BeReal. Your friends for real.
You probably know the app. It’s that new social media app that promises not to waste your time- encouraging its users to post live photos devoid of all the lies and for once, share something real.
For the uninitiated, it works like this; every day, at a random time a notification goes off, and you get two minutes for you to post something- a photograph from your phone, both sides. Post something after the specified two minutes and the app snitches on you and tells everyone you posted late.
Classic BeReal.
I guess that’s why I decided to get the app. That, and all my friends kept bothering me to get it. I’m not really someone on social media- hell, I’m still writing letters to pen pals across the world- digitally, of course.
The point is, I’m not really a social media enjoyer, so this is all quite new to me. So far, though, I think it’s a pretty decent app.
Of course, you’re not here to hear my endless musings on social media and how it’s never applied to me. Now that would really make me sound like the “I’m not like other girls” trope.
Right, back on track- the app’s been great, save for one problem. Some guy keeps appearing in my BeReals.
It first started at school (if you’re wondering I’m a highschooler), and one of my friends excitedly yelled something about and said something along the lines of:
“You want to be real with me?” Naturally, I was confused.
“What does that mean,” I questioned. “Am I not lucid enough for you?”
“No, no,” he quickly replied. “I forgot you’re uncultured.”
“Hey!” I aptly defended. “I have more culture than you. I listen to classical music. I’m an elitist.”
“Okay, whatever,” he shot back. What an uncultured fool. “Anyway, Etta, it’s this new app where you take a photo in two minutes that’s unedited. It’s pretty cool and you’d probably like it.”
At the risk of ‘sounding like not the other girls’ I replied with my catchphrase: “Exceptional!”
And then I partook in his BeReal, and since then, I was confronted with more propaganda to download the app. Which I soon did.
Anyway, I created my own BeReal on the app a day later. You can clearly see the amount of propaganda that had gone into converting me. Anyway, the notification popped up whilst I was at school, in the middle of class.
Seeing that everyone had decided to photograph themselves and their surroundings with the app despite the teachers wishes, I too, joined into MOB MENTALITY.
And so, I took my first BeReal. A simple photograph of me, and the class board, which was filled with the nonsensical equations of precalculus.
And behind me, was the first sighting of- The Guy.
I noted in my photo quite a few students had been caught behind me. But something intrigued me. Something was weird about the photograph.
There was a guy that looked exceedingly boring. Like his style? Boring. His face? Boring.
Of course, there were tons of boring people at my school. But I’d never seen this guy before. Or maybe, I thought- this guy was so boring he had been simply imperceptible to me.
Right.
That made sense. There’s always some random person who suddenly appears out of nowhere.
So I ignored it. I returned back to pretending to study precalculus and actually reading a book about time traveling mannequins.
And then came the next day. Yet another day of school- which, unlike other people, I found it to be interesting. That’s actually a really interesting concept- most people actually do seem to enjoy school.
Anyway, the hours passed once again, and I found myself sitting in the desks of an English class, slaving away at writing a pretty decent essay.
Let me set the stage: The class was silent. The students were attentive- er, well, they appeared so. The teacher was busy grading papers. The world was perfectly balanced, as all things want to be.
And then: the ping of a BeReal notification- and all hell broke loose.
Okay, that was a bit of an overdramatized version of the events. In reality, people were talking aimlessly and it was kind of a chill mood one would expect to find at an ideal coffee house.
When the BeReal notification manifested, students one by one began to take photographs with their friends.
So I turned to my friends.
“You guys wanna Be Real?” we all chanted in unison, as if we were now part of a cult.
And so, we began to take our photos, all four of us. Making the most wacky faces while keeping it real. Ah, classic BeReal. The superior social media app.
Anyway, we all posted just as the two minute timer expired, and I looked at what the rest of friends were doing. Invading people’s privacy in a safe and consensual manner. The Perfect Social Media App.
Eventually, I tapped back on my own photograph because I’d forgotten to save to my device earlier, and I wanted to send it to a friend.
And then I noticed him again. The Guy. The bland, boring guy who had manifested in precalculus was back.
He was just there, apply standing behind my three friends, who were posing as if they were being set on fire. But The Guy did not seem to react to the whimsical weirdness of my friends.
Instead, he simply looked away to the side, staring at empty space. I thought back on seeing him the day before.
No way he was in two of my classes and I’d never seen him. Look, nobody is that boring. No matter how boring you are, you’re bound to get noticed, even the tiniest bit eventually.
But somehow, I hadn’t perceived this guy at all.
So I began to search, observing the room- only to find no sign of the ever elusive Guy. Who was he? What was his name? Why was he so boring?
Questions that had no answers I would get.
“Hey, Shane,” I asked, showing him my phone. “Have you seen this guy before? I’ve never seen him.”
Shane looked at it closely. “I haven’t. Doesn’t room like anyone in our class. Maybe he’s an office aide.”
“Right!” I decided. Now see, that made way more sense. It was all just a silly coincidence, and I was searching for people who wasn’t even there to search.
So I freed myself from the mystery, albeit temporarily.
The next day I was in the park, walking around aimless while listening to a horror audiobook off of Spotify. And then, right as I reached this weird obelisk monument that suspiciously exuded Wi-Fi, out popped the BeReal notification.
And like a sensible human person who enjoyed breathing carbon dioxide and photosynthesizing, I opened the app and photographed myself and the obelisk in front of me.
A comment quickly popped up from my buddy Shane.
“Bro that guy’s back,” he commented.
I was confused to see that The Guy had seemingly spawned in behind me, in the photo. I turned around, increasingly suspicious, but nobody was there. I was alone. I looked on the sand-dirt ground to look for footprints.
None. Only my tracks.
Where had the guy come from? Surely he couldn’t have been walking on the grass- too loud, I would have noticed, even with my headphones. And even so- where had he gone?
This was setting me on edge. I was growing paranoid by the second. Dark strings seemed to play darkly around me- oh wait, that was the podcast.
I looked back at the post and studied the guy. Despite his blandness he had started to look more… menacing. And he had been nearby, just a few steps away. I was getting concerned.
I looked to my memories- the place where BeReal stores your previous posts and found a chilling pattern.
Each day, the Guy was somehow getting closer. The first day- he’d been across the class. The second day, a few desks away. And now? He had closed half the distance since the last picture.
“Hey, you good?”
I yelped, surprised at the sound. It was some random guy who, fortunately, wasn’t the Bland Guy.
“I’m good,” I replied.
“Cool, you looked kinda dazed out before.”
“Right,” I admitted. I shrugged, and the runner went back to, well, running.
Still afraid and very much paranoid, I changed the horror podcast into something much more happy. And then, I quickly ran back the way I came, running fast into my car, and then, driving towards my house.
The rest of the day I tried to forget about the Guy. I tried to read, to write- even to do homework. But still, I could not escape my fearful wonder about him. The Guy. He pierced my every thought, my every waking hour.
And then I slept and dreamt of things that fortunately, were not The Guy.
Morning came quickly. Far too quickly. And I was greeted with a notification on my phone that had gone off moments prior. Someone had reacted to my BeReal post.
See, in BeReal you can react with your face, like some sort of twisted facebook emoji. I usually get lots of meme faces from my friends. But what concerned me was who had reacted.
It was The Guy, staring through the camera and into my soul.
And as I studied the reaction, things got worse and worse. First, I noticed he was in my room- a mere five minutes ago. I noticed that I was behind him, in my bed, sleeping.
What the hell was going on?
I sat up, quick as lightning. I looked into the mirror opposite my bed- and for a split second, I saw him- The Guy with a vile, buck-toothed smile - I turned and saw nothing. I looked back into the mirror. Nothing. Not even the slight sight of him.
And the reaction made no sense- only your friends can react on the app, and I sure never added The Guy as a friend.
I looked at the app and tapped on the react.
Instead of bringing me to his profile, it loaded. It loaded for at least a minute, before then crashing and making a shrill noise. My phone grew hot in my hand, and I tossed it onto my bed with a yelp.
I heard the click of a camera behind me and turned. Nothing.
I saw my phone light up, a single notification on the screen. It was the app. I gingerly picked it up, slid my phone open and found that there was nothing but a single app installed: BeReal.
I hesitated, but opened the app.
The first and only thing I saw on the app was the back of my head- posted by The Guy, and an image of him, looking dead ahead at me- eyes wide and an eerie smile on his face.
I don’t think I like this app anymore.
EDIT: I’m trying to delete the app, but my phone keeps taking me back into the app itself. I don’t know what’s going on.
EDIT: Oh my god. That guy just posted again. I’m going to call the police. did I just hear something from the closet? There’s breathing. It’s getting closer. I don’t think I have time to get out in time.