‘Listen!’ I yelled back. ‘I have told you this before. I do not need someone policing my every mood, and I do not need a mother! You land up here uninvited, under the guise of friendship, but actually you’re just here to check on me or to bum your next box of free stuff, and I don’t mind, Kavya. Really, I don’t, as long as you keep your damned opinions to yourself!’

She took a step back. I saw the pain I had inflicted on her, but I couldn’t stop. The rage that had been building inside me was on the surface, and like a volcano, lying dormant for hundreds of years, nothing could stop the destruction that followed.

‘Jhanvi, you’re drunk. Please,’ she pleaded with me.

‘Oh, what? Now that I dare speak back, you change your attitude?’ I took a step forward; lifting my finger, I stuck it in her face. ‘You are a freeloading witch who loves nothing more than to cause me misery! You couldn’t wait to prove to me that Puneet was cheating, and you cannot wait to save your poor miserable friend from her next misfortune. But you know what, Kavya? I don’t need you. I don’t need your sympathy, and I certainly don’t need your bitchy attitude arriving in my house every day to force-feed me crap so that you can feel better about getting fat!’

My breathing was out of control, rage driving me to say things I didn’t mean. Things that had never even crossed my mind. Venom taking over my words and twisting everything into something cruel.

Kavya turned around and, without saying a word, she put the food on the kitchen counter. I saw her pause for a moment, perhaps to say something or perhaps taking in one last moment with her, now ex, best friend. She walked out of the room. I was sure I heard her place her keys on the front side table before the familiar click of the front door closing permeated the silence. I walked through to the living room and grabbed the bottle of vodka from my bag. I pushed out two pills, put them in my mouth, and downed as much of the bottle as my stomach would permit before I choked.

Unlocking my phone, I scrolled through my comments; they were filled with young girls telling me how my life was wonderful, how they envied me. Pacing the room, I read them out loud, like a madwoman. I repeated the opinions of people who didn’t even know me. I spoke into the nothingness of my apartment. Bottle in hand, I paced, I don’t know for how long, until I could no longer contain the rage.