"We were on a break!"

Mara dropped down on the couch with a “humpf!” She logged into her Facebook to delete her boyfriend from her friends' list and then block him. She updated her status for good measure too. Let his friends see that and it gets back to him. “People will push you to your breaking point, but when you snap, they act as if you’re the one in the wrong.” She threw her phone away onto the coffee table and tried to get her emotions and anger in check.

Hugh had walked out. He didn’t say where he was going or if he was coming back. Sure, she’d said something she shouldn’t of but they fought like this all the time. Still, this time was all his fault. Hugh had stayed out late after work and come home smelling like another girl. Mara just knew it was Elaine, the girl from his work she couldn’t stand and just never trusted. He’d acted as if nothing had happened but his whole behaviour had seemed suss to her. Playing on his phone when he got home and placed it face down after getting a message from someone.

Mara’s somewhat violent fantasies about what she might do to Hugh or his belonging were interrupted. The soft ‘ding’ of her message tone brought her back to reality from an anger-induced fantasy. ‘Ding’. Another alert sounded from where her phone had landed on top of some magazines and next to a half-finished tub of ice cream and Mara’s third empty glass of red wine for the evening. It was probably just one of her female friends checking up on Mara to see what Facebook status had been about.

Mara was going to ignore the phone until tomorrow and get another refill of Merlot but the alert’s kept coming.

“Ding.”

“Ding.”

“Ding.”

Over and over again.

Mara started to get interested in who, or several who, was messaging her. Her current level of insecurity feeding on the attention. Reaching out she picked her phone back up again and the lock display showed that close to a dozen different people, mostly men, had messaged her asking how she was, what had happened and what she was going to do.

Unlocking the phone Mara scrolled through the different messages.