Selfie Inflicted

2

"Sick, its a new one too!"

The wind had picked up a little and I heard a low rumbling of thunder in the distance. The mist shifted to a light but constant rain. The droplets were icy and my hands were clammy and hurt from the cold.

"We should find out who it belongs to. They'll be so pissed when they realise they lost it," said Lyza.

The wind howled.

"Well let's at least go home and work out what to do. It looks like it's about to pour," I said.

We hurried onto the corner and then down the long meandering road that cut through the woods. It was gloomy and super creepy but we'd done this walk a hundred times. We didn't speak. Ryan used his own phone's flashlight to help light the way over tangled roots and slick wet leaves. It was muddy now and I was sure I'd ruin my shoes.

Soon I saw the lights of Lyza's apartment glowing up ahead. We ran into the foyer and went up to her place.

I was thinking of going straight home, but was so cold that I figured it might be better to stay at Lyza's.

"Come to mine," she said.

It was a smarter idea. It was really raining now and I was already half-soaked. Going on home would make me even wetter and I didn't want to catch a cold.

We took off our boots and Lyza ran to her kitchenette and turned on the kettle. Ryan no doubt would want another beer but I decided I was past that and now a cup of peppermint tea sounded perfect.

"I know, I know – peppermint," smiled Lyza.

"The phone is on full charge. They must have just lost it," said Ryan who sat at the table. He pulled his slick wet hair back and stared at the phone in concentration.

He had the phone at the password screen.

"Good at guessing?" He said looking up at me, his green eyes glowing with that mischievous look he always had. With his long scruffy hair Ryan was definitely our alpha male friend and never had any trouble chatting to any girl.

"Try 1234," I said laughing.

"Like anyone is dumb enough to do that," he smiled and tapped the numbers in.

It worked!

"Well, well," I smiled as the kettle whistled.

I went to the bathroom. Outside I could see the tops of the trees moving with the wind, like they were clutching at the sky. I grabbed a towel and dried my wet hair. My makeup had run a little so I went through Lyza's stuff and cleaned up.

When I came back they were both sitting together looking at the phone. I came around to join them.

The screen was blank, just a plain black background and hardly any apps. All that we could see was the camera and photos.

"Hmm, let me check phone info."

Ryan looked but there was hardly anything there. He tried the browser but there was no connection. In fact there was no network at all. We tried turning WiFi on and off but it wouldn't pick up Lyza's network.

"Let's check the photos. Maybe there's some sexy selfies in here. Ha-ha"

"God Ryan, you're a one track mind," said Lyza as she sipped at her tea.

We looked on as he scanned through the photos. There was a photo of what looked like a park from a weird angle looking down at a bench. The next was a pic of a city at night, faint wispy shadows blurring the view.

"These are terrible photos," said Ryan as he swiped faster and faster through. It was just more of the same, weird shots of empty rooms, beaches and parks and cities with no one in the pics.

"Lame," he sighed.

"Not everyone is as good a photographer as you," said Lyza.

"How hard is it to take a photo?" He asked, then laughed "Especially you two selfie queens! Whichever loser this phone belongs to ought to spend some time with you, then they'd be snapping some better pics."

With that he lifted the phone up and opened the camera.

"Uh, Ryan, no my hair is a total mess!" I said.

"This isn't even your phone!" Shouted Lyza.

He snapped and the flash glared. It filled the room and I rubbed at my eyes. Outside I heard the wind and rain had picked up, the howling long, low and mournful.

"See - perfect selfie," said Ryan.

I looked and saw that he was right... Somehow. My messy red hair had been all kinked up by the rain, but now in the photo it looked tousled and tossed as if I'd spent hours at a salon. Lyza looked literally ravishing, her brown eyes were radiant. Of course Ryan was even hunkier than ever. Even though we were all a bit drunk and tired the photo looked like we'd all had the best night's sleep of our lives, gone for a huge run and lost about five pounds each.

Ryan put the phone down on the table and yawned "Well, I am gonna jet."

"You don't want to crash?" Asked Lyza.

"Nah," he said, putting his boots back on. "Gonna go home and play some games, see if my roommate is still up for a little nightcap."

He saw himself out and the apartment seemed suddenly quiet. Lyza finished her tea and lay out on the couch while I remained at table.

I was looking at the photo. It was such a good picture. I loved it. I wanted to post it straight away. I wondered how I could get it from this phone to mine.