BURGER

Written by Ben Tallon

"I know she can be a dick, but this time, Karen is in the right if you ask m-"

"Ahhhh...bollocks!"

"What?! What's up?"

Martyn was at the sink, his shaking hand smeared with mayonnaise, ketchup and dead lettuce. The tap, at full blast, thrashed the mess off into the plughole. A tomato rolled off the kitchen unit. Bits of onion and mushroom stuck to the windows and walls.

"Fucking Hovis for a burger? LOOK AT IT!"

Karen looked at it. There was no way he was picking it up whole. Her attempt to break their mealtime routine had caved in around deep, wet, moon pothole finger dents. Mushroom grease made the bread translucent.

It was embarrassing.

Yet his contribution to anything around the home was betting on football upstairs. He'd been calling himself a ‘professional gambler’ since the bus company had laid him off.

"What have you been doing all day, anyway? Tell me you at least rang Sky?" He snarled.

The audacity of this caused Karen to twitch.

She looked at the stand full of kitchen knives, but left it, turned and stormed out of the kitchen. Marched upstairs. His laptop was open on the bed; the only source of light aside from the sickly yellow hue of the streetlight. She hovered over the device and shuddered, her face lit from beneath like a child reading by torchlight. Her grin lacked any of that lost innocence.

On it was a small football pitch graphic.

The live text updates said Liverpool were in the midst of a dangerous attack against Grimsby Town in a cup match. His account showed £346.56 balance. With two gleeful clicks, she bet it all on the minnows, snatched up her car keys and left the house to stay with her sister before all hell broke loose. Maybe this time she'd really leave him.