A straight gut-check

How to tell if someone is mad at you over text

The tells: shorter replies than usual, no questions back, punctuation gone clipped or suddenly formal, a delay that breaks your normal rhythm. One is noise. Three at once is usually real.

But the only way to actually know is to ask — "things feel a little off, are we good?" Guessing turns a maybe into a certainty in your head that may not exist in theirs.

These are the patterns — your situation has its own details. Tell Sided what happened and it gives you a straight, private read: are you overreacting, reading it right, or missing something.

More gut-checks

• Am I overreacting
• stop overthinking a text
• it normal to fight this much
• hasn't he (or she) texted back
• Should I text first
• he (or she) losing interest