The Bad Boy Computer Programmer At Wattpad

7 PM Pacific

**Amanda**

With ten minutes to spare before the clocked showed 7, Amanda slid her key into the front door's lock and slowly pushed the entry barrier open. Winnie's face came into view the moment the door cracked. Reversing her morning acrobatics, Amanda stuck one foot in the door to keep Winnie inside while hopping on the other foot to get herself over the threshold.

"Stay, Winnie," she demanded. "Stay!"

With human inside and door secure, Amanda picked up her furry roommate and snuggled her under her chin. "Did you do the dishes while I was gone?" Amanda glanced at a sink piled high with dishes. "Nope. How about the laundry?" Glancing over at a basket overflowing with clothes, she sighed. "No laundry either, Win?"

Lifting Winnie above her head so the furball looked down into her eyes, Amanda said, "Freeloader! Do something while I'm gone besides eat, sleep and shit."

Kissing Winnie's forehead, Amanda put the feline on the ground and tossed her purse in a chair. She placed her keys with a Kate Spade and R2D2 keyrings on a hook and wandered into the kitchen. Opening her refrigerator, she saw nothing but empty shelves covered in dew. When the refrigerator was unable to produce something to eat for dinner, Amanda rummaged through her cupboards--which were equally as bare. "Why can't I adult?"

Grabbing a banana on the verge of being too brown, Amanda threw herself on her full-size bed and plugged in her phone. She sent a text to her group of Wattpad friends to inform them she was home.

[Amanda: Here! Sup, sistahs!]

The responses came back immediately.

[Jeannie: Every detail.]

[Jeannie: How did that bug report even happen?]

[Mona: I know how! Horney + tequila]

[Geri: I can't! Not tonight.]

[Geri: It's a Facebook group chat night.]

[Geri: Texting would be an assault on my thumbs!]

[Jeannie: Agree!]

[Jeannie: Loading up Messenger now.]

[Mona: Ooooooo! Mis Chicas! In living color!]

[Geri: Clothes, Mona! Have clothes on!]

Technology--it was both bridging and isolating. Amanda loved connecting with her friends from all over North and South America. What she didn't like was the physical detachment of it all. Isolated when she slept. Isolated behind the bullet proof glass at the bank. Isolated when she returned home to an empty condo at night--if you don't include Winnie. Nevertheless, the time Amanda spent face-to-face with other human beings sharing intentional and quality experiences dwindled. She dreamt about physical interactions in her sleep. She observed physical interactions through the glass at work. She wrote about physical interactions in her stories on her laptop at home. But for Amanda, the magic of human touch slowly became just as unreachable as the fairytales she read about on Wattpad.

Hugs, she thought. I wish someone would hold me in their arms and tell everything's happening exactly the way it was meant to happen.

Amanda rolled off her bed and walked to the kitchen to throw away her banana peel. Wiping away moisture welling up in her eyes with the back of her hand, she stared at a bin full of empty wine bottles and trash. Is this the life you wanted, she asked herself? You're a virtual human--pixels and text on an electronic device! What if you're supposed to be out doing something else instead of sitting alone writing stories in your free time? What if this virtual life is what you sacrificed a real life for?