I followed some advice on here and got it to disappear. I've had this issue with mail before, and basically messed with it until something worked, but I couldn't remember what.
Solution with Messages (for me): Open the conversation that caused the issue (I knew which one it was) and delete any text from him. Instantly fixed. To be clear, I chose one at random, but it happened to be the second text he sent after the one that screwed everything up (in case that matters).
Full problem: I received a text (not iMessage) from a friend. It showed up in my notification center drop down, with the badge, etc. as normal. When I opened it, something screwy happened. I read it in the convo normally the first time, but subsequent times it wasn't there. It was still showing up in the pull-down notification center, but instead of being listed under the Spenser's contact name, it was listed as being sent by "Messages" generically. When I tapped it, it would open the Messages app but it would take me to the "compose new message" screen instead of his convo. The badge refused to go away and the message causing the issue no longer showed up.
Other solutions tried (that failed): pressing "clear" in the notification center pull-down menu, quitting the app, hard quitting the app (learned that one from this thread, so thanks for that even if it didn't work here!), powering off/soft resetting the phone, sending a message to myself (including all related tricks, like deleting that message before it went through), turning off iMessages (mine was an SMS so I figured this wouldn't help), and checking my iMessage address for an unwanted iCloud email (none were there).
Details: 32 GB iPhone 5C (~8 months old, very full) running iOS 7.1.2 on Verizon in the US
Good luck!
Solution with Messages (for me): Open the conversation that caused the issue (I knew which one it was) and delete any text from him. Instantly fixed. To be clear, I chose one at random, but it happened to be the second text he sent after the one that screwed everything up (in case that matters).
Full problem: I received a text (not iMessage) from a friend. It showed up in my notification center drop down, with the badge, etc. as normal. When I opened it, something screwy happened. I read it in the convo normally the first time, but subsequent times it wasn't there. It was still showing up in the pull-down notification center, but instead of being listed under the Spenser's contact name, it was listed as being sent by "Messages" generically. When I tapped it, it would open the Messages app but it would take me to the "compose new message" screen instead of his convo. The badge refused to go away and the message causing the issue no longer showed up.
Other solutions tried (that failed): pressing "clear" in the notification center pull-down menu, quitting the app, hard quitting the app (learned that one from this thread, so thanks for that even if it didn't work here!), powering off/soft resetting the phone, sending a message to myself (including all related tricks, like deleting that message before it went through), turning off iMessages (mine was an SMS so I figured this wouldn't help), and checking my iMessage address for an unwanted iCloud email (none were there).
Details: 32 GB iPhone 5C (~8 months old, very full) running iOS 7.1.2 on Verizon in the US
Good luck!