It was a regular Saturday morning as I sat on the couch flicking through Facebook on my phone, unknowingly about to click into a message request that would completely ruin my entire weekend.
To: Jacki
From: Anonymous
RE: You don’t know me, but…
…I work with a girl who is always chatting to her friends instead of getting shit done, so one day I shadily went through a group chat she’d left open on her computer.
I wasn’t really surprised to see her and her pathetic little ‘dream team’ talking trash about everyone I know – including myself – but another name was coming up almost more times than any…Yours. To start off, they think your marriage is a joke and your haircut is ridiculous…
***
The message went on – in horrifying detail – about basically every mean, malicious, bitchy comment these girls had ever made about me; every picture they’d ripped from my Instagram and laughed at; every employment issue my husband had ever experienced; every hair colour I’d tried, or outfit I’d worn, or status I’d posted, or life choice I’d made – they discussed, dissected and made fun of it all.
My personal favourite was their theory that the reason I’d adopted a pet rabbit in the last year was because I was desperate for a baby but unable to have one. Girls if you’re reading, I’m sorry to say that’s not true – I really just think rabbits are adorable. But good guess, I suppose.
But the worst was yet to come – as I neared the end of the message, I realised my would-be bullies weren’t simply a group of sad strangers who’d found me on Facebook and decided for whatever reason to secretly bash my whole life to bits. They weren’t strangers at all.