"You have 17 new voicemails and 10 unread messages "read the screen on Brookes phone when she looked at it in the morning.It was always the first thing she did as soon as she opened her eyes, although now she did it out of a sense of fear and dread rather than eager anticipation as to what gossip or general chat she used to look forward to.


Ever since school had began at the start of the year things seemed to change between her and her friends.She didn't seem to be asked to anyone's house after school any more or be invited to any weekends plans of going to the cinema or bowling like they had before. Lately she been receiving calls with no one speaking at the other end of it or muffled giggling sounds that always ended with a nasty name being screamed at her before they would hang the phone up .She did think for a slight moment that it could be one of more of her old friends group doing these but thought better of it,no they wouldn't do that to her surely.?


She read the test messages first and they were the usual ones from her mother or one of her grandparents checking in on her or reminding her of something she had to do just a general "love you text ,see you soon" usually her grandmother would text her the latter which she would always reply with " I love you too" which she knew made her grandmother's day .She then pressed the play button to listen to her voicemails.


An unfamiliar voice spoke her name as if she knew Brooke ,by the way she said it .Brooke thought for a moment and decided she defiantly didn't know who this was and she didn't think she had heard this voice anywhere at school either so wondered who it was and how did they have her number.A girls voice spoke and didn't seem to want to say anything nice at all.A few unkind names were used towards Brooke and she also used a variety of nasty things to say about her mother as well as laughing that Brooke didn't have a father.Brookes father had passed away when she was 5 and she and her older brother who was 5 years older than Brooke were brought up by her mother and grandparents.Things had been tough financially growing up with her mother working two jobs to try and keep their heads above water and even though it was hard Brooke and her brother were never short of love from any of them.She had never been made fun of for not having a father before so why now ? Why would someone be so cruel and say such a thing to her?


The girl ended the first message with a threat of when she saw Brooke she was going to hurt her. She told Brooke to keep looking over her shoulder because she would be seeing her soon.The next few messages rolled in from one threat to another as well as a torrent of vile names being used to her about herself and her mother. Brooke felt a feeling in her stomach of dread and upset how can someone she doesn't know say all these things to her? Who would want to hurt her so much and make her feel like this?


As the messages continued to play she knew she should knock them off and not listen to any more but she desperately needed to know what was being said about her and what names was she being called.It felt as she was punishing herself by listening to what this girl this stranger was saying to her.Had she done something to upset anyone? had she done something so bad to make someone feel all this hatred towards her? She knew she hadn't as she would never treat anyone that bad ,that just wasn't her ,it never had been.In fact if anything she had always been too forgiving and too nice to cause anyone to dislike her and her brother would tell her this he would say she needed to toughen up.


The messages now seemed to be directed towards her mother and how her mother had made her father rather be dead than to be in her life anymore.The cruel things that the girl was saying to Brooke and the threats made seemed to be becoming more personal as if there was a grudge against her and her mother.It sounded that the girl meant every word and every threat she made she spoke with hatred in her voice.


The final message played and the girl said that she knew all of Brookes friends had stopped being friends with her and that she was never invited to go out with them because they all knew what she was and what her mother was .Brooke wondered if the girl was telling the truth had she said all these vile things to her old friends and poisoned them against her even though they weren't true.This would explain the whole split in the friendship group and Why they had acted the way they they had lately.That can't be right Brooke thought to herself why would they believe this girl when they've known me all my life they have been my friends for most of my life.They know me and they know my mother so why would they believe her and just completely ignore me as if we were never friends?


The vile things the girl was saying and the names she was using to describe Brooke and her mother hurt so much the threat of being physically hurt by this girl didn't hurt as much as the words used to her did.The voicemail ended with the girl telling Brooke to make sure she read the local news today as she'd soon see why everyone hated her so much and laughed at the thought of seeing Brookes face when she finally found out why .She said.


The end of the messages came and Brooke fetched her laptop to research the local news today.Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw a picture of her dead father as well as a very old picture of a group of women who looked familiar. Her mother was in the photo at the end and she recognised one of the other women as one of her old friends mother. She continued to scan the article and she saw the words suicide ,affair,,baby and friends. .......


She knew she couldn't tell anyone about the .messages from this girl she didn't want her mother to know that she knew what had happened she didn't want her mother to know that all her friends knew and this was the reason they now hated her.She picked her phone up and pressed it 17 times to make sure she heard the words 'message deleted".