at me too. I just turned round again as though I hadn't noticed. I felt like Mr Bean in his movie ''Mr Bean's Holiday'', when he gets on the train after discovering the devastated boy had got on the train and left his father behind. I should have given everybody that same look he gave the gawking people on the train.

Anyway do you think I had done something wrong? I know I shouldn't worry about it now because they might have forgotten, but I still think what if they still get on the bus and still recognise me and think ''oh there's that stupid girl again''? Just thought I'd share my experience, as it sometimes makes me feel better when sharing a social faux pas with other Aspies.

It doesn't sound that strange to me. People smile and give brief answers all the time when they don't really want to talk, though maybe not huge grins.

Doesn't sound weird to me either. I think I would have reacted the same way. Maybe without the "yeah.." I don't see a reason why everybody would stare at you for reaction that way. I usually just try to smile and say OK when someone says something like that to me. But I can only smile when there's actually something funny, I got better at faking smiling though.

Joe, don´t you think, that you might "read" too much into that situation because of your own sense of embarrassment? It can be a pretty strong feeling.
People occupy themselves very little with strangers, they only smiled to for two seconds, and I dont think, their facial expression meant anything at all. They just disappeared into their private sphere again.