I woke up this morning alone. My girlfriend normally wakes me up with a kiss, but she's not in the bedroom when my alarm goes off. I can hear the shower down the hall, so I decide to wake up and make some coffee.

As she gets out of the shower, she walks over and says the most peculiar thing to me.

"Good morning, slave."

We both pause. She's a bit cheeky at times, so maybe this was some kind of joke. I look over and she's clasped her hand over her mouth in shock. I responded a bit confused.

"I don't get it. Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No." She says. "I really just enjoy knowing you basically act like my slave."

We both stare at each other. She's put both hands over her mouth at this point and is shaking. I'm not sure what prompted this little dialogue this morning, but my rebuttal came as a bit of a shock to me too.

"I mean, the only reason I do is because I pity you. You wouldn't have any other friends without me."

Her shock at her own statement is now doubled by the shock of what I just said. She looks incredibly confused. Both by her own words and mine.

"Why did you say that? That's really true."

"Of course it's true. Your bitchy attitude drives most people away."

We both stand there not sure of what to make of the situation. The coffee machine beeps at me as I stare at two empty mugs, trying to figure out what is happening.

"What's going on with us this morning?" I ask. My girlfriend's words tremble in response.

"I don't know. I think we must both be in a bad mood."

"Well, I'm always in a bad mood around you because you treat me like a pet rather than a boyfriend."

"And you treat me like your mother. I wish you loved me as much as you love your friends."

"At least my friends have a vested interest in what I want, not what they can get out of me."

"Your friends are superficial and only care about keeping you to themselves."

"Pot. Kettle. Black."

We both stared at each other, confused and angry. It was at this moment we both thought about turning to our phones to get away from this. And from here, the explanation of everything rang forth. Practically every facebook page, reddit post, instagram picture, and tumblr reblog had a similar vibe to it:

I really just want to put women in their place. I don't care about policies or the economy. I just want to get off knowing a woman was held back because of me.

I gave money for sex last week. In fact, I've done this hundreds of times in the last year. It's way better than having sex with my husband.

I've thought of killing myself so often that all I really want is to take as many people down with me before setting the deed in motion.

Holy crap black men are hot as hell. I hope my wife never finds out I know this.

I don't really care about reviewing new things. This youtube channel is the only way I'll never have to keep a regular 9 to 5 job. And yes, I know every video is clickbait.

No, of course I know Bernie can't win. Just as long as Trump stays in office.

We stared at the conga line of horrible posts all over social media. Something had happened to everyone, and we don't know how, but it's made everyone brutally honest. Damn the consequences. We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, until she popped up with a suggestion.

"We should stay away from each other for a short period of time."

I nodded and responded. "Agreed. If what is happening to everyone continues, it will ruin our lives as well as theirs."

"And once this is passed, we will not speak of this day ever again, because it is easier to live with the lies we create for ourselves."

"That statement is correct."

"I have some vacation leave at work. I'm going to take a week off and go to California for a trip."

"I'm going up to Michigan to stay at my family's cabin for a few days. I can work on a few jobs remotely up there."

We each nodded. We didn't want to jeopardize our lives further than we already had.

"I'm going to go pack my things and take my car." My girlfriend stated in a cautious, monotone voice.

"I will wait down here for you to leave, then go and pack my things and take the other car."

"Is a week enough time for this to blow over?"

"I don't know. Let's text each other after Sunday."

"And not before."

"Agreed."

It was like we were both in a trance. Neither one of us wanted to make the situation worse. My girlfriend went upstairs for several minutes and gathered a week's worth of stuff.

I sat down on our couch, thinking about all the things I was seeing pop up on my news feed. At least six people have confessed their love for me. About twelve for my girlfriend. My best friend started cursing me out about how left behind he felt when I moved in with my girlfriend. My boss apparently was funneling money through overseas banks which is why we had budget cuts last year. And my girlfriend's boss admitted she was running an underage sex ring in New York.

I stared at the long line of messages, posts, confessions, burtal takedowns, putdowns, and horrifying truths spewing out of my phone and... I threw it on the ground and smashed the screen in.

When she came back downstairs, my girlfriend looked at the destroyed remains of my phone, and promptly threw her phone onto the ground and smashed the screen in.

"There's money in our account for each of us to get a burner phone." She said. "You can grab a prepaid one at a store."

"After Sunday?" I asked.

"Yes." She quietly and quickly left the apartment.

I sat and listened to her drive off as I thought about what was going on. Worldwide, people were confessing to horrible things and letting the lies come out we had lived with for so long. But as I thought about our situation and how this seemed to be worldwide, one single thought crossed my mind.

The plan my girlfriend and I had created within minutes? The plan we thought up where we wouldn't address the truth and instead live with the lives we had already made without trying to destroy this silly little house of cards? One final thought escaped my mouth, as it would probably be the last honest thing I'd say for a while.

"It's better this way."