Is my reality yours?

It all started with a photo, just a simple photo.

 

I was at a friend’s cottage with the whole gang. We were sitting around the table playing some board games, drinking beers and cracking jokes. One of my friends Dylan snapped a photo of me and my friend Sam from the other side of the table. We smiled and posed like any other photo we took together, but this photo was different.

 

Dylan looked at the photo he took of us, probably gonna give us his 'expert' opinion on it. But he laughed a little to himself and said to me that it looked like someone Photoshopped me into the picture. He turned his camera and showed us the picture, and no word of a lie, it looked like I was shopped into the picture.

 

I don't know if it was the way the light was hitting me or if the camera was focused on something else in the photo, but it didn't look like I was originally there. We all joked about it and had a good laugh, but Dylan really did want a photo of the two of us so we moved and took the picture elsewhere. Sam and I propped ourselves up against the cottage and posed again, and Dylan took another photo. He took a look at the picture and had a concerned look on his face. He got back into position and took about three more photos. Then I started to get a little worried.

At first he thought it was his camera. Dylan fiddled around with a few settings, switching from Portrait to Landscape; still the same outcome. Then he had a thought. Dylan switched out me for my friend Noah; it was his cottage he was at. He explained to Noah that he is testing to see if his camera was acting up, or I really did not exist in this reality he said with a smile and slight laugh. Sam and Noah posed in silly stance complete with duck lips, solely mocking today’s youth. The thing that bothered me the most was the picture; it was perfect.

 

Nothing looked like it was edited in there, everything looked like it belonged. Which made me think; did I belong? As I was away in my own thoughts, Sam came up to me and asked if I was okay. I looked at her and put on a smile, said I was fine with a little chuckle. After all it was just a picture, no need to jump to any ridiculous conclusions. Dylan decided to put down the camera for the night and spend some time with the rest of us. The rest of the night was good, full of laughs and friendly insults. I kept getting glimpses of Dylan trying to take pictures of with throughout the rest of the night even when he said he was done. He even went as far as grabbing other people’s cameras and snapping photos with them. Judging by the expression on his face, it wasn’t just his camera.

 

When everyone went to bed, I stayed awake on the docks. Beer in hand, smoking a cigarette, just me and my thoughts, I close my eyes and just listen to the sound of the lake and the wind in the trees. The dock sunk as someone approached me from the house, I guess I didn’t hear the footsteps; it was Noah. He was still pretty drunk; then again I’m not so sober either. He sat down next to me and we started talking. We were talking about life and outer space of all things. I guess it was the stars, they really get you thinking. The entire time we were talking I still had the damn picture thing on my mind. It wasn’t only the fact that they said it jokingly; I sort of felt it too. I felt like I really didn’t belong, but not just here; anywhere. Now that they said it, indirectly, I started to feel it. I felt like I was removed from the equation, but what equation exactly? The equation of life? Does life even have an equation in such case that someone can be removed from it?

(To be continued)