by Claire Thake
Leah often took the kids to Devon to see them all in the holidays, but Ryan never went with them, always being too busy with work to join them. When they did have a family holiday abroad, Ryan still spent the majority of his time on his phone, sending emails back and forth to the office.
Every day was beginning to feel like Groundhog Day, and it was beginning to grate on Leah’s nerves. She loved Ryan dearly but he had changed over the years they had been together and she found herself getting more and more frustrated at her life.
Chapter 2
The day continued the same way it always did on a Monday. She went through the usual routine of food shopping, housework and catching up on the washing and ironing from the weekend,
Life had become such a routine that she even had her own daily schedule for the housework. Mondays were the kitchen, Tuesdays the living room, Wednesdays the bathrooms, Thursdays the kids rooms and Friday her and Ryan’s room; as well as laundry every day and the normal tidying up daily after Ryan and the kids.
After she got back from the supermarket and put all the food away in the cupboards she sat down at the table with another cup of coffee and checked her Facebook account on her phone. After reading through the usual list of statuses from people she hardly saw, or who were acquaintances from years ago, she checked her requests, cancelling out all the daily game requests she had received, before noticing she had an invite to a reunion group for her old school.
School life was never great for Leah. She had a few friends but even then those who were close friends were also the ones that made her life difficult. Picking on her for a joke and when she got upset telling her she needed a sense of humour. Still despite the teasing, she carried on feeling it was better to have a few friends like she had than none at all. Not that you would know from the outside, Leah had always put on a brave face, a bubbly persona and hid away how she really felt about the teasing and she leant to continue the façade into adulthood.
Curiosity got the better of her and she accepted the invite, scrolling down the list of messages from familiar names from her school year, all chatting about what they had become and where life had taken them. Then her eyes fell on a post asking them all to download an app to their phones. It was an instant messaging service and a private room had been made up for them all to talk in real time.
Leah paused wondering whether connecting to her past was such a great idea, considering how much she had disliked school, but boredom and the desire to connect to other people took over and she quickly downloaded and registered to the app under the alias Leah1982. She quickly browsed through all the app functions and found out where to add the invite code to join the room, she typed in the code and paused before confirming wondering whether to enter the room or just to quit and delete the app altogether.
She sipped her coffee, leant back in the chair and took a deep breath, thinking about everything that had happened throughout her school years. She had never been the popular one, but at the same time hadn’t been at the bottom of the social ladder either. After school had finished she had attended college and consequently hadn’t had much, if any contact from the people in her past since then.
Maybe this was the time to change who she was, at least in the eyes of others. She never planned to see these people and so if things didn’t go well she could just delete the app and forget. Before she changed her mind she grabbed her phone from the table and pressed the confirm button before slamming it back down on the table and giggling to herself for being so silly.
Checking the time she panicked, swearing under her breath that she had lost track of the time. She jumped up and rushed to the front door grabbing her brown winter coat and keys and rushing out of the door. She jumped into her typical mum car, a seven-seater people carrier, started the engine and drove the short distance to the kids' school.
She arrived just in time to see Emma, Ben and Oscar wandering out of the school gates, she waved at them and waited for them to cross the road with the crossing patrol lady and watched as they jumped into the car; Emma in the front beside her, and the two boys in the back. She smiled and greeted them all before pulling out of the parking space, listening to the loud banter between the 3 of them, discussing their eventful school day.
She drove Oscar home, not getting out of the car but waiting until she saw him enter the house, Cara giving her a quick wave and blowing her a kiss from the door. She returned home with the kids and asked them to go and do their homework in their rooms and she would call them for dinner, knowing most likely they would avoid the homework and Emma would end up on her laptop and Ben on his Playstation.
Walking into the kitchen thinking about what to do for dinner, she jumped as her phone vibrated on the kitchen table. Not even noticing that she had left it at home. She grabbed it to see the reason for the vibration and noticed her phone screen was full of messages and more being added. The app was sending notifications each time someone posted and it seemed the chat room was buzzing as the phone continued to vibrate in her hand. She unlocked the screen and scrolled back to the beginning and scanned quickly through the messages.
Not all the names she recognised, but they were all reminiscing about old teachers and discussing their current lives, spouses and children. Smiling she checked the settings and turned off notifications for group rooms, making a mental note to go in and read up again later on and maybe trying to join in if she felt brave enough. She placed the phone back on the table and began preparing dinner; she decided to go with homemade spaghetti Bolognese and searched the cupboards for the ingredients.
It wasn’t long before Ryan, noisily entered the house, dropping his rucksack he took to work by the door, and kicking off his shoes. He was as bad as the kids and the shoes ended up a good two feet away from each other. He entered the kitchen and gave her a brief “hey” before dropping his empty lunch container on the side and clicking the kettle on, making himself a coffee without even asking to see if Leah would like one as well. He came over and glanced over her shoulder checking out what she was preparing before exiting the room to the living room and sprawling across the sofa as usual.
Leah could literally predict his every movement from the moment he entered the house; it was the same every day he came in. She sighed and then took in a deep breath to keep herself composed and focused on preparing the meal for them all.
Dinner was eaten in almost silence. The kids shovelling the food into their mouths as if they hadn’t eaten in years and Ryan scrolling through emails on his phone in between mouthfuls. Leah shook her head and couldn’t believe his behaviour around the kids. Dinner used to be a time where they would all come together and share their days and interact as a family. Now it just felt as if the kids ate fast to get away and that Ryan didn’t even know they all existed.
Glancing at Ryan trying to catch his eye to signal for him to put the phone down, Leah felt the anger boiling inside of her and tried to hold it in place and not to let in out in front of the kids. He glanced up and looked her direct in the eyes questioningly.
“What?” he asked with a mouthful of food,
“Can that not keep till you have finished eating?” she said sarcastically, then regretted saying anything knowing she was in for a mouthful back.
“This is my work Leah! I’m sorry if it’s inconvenient to you, but one of us needs to bring in the money,” he shot at her and kept direct eye contact with her. The look on his face made her cower into herself. She felt her temperature rising as she tried hard to suppress the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes and felt the skin on her face redden.
She glanced up at him and he smiled sarcastically back at her, obviously happy he had belittled her and made his point known. Ryan had to be right all the time and even if he was wrong he would twist whatever was being said in his favour so he sounded right and it infuriated Leah. No matter what she said, it was always wrong.
After they had all finished dinner the kids went back to their rooms and Ryan returned to t
he sofa and turned the sports channels on, flicking between live sport and sports news. Leah tidied up the plates and filled the dishwasher before preparing lunches for Ryan and the kids for the next day and placing them in the fridge. She then grabbed her mobile and went and sat on the armchair in the living room placing her mobile on the arm of the chair and curling her legs under her, trying to join in with what Ryan was watching on the TV, but she had never been a sports fan so found herself bored and playing with her wedding ring spinning the gold band around her finger.
After half an hour of the silence, she decided she could no longer sit and pretend. Standing up, she retrieved her mobile from the chair and her iPad from the coffee table, telling Ryan she was going to bed. He barely acknowledged her with a slight grunt as she left the room and ascended the stairs. She checked in on the kids telling them both not to stay up and to get to bed.
Entering her bedroom and changing into her good old comfy fleece pyjamas, Leah snuggled under the duvet before unlocking her Ipad and loading the reading app and her current book. She mainly read chick lit and romantic fiction, and imagined herself as the main character that had a gorgeous male lusting after her; it was a long time ago that she had felt that she was wanted for anything else but a cook and cleaner. She had never been a big reader, until Carrie had encouraged her to try out certain books she had read and slowly Leah had become just as hooked at falling into the stories on the pages, often swapping suggestions with Carrie when the spoke on the phone.
Leah began feeling her eyes tire and felt herself getting drowsy when her phone vibrated on the bedside table. She glanced at the clock and picked up the phone wondering who was trying to contact her at eleven at night. Squinting her eyes from the brightness of the screen she noticed it was the messaging app that had caused the alert. Confused to why it had gone off when she had turned off the chat room alerts for the school reunion room, she unlocked the screen and opened up the app. The school room was sitting still with a number of five hundred and twelve next to it showing the amount of messages that had been posted. Next to the room was an individual message from a member called GregB. Leah intrigued opened the message…
GregB: Hi wanna chat?
Leah stared at the screen for a few minutes trying to work out how this person had managed to message her and debating whether or not to answer. Before she had the chance Ryan walked into the room and began stripping off his work clothes before plonking himself onto the bed beside her.
She quickly locked the phone and put it back on the table not wanting Ryan to see and question it. The last thing she wanted to do was to get into a discussion with him about why she had the app and why she would want to join a group of school acquaintances, let alone why a stranger was messaging her. Within minutes, Ryan was spread across the bed taking up most of the room and snoring as Leah clung to the edge.
Whoever said it was the woman who hogged the bed had clearly never met Ryan. She lay down and tried her hardest to sleep despite being in the most uncomfortable position for sleeping, but thought to herself that at least he had made it to bed that evening.
**********
The next morning went the same as every other morning did, however, Leah could not get the message out of her head and felt excitement at the thought of having a conversation with a complete stranger. As usual, Ryan left hardly saying a word to Leah and the kids dragged their feet getting ready.
Eventually after shouting and repeating herself several times, the kids were ready for school and Leah bundled them out of the house. Leah’s son, Ben, slumped into the passenger seat, despite arguments from his sister Emma.
“That’s so unfair; you always go in the front, surely it's my turn! Mum tell him.” Shouted Emma, stamping her feet and refusing to get in the car.
“Seriously does it really matter where either of you sit? It’s a ten-minute drive! Just get in the car, Emma!” Leah replied, feeling her head began to thump and wanting nothing more than to just drop them off and get some peace.
Ben turned towards his sister as she finally sat in the back seat and stuck his tongue out at her. She glared back at him and kicked his seat hard.
“Mum, Emma just kicked my seat.”
Leah leant her forehead against the steering wheel and muttered several expletives under her breath before starting the engine and backing out of the drive, to make the journey to Cara’s to pick up Oscar.
“Emma, your father just had this car valeted, if you leave any marks on the seat, don’t expect me to cover for you when he notices,” Leah muttered, and watched the annoyed expression on her daughter's face. Even though it was more than likely that Leah would get the blame.
After picking up Oscar and finally reaching the school, Leah walked the kids from the car, and into the playground, dropping them at the entrances for their years. Once she had seen them go into the building, she turned and walked back to the car, taking a deep breath and doing what she vowed to do every morning and promise that the next day would be more organised.
Once back at home she grabbed her usually morning coffee and parked herself on the sofa with her phone in her hand. She stared at the phone for what felt like ages debating whether or not to reply. Eventually, she decided it wouldn’t do any harm, after all, she didn’t know this Greg in person and would never meet them so what harm would a simple conversation to pass the day do? Opening the app, she quickly opened the message and typed out a reply before she changed her mind.
Leah1982: hello nice to meet you
Leah swore under her breath thinking what a stupid reply it was, what a way to make yourself seem like an idiot. She sighed and thought there was no way she would get a reply. She went to put her phone down but before she had let go it vibrated against her fingers.
GregB: How are you today Leah?
Leah giggled to herself in shock that she had got a reply and decided to sod the housework as no one noticed she did it anyway and to have some fun and continue this conversation if she could.
Leah1982: I’m very well thank you and yourself?
GregB: Not too bad I guess. Could be better.
Leah1982: Couldn’t we all
GregB: What do you do for a living Leah?
Leah1982: I’m a stay at home mum at the moment.
GregB: I’m not working at the moment either. I was made redundant, and I’m in the middle of a divorce so trying to move at the moment.
Leah1982: Sorry to hear that.
GregB: You don’t know who I am, do you, Leah?
Staring at the question on the screen, Leah’s stomach turned. Was it possible she knew this man? Before she could type a response, her phone vibrated again.
GregB: Gregory Linton ring any bells?
Leah threw the phone down on the seat beside her as if it was suddenly made of hot coal. Gregory Linton had been her first boyfriend, her first love. The boy she lost her virginity to at fifteen, and who had broken her heart when he moved away and yet hadn’t stayed in touch.
It wasn’t long after Gregory left, that she had met Ryan and he had replaced Gregory in her heart. Hearing his name again after so many years stirred up so many memories she had kept locked up.
Leah1982: So what does the B stand for?
GregB: It’s my mother’s maiden name. It’s a long story but I decided to change to it after a falling out with my father.
Intrigued to find out more, Leah spent the day chatting to GregB on the app. She found out his wife had filed for divorce after he lost his job, as he couldn’t keep her accustomed to the lifestyle she was used to. Of course, she never told him that but that’s what he assumed was the real reason and not irreconcilable differences. Leah told him she was married and had two kids but didn’t want to go into too much detail about her life.
She found Greg very easy to chat to and found out that he was very bored at home; he had no family who lived close and was looking into moving back home and getting a flat near his brother, who lived in town.
School run t
ime quickly approached and she had found out lots about GregB. Leah quickly typed goodbye to him, secretly hoping this wouldn’t be the last time they would speak as she had really enjoyed the interaction even if it had been faceless.
Sitting waiting outside the school for the kids Leah took her phone from her pocket and noticed a message on the screen. She unlocked the phone out of curiosity and wanting to know what he had said despite them both already saying goodbyes not long ago.
GregB: I really enjoyed talking to you today Leah. I hope we can talk again soon xx
She sighed and leaned back against the headrest hoping that they could talk again soon as well.
Chapter 3
Finally, the weekend came around and Leah was looking forward to a family filled weekend of fun, after booking tickets to the cinema and arranging for the kids to stay with her mother on Saturday night. On Sunday she had plans made to take the kids ice skating.
She had booked Ryan’s favourite restaurant for dinner Saturday night, and had been and pampered herself on Friday, having her hair and nails done, and treating herself to a new outfit and new lingerie. Hoping they could spend a lovely evening together and put some romance back into their marriage – at least for the one night.
As usual Leah’s ideas never went to plan. Ryan had work to do, and so she took Emma and Ben to the cinema by herself. Treating them to lots of sugary treats and to a pizza restaurant for lunch. On the way home, she dropped them to her mother's, making excuses that she needed to get ready for the evening so she didn’t need to stay and make conversation.
